Your Mom The Scientist

By Dr. Bill Decken
Spartanburg, SC

Many folks ask questions pertaining to fitness and exercise and how they
relate to their spines and subluxations. Let me begin by first asking a
question. Why is the spine made up of twenty-five moveable bones? The
easy answer to this question is "because that is the way God made us".
Having twenty-five moveable vertebrae in your spine makes it possible
for you to perform some very routine movements. Breathing, bending down
to tie your shoe laces, leaning over to listen to a little one whisper
"I love you" or turning your head while driving to see if that was a
police car you just cut off all require us to move the joints of your
spine. It appears that the movement allowed by our spines makes living
possible.

An athlete knows the importance of spinal mobility, but then so does the
parent picking up toys in the den and the teenager attempting to get up
before noon on a Saturday.

The vertebrae in your spine that are subluxated have become stuck. Now,
not only is the life within your nerve system reduced by the resulting
pressure on nerve tissue, you are further compromised by having less
than 100% movement. This is why so many professional athletes have
regular chiropractic checkups before their events. They want to perform
at 100%.

Guess what happens when your subluxations are adjusted? That's right,
your spine moves better and you move better. Your spine functions better
and you function better. Do you need to move and function better as a
mom or dad? At work or play? Is your performance as important to you as
an athlete's is to him or her? You bet it is!

People commonly want to know which exercises they can do to "get rid of
this pain", or "help these adjustments to hold". Well, here is the
scientific answer. Are you ready? It doesn't matter. That's right, it
doesn't matter.

It was recently reported in the Journal of the Neuromusculoskeletal
System, Vol.8, No. 2, Summer 2000 that the sooner folks become active,
the sooner their function returned to average. The conclusion of the
study was that activity of some sort was more important than the
specific type of exercised used.

Don't be too surprised that modern science is proving our mothers to be
correct. Remember? She told us to go outside and play. Playing requires
moving the spine in a variety of ways. Working requires moving the spine
in the same old repetitive ways day in and day out and does not count as
"exercise" according to the study. That is why athletes cross train,
because their sport is their work, its routine.

Your chiropractic adjustment sets the subluxated vertebra free. Any kind
of healthy movement you can incorporate into your daily routine would
help you get the most out of your chiropractic adjustments. If you have
been able to observe your children or others being checked for
subluxation then you know first hand how much less adjusting they
require compared to adults. Children tend to be more active than adults
and the muscles attached to their spine are thus more capable of
"creating an adjustment" without the help of a chiropractor.

Chiropractic is based on universal laws, one of them being, "if you
don't use it, you lose it". Tell others to get their spines aligned so
they can use it and then do what your mother told you to do. Go outside
and play.