Are You Connected?
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Clean Restore
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When you do a clean restore on your computer, you restore the initial factory settings. You wipe the slate clean of all the junk - unnecessary programs, spyware, and viruses that have accumulated along the way. The result is a clean, lean machine that runs faster and works much better.
Extending the connectivity metaphor, is it possible to do a clean restore on your body? In one sense, definitely not. You'd first need to backup all the things that make you who you are - the things you've learned, your experiences, your personality. The cells of your body retain these sorts of memories, too, and your environmental experiences have a significant impact on your DNA. In another sense, though, it is possible to do a clean restore, on a cell-by-cell basis. Your body's cells are constantly renewing themselves, doing their own versions of a clean restore. If you provide the appropriate inputs in the form of healthy, nutritious food, plenty of regular exercise, and sufficient rest, your new cells will be faster, smarter, and better than the ones they are replacing.
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Being connected is very important in our modern world. Could you imagine how you'd feel if you left your cell phone at home? For teenagers, a cell phone is much more than a tool. For teens, cell phones are status symbols, but they also represent a connection to the tribe, a connection to their human network. For teens and adults, cell phones are lifelines. What about web connectivity? Many of us begin to experience withdrawal symptoms if we're separated from our Internet connection for more than a hour. Others check their email every few minutes, ongoingly, throughout the day, every day.
We may feel secure if we're well connected in the external electronic world, but it's even more important to be well connected in the internal physiologic world. In the external world we think in terms of networks, primarily in terms of Internet connections. In the internal world networks are the key, too - neurologic networks, of which our nerve system is comprised.1,2
The nerve system consists of the brain, cranial nerves, spinal cord, spinal nerves, and miles of peripheral nerves which connect the spinal cord and spinal nerves to every other cell in the body. In the body, the rules are simple. If a cell is not connected to the nerve system, the cell's activities become disorganized and it becomes diseased and eventually dies. In a related scenario a cell may be connected, but the nerve signals it is receiving are inaccurate or inappropriate, due to problems within the nerve system itself. The results are the same - the cell's activities become disorganized and it becomes diseased and eventually dies. If enough cells are affected, the person develops symptoms and becomes sick.
"Problems" within the nerve system often result from spinal subluxations - a loss of full mobility between one or more pairs of spinal vertebras, with associated spinal muscle tightness or spasm, spinal joint inflammation, and spinal nerve irritation. The free flow of information between the nerve system and the rest of the body becomes compromised. Both ends of the network receive inappropriate, ineffective information and the result is a "system crash" in the form of symptoms and disease.
Chiropractic health care is especially designed to restore effective connectivity and communication between your nerve system and your other body systems.3 Your chiropractor specializes in identifying the spinal subluxations at the root of the problem and using gentle, safe, effective methods of care to restore proper balance to your spine and nerve system. Optimal functioning begins to be restored and improved levels of health and well-being are the natural result.
1Coward LA: The hippocampal system as the cortical resource manager: a model connecting psychology, anatomy and physiology. Adv Exp Med Biol 657:315-364, 2010
2Saur D, et al: Combining functional and anatomical connectivity reveals brain networks for auditory language comprehension. Neuroimage 49(4):3187-3197, 2010
3Taylor HH, Murphy B: Altered central integration of dual somatosensory input after cervical spine manipulation. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 33(3):178-188, 2010
