The Atlas of Life Chiropractic » Wellness Topics

A Reminder on the Importance of Ergonomics

Brandon Harshe, DC — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:33:58 +0000

Here is a really good video on how to properly position yourself when working on a laptop. It’s no secret that for many people, posture and pain are two things that usually accompany computer work. This is a good reminder we can all follow, myself included. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to Get More Energy for Healing, Digestion, and Thinking

Brandon Harshe, DC — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:00:40 +0000

“Better than 90% of the brain’s output is directed towards maintaining your body in its gravitational field. Therefore, the less energy one spends on one’s posture, the more energy is available for healing, digestion and thinking.” -Roger Sperry, 1981 Nobel Prize winner for brain research

The first cervical vertebra, Atlas or C1, is the most freely movable vertebra in the spine, and the one most likely to cause irritation or tension to the spinal cord. It pivots around the second cervical vertebra, Axis or C2, connected only by ligaments and tendons, but no disc as in the rest of the spine. This is what allows the majority of spinal rotation to occur, but at the price of instability. In most cases, you will not feel the vertebral subluxation in your upper cervical spine.

When a vertebral subluxation occurs in the upper cervical spine, you won’t feel it in most cases, but it will have a number of negative effects on the body. Because it is causing irritation and/or tension near the brain stem, vital organ function can be negatively impacted. Conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, and digestive problems can arise. Because of a high number of sensory nerves in the upper cervical spine called mechanoreceptors, a vertebral subluxation can manifest itself in various conditions such as neck pain or stiffness, or tension headaches. You could even experience other conditions like migraines or vertigo as a result of having an upper cervical vertebral subluxation.

A vertebral subluxation can also cause an overall body imbalance that, because of the misalignment component of the upper cervical spine, will result in overall spinal compensation. This will be characterized by spinal curvature, contracted or tight muscles on one side of the spine, postural imbalances such as a tilted head, high shoulder, and high hip, and an imbalance in leg lengths. Over time this will lead to advanced forms of degeneration like bone spurs and fusion of the vertebrae, as well as back and shoulder pain, and even herniated discs.

So restoring proper position to the Atlas and Axis vertebrae have more of an effect on your overall well being than you have ever imagined. If you haven’t had your nervous system and upper cervical spine checked, it’s time you did.

Putting Bricks in Your Purse and Wearing it on Your Shoulder = BAD

Brandon Harshe, DC — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:30:51 +0000

This post is primarily for the female readers of this blog, though if you are a man and wear one of those “man-bags” or “murses,” I suppose this is for you, too.

If you are anything like my wife January, and you put bricks in your purse to make it as heavy as you can (which I think she does sometimes), please don’t wear it on your shoulder if at all possible. I know habits are hard to break and you need your hands free, but when you put that added weight on one shoulder instead of equally distributed across the upper back (or not at all), it pulls down on that side of your upper body. This causes you to lean more to one side, putting added and unnecessary weight and strain on that side of your body, which only adds to the body imbalance you may be experiencing if you haven’t been under Upper Cervical Chiropractic care.

If you have been under Upper Cervical Chiropractic care, then this sort of strain on one side of your body on a repeated basis will undoubtedly contribute to you losing the restored alignment of your spine, causing you to need another adjustment sooner than later. And as you know, when your spine is out of alignment, due to a vertebral subluxation that is causing stress and tension on the spinal cord, this will ultimately affect your entire body i.e. organs, glands, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, and joints.

So you see, putting bricks in your purse to make it as heavy as possible, and then wearing it on one shoulder, might actually be putting a damper on your health.

How Many Drug Ads are in Your Magazines?

Brandon Harshe, DC — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:53 +0000

(Editor’s note: This was originally written by Dr. Adam Tanase for his Check the Neck blog.)

I picked up an issue of Woman’s Day magazine this afternoon. This is one of the many freebie magazines that get sent to my chiropractic practice. Their slogan is “Live Well Every Day,” so they must think I’m going to share it with my patients. But here’s why I toss these magazines instead of encouraging my patients to read them: They’re littered with drug ads.

Now most people wouldn’t ever stop to count advertisements, which is precisely why I wanted to share the exact number with you because it’s quite disturbing.

The October 2011 issue has exactly 118 pages. From cover to cover, 31 of these pages contain information about pharmaceuticals. This includes prescription and over-the-counter medication, weight loss pills, supplements, and anti-aging creams. That means 26% of the pages (1 in 4) pertain to drugs – more than any other advertised product!

If the editors genuinely want women to “live well every day,” why are they encouraging readers to take so many drugs?

Your Health Decision: Taking It On the Chin or Instant Gratification?

