The Vital Principle
“Life possesses an intelligence which pervades the universe and is expressed with accordance to the environment and the quality of the material in which it manifests itself.”
— D.D. Palmer
At the beginning of the last century, the founder of chiropractic, D.D. Palmer, outlined the foundation of chiropractic philosophy. To this day, chiropractic maintains a vitalistic perspective on health and healing. Vitalism recognizes that life is characterized by an organizing energy or principle. We can use a reductionist approach to break the whole into its parts, which can facilitate understanding. However, just as flipping through the pages of an anatomy book will not reveal the complexity of a moving, feeling, breathing animal, life and health is something more than the sum of parts. When D.D. writes of “an intelligence which pervades the universe” he is acknowledging the presence of an essential organizing energy. He deliberately describes this as intelligence, not simply energy or force. The historic and critical contribution he made to the development of healing arts was precisely this - the animating principle that pervades the universe is also what organizes function in people. Health and dis-ease represent a spectrum on which this energy is able to clearly express in a physical body. And the spine is the interface where this life principle can flow or be obstructed.
His insight includes the direct impact of the environment and the limitations of matter on the expression of life. Far from a materialist or reductionist perspective, his vision and his writing prefigure what we accept as common understanding today. Of course environmental factors influence health and disease. If there are toxic chemicals introduced into the water of the earth or the water of the body, if the air is unfit to breathe, if the quality of food is weakened by devastated soils, if we are constantly immersed in a narrative of fear, then of course this will affect the expression of health.
Finally, let us also acknowledge the idea that “life…manifests itself.” One of the most important distinctions that vitalistic chiropractic makes is that health flows from the inside-out. Adjustments are offered to help clear the spine of interference that reduces communication to and from the brain. The free and robust expression of information along the nervous system is the necessary condition for our ability to coordinate adaptive function (i.e. health) in ourselves. As D.D.’s son B.J. would later go on to say, “Nature needs no help, just no interference.”
Pregnancy and Chiropractic
The role of chiropractic during pregnancy is to support the spine and nervous system of mom as she undergoes profound change. For me, chiropractic has always been a family affair. My mom began her chiropractic practice shortly before she was pregnant with me. One of the greatest gifts I have received is to have been immersed in chiropractic my entire life - in the field of caring for families, in the embodied practice of service, and trust in the wisdom of the body. To offer a service and a perspective grounded in the innate intelligence of the body, the gentle discipline of Network, and as a father is central to how I practice chiropractic. The health of our children is very literally the health of our future. Supporting the process of life as it unfolds is the essence of chiropractic. This is nowhere more obvious, vital, and beautiful than during pregnancy.
For more resources about pregnancy and chiropractic, check out the Pregnancy Page here.
Lessons from the Heart
In a time of so much noise, one of our biggest challenges is to find signal. In a sea of information - what is meaningful, what is true, what is clarifying? The question of what we choose to center is an important one. Luckily, we have to listen no further than our own heart to hear something vital.
Let us consider what the physiology of the heart might teach us about love and connection.
The heart is the vital center of our physical body, ever sending and receiving the life blood of our being. The potential action of all cells in the body depends on a phenomenon we would do well to acknowledge: depolarization. As charged particles exchange across the membrane of a cell, the electrical gradient shifts, triggering a cascade of events that allow cells to do their work. Without exchange, the membrane becomes a wall, polarity escalates, and the environment becomes hostile to healthy and coordinated life. The next part is just as important: the gradient inverts, the ions efflux, repolarizing the membrane to allow the cycle to occur again. The ebb and flow of ions, the collection and powerful release of blood from the heart, the trade of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the lungs, the breath in, the breath out - all a rhythm and a dance reflecting the universal principle of exchange.
The muscle cells within the human heart are special. Unlike smooth and skeletal muscle cells, their features allow them to synch together. The lub-dub of a healthy heart is a song of coordinated depolarization and the harmonized opening and closing of the valves that maintain the fluid boundaries within the chambers. Heart cells are also special in that they will beat on their own. However, the rate, rhythm, and strength of a heartbeat is a conversation (another exchange) between the nervous system and the heart itself. We can tune into and read this conversation when we measure heart-rate variability.
By design, the heart is a powerful, steady, and receptive organ. What better seat for the uniting and harmonizing force of Love to reside within the body? On a day when we will see hearts everywhere, let us remember what the physiology of the heart tells us about depolarization, receptivity, and vital exchange. Happy Valentine’s Day!