The Role of the Chiropractor

"Thus the role of the chiropractor is to mobilize the biological resources of the organism, - to allow it to do for itself as much as it is able to do. He does not whip a tired organ into activity by stimulants, nor squelch over-excited nerves with sedatives or narcotics. What he accomplishes is not accomplished at the expense of masking symptoms, side-effects, and the general physical deterioration that so often follows dependence on drugs."

-- C.W. Weiant, DC, PhD

I often use the analogy of a smoke alarm when discussing symptoms and medications with my people. Symptoms, especially pain, are the body's innate way of cueing your brain into the fact that something needs to be addressed. The role of medication is to alter your body's chemistry. A major consequence of this altered chemistry is that the cause of the problem remains, but the signal alerting your brain that something needs to be reevaluated gets turned down or turned off. This is analogous to taking the batteries out of the smoke detector. The smoke detector is trying to tell you that there is a fire in the kitchen. Just because the alarm stops blaring does not mean you have addressed the cause of the smoke.

For me, chiropractic is about helping people to develop strategies to access greater levels of resourcefulness. As Weiant says, to "mobilize" those biological resources. Mobilization is a direct result of establishing and improving clear lines of communication. When the system is clear, the message is clear, and the body can organize - and mobilize - accordingly.

As BJ Palmer, the developer of chiropractic, says in Volume XXXII,

"Have you more faith in a knife or a spoonful of medicine than in the Innate power that animates the internal living world?"

What is Your Back Story?

The story of your spine is your “back story”. Many people know that the spine helps to protect the spinal cord, the neurological freeway that connects the brain to nerves in the body. The spinal cord is not a separate organ from the brain, and in many ways it can be considered the “back of the mind”.

We experience our world through our nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves, and sense organs). Sometimes, this world can be stressful on our bodies and our minds and this is reflected in the spine. The body will prioritize stability over freedom when it is under duress or if it perceives it is under duress. This means that whether the stress on the body and the spine is material (physical or chemical stress) or psychological (mental/emotional stress), the body and the spine will respond in the same way.

Sometimes it is important and necessary to trade stability for freedom, but more often than not this state is only beneficial when temporary. Life is the expression of motion and motion requires freedom. This is nowhere more apparent than in the spine. If the spine is not allowed to freely express movement through a balanced and coordinated range of motion, the entire communication system of the body becomes challenged. When there is reduced quantity and quality information being communicated within the body, especially when this occurs over long periods of time, we see the consequences of dis-ease manifest.

Dis-ease can take different forms. Dis-ease can look or feel like pain, fatigue, tension, or challenges with how the body functions. No matter what the symptoms, dis-ease in the body indicates a compromise to the body’s internal communication system.

The role of the chiropractor is, therefore, to address the compromise to body's internal communication system. In chiropractic, this compromise when found in the spine is called the vertebral subluxation. The chiropractic adjustment is an information signal delivered to mobilize the innate wisdom of the body, in order to allow the nervous system to reorganize where and how ease and dis-ease are present.

The stories that we write with our lives are the stories that are reflected in our spines. To see the integrated whole, we must acknowledge that nothing exists in isolation, there must be a balance of freedom and stability, and that this process of story writing is ultimately a creative one.

Network Spinal Analysis

Network Spinal Analysis is a chiropractic discipline that focuses on the patterns of stress in the central nervous system and how they are reflected in the body. Using gentle, precise, and specific contacts made along the spine, the body is able to become self-aware, to unwind these tension patterns, and to learn new strategies for how to adapt to the physical, chemical, and mental/emotional stressors in life.

There is a tremendous amount of research in this discipline. Case studies have reported improvement in things as diverse as cervical lordosis and lumbar scoliosis (restoring normal curvature), vision in a diabetic, psoriasis, balance and Meniere's disease, attention in adults, and continue to be published by the Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research.

More interestingly, Network Spinal Analysis has published one of the largest chiropractic studies to date evaluating quality of life changes in people receiving this care consistently (ranging from 1 month to 3 years under care).

It found significant positive progressive self-reported improvements in all categories: physical state, mental/emotional state, stress evaluation, life enjoyment, and overall quality of life.

Perhaps most interestingly, the Somato-Psychic wave, a phenomenon unique to Network Spinal Analysis, is being studied as a Central Pattern Generator (CPG). As practice members progress in care, their spines are naturally able to release old patterns of tension and reorganize movement patterns at higher levels of complexity. When this occurs, it looks as though a wave is traveling along the spine. Gait (how we walk) is also a CPG. It too represents a fundamental, complex, and unique sensori-motor pattern of an individual.

The gentle and profoundly effective chiropractic discipline of Network Spinal Analysis offers the opportunity for people to make significant positive change in their body, their outlook on life, and their overall quality of life. As it has been and continues to be researched, there does not seem to be a limit on how people perceive the improvements in their well-being while receiving this care.

Retrospective Assessment of Wellness and Quality of Life  

Literature Review Involving NSA Care