Brandon Harshe, DC — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:00:38 +0000

Get rich quick. 0% down, 100% financing. Lose 10 lbs in one weekend. Gain 20 lbs of muscle in one month. Get your gall bladder removed. Take a painkiller to dull that pain. Get a gastric bypass to lose 100 lbs in 6 months. Get a liposuction with your c-section like all the movie stars.

Our society is all about instant gratification. What’s in it for me and how fast can I get it? From wealth to health, everyone is looking for that magic elixir to help them emulate the richest, best looking people in society. Who cares about the cost when you can look good, feel good, and buy goods now?

Since graduating from Chiropractic school and starting my own practice, I have learned first hand there is no easy road to success. It is only through endurance, persistence, focus, hard work, and faith that success will answer your call.

Your health is no different. When people come into my office, they are hurting and miserable. Their health has progressively gotten worse over the years and Chiropractic is their last hope. And then they have their first adjustment…

It is becoming a very routine thing to witness sudden healing after a person’s first visit into our office. But when that happens, I warn them. I tell people that yes, they will get better and yes, their body will heal over time. But it will take time and it may not always be smooth.

One patient in particular was having some difficult symptoms that came up after experiencing a good first few weeks of care in our office. We talked, I encouraged him to stay the course, and he did. His reward was worth it. He is now feeling fantastic, and the change is apparent in his cheerful demeanor.

Optimal health is not an overnight thing. And it doesn’t come in a pill or a syringe. That is instant gratification and it never works. Booster shots prove that with vaccines and painkillers do the same with pain.

Health begins with a mindset, a determination to get better, to have more, and a willingness to see it through. Taking it on the chin in the beginning can reap great results later. But it takes someone with some guts and willingness to tolerate some pain and discomfort.

Nothing worth having in life is easy; not being successful, not being financially sound, not having a great marriage and family, and not being healthy. If it was, everyone in our country would have a six-figure job, our country wouldn’t be $14 trillion in debt, divorce and emotional abuse wouldn’t exist, and our country would use 0% of the world’s prescription drugs instead of the 75% it currently uses.

To quote Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never, never give up.” Because if you take the easy way out, you will face the consequences later. And with your health, those are consequences you don’t want to gamble with.

A Lesson From the Shark Tank on ABC

Brandon Harshe, DC — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:00:19 +0000

(Editor’s note: this blog post was originally written by Dr. Adam Tanase on June 6th, 2011 for his Check the Neck blog.)

Last week I watched an episode of Shark Tank. The “contestant” was Joe Moore, creator of the First Defense Nasal Screen.

Regardless of what you think about the value of this product, Joe said something very interesting during his pitch to the sharks. He discussed how a major American pharmaceutical company rejected his proposal to market this allergy-preventing nasal screen – not because it was a bad idea, but because prevention isn’t as profitable as treatment.

They considered buying the brand, but had no plans of actually selling it… They simply wanted to eliminate Mr. Moore’s product from the marketplace. In his words, they told him, “Why buy prevention for a dollar when we can sell treatments for $14?”

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s not making this up… If that really happened, it’s painfully obvious that Big Pharma has succumbed to mercenary self-interest.

If they would rather you be sick than well, can you really trust anything they say? I hope you’ll keep this in mind the next time you “race for a cure.”

Chiropractic Works From Womb to Tomb

Brandon Harshe, DC — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:00:45 +0000

Last week I had a couple that started care in my office who inquired if I see kids or not. I informed them that I did, and added that I will see people from “womb to tomb.” Here’s why.

The birth process can be physically taxing for the baby AND the mother, no matter how natural the birth may be. Because of this, it is paramount to get baby and mom checked right away after the birth.

I have had the opportunity to personally adjust my last two babies within the hour of their birth and I can tell you it is an amazing experience. To have a newborn fussing and crying and unable to nurse is tough. But when you can gently adjust the baby’s atlas (C1) vertebra and watch him/her calm down and latch on to nurse, it is an awesome sight to see. In fact, I check all five of my kids on a regular basis. I know this fact alone is a big reason why they have been so healthy their entire lives, never needing late night frantic trips to the emergency room or multiple rounds of antibiotics.

But mom also needs Chiropractic. We had baby #5 at home back in March, and that particular labor was the hardest on January of the five. She is still recovering from the birth currently, and that is with Chiropractic care on a regular basis. I couldn’t imagine the sheer endless misery my wife would be going through without Chiropractic during this last recovery process.

Moms and babies aren’t the only ones who need Chiropractic either. I have a patient who is a young boy suffering from autism. He used to bang his head on the wall 8-10 times a day and couldn’t hold a conversation with anyone. Since starting care in our office, he no longer bangs his head, can have conversations with his mom, and fell asleep in the car on the way home from his first appointment. This hadn’t happened since he was a newborn.

Another patient of mine is in his mid-80s. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1956. He recently told me how he sleeps through the night now and is feeling much better overall. He used to not go to sleep until around midnight or one each night. Then he would wake up frequently through the night, only to wake up around eight the next morning feeling like he hardly slept. This went on for years up until recently beginning care in our office.

