CHIROPRACTIC,
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE, AND APPLIED KINESIOLOGY:
WORKING
TOGETHER IN THE ULTIMATE QUEST FOR HEALTH
How do we best measure health? Is health the absence of disease? If the body’s organ systems are free of a
medically diagnosable disease, does that guarantee that our organs are
functioning optimally? If the body’s
organ systems seem to be functioning at a healthy level, how do they function
under stress? When a seemingly healthy
organ system becomes overburdened from chemical, mechanical or emotional
stress, does that organ system continue to function optimally, or does it
respond at less than an optimal level?
Are there subtle, but recognizable symptoms (if a person knew what to
look for) when an organ systems function at less than optimal levels? If we are diagnosed with a disease (usually
later in life), when did that organ dysfunction actually begin? If we had a system to identify organ weakness
earlier in life, can we prevent major loss of function and disease later in
life? Is there a connection between loss
of organ function with chronic and reoccurring back and neck pain and other
muscle and joint aches and pains?
You will soon see that what happens
on the inside of the body does affect the outside of the body. This insight gives us the ability to find and
correct various processes in the body to help it function at its best. It is not near good enough to have average
health when the average American will die early from heart disease, stroke,
diabetes or cancer. The highest goal in
health care should be to enhance the function of the body’s organ systems to
the highest level possible to prevent disease, not waiting for a disease to develop. This level of health will help ensure that we
can enjoy the highest levels of health and vitality throughout our lives.
The practice of Medicine is at a crossroads. Revolutionary new research exploding onto the
natural and alternative health care scene is producing many major discoveries,
and also verifying many previously discovered, but scoffed at principals about
body function and health. Ideas that
decades ago caused researchers who were “ahead of their time” to be thrown out
of medical universities and shunned by the medical community are now being
proven by current research in the world’s most prominent medical journals.
The field of Functional Medicine that
has been developed by Dr. Jeffrey Bland and others is a relatively new approach
to health and wellness. This new model
of health is quickly gaining acceptance by both health care providers and
consumers primarily because of the vastly superior results it is showing. The transition is driven by a number of major
scientific discoveries that are based on current medical research. In this approach, the emphasis is not on
diagnosing or treating disease. Disease
is a breakdown of health, and if we can prevent that breakdown, we can prevent
disease from occurring. It is imperative
to identify organ systems that have lost their “reserve energy” and that
without intervention can continue their declining health eventually to a
disease state. Optimal body function and
vitality occur when we can identify and maximize the body’s health by
identifying and improving the level of health of all of the individual organs
in the body. If a person eventually
develops a medically diagnosed ‘disease,’ the organ system has in all
likelihood been operating under stress and declining health for many years
previously.
There are two general categories of bad things that can happen
to our body. We do not get enough of
what we need in the proper amounts, and/or we get things that are not good for
us. Governmental studies are showing
that 95% of Americans do not get the proper nutrition necessary to prevent disease
and that only 1 1/2% of all Americans are “healthy”. We now have the knowledge and ability to find
and correct these causes of organ weaknesses long before they degenerate into
actual disease, all based on knowledge gained through studies of medical
research and relationships learned through Applied Kinesiology evaluations.
Aging is universal, but the rate at which we
age depends entirely on our body’s health.
Our biological age does not necessarily equal our chronological age. Research is showing that we can now indeed
extend our health span (years of disease free living), not just our life
span. Many prominent investigators are
viewing aging as a disease in itself. It
is a decline in our bodies’ God given ability to respond to various
stressors. Aging is considered the ultimate
conglomerate disease caused by a lifetime of assaults on the cells of our
bodies. Denham Harman M.D., PHD;
emeritus professor of medicine at the
Chronic illnesses cannot be stamped
out with prescription pad and a ballpoint pen.
Linus Pauling long ago recognized that before turning to medications for
chronic illnesses, we should attempt to adjust the normal body constituents
(nutritional factors) to match the actual needs of the body to achieve optimal
body functioning. Our bodies need help
to obtain the levels of nutrients necessary to match our specific organ’s
needs. U.S. Government studies have
shown that 98% of Americans do not get the proper nutrition necessary to
prevent disease. Because we do not eat
correctly to supply the necessary nutritional factors to our bodies, most of us
operate in an increasingly nutritional deficiency state for much of our
lives. People are beginning to
understand more and more how important essential nutrition is to their
health. They also want to actively
participate in their wellness, and they are looking for alternatives to
traditional medical health care. According to “Trends 2,000” research, there is
currently a nutrition revolution underway.
The
World Health Organization determined over 10 years ago that the current model
of medical health care has failed to get people healthy. Health care costs continue to skyrocket, and
people are sicker than ever. Medicine usually works very well for management of
acute illnesses and traumatic injury, but it has not discovered how to bring
back true health. True health can only
be obtained by providing specific nutrients that have shown through research to
positively effect organ health without negatively affecting the other body
systems, and by detoxifying the body.
