Understanding the Body in Balance

The principle of Chiropractic and alternative health is that you help the body do what its supposed to do.   Some examples:

• it makes its own steroids
• its balances its own blood thickness
• it heals cuts and wounds
• it replaces itself constantly cell by cell

And its INTELLIGENT 24/7 even while you are sleeping it keeps on working and keeps things in BALANCE or homeostasis.  You get it hot, its sweats to cool.  You get cool, you shiver – it knows, its automatic. Truly amazing.

Body in Balance – Homeostasis: If you want to make a change from the outside, let’s say “thin the blood a little bit” or “add steroids to reduce inflammation” or “take pills to stop headaches” the body does not sit back and accept the chemicals without a response.  As soon as they are imbibed the body tries to reverse and rebalance the changes in chemistry back to the prior state – the kidneys and liver try to detoxify the body until the original balance is maintained.

This rebalancing can be demonstrated on a graph showing the setpoint, that returns once the balancing mechanism, the homeostatic mechanism of the body is engaged and eventually rebalanced at the point  just above the X on the axes.

• if the setpoint is blood glucose and the environmental disturbance is lunch, we call the chart “normal”
• If the setpoint is blood glucose and the homeostatic mechanism does not kick in and the levels go up and up , we call it “diabetes.”
• If the setpoint is body temperature and the environmental disturbance is going for a run the homeostatic mechanism could be sweating, again “normal”
• If the set point is body temperature and it keeps going up and does not come back down, we call it “heat stroke”.

How the body rebalances a disturbance in homeostasis

Overriding homeostatis – medicine: To affect change to the body’s chemistry,  medicine has to be added continually to keep the body off its own balance. In the graph the goal would be to change the setpoint above or below.  If the body did not try to back to its balance you could take one aspirin and never need another.  An addict would get high, and never need another fix.  While the medicine continues to be added to produce a wanted effect, side-effects, unwanted effects demonstrate unwanted changes in chemistry occur at the same time.  The graph is overly simplistic.

The advantage of alternative health, of eating better foods, of chiropractic is that these methods only support what the body is already trying to do.  If your nerve system is working better it should make the changes that are best for the body at the pace the body can handle WITHOUT side-effects.

Blood Pressure – an example:  Take blood pressure.  The body regulates its own.  If you are out of shape, or getting older, or stressed, the body raises the blood pressure.  Heck, you can even think about something and if it’s the wrong thing, the blood pressure goes up.

There are medicines to take it down.  And they work for a bit so you have to take more to get the blood levels up.  And if they become ineffective you may need another one or a stronger one.  Some don’t work so well so you might have to take several to get the numbers where the doctor wants them.  That’s the easy fix.  And as I said, the liver and kidneys work overtime to eliminate that medicine.

For every pound of extra fat, (someone must have measured it – thankless job) its  said there are 30 miles of blood vessels so if you are overweight, blood pressure tends to be up to get the blood through it.  Its a natural response.  As arteries are less elastic as we age, or thicken with plaquing, your body puts blood pressure up.  If you live a busy city, just that alone might put your blood pressure up vs. living in a thatched hut in Tonga.

Some people have higher blood pressure because the need it. Yes NEED it, either genetically or to keep their tissues perfused with blood and oxygen to stay alive.  I’ve seen cases where feet went black and gangrenous when patients were on blood pressure medication. The blood could not get through without a higher than normal pressure – I’m not sure losing feet was a price worth paying for “normal” blood pressure.  Often our body knows best exactly what is right for us.

Baroreceptors that control blood pressure

Control of blood pressure, indeed control of all body mechanisms is by the brain and runs through the neck.  Sensors for blood pressure (called baroreceptors) are in the neck.  In our society with vehicular impacts i.e. whiplash, rough delivery as babies, contact sports etc. necks get lots of injuries.  On top of all the other issues related to blood pressure, nerve system control from the neck is a big one, and based on my practice may be as big or bigger than all the factors we see in the news.

It’s possible to be the perfect patient and have high blood pressure if the neck receptors, or neck function is not correct.  You can have normal weight, perfect diet, be fit as an athlete and still have high blood pressure.  On the contrary, patients that don’t do much of what I ask can still have better blood pressure with just chiropractic alone.  The nerve system is a powerful modifier of body function.  .

The Tipping Point: The mechanisms for homeostasis, for keeping the body in balance, can only go for so long – life takes it toll and if not life our vices.  The alcoholic eventually wears out his liver; Type II diabetes occurs when the body is at a certain weight; blood pressure can show up very quickly and without symptoms.  We don’t know where that tipping point occurs; it’s a dice throw we would prefer not to lose.  I don’t condone ignoring healthy living –  I work on my weight, my fitness and my diet but like the rest of America, I lead a spoiled life with weight and too much good food.

So the wellness approach to make constructive effort before the body is out of balance, to not take a chance at rolling the dice.   We don’t know how little exercise, how bad your diet can be, how much plaquing you have to have, how bad your neck can be before the body cannot balance your blood pressure or other symptoms.  Some patients don’t get a warning with dire if not fatal consequences.