Vertebral Subluxations and Accelerated Aging

Though our life expectancy has increased, the quality of our lives and our health has not. The United States continues to be one of the unhealthiest nations in the developed world.

Assuming that a person's entire life is "written" in the genes that they are born with has been a major mistake in recent health care philosophy. The more we learn about genetics, our biological inheritance, the more we realize that for the most part, our lifestyle decisions and behaviors have far more impact on longevity and health than does heredity. A person's genes define their basic biology, but

health decisions and habits control the way genes

will affect the body and health in general.

It used to be thought that aging is the ticking away of some internal clock to a predetermined plan laid down in your genes. Dr. Leonard Hayflick, a noted research scientist, grew human cells in tissue

cultures and showed that they could subdivide to create new cells only a limited number of times.

One problem with tissue culture experiments is that the life of the cells is dependent upon the adequacy of their nutrition. If there is even the slightest deficiency in the nutrient, medium used to grow the cells or in the air, water or temperature, or any one of a hundred variables, then the cells will accumulate damage.

Every successive cell division is then progressively impaired until the cells no longer replicate and dies. These cell deaths have nothing to do with an internal clock, but are caused by environmental damage.

The Human Body is an amazing collection of synergistic entities controlled by what can only be described as innate intelligence. The body is designed to be totally self-functioning and selfhealing.

We tend to think of healing when we suffer a cut on our arm or have broken a bone, but healing is a constant process of replacing old cells with new cells.

For example, red blood cells are replaced at a rate of about 100 billion a day, with one trillion total red blood cells in constant circulation. 

The body is constantly analyzing what is happening within the body and what is happening in the environment outside the body and makes adaptive changes as necessary.

Aging can best be defined as the gradual loss of the body's ability to respond to the environment.

Aging, per se, is not just the effects of chronological time, but also the abnormal stress we place on our body, which gradually breaks it down.

This is caused by a number of things by including inactivity, chemical pollution and neurological and postural stress.

Without movement you could not sustain life: blood cells that don't move cannot transport oxygen, lungs that don't move can't breathe, hearts that don't move can't pump blood, and spines that don't move can't create the motion required for proper

joint nutrition, for the activities of daily living, or for the stimulation of the joint-brain pathways required for proper brain and body function.

are essential to health and longevity.

are important to movement and brain function.

Spinal proprioception plays a critical role in modulating protective muscular reflexes that prevent injury or facilitate healing. Sensation is the fundamental ingredient that mediates the proprioceptive mechanism.

The United States is the most medicated nation in the world. The U.S. consumes 68% of all of the drugs in the world at the rate of 250,000 pills an hour, twenty-four hours a day.

symptoms, the true cause of the problem may grow worse with the body’s natural healing mechanism compromised by the drugs. In, fact by interfering with normal cell function, drugs cause cellular malfunction, which is the same as causing disease. In addition to toxicity, drugs also cause severe nutritional deficiencies by depleting the body of essential nutrients.

Antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and steroids all damage the human digestive system by impairing the ability of the body to digest food and absorb nutrients. The main side effect of steroids is to increase many of the parameters of aging. This

includes arthritis, degenerative changes of joints, etc. These are all well documented in scientific literature.

The central nervous system regulates the aging process and dependent upon healthy stress responses, determines longevity. Proper neurological signaling in the human body is the primary key to psychological, emotional, immune and hormonal health and longevity

There is a greater quantity of communication in the human body than all of the combined manufactured communication systems in the world and the coordination and precision of neurological and biological communication systems is un-paralleled.

The entire body is wired for cell signaling so that the body can repair, restore and coordinate physiological and psychological activities. This enables our bodies to optimally adapt to physical and psychological stressors.

Recent studies in diverse organisms have provided evidence that, indeed the brain may control lifespan. Signaling pathways involved in both central nervous system and peripheral stress responses and regulation of energy metabolism may play important roles in lifespan determination.

The brain also controls neuroendocrine systems strongly implicated in aging. The hypothalamicpituitary system has a strong influence on lifespan. A consistent feature of environmental and genetic factors that increase longevity is that they increase cellular resistance to stress. The brain coordinates the responses of the whole body to such stressors on both rapid and long-term time scales by modulating the activities of neuroendocrine pathways (involving the hypothalamus and pituitary gland) and the autonomic nervous system.

obviously increase its probability of having a long lifespan, and this is one way the brain can determine average lifespan.

