Chiropractic Helps the Immune System

The nervous system and immune system are hardwired and work together to create optimal responses for the body to adapt and heal appropriately. Neural dysfunctions due to spinal misalignments are stressful to the body and cause abnormal changes that lead to a poorly coordinated immune response. Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to boost the coordinated responses of the nervous system and immune system.

The autonomic nervous system is hardwired into the lymphoid organs such as the spleen, thymus, lymph nodes, and bone marrow that produce the body’s immune response. Growing evidence is showing that immune function is regulated in part by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.

Subluxation is the term for misalignments of the spine that cause compression and irritation of nerve pathways affecting organ systems of the body. Subluxations are an example of physical nerve stress that affects neuronal control. According to researchers, such stressful conditions lead to altered measures of immune function & increased susceptibility to a variety of diseases.

Inflammatory based disease is influenced by both the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Nerve stimulation directly affects the growth and function of inflammatory cells. Researchers found that dysfunction in this pathway results in the development of various inflammatory syndromes such as rheumatoid arthritis and behavioral syndromes such as depression. Additionally, this dysfunctional neuro-endo-immune response plays a significant role in immune-compromised conditions such as chronic infections and cancer.

Wellness based chiropractors analyze the spine for subluxations and give corrective adjustments to reduce the stress on the nervous system. A 1992 research group found that when a thoracic adjustment was applied to a subluxated area the white blood cell (neutrophil) count collected rose significantly.

In 1975, Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s Preventive Medicine Institute and professor in Environmental Health at New York University, began researching the most scientifically valid ways to estimate individual susceptibility to various chronic diseases. He has conducted a tremendous amount of research in this area that includes over 160 published reports in peer reviewed journals.

Pero and his colleagues discovered that various DNA-repairing enzymes could be significantly altered following exposure to carcinogenic chemicals. He found strong evidence that an individual’s susceptibility to cancer could be determined by these enzymes. Lack of those enzymes, Pero said, ‘definitely limits not only your lifespan, but also your ability to resist serious disease consequences.’

Pero was fascinated by the relationship cancer-inducing agents had on the endocrine system. Since the nervous system regulates hormone balance, he hypothesized that the nervous system had to also have a strong influence on one’s susceptibility to cancer.

To support this argument he found a substantial amount of literature linking various kinds of spinal cord injuries and cancer. Pero found that these injuries led to a very high rate of lymphomas and lymphatic leukemias. This understanding led Pero to consider Chiropractic care as a means of reducing the risk of immune breakdown and disease.

Pero’s team measured 107 individuals who had received long-term Chiropractic care. The chiropractic patients were shown to have a 200% greater immune competence than people who had not received chiropractic care, and a 400% greater immune competence than people with cancer or serious diseases. Interestingly, Pero found no decline with the various age groups in the study demonstrating that the DNA repairing enzymes were just as present in long-term chiropractic senior groups as they were in the younger groups.

Pero concluded, ‘Chiropractic may optimize whatever genetic abilities you have so that you can fully resist serious disease…I have never seen a group other than this show a 200% increase over normal patients.’

Kent, Christopher. Models of Vertebral Subluxation: A Review. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research. August 1996, Vol 1:1. Pg 4-5

Sternberg EM, Chrousos GP, Wilder RL, Gold PW. The stress response and the regulation of inflammatory disease. Ann Intern Med 1992; 117 (10):854

Brennan PC, Triano JJ, McGregor M, et al. Enhanced neutrophil respiratory burst as a biological marker for manipulation forces: duration of the effect and association with substance P and tumor necrosis factor. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1992; 15(2):83

By Dr. David Jockers
Source

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Not Just Poison, But Obesity

Recently United Healthcare began making a huge push to have all children vaccinated before the age of two by making the vaccinations free. They have even made it public by sending out letters to parents notifying them that their child or children are not up to date with their current vaccine schedule.  Included in this letter is the opportunity to receive a twenty dollar gift card to McDonald’s, Rite Aid, Target, or Meijer, once your child receives their missing shots. Yes, you read correctly: In exchange for poisoning your child or children you will receive a gift certificate so that you can get a Big Mac and a happy meal as a reward.

This is crazy! Not to mention that insurance companies are so desperate to inject your children with poison that free rides are also available to the hospital or “health care” facility of your choice.  Come get your poison and in the near future, your obesity. That’s ultimately what the advertisement should say. The kicker is they are not responsible for any reaction that your children could have from either.

“A U.S. Supreme Court decision has just given drug companies total liability protection for injuries and deaths caused by government mandated vaccines. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) called the decision a “betrayal” of the American consumer.  The court decision leaves parents with no way to hold vaccine makers accountable and no feasible way to get compensation for the injuries suffered by their children; furthermore, the decision removes all financial incentive for multi-national drug companies to make vaccines as safe as they can be.”¹ There would be no reason to give liability to the vaccine companies or provide exemption forms if these things were safe in the first place.  Now there is no need for these companies to try to keep the vaccines relatively safe at all so it’s open season to see how cheap and lucrative they can be at the same time.

