My buddy, Dr. Eric Russell, posed this question on Facebook yesterday:
“Would you rather be subluxated with a perfect diet or subluxation free with a fair diet? Don’t take the easy way out and say both.”
Just so all my readers understand, a vertebral subluxation is a misalignment in the upper cervical spine that causes interference to the nervous system’s ability to communicate to the body. I’ve talked about this before, but I wanted to make sure new readers not involved in chiropractic understand.
My experience with perfect diet and subluxation
When I was in Tri 4 at Parker, I completely cleaned up my diet and my family’s diet. I had finished a couple books on the topic of nutrition and really felt like we needed to make a change as a family.
We started eating mostly organic food and drinking filtered water. I lost about 20 lbs and felt a lot healthier. I ate a lot of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. When I ate meat, it was usually from an organic farm and the cows were grass fed.
I also changed my focus in exercising from lifting heavier weights to grow muscle mass, as I had done since I was 14, to doing lighter weight, more reps, and a lot more cardio.
However, with all that being done, I still had nagging aches and pains, which I attributed to stress and hard workouts. I had a nagging, chronic inflamed pain in my right sacroiliac joint. The middle of my thoracic spine was always tense. Various spots up and down my spine were always tender. My neck felt like it needed to pop all the time.
Later, my wife January and I tried eating an all raw vegan diet. We went through some bouts of detoxing, but overall, we felt really good. My eyes went from always being bloodshot to completely clear and I no longer felt like I had plaque on my teeth. During that time, I also did not have to clear my throat for anything. Anyone that knows me knows that I’ve always had to clear my throat after eating various types of food, i.e. grains, dairy, etc.
Still, with all the great changes I felt my body making with a raw vegan diet, I still had those nagging aches and pains. And I still attributed them to the same things: stress and hard workouts.
My experience with a fair diet and no subluxation
It wasn’t until I received an upper cervical adjustment that those aches and pains went away. I’m not talking about a basic toggle that we learned in the student clinic in school. I’m talking about the real thing here.
My body’s immediate response was that the lights in the room grew brighter and the colors on the wall were more vivid. My aches and pains were gone. Not only that, but so was my throat-clearing problem. I also experienced deeper and more restful sleep. I was also happier than I had been.
During that time, I was eating pretty well, but nowhere near as strict as before. I wasn’t working out as much either. I just didn’t have as much time… more kids, boards, class, clinic, blog, etc.
All I know is that when I have a vertebral subluxation, it’s not fun. Those aches and pains come back and I don’t like them. Changing my nutrition, exercising, and taking all the vitamins and supplements in the world don’t change how I feel when my spine is subluxation free.
My choice
So my answer is to give me a fair diet and no subluxation any day of the week.
Which one would you pick?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes Subluxation free!
It’s a clear and simple answer in my opinion…and you are right on Brandon! Eat right, Move right, Think right, Detox right…But if you are living with an Upper Cervical Subluxation then these lifestyle health benefits many times will only get you so far. We see a lot of sick people in our office that already do these things and get some results, but the missing link is a clear functioning nervous system. Upper Cervical care makes all the difference.
I agree that not being subluxated is #1. Innate works with building blocks we educatedly put into our body in the form of food to rebuild and heal with. Because of the availability of processed foods and garbage that wasn’t around fifty years ago (particularly during the golden age of chiropractic), I’ve heard old practitioners say they notice patients respond differently to adjustments now than they did fifty years ago. If the subluxation is a concussion of forces, our innate internal resistance vs. trauma,toxins, and thoughts, how much of an upper cervical, straight practice should also be dedicated evaluating and coaching patients nutritionally as it contributes to the concussion of forces? And with advancements in nutritional analysis like functional medicine, using bloodwork and lab testing to evaluate nutrition functionally, does this fit in w/ straight chiropractic and upper cervical concepts? Any thoughts?
My answer is “it depends”.
The question of what constitutes a ‘perfect’ diet, and what constitutes misalignment are varied. Even within the UC world, we all know one technique’s ‘alignment’ could be another’s misalignment and vice versa. It gets even dicier when we start throwing full spine techniques into the mix. As well, some subluxations can cause extreme detriment to quality of life, while others have little effect on outward ‘symptoms’. A misalignment that brings me from 100%-95%, I could probably live with. One that brings me from 100%-20%, well, all the nutrition in the world isn’t going to help much.
In my opinion, North America would do far better from a collective dietary overhaul, than they would from all being subluxation free.
@Shawn: Those things are not bad, but they don’t fit into straight Chiropractic. Nutrition and functional medicine are, well, nutrition and functional medicine. Personally, I have no interest in getting involved with those things in my practice, but I will be happy to send my patients to someone who utilizes those things in their practice. I just choose to focus my efforts on something I can control, like reducing the subluxation. I can’t control if smeone wants to pick up a piece of pizza instead of a salad.
@Moses: I would wholeheartedly agree with your last statement. Good points overall, as usual.