The biggest reason why I left my corporate job and started over again in private practice was TIME. I wanted to get time back with my family, have flexibility in my workday to see the patients who need to be seen, and to work on my own health and personal growth. One item I’ve had on my list of things to finish is my Certified Chiropractic Wellness Lifestyle Practitioner certification (CCWP). This certification is comprised of four weekend seminars taught by the brilliant Dr. James Chestnut, four take home modules with extensive written responses to pages of questions, and then an exam. I took all four seminars and got through the first two take home modules prior to having my baby a year ago, but had to place completion on hold due to time constraints since then. Well, I’ve been tackling those modules over the last couple of days, and I’m about 12 questions to go before I hand in my responses and can sit for my exam.
The gist of this wellness certification program is actually VERY simple. Essentially, if you MOVE WELL, EAT WELL and THINK WELL, you have everything your (our) genetic code needs in order to express health and homeostasis. Period. The things that are being blamed on “bad genes” or “genes” in general are missing the boat. All genes need signals from the outside in order to be “turned on” or included in the coded recipe for expression within our cells. What are those signals? Anything from sensory input, nutrient or chemical input, or any of the many biochemical cascades within the body which occur in response to emotional input. The “right” signals turn on genes that express health and homeostasis. The “wrong” signals will express genes of adaptation, meaning they are APPROPRIATE responses to the actual input being received from our environment, but they are responses which move us away from health and homeostasis.
In the seminar series, we looked at the physiology behind all sorts of disease processes from high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, autoimmune disorders and cancers, as well as neurodegenerative diseases. Each and every one had common roots in processes that were the direct result of any combination of NOT moving well, NOT eating well or NOT thinking well (emotional stress and/or poor social connections). These conditions don’t begin as pathology... they begin as appropriate physiological responses to the genetic expressions signaled by the environment. Over time, without correction, these responses become labeled “pathology”.
Of course, as is the way of the Universe, when you have your attention on something, you begin to notice parallels and manifestations of similar things in your everyday surroundings. Well, this morning I saw this video which I’ll be sharing, regarding brain health and more specifically Alzheimer’s. What I LOVE about this is that what is being considered as groundbreaking or new science around brain health, is actually a return to the fundamentals. Chiropractic adjustments are rooted in these fundamentals because of the role that chiropractic adjustments play in movement, the biochemical cascade of signaling in the body, as well as in actual neuroplastic changes within the brain itself.
Listen to the video and you’ll hear that brain health requires that you MOVE WELL, EAT WELL and THINK WELL. Pretty sound advice. THIS chiropractor couldn’t agree more.
(Video of Dr. Rudy Tanzi from PBS's Facebook page would not link. Like PBS, search for Dr. Tanzi, and enjoy!)
https://www.facebook.com/pbs/videos/10154299878692169/