Your Body – An Owners Manual

When we are born we are considered quite helpless.  Without the attention of a committed adult we would not receive the food, protection, or physical care necessary to flourish.  However, what we forget is that much of what we need to survive is hardwired into our bodies.  When we nurse as an infant our bodies are able to take in the milk, digest it, direct the nourishment to the necessary body parts, and dispose of the unnecessary components.  We instinctually know how to cry when our needs are not met.  Even a child who is neglected can learn how to roll over, sit, stand and walk without the guidance of doting parents.

As adults, we tend to forget that our bodies are designed to function like well-engineered machines and do not give them the care such a machine requires.  We’re not born with a built in manual and a busy life often trumps a life that is in tune with our body.  To get reconnected with the perfection of your body take time to consider what a good day for your body would look like.  It would go something like this.

You wake up rested from an uninterrupted night of sleep.  While you were sleeping your body took the opportunity to decompress your spine (you can actually be taller when you wake up than when you went to bed), relax your muscles, produce necessary hormones, allow your brain to sort information and produce necessary chemicals, and increase your immune system functions.  Once you are awake you spend your day in activities that provide both physical and mental stimulation.  You avoid long periods of inactivity and you vary your activity to avoid repetitive stress.  Your activity strengthens muscles as well as induces flexibility and healthy joint movement.  Your mental activity encourages problem solving, healthy connections with other people, constant learning, and a positive outlook on life.  You avoid toxins that sicken you and consume foods for nourishment, not just fulfillment.

Most modern humans no longer function in this way.  We are surrounded by toxins, spend a majority of our day sedentary, most of our time is with people we work with and not those that we care for.  We do not sleep well, and, if we get physical exercise, we participate in repetitive motion activities that wear out our body parts.  But because humans are resilient we learn to live with aches, pains, worn out joints, unhealthy organs, high levels of fatigue and new levels of stress.

Because people have forgotten that our bodies were not designed to sit, type, and drive 10 plus hours a day they suffer serious consequences ranging from muscle pain to life-threatening illness.  Lack of sleep, injuries from working out, poor diets, and mentally draining activities prevent the body from performing at peak levels.  This is why Chiropractic is so important to the modern day body.  Chiropractic removes one of the most common obstructions to healthy body activity – subluxations (the misalignment of one vertebrae in relation to the next).  Because body activity is directed by the brain and facilitated by nerves, any subluxation is an interference of the nervous system and can have drastic impact on our bodies.  Chiropractors remove these interferences, encouraging communication between the brain and the rest of the body to improve.  Chiropractic aids in the most basic function of the body and allows our bodies to have a fighting chance against the daily strain we place on it.

When people plateau in their performance at work or at play they are often told to “get back to basics.”  Although our body did not come with a manual we do know that our body naturally has the basics it needs to function at peak performance.  By caring for our body and giving it the help it needs to combat the stress of daily life, we will allow our body to do what it does naturally – perform.