So you see, Chiropractic care is not just for adults suffering from some type of back pain as a result of a work injury or car crash. Chiropractic is for anyone and everyone looking to restore their health and vitality so that they can experience a more enjoyable life, allowing them to be a better parent, better spouse, better son or daughter, better sibling, better employee, or a better owner.

Chiropractic is about restoring full function to the nervous system so that the body may heal itself and function at its very best. Pain and other various symptoms are simply results of a nervous system working at less than its optimum best.

To put it point blank, if you are not under Chiropractic care, you are simply cheating yourself of a life full of health and happiness; a life free of pain, other symptoms, prescription drugs, and invasive surgeries to remove various “diseased” body parts.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

How the Story of Masha & Dasha Krivoshlyopova Relates to Chiropractic

Brandon Harshe, DC — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:28:33 +0000

(Editor’s note: This article can be found at Chirowebs.net.)

The new mother was told that her twin babies had died after birth. However the truth was far different: they were sent to an institute near Moscow to be studied. This was to be the fate of “Masha” and “Dasha”, one of the most unusual sets of “Siamese” or conjoined twins ever born.

Identical twins are formed when a fertilized egg divides into two eggs. The two eggs grow into two babies that are identical in every respect. Conjoined or Siamese twins are formed in the same way as identical twins but the eggs, for some reason, don’t completely separate; instead, they remain partially attached. It was the unique way in which the twins were connected that caused Soviet scientists to take such an interest in them.

Although Masha and Dasha have four arms, they have only three legs. They stand on two of their legs, one controlled by Masha, one by Dasha (they were five before they learned how to walk) while a third, vestigial leg remains in the air behind them. Their upper intestines are separated but they share a single lower intestine and rectum. They have four kidneys and one bladder, and often disagree on when to urinate. They have a common reproductive system.

Because their circulatory systems are inter connected, the twins share each other’s blood. Therefore, a bacterium or virus that enters one twin’s bloodstream will soon be seen in the blood of her sister. Yet surprisingly, illness affects them differently. Dasha is short-sighted, prone to colds and right-handed. Masha smokes occasionally, has a healthier constitution, higher blood pressure than her sister, good eyesight and is left-handed.

The twins differing health patterns present a mystery. Why did one become ill with a childhood disease, like measles for example, while the other did not? The measles “bug” was in both of their bodies, in their collective bloodstream; so why didn’t both get the measles?

Evidently there is more to “getting the measles” than having the measles “bug”. This phenomenon was seen over and over again with the girls (flu, colds, other childhood diseases were all experienced separately). If germs alone had the power to cause infectious diseases, why would one of the twins be disease-free while the other was ill? What was it in their makeup that differentiated one from the other?

The answer was not far to seek. Although Masha and Dasha had common circulatory, digestive, excretory, lymphatic, endocrine and skeletal systems (they were joined at the hips), they had separate spinal columns and spinal cords. This was the only important difference between the two girls.

In Masha and Dasha, nature’s “laboratory” devised an experiment that no human researcher could ever duplicate. These extraordinary twins are an invaluable example confirming that there is much more to “catching” a disease than simply breathing in germs; germs can make you sick if and only if your body provides fertile ground to grow in.

The state of your nerve system can determine whether you have high or low resistance to disease. If you are suffering from disease, the health of your nerve system will play a decisive role in whether or not (and how rapidly) you will recover. By keeping your spinal column and nerve system free of subluxations, chiropractic care helps you optimize your overall state of health.

Masha and Dasha became celebrities when they appeared on a popular national television program in Russia. They were reunited with their mother (their father had since died) and are hopeful: “The past forty years haven’t been so good, but things are looking up for the next forty,” said Dasha.

Great Book to Point People to: The Antioxidant Counter

Brandon Harshe, DC — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:31:23 +0000

For those of you that have read this blog for a while, you will remember how I used to do interviews with Chiropractors, students, and patients. Two of those interviews were with Dr. Lauren Clum and Dr. Mariza Snyder. The reason why I bring these two up is because they recently co-authored their first book together, entitled The Antioxidant Counter.

At no more than 128 pages and small enough to fit into your back pocket, this book has a ton of great information that you can use and apply into your life today.

The first part of the book addresses what foods are best to eat in our day and age of fast food, boxed meals, and GMOs. Next up, they get into antioxidants and why they are essential to a healthy lifestyle and combating the toxins we face every day. Then, they address the vital building blocks needed for optimal health, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.

The second part of the book gets into the ORAC scale, which stande for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. The ORAC scale was developed by the National Institute of Aging, which is a branch of the National Institute of Health. Here, you can see for yourself which foods are best to eat and where they rank on the ORAC scale.

