Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic Care

When in sickness, look to the spine first.

~ Hippocrates

As this quote from Hippocrates demonstrates, the connection between the spine and health has been known for over 2,000 years!

Chiropractic Care. In my own life I first got started with Chiropractic Care about a year after I was diagnosed with cancer, when a friend recommended it to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the importance of chiropractic care before but now I believe the importance of Chiropractic as one of the many things that I have learned that I didn’t know before I started this cancer journey.

When I first started getting Chiropractic Care I went four times a week for a couple of months. Then I decreased the schedule to three times a week, then twice a week, and now I just go for “maintenance” once a week or less—and I often take my children in for Chiropractic Care as well.

What is Chiropractic Care?

Chiropractic Care is a natural treatment that does not involve surgery or medications. It is a form of health care that uses careful adjustments to your spine to correct misalignments and restore proper function to your central nervous system.

Why is the spine so important to healing?

Your spine is a vital part of your central nervous system, which consists of your brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Your spinal cord acts as a signaling pathway for messages that are sent by your brain to your body and from your body to your brain. Among many other things, these messages include information that your brain needs to sense and interpret information from stimuli on your skin, joints and muscle receptors.

It is very easy for the vertebrae of your spine to get out of alignment. Misalignments can be caused by everything from sports activities or accidents to repetitive motions, bad posture and more. When things do go out of alignment, this misalignment can block the flow of messages through your central nervous system. It can affect your body’s organ systems by agitating the nerve signals. Plus, it can also cause a physical form of nerve stress that will increase the amount of the stress hormone called cortisol that goes pulsing through your body, which in turn will disrupt brain signaling. Both of these problems interfere with your body’s normal ability to heal itself.

How does Chiropractic Care work?

If your body’s systems cannot communicate with each other, proper healing cannot occur. Misalignments in your spine can block the central nervous system’s communication pathways.

Chiropractic Care gets your spine back in alignment in order to unblock these communication pathways. Proper alignment of your spine prevents or relieves stress on the nervous system; opens up the signaling pathways between your nervous system, organs and immune system; and in the process boosts your immune system and your body’s ability to self-heal overall.

What type of Chiropractic Care do you recommend?

While most people don’t realize it, not all chiropractic care is the same. There are a wide variety of chiropractic techniques available. I’m blessed to see Dr. Murray Galbraith from my hometown in Temecula and he uses what is called Blair Upper Cervical Care. An adjustment using the Blair Upper Cervical Care technique is extremely gentle. The doctor never “snaps,” “twists” or “cracks” my neck or back at all.

For each session I begin by laying down for about two minutes while Dr. Murray uses a special machine to go over my spine. Then I sit up and he checks my neck. These two things are done to determine if an adjustment is needed. Most of the time I do need an adjustment. For that, I lay on my side while the doctor uses his hand to gently press on the area that is out of alignment, to “pop” it. Then I sit up straight again, spend 15 minutes resting, and I’m done.

What does Blair Upper Cervical Care feel like?

I have never felt any pain or discomfort at all from these treatments. When I hear the “pop” it’s almost like something gets unblocked.   

What are the potential benefits of Chiropractic Care?

Chiropractic can open up the energy flow in the body, boost the immune system, reduce stress, and more.

What has amazed me about Chiropractic Care is the impact that I have personally seen it have on the immune system. Once I brought my daughter in because she was coming down with a cold, with lots of sniffles and coughing. Within two hours of the Blair Upper Cervical Care adjustment, all of her symptoms were gone. I was shocked! Since then I’ve spoken with other patients about their experience with Blair Upper Cervical Care, and they had similar stories to share.

It took me a while to understand the power and importance of Chiropractic Care. But now that I have experienced it firsthand I think of Chiropractic Care as a vital part of both my cancer therapy and my general health routine. In my opinion, it should be one of the additional modalities integrated into the healing practice of any cancer patient.

Have you tried Chiropractic Care?

Are you using chiropractic as part of your cancer treatment? Which type of chiropractic techniques does your doctor use – Blair Upper Cervical Care or something else? What has been your experience? Thank you for reading and please share your thoughts below!