Why Mind and Body Chiropractic?

Power Of The Mind

Since the turn of the century, there has been a growing awareness among people on the cutting edge of alternative medicine, bio-physics and cellular biology that the mind plays a critical role in the state of our health.

“Our thoughts create our body moment by moment. When we think positive thoughts, we release certain chemicals into our body. When we think negative thoughts, we release negative chemicals into our body. These have a profound effect on how cells behave and how nutrition is used.”
Arielle Essex, Osteopath

More and more evidence is emerging that stress is at the root of many of our ailments and disorders. A recent report from the World Health Organization suggests that up to 70% of health problems in the developed world are connected to stress. Now if you Google ‘stress’, you’ll be taken to many sites run by health organizations.

They will tell you the likely causes of stress and the effects it can have on your wellbeing. Wikipedia will tell you:

“Stress is a person’s response to a stressor such as an environmental condition or a stimulus. Stress is a body’s method of reacting to a challenge. According to the stressful event, the body’s way to respond to stress is by sympathetic nervous system activation which results in the fight-or-flight response. Stress typically describes a negative condition that can have an impact on a person’s mental and physical well-being.”

In response to acute stress, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden release of hormones. The system stimulates the adrenal glands triggering the release of catecholamines, which include adrenaline and noradrenaline. This results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate.

Fight or flight is an instinct that’s deeply rooted in our ancestral past, when we were not so much the hunters as the hunted. This was all well and good in prehistoric times. But what’s happening today in our high speed, short attention span, increasingly complex society is that these chemical reactions are being triggered all the time. With no appropriate outlet, they swirl around in the body triggering feelings of anger, or frustration or anxiety. Over time, these negative emotions have a cumulative effect reducing the efficiency of the immune system and creating patterns of stress that lead to physical disorders. So the mind has enormous power both to make us unwell and, equally, to help us get better.

Throughout my many years of working as a chiropractor I have studied a variety of techniques and methodologies that enable me to identify and alleviate these patterns of stress. These include neuro-linguistic programming, acupuncture, hypnosis and many other alternative forms of treatment. By reducing stressful patterns and aligning the body so that the energy flow is in harmony, extraordinary healings have taken place. Today, I’m happy to say there is a growing awareness of stress and its impact. We now understand the mind is much more than a thinking machine, it’s part of an intricate energy field that connects the entire body. Thoughts have power. Your current mindset and your emotional intelligence have a profound effect on your health.

This is why our practice is called Mind & Body. We work closely with a team of psychologists to ensure the mental, emotional and psychological aspects of each patient are taken into consideration. It’s an approach that has worked wonders. Here, in the safe space we have created for the diagnosis and treatment of our patients, is where the miracles happen. I’ve seen countless patients come in to the practice under a cloud of pain and stress and walk out with springs in their steps and smiles on their faces.

“We make an emotional shift. Say we go from frustration to joy. About 1400 biochemical changes instantly go off in the body. We can see how emotions are making lots of changes in our physiology. So it makes a lot of sense to pay as much attention to our emotional diet as to our physical diet.”
Howard Martin, Bio-physicist

Music Of The Heart

“When the heart’s rhythmic beating pattern is smooth and ordered, it’s called a coherent rhythm. That coherent rhythm synchronizes the brain rhythm, the nervous system, the body’s organs and glands. All dance in harmony to the heart’s coherent rhythm.”
Deborah Rozman PhD

There’s a revolution going on in the associated fields of biology and medicine. Scientists and researchers, doctors and alternative health professionals are discovering entirely new ways of looking at the human body. How does it really work? What causes it to degenerate? What allows it to re-generate and heal itself?

We are hearing from a growing number of enlightened practitioners around the world whose various studies and experiences have led them to conclude that our thoughts and, even more so, our emotions have a critical effect on our health. Strong positive emotions support the immune system and strong negative emotions make the system deteriorate.

Simply by changing our attitudes, by channeling positive emotions and feelings of trust and joy, we can make a profound impact on our physical wellbeing. This is why we don’t just tackle the symptoms of our patients, we look to the causes of the disorders. Taking a holistic approach means addressing the whole person and finding ways to enhance the body’s ability to heal itself.

“The heart generates by far the largest electromagnetic signal in the body. If you look at this magnetic field as a carrier wave, it’s been modulated with information. The work in our lab has shown quite clearly that it’s modulated with emotional patterns. If you’re feeling angry or frustrated, the information that’s being imprinted is very different than if you’re feeling care or love or compassion.”
Rollin McCraty PhD

The Best Of Both Worlds

“We have to learn from other cultures, from other traditions, from observations of all kinds of healers. We have to take the best of modern science and use it to integrate what’s going on.”
Rupert Sheldrake, Professor of Biology

Here at Mind & Body, we combine the tried and tested techniques of chiropractic with the very latest technologies and alternative treatments. It’s a “high-touch” hi-tech combo that works a treat. The idea is for you to feel relaxed and confident in the healing treatments. As part of the process, we have Relaxation Rooms: specially designed chambers with state of the art massage chairs that can be customized to each individual patient.

Once you are comfortably situated and the chair has been adjusted to your requirements, we can play relaxation music, we can use a biofeedback program or a hypnosis program, we can show visual imagery – all designed to relax both mind and body so you will be receptive to treatment. It’s a deeply soothing experience and some of our patients would be happy just staying in the chair for their entire visit!

In the treatment room, we have the latest chiropractic drop table. It’s a four section drop with forward head carriage. It is the fastest yet gentlest table currently available. Just as each person is different so the treatment is individual and so we have a wide range of hands-on techniques to alleviate specific conditions.

We also have some amazing technology to help us identify causes of symptoms. What used to be a bio-feedback system has evolved into neuro-feedback that enables us to measure stress levels and all sorts of things that are invisible to the human eye. The most critical step on the path to getting better is the correct identification and diagnosis of your condition.

Then, each time you come in for treatment, your condition is evaluated. We have a program that digitizes your posture and informs the report that will recommend the best form of treatment.

It really is the best of both worlds, the combination of hands-on treatment and the latest in medical technology. I look forward to welcoming you to Mind & Body and helping you not only to get better but to attain a level of well-being that will enable you to enjoy life to the full.