Making Chiropractic Health Choices

Below are some simple things to keep in mind while maintaining great health habits this year. Health begins at the cellular level. Each portion of our body--our skin, blood, bones, and organs--is made up of cells (about 75 trillion of them!) Each of those individual cells has five fundamental needs.

OXYGEN: The most important need is oxygen. If you want to test that principle, just to see how long you can hold your breath! Without air, you die very quickly - in just a matter of minutes. This, among other benefits, is why exercise is so important. The benefits may be hard to notice because many are preventative--such as the conditions that don’t manifest when you exercise on a regular basis. You can, however, see the evidence in people all around you of the adverse effects a sedentary lifestyle can have on an individual’s health.

WATER: The next most important need of our body is water. It is used to transport nutrients into the cells and to transport wastes out. As an infant, you are 85-95% water. By the time you are age 65, you are down to about 65% water. So, if most of body is water, it’s got to be critical. We eliminate water every day through excretion, perspiration, and exhalation. It constantly has to be replaced, and for an adult, that comes to about 8 to 12 glasses of water every day. The purity of that water will have a tremendous impact on our lives.

NUTRITION: The third most important cellular need is nutrition or food which brings in all of the nutrients, both macro nutrients (such as carbohydrates, fats, oils, and proteins) and micronutrients (such as amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals). All of these are required to make our body function correctly, not only allowing it to grow, but to maintain health. According to recent statistics, only about 8% of our population gets a balanced diet on a regular basis. That means that about 92% of our population falls either short in some nutrients or gets an excess of some nutrients. We are not talking about starvation as we see in some poverty-stricken areas, but a lack of balanced nutritional intake.

ELIMINATION: The fourth most important cellular need of the body is elimination. As cells work, they create waste byproducts, and those byproducts have to be taken out of the body. A good example of this is breathing. When we breathe in, we carry oxygen into the body. Through the normal metabolic processes inside our bloodstream, that oxygen is used and a byproduct is created called carbon dioxide. As we breathe out, we eliminate the carbon dioxide, as it would be poisonous to the body otherwise.

HOMEOSTASIS: The fifth most important cellular need of the body is the body’s need to maintain homeostasis (maintaining an even temperature and balance). Commonly we don't think of that as being critically important, but that process is going on constantly in the body as it seeks balance and harmony.

None of these cellular functions, however, can be accomplished without communication from the brain to every tissue and organ in the body. The brain must send messages to the body’s cells (efferent transmission) and the cell must communicate its needs back to the brain (afferent transmission) through the nervous system. That is why all approaches to health care should begin with assurance of a healthy flow of nerve impulses to allow the body to function at its optimal level. If this flow of communication is impaired, all of our valiant attempts to eat right, take vitamins or herbs, exercise, etc., will be compromised. Including regular Chiropractic check-ups, combined with patience and perseverance, just may bring the results we seek.