Frequently Asked Questions
Based on the well documented history of spinal manipulation in ancient Chinese medicine, hilot and abalario traditions, the schools of osteopathy and the chiropractic theory of the subluxation, there is a world wide awareness of manipulative therapy correction for spinal and other joint injuries and for restoring and promoting health. The team of professionals at Your Health has decades of experience as Doctors of Chiropractic.
Spinal corrective care addresses two related concerns; symptoms and overall health.
The principle is simple: when a baby is formed in mom, every cell, gland, bone, artery and ligament is in exactly the right place doing the right thing under the control of the nerve system, and there is no room for error.
Then, through the process of life, people get an injury, a little sprain to the joints of the spine, a subluxation. That subluxation has no room for error, so it will always irritate the nerves and other tissues whether you feel it or not.
When the nerve is irritated, it can not work properly, so the messages from the body to the brain are no longer correct and the control of the body from the brain is no longer accurate. That means you are not function as well as you should be, and health is declining. So, quickly or slowly you have decline and failure of the cells, tissues, glands, organs and systems of the body. You are sick and you more age quickly, even if you have no symptoms of pain. So, correcting spinal subluxations is crucial to good health and supports optimal health and longevity.
Symptom treatment is usually the treatment of choice for neck pain, tension headaches and migraines, nerve radiation, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, shoulder joint injuries, slipped discs, herniated discs, sciatica, fibromyalgia, plantar fasciitis, reduce arthritis symptoms and most knee problems. It can reduce or eliminate the need for medications including pain medication. Chiropractic patients have proven a decrease in the needs for medicines and endure much less hospital care while being healthier with more energy and better emotional balance.
Corrective and healing care can very often help reduce or slow the progress of scoliosis. It can correct the cause of asthma, ear aches and infections, dysmenorrhea, acid flux or GERD, kidney failure, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure and more. It helps to restore health. It can help with post postpartum depression and hormonal imbalances and has helped many people to become parents when they could not conceive.. It supports you to be healthy for a lifetime.
Your Health will evaluate joint function by feeling the joint, feeling motion of the joint and by assessing a reflex response that changes muscle tone. Your companion will see your body respond to our doctors touch and you will not feel it. Once our doctor has identified joint misalignment and dysfunction, he will use a dynamic thrust to restore corrected position and corrected motion patterns to the joints. This begins a process of correction that requires consistent adjusting on a regular basis over a period of time. The time it takes depends on your age, the stiffness of your spine, the degree of pathology at the joint that has resulted from your injuries, how much your posture has changed as a result of injury and your habits and activities, the integrity of local nerve control and the duration of time that you have had those injuries. The team of professionals at Your Health will comprehensively explain all pertinent details with you, during the Report of Findings, outlining their recommendations in the process.
Scoliosis is and abnormal lateral curvature of the spine that often causes distortion of a hump of the ribs. It is found in 2% to 7% of children six or seven years of age to young adolescents. Adult onset scoliosis is said to originate in young or middle aged adults. Scoliosis is like most diseases or conditions. It can be asymptomatic until the disease process is well underway.
The cause of scoliosis is now known. The latest research from the Chiropractic BioPhysics group with chiropractors and their associated orthopedic surgeons, strongly suggests that scoliosis originates from one of three causes.
The most severe cause of scoliosis appears to be as a result of the body adapting with the twisted posture to prevent nervous system damage. When a child’s skeletal system grows very quickly, the spinal cord and nerve roots may not grow fast enough in proportion. To prevent damage to the nerves inside the spine, the body induces the lateral curvature or scoliosis so that spinal canal stays shorter. This protects the nerves inside the spine from being stretched and damaged.
The second cause is a vertebral bone that grows to an abnormal shape. The top of a bone is tipped to the side, for example, with bone being shaped like a triangle. Then, all of the spine above that vertebra have to compensate. So, the mechanical structure of the spine and movement patterns of the body adapt because of the uneven foundation of the curve. So scoliosis happens.
The third cause is also the origin of adult scoliosis. It is an uneven foundation to the adaptive curve caused by spinal or pelvic injury. This is a subluxation that occurs so that the bottom of the spine or a spinal bone is not level and even. It can happen in the sacroiliac joints of the pelvis, in the facet joints and discs of the low back or higher in the spine. The lateral curvature is compensation to the lateral tipping of the sacrum or at any level of the spine.
How can scoliosis be helped?
All causes of scoliosis have spinal stress and show subluxations. All cases can be helped with spinal alignment care. Specific chiropractic adjusting helps and usually improves posture. If children begin to have chiropractic care, much adaptive curvature can be prevented. spinal alignment and maintenance from a young age keep spine and people healthy.
Most people with scoliosis of 9 degrees or less can be helped with dynamic soft bracing because it over-corrects the scoliosis curvature. This helps restore better posture due to muscular movement and strengthening against the soft brace.
