Awakening and the Healing Path:
Learning to Love - or at Least Appreciate - Your Symptoms
by Rich Newman

 

There is strong reason to believe that uncorrected childhood health problems set the stage for much illness in later life; and that many, if not most, sickness and health problems are in place by the age of 10.

This is the second of three articles devoted to the vital topic of increasing our awareness of our body/mind’s inner awareness! Part One (March/April issue) looked at one of the health scene’s greatest mysteries – the puzzle of cutting off the body/mind’s inner awareness and communication, and investigation by holistic health disciplines into its origins and effects in early phases of life. This installment looks at patterns and consequences throughout life and how we might better understand symptoms and illnesses, along with their sometimes mysterious and confusing changes, by asking if there is something that connects these changes.

Clearly, there is a way of looking at symptoms as a signal of the body/mind’s inner communication through inner awareness and feeling. From the chiropractic/naturalistic perspective, ignoring symptoms (whether it be by “living with,” rationalizing or denying them, or via pharmaceutical elimination) promotes a suppression and eventual desensitization of your body/mind’s inner signaling or communication system. This is comparable to cutting the wires to your automobile’s dashboard warning lights when they go on.

Chiropractic clinical and scientific investigations suggest that spinal problems are important in nerve system abnormalities – and, thus, in major body/mind communication and control. So, what are the effects and indications or signals of early nerve system disturbance?

One answer – and compelling documentation – has come from the medical field in Europe, where there has been greater progress in medical-chiropractic integration and cooperation than in the United States.

An article entitled, “Blocked Atlantal Nerve Syndrome in Babies and Infants” (published in a German medical journal) included the findings of two prominent specialists in manual medicine. Their abstract concludes the following:

	Blocked nerve impulses at the atlas level (first neck vertebra) cause many clinical features from central motor impairment to lower resistance to infections – especially ear, nose and throat infections.
	Chiropractic can often bring about amazingly successful results because the therapy is a causal one.
	With any impairment of the occipito-atlantal joint complex (skull-first neck vertebra), this complex should be chiropractically examined, x-rayed and specifically adjusted. The success of the adjustment overshadows every other type of treatment. (Italics mine.)

One reported case study describes an 18-month-old boy with early relapsing tonsillitis, frequent enteritis (intestinal infection), therapy-resistant conjunctivitis, frequent colds and earaches, and increasing sleeping problems (including fear of lying down and screaming during the night). After the first specific adjustment of the atlas, the child demanded to be put to bed and slept peacefully. The conjunctivitis cleared completely, and previously disturbed appetite returned to normal.

Another report describes a random examination of 1250 babies at five days post partum. 211 of the infants suffered from vomiting, hyper-activity and sleeplessness. Examination revealed cervical strain in 95% of this group. Release of the strain by specific manipulation frequently resulted in immediate quieting, cessation of crying, muscular relaxation and sleepiness. Similarly, a study from Denmark revealed that of almost 300 infants with colic, 94% showed a satisfactory result from chiropractic spinal correction, primarily directed to the neck region.

>From these and other studies, conclusions show that approximately 80% of all children are not in normal nerve balance and that many have atlas blockage or subluxation misalignment (vertebra out of position with nerve interference). The normalization of the clinical picture following even the lightest adjustment is sometimes gradual, often immediate, and “consistently amazing.”

These investigations reflect the experience of our office and that of many doctors of chiropractic working with children and infants. There is strong reason to believe that uncorrected childhood health problems set the stage for much illness in later life; and that many, if not most, sickness and health problems are in place by the age of 10.

If we take these very common infant health problems as signs of early nerve interference (and, thus, disturbances of inner communication and feeling), we might ask: “What happens to them?” Very often (though not always) such problems appear to “go away” or are “grown out of.” But what has happened to their cause?

As previously discussed, lacking specific correction of the functional cause, these disappearances are but the inner awareness and signaling systems shutting off as they go ignored. It is only suppression and cutting off symptoms, not correction of the underlying causes. For example, it is now generally acknowledged by pediatric expertise that the supposed “growing out” of allergies, asthma and bronchitis that was conveyed to parents from the 1950s to the 1980s was simply a “burrowing deeper” of syndromes that later surface in adulthood as chronic pulmonary disorders such as asthma and emphysema.

