Chiropractic Care for Children

CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR CHILDREN

Doctors of chiropractic hear from parents that they appreciate the importance of regular check-ups for their child’s teeth, eyes and ears, but they draw a blank when it comes to a spinal check-up. Yet that could be one of the most important check-ups your child will ever have. You might be surprised to learn that most adult problems chiropractors deal with actually have a start in childhood. For example, the growing pains of a 12-year-old boy can become crippling low back and leg pains in adulthood: the jolly jumpers used by a toddler can cause spinal curvatures (scoliosis) in the adolescent.

Your child’s spine is his or her lifeline. Running through it is the spinal cord containing billions of nerves that send messages and information from the brain to every part of the body and back again. Yes, we all have our very own Internet! As long as none of these messages is interrupted, your child should have optimal function and the best health possible. If, however, there is any interference with this information highway, the message sent by the brain will not reach the part of the body it intended to reach. As a result, the body starts to work improperly. Chiropractors call this a malfunction. It can be a serious threat to health. This interference will often affect the immune system, lower body resistance and leave your child prey to various bugs and infections.

THE FUNCTION OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

It is generally agreed that the immune system is very closely linked to the nervous system. As a matter of fact, Dr. Stephen Marini, who is both and immunologist and a chiropractor and who is on staff at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, feels that the immune system is like a circulating nervous system. He also feels most diseases that children get are really the result of the improper functioning of that system. This interference in your child’s nervous system is what chiropractors refer to as a vertebral subluxation- small misalignments of the bones of the spine pinching delicate nerves.

HOW DOES YOUR BABY’S SPINE LOSE ITS NATURAL ALIGNMENT?

Vertebral subluxations have many causes. The major cause of most is actually the process of being brought into the world – birth. For an infant, it can be very stressful. Subluxations associated with birth trauma can cause hyperactivity, lowered resistance, ear infections, asthma and bed wetting, as well as signs of central motor impairment. According to Dr Gutman, a German specialist, a spinal check up after birth should be obligatory.

As a matter of fact, certain hospitals in Australia are having chiropractic doctors check the infant spine immediately after delivery to ensure a healthy spine and nervous system, free from subluxations. As babies get older, they are often subjected to some uncomfortable traditions: wearing tight diapers that do not allow proper hip development; jolly jumpers which place an infant in an upright position long before the spine can deal with gravity; poorly designed school desks and poor mattresses, just to name a few. Then of course there is the usual process of crawling, walking and running. As your child matures, other incidents and activities can also create vertebral subluxations. For instance, falling off a bike or down stairs, hockey, football, skateboards and roller blades.

As example, the so-called growing pains I mentioned earlier that children often experience in their legs have traditionally been explained away as part of childhood. Worried parents hear such nonsensical statement as “it’s nothing-they’ll grow out of it”, or my very favorite, “it is because they are growing”. Many parents tend to buy these excuses. But when we really think about it, those explanations simply do not make any sense. After all, when did it ever hurt to grow? And why only the legs? Don’t the arms also grow? Why don’t they hurt?

From a chiropractic perspective, these growing pains are often called sciatica in adults. In other words, a vertebral subluxation in the low back affecting the sciatic nerve which controls the legs. These pains can also often be caused by a functional pelvic imbalance. In simple terms, it’s a subluxation of the pelvic bones which then changes the way a child walks. These pelvic imbalance subluxations can lead to the development of early Scoliosis (spinal curvature), knee problems and difficulty with balance. These are often the children who are wrongly labelled as klutzy.

If allowed to remain, subluxations are the starting point of nerve system and body malfunction. When a vertebral subluxation has existed for some time, it will eventually produce symptoms (pain is the most common) as a warning to let you know that something is simply not okay, that there is a threat to health and well-being. One must remember that symptoms are similar to a fire alarm. They let you know that there is a fire. At this point you have a choice. You can put out the fire (correct the subluxation), or turn off the fire alarm (using medication) to make yourself feel better. Which is more logical?

Chiropractic care is for everyone who wants to experience wellness, but is especially important for children. It can make a huge difference in their lives. Conditions easily corrected by chiropractic care at an early age are often neglected and can be carried by a child as a burden throughout a lifetime. I firmly believe that all children should be checked by a chiropractor to ensure a normally functioning nervous system and a healthy body.

Author: Dr. Ogi Ressell

If you have any questions about the health of your children or you would like to bring them in for a spinal check-up, please give us a call at 918-935-3432. Our passion is for the health of our community and we take our mission of wellness very seriously. Thank you for your time reading our blog.

Sincerely, Dr. Travis

www.mytulsachiro.com

Headaches – Don’t Reach for Aspirin

One of the most common reason people seek chiropractic care is for headaches. When you have a headache, your eyes hurt, your forehead pounds, your neck is sore and tight and your scalp feels as if it’s being slowly removed. Lights bother you and noise sets your teeth on edge. Then there are your children, the house, dinner, your spouse, and the daily demand of life. You would like to stop the world and get off!

Headaches have been sold to the public as a disease to be “treated.” Millions of dollars in advertising are spent annually on the benefits of drugs for headaches. We’ve bought into this carefully contrived thinking. Let’s look at this from a different perspective. The word headache simply means ache in the head. It’s not a disease. It’s a pain- a SYMPTOM. I’m not making light of the symptom: it can be severe and debilitating.

There are different types of headaches- migraines, cluster, tension, occipital, and sinus. Each seems to have a different pattern, location, severity and of course, a different drug to deal each one. This is a manufacturer’s reality. The pharmaceutical industry would like you to believe and accept the illusion that all of these headaches need to be treated. Why? Money. There are billions of dollars of profit at stake! There is no consideration given to the reason why you have the headaches.

Most people are so busy treating their pain they forget that pain has a reason for being. A headache is your body “talking” back to you and you need to interpret that language. It’s a signal that your body’s having a difficult time handling something and the vast majority of headaches are found at the base of the head, in the region of the temples or over the eyes.

Chiropractors have found that many headaches signify a distortion of some of the vertebrae of the neck area affecting the function of the nervous system. You’d be surprised to learn that 85-95 percent of all subluxations I see in adults can be traced to birth or childhood. It is something that your body has been forced to deal with your whole life, and eventually it punches the clock and says "I've had it!"

These subluxations affect the manner in which the nervous system transmits information and can be very catastrophic. When this occurs, certain neck muscles are called in to play to protect the nervous system from damage, thus you experience a “tension” headache. Very often, the pain is transmitted to the face and people think it’s their sinuses at fault. They reach for sinus medication-and the profit cascade begins!
Then there’s the pounding pain in the temple-a migraine. Again-different drugs. And the headaches which come in clusters? More drugs!

Some headaches are not caused by subluxations. They can be cause by wrong diet, poor nutrition, and hypoglycemia. I see many of these in my practice. Some are caused by an aneurysm, a disease process, toxicity or a tumor.

No headaches should be taken lightly. Something is not right. Find that something. A trip to your family chiropractor will provide a comprehensive examination to help determine the reason for your headaches. He/She may also provide you with nutritional advice to ease the headaches.

Thank you for your time,

Dr. Travis

For more information, visit my website. www.mytulsachiro.com