Hard braces is not as effective, but may help scoliosis of up to 40 degrees. A scoliosis of more than 40 degrees is very highly to require spinal surgery as the last resort to help. Surgery can include the insertion of a metal rod along the spine to force the posture to a straighter position. Corrective spinal alignment care can not help if there has been surgery or the metal rod installed.
Surgery is a last resort. They insert of a metal support rod to hold the spine straight is a last resort. Spinal alignment can not help if a metal rod has been placed in the spine.
The naturopathic physician is defined by the U.S. Department of Labor as one who:
“diagnoses, treats, and cares for patients, using a system of practice that bases its treatment of all physiological functions and abnormal conditions on natural laws governing the body, utilizes physiological, psychological and mechanical methods, such as air, water, heat, earth, phytotherapy (treatment by use of plants), electrotherapy, physiotherapy, minor surgery, mechanotherapy, naturopathic corrections and manipulation, and all natural methods or modalities, together with natural medicines, natural processed foods, herbs, and natural remedies. [The practice] Excludes major surgery, therapeutic use of x-ray and radium, and prescribing of drugs, except those substances containing elements or compounds which are compounds of body tissues and are physiologically compatible to body processes for maintenance of life.”
So, a naturopath evaluates, prevents and treats acute and chronic illness to restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person’s inherent self-healing process.
Rather than just suppressing symptoms, naturopaths work to identify underlying causes of illness. They develop individualized treatment plans to address them. In partnership with the patient, naturopaths integrate the following approaches to create specific, comprehensive and personalized plans. The plans are designed to remove obstacles to health, stimulate the self-healing mechanisms, strengthen weakened organ systems, correct structural integrity injuries and body adaptive compensation, evaluate and recommend scoliosis bracing or referral, and use natural substances to restore and regenerate the body for health.
In the Philippines, there are different categories of naturopath practitioner. Doc Storm is registered with the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care, which is a branch of the Department of Health, as a Certified Naturopath Practitioner. The Gill Wellness Center provides or may provide many but not all of those treatment protocols. We emphasize restoring health and promoting longevity by body cleansing, nutritional advice and support, joint manipulation and foods, herbs and natural remedies.
… Your Inner Terrain
The body condition is usually assessed by blood chemistry to check the levels of specific chemicals or hormones which reveals the state of the glands, organs and body health.
The body can also be viewed as a unique environment by looking at the “plants and animals”, the inhabitants of the environment. From this point of view the body is “the terrain” in which you live, made up of your cells, tissues, glands and organs. And, the conditions of the blood that can be directly observed to reveal the state of the terrain of your body. That is done by examining the blood to assess the condition of the various blood cells with Live Blood Analysis.
Live blood analysis is the observation of living blood under a powerful dark field microscope. A small drop of is placed on a microscope slide and projected onto an LED screen. Several people may see the blood and screen shots may be captured to record the original conditions of the blood. That way we can compare later samples after healing therapies to evaluate healing processes and body adaptation back to a healthy balance.
The condition and quality of red blood cells that LBA reveals is an assessment of your present generalized health condition with the body considered as ‘the terrain’. The imbalances of the terrain revealed in the blood reflects the state of the immune system, digestive system, liver, and kidneys. It is effected by many imbalances such as inflammation, allergies, arthritis, skin problems, constipation, bowel issues, stress, fatigue and chronic disease. Excess acidity sets the stage for harmful bacteria, yeast and fungus and even viruses that erode and destroy our health, while at the same time, organic dysfunction effects the function of glands and organs that provide the energy and health and function that supports well being and health. Evaluating the blood also allows us to anticipate of problems with your future health. If we understand how the blood is abnormal we can understand why other parts of the body are sick.
Naturopaths have a holistic approach to assist tired and sick bodies and minds to recover their ultimate enthusiasm for life. When we improve the quality of the blood with natural alternative health care we are able to observe improvement in the quality of life reflected in every cell of the body because the LBA allows us to test and monitor the effectiveness of any given treatment and to assess patient compliance for home care that is the patient’s self-responsibility.
Naturopaths may occasionally use standard laboratory blood chemistry tests as an additional objective observation of improvement when patients follow recommended clinical and home care protocols. The Gill Wellness Center will soon have a staff MD to evaluate laboratory tests to correlate the chemical blood changes with the LBA as your health improves.
Iridology is the study of the patterns on the iris, which is the colored part of your eye. Iridologists are trained to use the iris to distinguish between healthy systems and organs in the body, and those that are overactive, inflamed, or distressed.
One school of thought holds that the iris patterns can demonstrate a person’s susceptibility towards specific diseases, show past medical problems, or indicate many health problems. Another school of thought holds that the patterns of the iris are valid for revealing the body’s genetic and inherited weaknesses and strengths, and that they do not show the healing changes that are said to happen with improvements in health and strengthening of the body system that comes about from detoxification, nourishing and healing.
Both schools use Iridology to help to determine how to promote healing and well being. The Gill Wellness Center will use Iridology for this purpose, and may occasionally take repeated iris photos for comparison of changes in long term and longevity patients, to assess the possibilities of iris changes.