Pharmacological Medicine does make changes to our bodies, but there is
no balance of function. Medical
prescriptions generally do not improve an organ’s health and unfortunately,
they usually carry side effects that reduce the health and vitality of other
organ systems.
Where
is the tie between Health, Functional Medicine, Chiropractic and Applied
Kinesiology?
Kinesiology is simply the study of
movement of muscles. Kinesiology has
shown us how to isolate and test the various muscles in the body. Applied Kinesiology's beginnings in Chiropractic
were in simply trying to restore muscle function to stabilize the musculosketal
system, thereby decreasing pain and increasing function. Dr. George Goodheart, the founder of Applied
Kinesiology (AK) studied many known physiological and anatomical relationships,
and treatment techniques to answer the question: Why is a certain muscle weak? This continuing investigation led to many
significant discoveries about previously known, but not fully understood reflex
points and associations of the body. It
has also led to the discovery of many new relationships that show how the body
actually functions in a web-like interaction through health and disease.
When an area of the musculoskeletal
system of the body is not functioning properly and is causing back or neck
pain; and improper joint alignment and function (subluxations) are present,
there are also specific and identifiable muscle weakness and/or imbalance of
the body present. Some of these weak
muscles respond to localized muscle work and are from injuries. Stimulating the muscles and/or its tendons in
certain ways sometimes seems to “turn the muscle on". When these initial procedures did not work
for resolving certain muscle weaknesses, the question “why” continued to be
sought.
Dr. Chapman, an Osteopathic Physician,
found that there was a system of reflex points (a.k.a. Chapman’s reflexes)
throughout the body that were associated with organs. Dr. Goodheart found that these same organ
reflex points were often related to weak muscles. After exhausting research and clinical
experience, we now know that there is an indisputable muscle-organ
relationship, and that many muscle weaknesses and imbalances in the body are
actually caused from internal organ dysfunction. This underlying muscle weakness can cause a
person to experience a full array of various back problems, often with no
injury of any type involved. We are a
mirror image with the health inside the body to the strength outside the body.
Individuals who have a myriad of reoccurring
back and neck problems, and other health problems, continue to seek out an all
encompassing range of medical or alternative health care including
Chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, magnetic cures, homeopathy and
others. Chiropractors have long ago seen
a relationship between back and neck problems, and other musculoskeletal
problems with internal organ health, but the primary belief has been that
spinal conditions effected organs. With
the manual muscle testing procedures used in Applied Kinesiology, we are seeing
the answers to these conditions more clearly:
internal organ dysfunction produces muscle weakness and imbalance that,
in turn, directly reduces the stability of the musculoskeletal system. This shows in the body as varying levels of
back and neck or other joint symptoms, often without the expected traumatic
events that are normally associated with these problems.
Simple back injuries without complications are
usually the easiest to treat and respond best to Chiropractic adjustments.
These patients are the shining glory for all chiropractors who adjust them
because they respond best to our care.
When there are other predisposing factors playing into the picture,
however, recovery is often not so swift nor complete, and we must find the
actual cause of the problem and treat the problem at its source. Chiropractors who are utilizing Applied
Kinesiology are therefore exceptionally successful at treating reoccurring back
and neck problems. Improvements in symptoms
and function through Applied Kinesiology techniques are due to balancing the
body’s energy and organ health through various Applied Kinesiology reflex
techniques, specific Chiropractic adjustments related to the organ involvement,
and most importantly for the long-term, by supplying specific nutritional
formulas to strengthen the organ systems.
What we are most commonly seeing with
the internal organ dysfunction is organ systems that have lost their ‘energy
reserve’. These organs can function
fairly well, unless or until various stresses are placed on them, when they are
unable to respond at the necessary level of function. At this point, other organ systems upregulate
their function to help the improperly responding ones, and can often also
become stressed through a domino effect.
This shows the phenomenal ability of the body to adapt to stressors and
is clearly seen in the body’s ability to transfer energy in the acupuncture
model of health. This also shows the
web-like interactions of the organ systems of the entire body, most clearly
understood in the Functional Medicine model of health.
What
does Applied Kinesiology have to do with Health, Functional Medicine and
Chiropractic?
It brings them all together into a
fairly complex, but very understandable and usable system that combines
advanced structural adjusting techniques and cutting edge nutritional protocols
to give you the best health possible.
