Chiropractic Care wages war on the cold/flu
season
Studies have shown that
getting regular Chiropractic Adjustments enhance your body’s natural ability
to fight illnesses. But how could a
spinal adjustment help reduce allergy symptoms, colds, and respiratory
infections?
Think of your body as a
container with many complex systems and parts. If the container were completely
sealed, like an unopened soup can, nothing from the outside could get in to
cause contamination. No viruses, no bacteria,
no invaders to make you sick. But that would also mean no air, no water, and no
nutrients.
Because we need to allow
for intake of oxygen, water and food in order to sustain life, we need doorways
in and out of the body. Our mucus
membranes are the portals from the outside world to our internal organs—they
enable us to take in nutrients and eliminate waste. But they also let invaders into our system.
When we breathe air,
ingest food, rub our eyes or touch our nostrils, we risk introducing infectious
agents into our bodies. Viral agents,
bacteria, and parasites such as fungi are some of the invisible invaders we all
hope to avoid; unfortunately, we come in contact with all of them countless
times every day. So why aren’t we all
sick all of the time?
We owe our individual
and collective survival to a well-developed immune system. A healthy immune system is able to
differentiate between external invaders, internal disease, and normal, healthy
tissue. Once it makes that
differentiation, it wages war on the things that would do us harm, utilizing
infection-fighting white blood cells and the lymphatic system.
Your lymphatic
circulatory system works directly with your cardiovascular system to carry immune
cells through the body while flushing
toxins from the body. The lymphatic system is an open system; instead
of functioning like the circulatory system with a heart or pump, it relies on
squeezing action from muscles, gravity, exercise, breathing, and lymph drainage
to circulate. So the more muscle
movement, exercise, and lymph drainage therapy, the better the lymph system’s
ability to keep us healthy.
Chiropractic Adjustments
work with your lymphatic system, effectively boosting your immune system by
helping the body create white blood cells and by improving the overall
performance of the lymphatic system.
This, in turn, boosts the immune system’s ability to fight infection and
disease and reduces systemic inflammation.
Sounds good, but what does that actually mean?
If we were to take a
sample of your blood before and after your adjustment, studies tell us we would
most likely find a greater number of infection-fighting white blood cells after
the adjustment. Additionally, the physical impact of the adjustment on your
musculature helps move lymph through your body to places where help is needed,
meaning a better equipped immune system with the ability to fight off colds and
flu, as well as bacterial and fungal infections.
Of course, keeping
invaders out is only part of the solution to a healthy, balanced body. Next, we will discuss taking in the things we
need to feed and sustain our wellness.
Check back soon for Part 2, immune boosting foods.
