After seeing the fear in the eye's of the breeder, who's 7 week old puppy I had just adjusted when I said to her that her puppy was not as healthy as it could be as a result of the misalignments she had of her cranial bones, upper neck and mid back vertebra. At first I didn't understand the breeder's reaction. Yes, misalignments have a huge impact on the functioning of the entire nervous system. And, since the nervous system controls every other system in the body (digestive, immune, endocrine....) the effects of misalignments are far reaching and potentially cumulative.
What I did not realize is that her definition of HEALTH or HEALTHY meant absence of disease. So, if I say her puppy is not as healthy as it could be, she thinks it is sick. What has our media done to us to make us think that health is a just an absence of disease or symptoms. That is not true at all.!!!!!
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and emotional well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (WHO definition)
When I got home I called my client to further explain the concept of health and it's relationship to her adorable puppy.
Let me put it this way. Our society, media, medical establishments, and drug companies bombard us with ads that convey the message that if you have a symptom you are unhealthy. Thus you must take something to get rid of the symptom. WRONG and UNTRUE for many instances.
Let's look at a fever. A presence of a fever is :
1) a proper response of the immune system to attempt to burnout/cook/kill a virus or bacteria.
2) it is evidence that the immune system is surmounting an army of t cells, and antibodies to fight the invader.
If we take medicine to lower the fever we are in essence dampening our own bodies ability to fight off the invader. It is like taking away the bullets from a gun and expecting the gun to fire. Sure there are times when a fever is detrimental when it goes too high and can cause damage to sensitive body organs and must be addressed.
Let's look at coughing. Which lately is looked down upon but a very necessary function of the body for many reasons.
1) shows us that we have properly functioning cilia (little hairs) in our bronchioles (tubes) in the airways and lungs that can feel particles that should not be there and is trying to get them out!!!
2) it also causes vibrations that in turn help loosen any debris in the airways and lungs to help it make it 's way out or give better access to the immune system to attack it.
If we didn't cough our lungs would be filled with large amounts of dust, pollen, animal dander, viruses and bacteria just to name a few that would eventually clog them up and cause serious health issues. Coughing is a sign our bodies are working perfectly.
So, now you can see how my client's views of health and mine are so drastically different.
I realize just how important is was the I took the time to explain that misalignments, especially as a puppy, can affect the entire body setting them up for less than optimum health for the rest of their life. Because the cells of a puppy are so rapidly dividing the stress of the misalignments could affect the expression of the DNA thus influencing how all the cells of the body would mature and function.
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