Keeping our sights on the period of adulthood, clinical observation and documentation (as well as plenty of common experience) reveal another range of all too-common symptoms. These occur in the area believed related to infantile colic, now possibly developing into a dramatic advancing of gastro-intestinal (GI) problems and complaints. A plethora of television ads and the over-the-counter medications deal with acid stomach and indigestion, pre-ulcers and ulcers, gastritis, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel and colitis, and other variations of digestive organ disturbance, resulting in many people living on Tums, Pepcid and Prilosec, and lots of negative (“no findings”) medical tests, and various other scopings and imagings.

But there is serious sickness competition in other areas of our body as well. To wit, approximately 70 to 80% of all people will have a disabling low-back episode during their adulthood. This is not counting neck or upper back events, or headaches (80% of which have been shown to arise from cervical spine problems). From the chiropractic viewpoint, it’s easy to conclude that a lot of people’s spines have not received proper attention. Chiropractic x-ray analysis virtually always reveals it is long overdue in adults with muscular-skeletal complaints. As dramatic support from medical literature shows, when autopsies of adults investigate the spinal-nerve areas, almost without exception, degenerated, dead and severed nerve fibers are shown at all spinal levels.

To recap: infantile colic in a high percentage of babies suggests an association to pandemic GI troubles in adulthood; the majority of infants with cervical misalignment and strain syndromes possibly presaging the way for extensive neuro-musculo-skeletal complaints in at least 80% of the adult population. Can the picture be any clearer?

As we examine the body’s two most extensive systems (GI and musculo-skeletal) from this whole(-istic!)-life perspective, a distinct developmental “health devolution” seems to be taking place. It is a continuum of health decline which shows the following sequence: Earliest life imbalances (nerve and inner communication interferences and dysfunction, from birth through teens) define a Stage of Dysfunction. Uncorrected, this leads to complications and progression of problems in adulthood through mid-age, defining a Stage of Disorder. Continuing failure of correction of original cause creates the conditions for deterioration and breakdown into the illnesses of aging, or the Stage of Disease and Degeneration.

In the next issue, we will look more closely at the nature and connection of health problems in these successive stages – and what we can do to stop this health devolution.

Dr. Rich Newman has been providing holistic chiropractic care in Anchorage for 25 years. He is the founder of Total Health, Inc., focusing on individualized, holistic restoration of all body systems. Call: (907) 563-2929.

Awakening and the Healing Path, Part Three

Rich Newman

 

Much as a baseball player will strike-out through a lapse in attention, so too is the potential for healing “struck out” by failures of awareness and proper action at critical life stages.

As Dr. John Upledger, developer of the well-known Cranio-Sacral Technique, noted, “ A friend and surgeon with more than thirty years experience once confided that, in retrospect, he felt that the majority of surgical procedures he had performed might be classified as excisions of the “vocal apparatus” of the inner selves of the patients. That by removing certain organs or tissues, he was eliminating the bodily voices that were attempting to communicate the presence of deeper emotional or spiritual problems in need of attention.”

In the last article (Alaska Wellness, July/August 2004) of this continuing series looking at awakening and the healing path, we began to examine the 3-D (Dysfunction-Disorder-Degeneration) stages of health decline and how they are connected by failure to correct the original underlying imbalance in nerve, communication and control networks that are already present in childhood. Let us take a deeper look at these stages:

STAGE OF DYSFUNCTION – This stage begins with signs and symptoms of infancy and early childhood. This is often revealed as colic and bowel problems, particularly constipation, low-resistance, ADHD and learning disabilities, sleep disorders, allergies and skin conditions, etc. The early signs of nerve and organ imbalance rarely have identifiable pathology, or medical diagnosis. Chiropractic x-ray findings may be quite dramatic, however. In fact, at this stage, abnormal spine-nerve and meridian system findings are usually the only physical/clinical abnormalities appearing. The list of symptoms of childhood is essentially a rundown of the immediate, perceptible effects of any nerve system imbalance. The relation of nerve system to digestive signs, for instance, is well recorded in the common saying that tension gives one “butterflies in the stomach.”