Applied Kinesiology muscle testing techniques allow us to look at the
entire body to get the “big picture” of the cause of the problems. According to internationally known teacher of
Applied Kinesiology and Functional Medicine, Dr. Bob Rakowski; “when we can see
the big picture of the body, and treat the problem at its source, good things
happen.” Applied Kinesiology combines
Chiropractic spinal adjustments, various myofascial therapies, cranial
respiratory techniques, acupuncture, clinical nutrition (including vitamins,
minerals, herbs and homeopathic formulas, when appropriate), dietary
management, and allergy assessment, to most effectively and efficiently improve
body health. The combination of these
techniques allows us to process through the entire body, affecting the body
more completely than any other system of treatment. It
is essential to determine exactly specific nutritional substances for organs
that have lost their “reserve energy”, and other factors that affect the body’s
muscle function. By utilizing A.K.
muscle testing procedures, we can find and treat the true underlying causes of
our patients’ health concerns. At the
same time we are providing a wellness care model by treating subclinical organ
weaknesses with extensively researched nutritional protocols before organ
“disease” has the opportunity to develop. The goal of this form of treatment is
to bring back the full health of the internal organ systems that, in turn,
improves the neurological function of the muscles to most effectively stabilize
the spine thus improving many even chronic and reoccurring joint problems.
Chiropractors utilizing Applied
Kinesiology techniques are enjoying fantastic success treating musculoskeletal
problems by addressing the underlying causes, not just the symptoms. This technique offers an effective way of
achieving long-term results not afforded by other methods. The results of these techniques provide a
deeper understanding of many health conditions by finding the root causes of
the symptoms. By ‘getting the big
picture’ of the overall health of the individual, Applied Kinesiologists are
treating even various chronic conditions very successfully. Chinese Medicine has known for thousands of
years that we cannot be strong on the outside of the body until we are strong
on the inside.
A.K.
Techniques work very well at optimizing sports performance by getting the
individual strong from the inside-out.
When internal organ dysfunction causes muscle weakness and imbalance, no
athlete can function at their best. Very
often, even very small changes can create substantial changes in
performance. By finding the causes of
various musculoskeletal problems AK docs are able to find and fix most joint
problems most efficiently and effectively; best seen in it’s application with
sports injuries.
The Human Genome Study has shown that each
individual has their own unique set of genes that lays the foundation for that
person’s health (and disease). Because
of this and other environmental factors, every person will have their own
biochemical individuality. New research
is showing that although we have only one unique set of genes; the way those
genes can be expressed by the body can and does change. Every person develops their own unique
lifestyle (eating habits, exercise, toxic load, stress, etc.) which determines
the way the genes are expressed. We are
more susceptible to the less desirable expression of our genes when our overall
health is diminished through nutritional shortfalls and exposure to toxins and
food allergies. Because of these
factors, every person will have individual nutritional needs, and will benefit
most by having a specific nutritional program developed for them. What works best for one person will not
necessarily work best for another.
We are using a Health Appraisal
Questionnaire called the Health Graph to obtain an overall “look” at the health
of the individual organ systems of the body.
This tool uses questions drawn from medical reference texts relating to
various organ system functions and symptoms.
The responses show us a baseline level of symptoms, and therefore level
of health of both the internal organs and also the musculoskeletal system. This look into the body allows us to quantify
the amount of involvement of internal organ dysfunction that is causing most
musculoskeletal symptoms, and we can also monitor patient progress of both as
we treat.
When we are faced with more serious
health concerns, or when we want more objective data on which to base
treatment, we are also able to utilize functional laboratory testing from Great
Smokies Diagnostic Labs, to assess how well the body is functioning. This broad range of functional assessments
covers the major organ systems in the body.
These tests can be used to verify our other examination findings, and
give us a more objective base to treat and to monitor improvement. These lab tests are substantially different
from standard medical lab tests, in that they are designed to find loss of
organ system function that usually occurs decades before disease occurs. We are also always more than willing to work
with medical physicians. In this way,
patients have the best of both worlds.
Humankind has come a long way in
understanding the exceptionally complex functioning of the body. Continuing research by future Nobel laureates
such as Dr. Jeffrey Bland and others have been working to provide the answers,
and are now making scientific and medical history. In the past twenty years, Dr. Bland’s
research has brought together thousands of independent medical research studies
that are showing how the whole body works together in a web-like interaction
through health and disease. This
God-given knowledge is providing new and effective answers on how to treat the
chronic diseases of aging and how to restore health. We are now able to recognize and treat most
organ systems during their initial phases of dysfunction, long before they
reach a disease state; making it truly health care, not disease
management.