The last part of the book is devoted to healthy recipes that include antioxidant-rich foods. Everything from green smoothies, to salads, to healthy dinners is covered in this book.

Most people reading this blog for any length of time will know I am very focused on practicing straight Upper Cervical Chiropractic and don’t get into offering nutritional advice, prescription supplementation, or anything else like that. But I am more than willing to point my patients in the right direction for information they can use and apply in their daily lives.

The Antioxidant Counter is one of those resources. Dr. Snyder and Dr. Clum did a great job in providing high quality, useful information in such a condensed, straight forward, and to the point way. In this day and age of hustle and bustle, I think people will appreciate this aspect of the book.

But more importantly, people will appreciate the great information contained within its pages.

Moving Beyond the Lightning Bolts

Brandon Harshe, DC — Tue, 03 May 2011 12:00:43 +0000

When the average person thinks about Chiropractic, chances are they don’t understand what Chiropractic really is. Who can blame them? The Chiropractic profession has done a bad job of explaining itself to the public.

For decades it was the doormat of the AMA, subject to constant persecution and ridicule. Most of the stigma from that time has lingered alongside the profession.

The Chiropractic profession has done its best to conduct research to prove its effectiveness. Nearly all of that research, though, is directed into one of two areas: back pain or neck pain.

It’s hard to fault Chiropractic researchers though. Especially when only about 70 full-time researchers exist within the profession, compared with the drug company Pfizer which has 12,000 researchers by itself. There just isn’t enough manpower or money to conduct the amount of research chiropractic needs.

But because of this, as well as the inability to effectively communicate what we do, most people think Chiropractors only specialize in back pain or headaches. Who wouldn’t think that? We’ve all seen the ads in the Yellow Pages depicting a wincing man or woman, supporting their arching back, as lightning bolts radiate away from their injured spine. Obviously Chiropractors specialize in pain relief, right? Now don’t get me wrong, Chiropractic does offer pain relief, but at its fundamental core, Chiropractic is so much more than just that.

What is Upper Cervical Chiropractic?

Chiropractic, plain and simple, is all about restoring proper function to the nervous system. The way that is accomplished is by removing vertebral subluxations. These are bony misalignments of the spine that result in nervous system interference. They come about in one of three ways: Physical trauma, emotional trauma, or chemical trauma. Vertebral subluxations can be very devastating. Over a period of time such as weeks, months, years, or decades, vertebral subluxations can wreak havoc on our bodies, especially if they occur in the upper cervical spine. A vertebral subluxation can lead to decreased output to nerves throughout your body, rapid degeneration of the spine, and many other debilitating conditions.

The way these subluxations are removed is with a gentle, yet specific upper cervical adjustment, done only after precise x-ray analysis. Upper Cervical Chiropractors use these x-rays to measure specific angles in which the top two vertebrae in the neck are misaligned.

What Makes Up the Upper Cervical Spine?

The top two vertebrae in our necks are known as C1 and C2, respectively. Chiropractors know these two bones more intimately as the atlas and axis. The atlas is a little 2 oz doughnut-shaped bone that supports the base of our 16 lb skull. If you look at Greek mythology, you’ll find that Atlas was the Titan who held the weight of the world on his shoulders, of which this bone was aptly named.

The spinal cord exits the base of the skull and passes through the atlas and axis all the way down through your spinal column. Every nerve that travels through the body passes through the atlas via the spinal cord. Not only that, but the brain stem is at the top of the spinal cord, near the atlas. This area can characterized almost like “mission control” within your body. The nickname seems appropriate when you realize that this is the area that regulates our heartbeat, our blood flow, and our breathing, among other things.

When someone develops a disease, chances are they have a vertebral subluxation in their upper cervical spine. I’m not saying a specific upper cervical adjustment will cure a disease. What it will do is put that atlas or axis back in place so that the nervous system can function properly. If the nervous system is functioning properly, then the body will receive life-restoring nerve transmission at its full and complete capacity.

And that is when our bodies can begin the healing process.

The Atlas of Life Chiropractic » Wellness Topics

A Reminder on the Importance of Ergonomics

Recommended Reading

How to Get More Energy for Healing, Digestion, and Thinking

Recommended Reading

Putting Bricks in Your Purse and Wearing it on Your Shoulder = BAD

Recommended Reading

How Many Drug Ads are in Your Magazines?

Recommended Reading

Your Health Decision: Taking It On the Chin or Instant Gratification?

Recommended Reading

A Lesson From the Shark Tank on ABC

Recommended Reading

Chiropractic Works From Womb to Tomb

Recommended Reading

How the Story of Masha & Dasha Krivoshlyopova Relates to Chiropractic

Recommended Reading

Great Book to Point People to: The Antioxidant Counter

Recommended Reading

Moving Beyond the Lightning Bolts

Recommended Reading