Healing Protocol
If you treat chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, Attention Deficit Disorder or other health challenges, what are you actually treating? If the treatment is to be effective you have to have a rationale for what the underlying process or cause of the problem is.
For instance, high blood pressure is treated using drugs that will either relax smooth muscle to dilate your vessels…or push fluids from your body so that pressure is reduced. Could the smooth muscles of the walls of your vessels have increased tone or could you be retaining fluids unnecessarily? Of course you could, but why?
Why is the question that can determine your future. Will you be medicated for the rest of your life so you can get along with your defective body? Or do you ask, “Why?” and then find the reason and correct it, so that your body runs like the fine machine it really is.
The neurological hierarchy of evaluation and treatment is the guideline to asking why, no matter what you have been diagnosed with or not diagnosed with but you just feel bad. It is about getting to the underlying cause of poor function, symptoms, and disease. It is based on the nervous system and primarily your brain because as many of us have seen in the film What the Bleep, your brain is your reality. And a bad brain often creates a bad reality, whether that may be the perception of pain, depression, fatigue, or stomach upset. That doesn’t mean “it’s in your head,” however. What that means is that your brain is releasing neuropeptides abnormally, producing “real” feelings, emotions, and ill health. Candace Pert describes this in her famous 1997 book, Molecules of Emotion.
In evaluating the brain, we must understand the function of the brain—what does the brain do? Its first order of business is survival. The next function is receiving and transmitting information, which it does through all those neuropeptides, or protein sequences that activate cells towards a particular function. The last main function is homeostasis, or balance, which it does through receiving and transmitting quality information.
The actual application of testing brain function is achieved through “windows” of function, mostly unconscious, such as pupil response to light, eye movements, perception of pain, touch, vibration and posture, to name a few. These activities are performed unconsciously, meaning we do not have to consciously think about our eye muscles to track a bird in flight. We just do it, and if the brain works, we can.
If your brain isn’t controlling the eye muscles in a coordinated fashion, you may experience vertigo, or the perception that the world around you is spinning. So if you feel a pinwheel more on one side of your head than the other, or the vibration of a tuning fork more on one side, we have a window to the function of your brain and nervous system. If there is imbalance present, it can affect every function of your body, which can manifest in constipation, pain, fatigue, rapid heart rate, and anxiety, for example.
Treating the brain may include appropriate sensory stimulation such as light, smells, sound, movement, heat, cold, even a thought…anything that your brain will perceive and create an activation of those cells (neurons) and a subsequent release of neuropeptides. If we are “good” at picking sensory activities, the result is improved brain function, and thus, improved body function, which feels good too.
Our next step is evaluating for systemic structural problems, such as TMJ, cranial respiratory patterns, and injuries. For example, a surgical scar can create sensory feedback to the cerebellum that is abnormal, and if the brain receives abnormal information, it will transmit abnormal information. We can reset the cerebellum through mechanoreceptor —joints, muscles, and skin receptors—stimulation. At this point, we are using conscious neurological testing such as a muscle test. An injury or TMJ problem can cause inhibition to any muscle in the body so we want to consider this with any abnormal neurological function.
Next we evaluate for abnormal systemic chemistry problems, such as inflammation, anemic states, energy production, oxidation, and repair nutrients. Here we employ lab testing, as well as chemical sensory challenges, such as tasting a particular nutrient. Taste is perceived in the hypothalamus, and the cortex through the thalamus—the filter described in the film What the Bleep. The cortex sets the tone for the muscles, so a change in muscle function indicates a change in cortical function, good or bad (strengthening or weakening). For example, if you have low energy, a why could be low iron; and if iron is tasted, muscle function will improve or strengthen. Or if you have arthritis, a series of enzyme reactions using sugar and nutrition create cartilage, so you may strengthen to the nutrient that you need to make cartilage, such as magnesium.
Moving down the chain, we can then test for endocrine (hormone) imbalances, which have more local effects but still influence the entire body. We have to determine whether we need more of a hormone or less of a hormone, which can be observed through lab testing. Your body naturally makes hormones with a fat or protein and various nutrients. We again can use taste testing to evaluate which nutrient is needed, rather than just giving them all (which is an option). The worst option is to take a synthetic hormone, which shuts down your normal glandular function, placing you at the mercy of ongoing pharmaceutical intervention.
In breaking these hormones down, we must consider the function of the liver. The liver is the clean up room, and will slow down as a result of deficient nutrition, such as antioxidants, sulfur, and many proteins. If you are not breaking down your hormones, then we also must consider a toxic bowel that is overburdening the liver. A dysbiosis, or imbalance of friendly and unfriendly bacteria and other microorganisms such as yeast can cause this.
Now that we have corrected other stressors to the autonomic nervous system (automatic regulation of the glands, organs, and blood vessels), we can evaluate specifically for imbalance to the digestive organs, including hiatal hernia, ileocecal valve (ICV) and production of digestive enzymes and acids. Increased sympathetic tone (the fight or flight part of the nervous system) will shut down the digestive process resulting in poor digestion, absorption and elimination. Increased parasympathetic tone (the rest and digest part of the nervous system) will result in digestive upset and diarrhea.
Next we consider emotional stressors as a trigger to nervous system inhibition, which may be the thought of a present stress, or past unresolved stressors and trauma. We utilize stimulation of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and even the acupressure meridians to break those chemical patterns of inhibition. We may also consider excess or deficient neurotransmitter levels (commonly treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors) or angiotensin enzyme inhibitors. Your body, again, should be able to make these chemicals if provided with the proper raw materials in the form of nutrition.
Finally, we can get to local problems, such as spinal subluxations, muscle trauma, and local reflex points such as the Chinese meridian points or neurolymphatic points. These can have a systemic effect on the body, through afferent pathways to the brain (they send bad signals), but they tend to be local problems.
Through these guidelines, we access all current literature on neurological and chemical body function—things such as inflammation, insulin, and oxidation that are written about quite extensively regarding the deleterious effects on your health and longevity, as well as being the cause of disease states. We also access the benefits of chiropractic adjustments, neurological repair mechanisms, mind-body applications, and the effects of massage. It is simply “hard to miss” that underlying why with these extensive guidelines.
Site design and development by Function Advertising™, Asheville, NC - More Information