We are currently experiencing an
absolute revolution in how the body’s health and function are understood and
treated. Chronic diseases of aging such
as adult onset diabetes, heart problems, stroke, inflammatory autoimmune
diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and even cancers are now much more clearly
understood with this new model of Functional Medicine. We are now able to help people actually
increase their health span thus increasing an individual’s ability to function
at the highest level possible for that person to the end of their natural life
span. To have ultimate health and
vitality, we must look at the health of the entire body, and make changes to
organ systems that are not functioning optimally. These changes can and will only come about
through supplying the natural protocols of nutrition in therapeutic doses to
improve individual organ function and through detoxification. The easiest answer to these maladies is to
simply not get them.
Health is much more than the absence
of disease. For the individual,
maintaining and enhancing health requires a proactive approach. This is characterized by the behaviors, choices
and interventions that maximize the body’s response to its environment. Food must not be thought of as just fodder for
energy. It must be thought of as friend
or foe.
To have ultimate health and vitality,
we all need to make changes to our diet and lifestyle.
Please
incorporate these changes into your daily living habits.
* Eat correctly. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables for important
vitamin C, Bioflavonoids, natural antioxidants and essential
phytonutrients. Eat fresh seeds and nuts
along with canola, olive, grape seed, and flax seed oil, and fish oils for
“good fats”; and decrease “bad fats” by eating less animal fats and
hydrogenated vegetable fats. Strictly limit consumption of many prepared foods
that are full of chemical additives. If
you haven’t yet received it, ask for a copy of the Vital Life Diet that has
been developed by the U.S. Government.
* Decrease your sugar consumption, as
this can be the single most important factor associated with aging. The miracle of life allows raw materials from
ingested foods to be broken down and then re-synthesized into 100 trillion
cells working together in (near) perfect harmony. Too much sugar in the body does actually
change the receptor sites for the communication molecules in the body,
adversely affecting intercellular communication in the complex system of
neurotransmitters, hormones and other communication molecules that are vital to
proper function. It also damages the
active transport system essential for nutrient transfer across all cell
membranes.
* Drink 2-3 quarts of water a day to
help detoxify your body. Employ a
detoxification process periodically to cleanse your body.
* Exercise for 30 minutes twice a day
to best increase your metabolism that will increase your lean body mass. Lean people live longer and healthier.
* Determine if you have food
allergies, and adjust your diet accordingly.
Food allergies often cause unrecognizable symptoms that are a
significant hindrance to our health.
Allergies are highly responsible for joint damage through a whole body
systemic inflammatory reaction, and can also reduce a person’s metabolism thus
promoting weight gain. Allergies are
also often related to organ systems’ dysfunction, and can lead to heart
disease, various G.I. problems, and the blood sugar handling problems
associated with diabetes.
* Take appropriate nutritional
supplements for your body. You will be
best served by taking nutritional supplements of highest quality, potency, and
purity for a maintenance program to make up for any dietary shortcomings. If people take inferior nutritional
supplements, they will have inferior health.
Eat organic foods whenever possible to ensure the highest possible
nutrient value. Our soils are
surprisingly depleted of minerals and often do not contain the nutrients they
should. You may also need additional
therapeutic nutritional support for your specific body needs which show as
organ systems that have lost their “organ reserve”.
* Get adjusted regularly. Chiropractic adjustments establish proper
nerve function, energy balance and communication in the body. “Wellness Care” includes a periodic Applied
Kinesiology evaluation to ensure proper organ function and to improve body
composition.
* Applied Kinesiology evaluations
allow us to treat muscle weakness and imbalance, which seems to be the causal
factor in 95% of all musculoskeletal problems. The muscle weakness and
imbalance is generally caused from loss of reserve energy of related organ
systems. Through Applied Kinesiology
muscle testing, we can identify specific nutritional and herbal supplements
that show to improve the organ health; thereby improving muscle function. This method of treatment has shown to most
efficiently and effectively improve musculoskeletal problems, and can allow us
to treat even chronic, reoccurring problems that have responded to no other
treatment. It also allows us to optimize
body function, and can provide significant benefits to all, especially in optimizing
sports performance.
* Think good thoughts for 30 minutes a
day. The mind is a powerful thing that
is capable of helping or hindering your health and function. Glen Doman, the first winner of the Linus
Pauling Award says that ‘Every person born is a potential Leonardo DaVinci ,
but too many negative things in life shut down creativity and get in the way of
our human potential’.
Life is a journey, health is a
quest. When asked, how you get to
The
purpose of a Healing Doctor is to help people provide the missing pieces that
the body needs and to get rid of the bad things that are taking away our
health. This model of health care is on
the cutting edge, and is showing unimaginable successes in pilot programs
currently being studied throughout the country.
Current data from pilot programs is showing nearly 70% reduction in
health care costs. Projections from
leading researchers predict we may save 90% of all health care costs if and
when this model of health care is fully implemented. God put everything that we
need for ultimate health, vitality and longevity on this Earth. We must continue to learn and to discover the
workings of the body, and to use His resources wisely.