June 2, 2006

The Best Wealth is Your Health

Exploring the Mind/Body Connection

By Dr. Adam Fields, D.C.
Special to the Times

Everyone wants a gentle chiropractor, but could a gentle chiropractic adjustment require help from you, the patient?

With some people, it requires more force to move their joints into position than others. The same person on a different day may have varying degrees of pliability in their spine. After all, in a chiropractor’s office, when the body accepts the force is when the nervous system starts performing better and the magnificence of the adjustment begins.

The ability to relax plays a significant role in the partnership of the chiropractic adjustment. Being stressed can decrease the flexibility, causing one to be tightly wound up or what we call uptight. Here the emotional state is wreaking havoc on the physical body. Many have called unrelenting stress one of the major causes of disease. Whether we like it or not, the mind and body are inseparable. Our bodies are psycho (emotion)/ somatic (physical person).

Thoughts, be they uplifting or negative, will tip off a cascade of chemical events in the body, altering body processes like breathing, blood pressure, pulse rate, healing time, muscle tension, brain wave activity, digestion, posture, memory and even more. In fact, just giving our spouses a hug and telling him or her we support them during a challenging time will make significant changes in their physical body. The love we give will turn in to the living, talking, laughing flesh and blood that we are married to. If I feel my patient is too tight to adjust or if my wife is experiencing tension, I must first look at myself as my thoughts, words and visions might be adding to this stress. It takes two to tango, be married or give a chiropractic adjustment.

My folks live in the Villages and had a neighbor who had horrendous posture (I’ll call her Jane). One day I saw Jane walking to her home with a fully erect posture. Her chest was up, her shoulders back and her head high. I was astonished to find out that her chronically ill husband had just died.

The illness of her husband was weighing her down so much as to affect her posture in a very noticeable way. We must ask ourselves, “Am I ‘weighing down’ or ‘building up’ the people around me.” Am I increasing the muscle tension of the people around me or causing others to breathe in a sigh of happiness? If words do become flesh, are my words producing wellness, endorphins and healing or sickness, stress hormones and weight gain in those I love?

The mind, spirit and emotions affect the body but the reverse is also true. Alter the body and the mind can be changed. A prominent man in our community came in and analyzed my handwriting. He made comments on how I finished my words and the loops my “E” made, etc. He showed me how the thoughts and outlook a person has can affect patterns in their penmanship. This was fascinating but not new to me. The amazing part came when he explained how one could alter the writing in very specific ways to achieve cerebral results.

“Dot your ‘I’ higher and you may find yourself thinking more positively,” he said. Pushing the pen forward at the end of your signature instead of looping it back can make one less focused on the past and more ready to take on the future.

I had always used statements like, “structure alters function,” or, “motion creates emotion,” and “a healthy spine is a healthy mind.” Yet this concept of writing style was a new and exquisite example of the body/mind connection. In fact, this was right up the chiropractic alley. I work to improve posture in my office on a daily basis. We take the hunched over and, like braces for the teeth, give them the posture of a ballroom dancer. Does this affect emotions? One Stanford study found depressed people could be partly helped just by improving the way they stood. Droop over in a critical situation in your life and you might not muster up the enthusiasm to accomplish your goal. The next time you go into a job interview or are facing a difficult situation, push your chest up, lift your chin and drop your shoulders back. Feel the added power and confidence that posture gifts your mind/body. Know that your physiology is now recruiting all of its faculties to help you mentally and physically stride in this awesome moment in your life.

Now think about having this power all of the time. When one has the proper curves in their spine and a good posture, the neurological, physiological and mental possibilities are that of your greatest you. Here lies a gateway to previously inexpressible human potential. Stay tuned next month to find out how enhancing your posture with chiropractic can further improve your life or call to get started today.

Dr. Adam B. Fields is a chiropractor in the Evergreen area at Fields Family Chiropractic, located at 2919 The Villages Parkway, San Jose, Ca 95135. He also has a satellite office in downtown Los Gatos.