MEADOWCROFT CHIROPRACTIC
What is Chiropractic Applied Kinesiology?
Chiropractic Applied Kinesiology is a science of identifying your health problem based on the idea that health and disease are related to the function of the nervous system. A normal-functioning nervous system is needed to maintain and/or restore health. When the nervous system becomes irritated by mechanical, chemical, or mental factors, disease results. In diagnosing a problem, I identify what these irritants are, and treat by removing these factors by the most conservative methods.
What you will experience:
Posture Analysis
One of the first things done after evaluating your case history is posture analysis. By observing head, shoulder, and hip levels, insight is gained into what muscle imbalances/weaknesses exist.
Why are muscle weaknesses important to find?
Figure 1 is an analogy of a bone (represented by a button) with muscles attached (represented by rubber bands). When the muscles are balanced, the bone is in its proper position, and there is no added tension to the muscles. Figure 2 shows what
happens when there is a muscle imbalance or weakness on one side.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Not only does the bone move out of proper position, but the muscles on the opposite side of the weakness are tight. This is what happens when a muscle is weak on one side of the body – there will many times be an opposing tightness of muscles on the other side of the weakness. So many times we want to rub the tight muscle in order to “relax” it, when in actuality, our attention should be to address the muscle weakness on the opposite side of the tightness.
Good posture/structure is foundational for your best performance and function. Imagine if the wheels of a cart were not round in structure, but square. When pulled the cart will not move and function smoothly. It would clop along and slow down your progress, even fatiguing you. So it is with our bodies. Muscle weakness across shoulder, hip, knees, etc. creates changes in structure and therefore, changes in function.
Muscle testing
From posture analysis very specific muscle testing is done to find weaknesses. Muscle testing is not done to determine muscle mass and how toned or strong you are, but rather is a way to evaluate the nervous system. If there are any interferences affecting that specific muscle, it will show up in the testing of that muscle. Each specific muscle tested has a specific organ/gland associated with it due to the wiring of the nervous system. So when we find a muscle weakness, it may be because its related organ or gland is dysfunctioning , and it gives us a clue where to direct our therapy. A dysfunction is different from a pathology. A pathology is a disease, usually picked up with some clinical finding like lab work or CAT scan; whereas a dysfunction will not be picked up so much with clinical findings – the patient just doesn’t feel right, or there is something wrong with their function, but cannot be substantiated with clinical findings. Dysfunctions, however, can be picked up through muscle testing. These are a lot of the cases we see here. We treat patients at the dysfunctional level before it turns into a potential pathology.
Injury Recall Technique – IRT
It is very important that you fill out completely the section on injury history – even if you were injured 50 years ago. No matter how long ago an injury may have occurred, the body sometimes stores the “memory” of an injury in a muscle. The nervous system will receive that “twisted message", which will cause imbalances in nervous system output. And THIS can create imbalances in the body and postural muscles. It also can have bad effects on involuntary body functions (like breathing, heart rate, and digestion) and endocrine glands (hormonal output from ovaries, thyroid, adrenal, pancreas). The importance of clearing out injuries cannot be overstated. IRT is a non-invasive way of identifying where the body may have stored memory of past injuries, and correcting
the effects of those injuries.
Neurolymphatic Points
Muscle/organ relationships (explained in previous Muscle Testing section) have specific areas called Neurolymphatic points located on different parts of the body. When stimulated by rubbing, they increase lymphatic drainage to the organ or gland the muscle is related to.
Chiropractic Spinal Adjustments
As a part of your treatment you may receive a chiropractic spinal adjustment to remove any subluxations. A subluxation is a misalignment of a bone in the spine that will decrease the nerve’s firing as it exits the spine. For nerves to be healthy, there needs to be an appropriate amount of firing. If the nerve’s firing is decreased, PAIN will increase. Removal of subluxations will restore the nerve’s ability to fire appropriately, and thereby decrease pain.
Nutritional Support
Depending on any vertebral subluxations and patterns your body may show, specific nutrient recommendations may be made to support the body’s area of weakness. The specific subluxations and muscle weaknesses we find will help direct our therapy in determining what nutrients are needed. Knowing the relationship between spinal levels, muscles and organs takes a lot of the guess work out of what nutrients would be best for you. Most of our food supplements are whole-food concentrates. Unlike synthetic nutritional supplements, some water has been removed, but all the vitamins, minerals, and extracts remain. This makes everything in the supplement bioavailable – so even though most of our supplements are low dose, they are efficiently utilized. You won’t find that with high-dose isolated nutrients. Nature requires all its synergists in unison to make nutrition work. It shouldn’t be picked apart and reassembled, but utilized in the form nature has put it together.
Thank you…
for choosing to investigate your options in addressing your healthcare concerns. As you can see, there are many tools available to help you get back on the path to good health. However, these tools are just a small part of the big picture. It can’t be emphasized enough how large a part YOU play in getting well. This may include lifestyle changes in diet, rest, and exercise. Together – you doing your part, and we doing ours – your goal to restore and maintain your well-being can be reached.