The Supreme Court has now given the drug industry a green light to lobby legislators to require every American who lives to be 78 years old to get more than 130 doses of government recommended vaccines starting on the day of birth through the last year of life.²This is exactly why they got into that profession, knowing that people will continue to get sick and that they can require us to continue getting the shots because of the delusional sicknesses that they are suppose to protect against.  It’s a never ending deadly cycle.

Thank God for the chiropractic principle and the 5 Essentials of Maximized Living.  I want all of you to know that the greatest doctor lives within each one of you and if you follow the principle that healing comes from within and do the things necessary to facilitate that healing there is no reason you or your children need to rely on anything from the outside to get you well.  If health comes from within, how do we get healthy and stay healthy?  Provide a stress free environment, 100% nerve flow from above-down, eat God foods, flood your body with oxygen by burst training, and get rid of the toxins. That’s the only way to get healthy!

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¹www.mercola.com
²U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 2011 Adult Immunization Schedule.

Source: MaximizedLiving.Com

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What’s the safest way to help your child heal?

This is a question I often hear from parents because typically most people think of going to see a chiropractor for some kind of symptom such as back pain, headaches, or carpal tunnel, but most kids won’t have any symptoms… yet!  Think about it, how many falls does the average 2-4 year old have in a given year? Think about the birthing process and a lot of the time it involves a doctor pulling and twisting the head of a very fragile infant, with a very delicate spine and nervous system.  So these incidents can cause the spine to shift out of its normal alignment creating interference with the nervous system to control and heal the body. If that damage is there long enough then children will begin to develop symptoms.

I experienced this personally as a child growing up with chronic ear infections, receiving tons of antibiotics and several rounds of tubes. None of which corrected the cause of the problem. Also, my sister has a 2 year old girl that has been getting sick regularly and been coughing for the last month.  My sister gets adjusted, but was nervous about getting little Kailey adjusted even though I was telling her to take her in because it will help.  So finally while I was home I adjusted her anyway and the very next day she wasn’t coughing anymore and was running all over the place because I took pressure off her nervous system so she could heal.
If you want to discuss danger, look at the common drugs that are given to small children.  The least toxic is “baby aspirin.”  However, because all drugs are toxic, the fact is that aspirin interferes with digestion, the formation of body starch, the production of tissue proteins, and the ability of the cells to absorb sugar; it slows the clotting of blood, increases the need both for oxygen and for every known nutrient, and a accelerates the urinary losses of calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and all the B vitamins.

Another common kid-drug is an antibiotic.  Very common side-effects are yeast infection, diarrhea, and skin eruptions.  However, far more severe reactions are also common.As the drugs get more intense like vaccines, Tylenol, and antihistamines, they get more toxic and side-effects are no longer just common, they’re likely.

There have been several studies looking at the safety of chiropractic for kids such as one in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics published in Dec 2009. It showed that over a 59 year period and over 30 million adjustments, there were only 8 reported incidents.  That’s only 1 incident every 7.4 years and one adjustment problem every 3 million, 750 thousand adjustments.¹ Nothing, including walking, swimming, driving, visiting a dentist, getting a haircut, or going to the movies is as safe as that!  That’s why chiropractors often pay less for malpractice than car insurance – because there’s no safer way to heal and stay well.

So get your child checked as soon as possible because the risk is much lower than the alternative of drugs or surgery, and your child will experience a healthy, vibrant life.

By Dr. Brian Wickstrom and Dr. Ben Lerner

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¹Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics. Miller, Joyce. Dec 2009

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Sunshine, Allergies, and Weight Loss

This week’s blog is by Maximized Living’s Dr. Brandon Vinzant.

An estimated 50 million Americans have some type of allergy. In most people, allergies first appear during infancy or childhood and rank first among children’s chronic diseases.¹

A new paper published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology has found a link between low vitamin D levels and the onset of allergies in children. The study of over 3,000 children concluded that among children with low or deficient levels of vitamin D, sensitivity to allergens was present in more than half of those for which they tested.² Not only do allergies cause itchy eyes, runny nose and headaches but they also add a level of discomfort and misery to a person’s life.

Even in a place like Florida where there is no shortage of vitamin D because of the sunny weather, there is a disconnect between children and their physical presence outside. There is no reason for a child to go outside because of the new technology today that keeps them occupied on the couch. That is not only leading to a startling deficiency in vitamin D, but also an alarming rate of childhood obesity and other chronic diseases. Caucasian skin produces approximately 10,000 IU vitamin D in response to 20 to 30 minutes of summer sun exposure. This is over 16 times higher than the US government’s recommendation of 600 IU per day.³

There are two types of this vitamin that you need to consider. Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol) both of which are good sources, but one of them is far better than the other. When sunlight hits your skin, D3 is absorbed far deeper into the body which is called bioavailability. Research shows that D2 (ergocalciferol) has lower bioactivity, poorer stability, and shorter duration of action, resulting in approximately 33% lower potency compared with vitamin D3.⁴ In other words, when supplementing with Vitamin D products, make sure you take high quality D3. Supplementation is safe for children, but the best source for them is natural sunlight aquired from being active outdoors.

Other Good News On Vitamin D For Those Looking To Lose Weight!