STAGE OF DISORDER – This stage is characterized by the complication, compounding and progression into adulthood. Disorders may be seen as conditions which may or may not have clear, standard diagnoses or pathologic names, and may or may not have visible and detectable findings. Neuro-musculoskeletal complaints and  multiple digestive conditions head the list of distinct progression and complication. Major related complaints now include all the  “-itises”, unchecked, runaway inflammation, signifying chronic, unresolved dysfunction and disorder, particularly of the digestive system – esophagitis, gastritis, ulcers and colitis; the skeletal system – arthritis; immune system – sinusitis,  bronchitis, etc.; nerve system - neuritis; chronic fatigue, hypertension and depression, also related to these underlying system dysfunctions.

STAGE OF DISEASE AND DEGENERATION - At this stage (usually, but not always) of more advanced age, the prominent areas of our “body of degenerating humanity” include spinal and skeletal degeneration and arthritis, heart and lung diseases, cancer, and advanced neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. In the GI area, uncorrected advancing conditions show more serious, wide-spread effects:  diverticulitis, hepatitis, and cancers of the liver, stomach and colon can all call for major medical intervention and questionable prognoses. As far as the greatest disabler of this stage, some practitioners find evidence that cardiovascular disease is in fact secondary to digestive system disorder, particularly underlying liver and gall bladder fat handling and metabolic problems. For many people, increasing the fiber component of their diet (thereby increasing the efficiency, motility and clearance of their digestive tract) will be the most effective thing they may do for their cardio-vascular health!

The spine-nervous system has its own perilous course after perhaps a lifetime of neglect: degeneration, fusing, arthritis, and associated joint (especially hip) problems. Outward effects seem the emblem of the scourge of aging: the stooping, stiffening, slowing down and shrinking that none of us wants to imagine for ourselves. Spinal and skeletal x-rays often reveal deteriorated to the point that one wonders that the person could function at all!

Holistic Chiropractic evaluation of patients through these stages reveals that they are connected by the persistence of the original dysfunctions that are still operating. And this is exactly why the pathway continues, progresses and compounds – despite surgeries and drug management! This is also why holistic chiropractic-naturalistic therapy for problems at all these stages is strikingly similar and why a geriatric patient may receive much the same form of therapy as an infant, for treatment consistently addresses the persistent original dysfunctions found in childhood and infancy.

One could say that this 3-D decline pathway is a “three strikes and you’re out” health game. Much as a baseball player will strike-out through a lapse in attention, so too is the potential for healing “struck out” by failures of awareness and proper action at critical life stages. So, what awareness is needed to avoid “striking-out” in this real-life health game?

AWARENESS LEVEL 1: INNER COMMUNICATION AND CONTROL

There are no words to adequately convey this faculty, for it is the body/mind/spirit’s complete and perfect knowledge of itself.  This form, which we share with all life, is the unimaginably intricate communication and regulation network continuously operating from the moment of our creation as one single cell – through the breath-taking phases of reproduction, connection and coordination of trillions of cells in embryonic and fetal formation, to result in a completely functioning organism that is the most complex of the known universe. There is no healing phenomenon more miraculous than this! It is part of the natural health practitioner’s mission to remind (“awaken”) clients to this power that resides within us. Also (important from the standpoint of health care), it is interference to this inner connection through nerve and acupuncture meridian system dysfunction, which appears to be the first step in all illness.              

AWARENESS LEVEL 2: FEELING SYMPTOM SENSITIVITY

This is the body/mind alarm or signaling system that means one of two things: 1) Something is consistently not working, adapting or healing properly (this loss of function is the overwhelming majority of aches, pains and symptoms); or, 2) Something is breaking down or failing (likely a medical problem, which, very conservatively, is far less than half of all symptoms and complaints). The first symptom of some illnesses is death or near death (heart attack, strokes, cancer, etc.), and it is the loss or failure of this level of awareness which allows this. Holistic chiropractic experience suggests that cutting off inner sensation and communication can reasonably be implicated in the 3-D health devolution pathway. Evidence for this is the necessity in certain clinical methods of re-activating an abnormal mind/body condition. This is central to newer techniques of auto-immune and allergy correction. Also, comparable evidence that you have to “feel it to heal it” is well accepted in the emotional therapy realm, where simply unburying unfelt or unconscious thoughts and feeling sometimes constitutes the major portion of the healing response. Similarly, holistic doctors find this occurring on the physical level.