New research shows that vitamin D may help.  While vitamin D has gained acclaim for its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, researchers at the University of Southern California and McGill University recently discovered that insufficient vitamin D levels were also associated with increased fat levels.⁵ What’s more is that 59% of the study’s participants had insufficient amounts of vitamin D.

Are you and your children getting enough vitamin D? Here are ways to ensure that you are:

• Regularly get midday sun exposure in the late spring, summer, and early fall, exposing as much of the skin as possible for 20–30 minutes (being careful to never burn).Those with dark skin will need longer exposure time — up to six times longer
• Eat foods rich in vitamin d such as, eggs,  grass fed meat, and fatty fish.  Cod liver oil, mackerel, salmon and sardines are the best Vitamin D fish
• Take 5,000 IU’s of Vitamin D3, due to our natural deficiencies, per day for 2–3 months, especially during those months with less sunlight (amounts will very with age)

If you and your children are not taking all of these steps, then you are putting them and yourself at risk for a number of potential health problems and not just allergies. Don’t forget to nurture your body with one of the most readily available vitamins because you’re stuck inside and don’t eat properly. If you need an extra boost,which research shows most adults and children do, pick up Maximized Living’s vitamin D3 today.

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Detox or disease?

By Drs Brandon Vinzant and Joshua Nevels from Maximized Living

A new study marks the first time that the number of chemicals to which pregnant women are exposed has been counted. Virtually all pregnant women in the U.S. carry multiple chemicals in their bodies. This chemical load includes some banned since the 1970′s, as well as others used in common products such as non-stick cookware, processed foods and personal care products.

Researchers analyzed data for more than 160 chemicals and detected polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), phenols, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and perchlorate in 99 to 100 percent of pregnant women.¹

Chronic childhood diseases linked to exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment have been surging upward, costing the U.S. almost fifty-five billion dollars a year. There are three thousand high-volume chemicals used today; for roughly half, there is no basic toxicity information publicly available. For the past six to eight years, national surveys have found these chemicals present in the blood and urine of practically everyone in the U.S.² If a baby is exposed to numerous toxic compounds in utero, changes may occur that either directly cause cancer, or lengthen the period of sensitivity to carcinogens, therefore making the child more susceptible to cancer, and other diseases, later in life.

Babies today, are actually born at considerable risk due to the toxic load of their mothers. One study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that blood samples from newborns contained an average of 287 toxins, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides, and Teflon chemicals. 180 of those toxins cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to your brain and nervous system, 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.³

About seventy-five thousand chemicals are regularly manufactured and imported by U.S. industries, three thousand of which are high-volume chemicals, meaning over one million pounds per year are produced. In short, chemicals are virtually everywhere, and we’re all exposed, pregnant women being no exception. It’s disturbing to know that humans are being bombarded with toxins at all, but it’s even more concerning when it’s revealed just how extensive the exposure is to those carrying our most precious cargo.

Toxicity reveals another piece of the autism puzzle.   On January 31, 2011, researchers at the International Child Development Resource Center reported that autistic children showed a five hundred percent increase in mitochondrial dysfunction compared to children without autism. Mitochondria, the “powerhouse” of your cells, generate the ATP necessary for cellular signaling and growth, processes that must take place in order for you to function properly and express health.⁴ What’s causing this mitochondrial damage linked with autism?  “Toxins, oxidative stress, inflammation, and decreased levels of antioxidants,” says Dr. Daniel Rossignol, M.D., the study’s head researcher.⁵

So what is a practical way to reduce this toxic load? Use glass containers for food, use natural cleaning products, eat organic pesticide free produce, buy natural hygiene products, drink filtered or bottled water, limit the use of medications and vaccines as much as possible due to the toxic ingredients, and get adjusted by your chiropractor.

Because these newer chemicals cannot be metabolized by your body, it’s also necessary to do something every day to boost the body’s own detoxifying pathways and processes.  The body’s own natural detoxifying agent is glutathione.  Gluthione is also a super anti-oxidant that reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.

Under the kind of intense exposure you get today, you get what’s called “glutathione wasting.”  For example, children with autism were shown to have only fifty percent of the normal level of glutathione in their blood stream.  To rebuild glutathione and support your cells, we’ve made available Daily Detox.  You’ll need this or similar products to truly fend off today’s toxic onslaught.

As all function and detoxification is ultimately under control of the central nervous system, your Maximized Living doctor will also recommend an evaluation of your spine and nervous system to get the effects of a toxic world under control.

Schedule an appointment for you and your family on Monday February 14th for our ValenSpine’s Patient Appreciation Day evaluation.

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¹Tracey J. Woodruff, Ami R. Zota, Jackie M. Schwartz. Environmental Chemicals in Pregnant Women in the US: NHANES 2003-2004
²Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel October 1, 2009
³Environmental Working Group, July 14, 2005
⁴Brooks M. Mitochondrial Dysfunction Linked to Autism. Medscape Medical News. Jan 31, 2011.
⁵Kern J and Jones A. Evidence of toxicity, oxidative stress and neuronal insult in autism. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Jul 2007.

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