AWARENESS 3: EDUCATED CONSCIOUS RECOGNITION OF A PROBLEM 

This level accesses “self consciousness” as it embraces the entire range of “educated” recognition and understanding of a departure from normal on the part of both patients and doctors. Its loss includes scenarios throughout all the 3-D stages in which there is sensation of a problem, awareness of symptoms, but failure to realize it’s not normal (or “not natural”), or acceptance that “there is nothing wrong” (according to standard medical assessment). Striking examples of this attitude include a patient telling a doctor, “Well, I have the usual, normal headache at the end of the day,” or a female patient noting, “Yes, I go to bed every month during my period for a few days, but that’s normal; it s been like that ever since puberty.” Yet other variations might include statements such as, “I’m on three blood pressure pills and one for my diabetes, but I’m healthy!” 

Consciousness of our true potential, shared by holistic chiropractors and other naturalistic practitioners who practice in the light of Awareness 1, begins with an attempt to free clients from the conditioning and mind-set that pain, disability, deterioration, and drug dependence and surgery are acceptable as a normal part of life. Although this may at first be an intellectual process (“Doctor, you mean my spine shouldn’t look all twisted and bent like that on my x-ray?”), it is usually a necessary first step on the corrective path.

CASE STUDY: JOSH

The case of a client I’ll call Josh illustrates the powerful effect consciousness can have on health outcomes. Josh was a self-employed, hard-working family man, with an original symptom of low-back pain. It was painful to watch him grope around for support in near paralyzed slow-motion from table to table in our office. 

With contemporary, specialized, chiropractic care, it is the very rare spine pain that is not doing better in a short period of time.  So, after three weeks of little sustained relief, we said, "Josh, we need an MRI." Because of cost, time, and possibly the "garden-variety" denial syndrome, Josh wasn’t going for more diagnosis. After three more weeks of steady, specialized care for disc problems, nerve and joint inflammation and compression, and still no relief, we said again, "Josh, we need an MRI."

We got the MRI and the news was about as bad as it could be.  Josh was shown to have multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow which invades and weakens the spinal vertebra. And it was metastasized. Moreover, it is more than 90% fatal in younger people. Josh was destined to lose nearly five inches in height. Following his own advice to "...learn as much as you can about the nerve and electrical and nutritional systems of the body"  at our office and  with various recommended  doctors in the forefront of natural health care, Josh recently celebrated the sixth birthday that he was supposed to never see. (He did have a regimen of radiation therapy contributing to his overall program as well.) Josh maintains his holistic chiropractic and associated care-cure and prevention actually become two sides of the same coin. And, he is still improving.

This case had a happy ending. And it did because Josh was fully focused on a vision of what his body/mind was capable of accomplishing when the right conditions were established within it.

As spectacular and awesome as are all cures in conventional, surgical and drug-oriented as well as naturalistic-holistic fields, we need to remember that disease treatment is a reflection of failure of prevention and early detection.  And what is failure of prevention? Failure to address the original, inner cause.

SUMMARY AND PRESCRIPTION FOR ACTION:

	Many health problems begin in infancy. If they receive no appropriate, specialized attention, they may persist uncorrected.
	In association with various forms of loss of awareness, sensation and consciousness, and in symptomatic variation, this contributes to a 3-D (Dysfunctionà DisorderàDisease) pathway of health decline.
	Total, causal correction must include earliest interferences in inner communication and body/mind control.

Prevention is the other side of cure. It is possible to systematically and individually restore your specific inner awareness and control mechanisms to their normal function. It is consistently possible. It is necessary. It benefits you. It benefits those who care about you. It will benefit our society, which is desperately dumping trillions of dollars year after year down a self-perpetuating black-hole of chasing, patching, replacing, substituting and suppressing the endless effects of not efficiently or effectively addressing original, early causes of illness.

We need a new health consciousness – from birth on.

Dr. Rich Newman has been providing holistic chiropractic care in Anchorage for 25 years. He is the founder of Total Health, Inc., focusing on individualized, holistic restoration of all body systems. Call: (907) 563-2929.