“However, the brain may also control maximum lifespan by its ability to stimulate signaling pathways that increase the resistance of cells to stress.”

"Abnormalities of central afferent and efferent pathways have been revealed by evoked potential studies in diabetic patients. Central nervous system abnormalities are more frequent in patients with peripheral neuropathy, but evoked potential can be abnormal even in patients without neuropathy.”

environment to which the individual is exposed will modify the actual pathway.” 

First, though average levels of many physical functions show a progressive decline with age, there is a wide variability within aged groups. Some individuals show no decline at all. That these individuals exist indicates that chronological aging is not an inevitable cause of biological aging.

The second line of evidence that aging is in fact degeneration caused by abnormal stress is the continuing discoveries that aging process

previously considered natural do not occur at all in some human populations. Blood pressure for example, rises with age in the American population, and used to be considered an inevitable part of aging. Science knows now, however, that there are numerous populations, mostly isolated from Western society, in which the

elderly have the same blood pressure as the young. Science has known that rising blood pressure is caused by complex factors in the

environment of Western society.

When members of populations migrate to western society, their blood pressure begins to rise with a few years.

The human body is designed to move. The technological age of labor- saving devices and sedentary living often detracts from the biological

necessity for movement.

Disuse is deadly; many degenerative diseases plaguing Americans have a portion of their roots in sedentary, inactive lifestyles. as much as 50 percent of the decline in physiological functioning weak muscles, stiff joints, low energy levels is actually due to disuse and not a normal

consequence of age,"

The human body is designed to move. The technological age of labor- saving devices and sedentary living often detracts from the biological

necessity for movement. Disuse is deadly; many degenerative diseases plaguing Americans have a portion of their roots in sedentary, inactive lifestyles. As much as fifty percent of the decline in physiological functioning--weak muscles, stiff joints, low energy levels is actually due to disuse and not a normal consequence of age.

C. Everett Koop, Former Surgeon General of the U.S

joint nutrition, for the activities of daily living, or for the stimulation of the joint-brain pathways required for proper brain and body function.

The joints of the body act as sensory chambers, which relay proprioceptive information between specific neural pathways and the central nervous system (CNS). These neural pathways also transport the necessary sensory motor information, which modulates muscle function.

“Mechanoreceptors in cervical facet joints provide major input regarding the position of the head in relation to the body. With aging, mild defects impair mechanoreceptors function. With decreased proprioception, body positioning in space is impeded and the patient becomes reliant on vision to know the location of a limb. To compensate for the loss of proprioception in the legs, the feet are kept wider apart than usual. Steps become irregular and uneven in length. As impairment increases, the patient becomes unable to compensate. With severe loss of proprioception, the patient is unable to get up from a chair or rise after a fall without assistance.”

Research has shown that NSAIDS, such as aspirin and ibuprofen interfere at the cellular level with the mechanism responsible for rebuilding and repairing cartilage. NSAIDS actually cause degradation of joint cartilage causing further degeneration to the joints. This inhibits normal joint movement, which inhibits normal stimulation to the brain

The human body can respond and adapt to just about anything it encounters provided it is a state of homeostasis, which means that the body is able to

send and receive nerve information. The central nervous system is the master control system of the body and every single function reflects its activity. Nerve impulses travel from the brain, down the spinal cord and out through nerves to all parts of the body. Nerve impulses then return to the brain through return pathways.

cells is greater than the total number of electrons in the known universe.

Cell signaling with growth factors is more fundamental to the body than is breathing. Cell signaling begins before birth and ends just before death. Loss of cell signaling underlies ineffective adaptation. Inability to adapt is the pathway to death.

component of functional aging.

“No one could survive without precise signaling in cells. The body

with each other.”

Aging was earlier defined as gradual loss of the body's ability to respond or adapt to its environment. We can take that one-step further and

state that aging is the breakdown of communication between the nervous, immune and hormonal systems of the body.

The vertebra of the spine protects the central nervous system. Because the spinal column is moveable, it is also susceptible to various stresses and forces, which can cause them to lose their proper structural position. These minor misalignments of the spine, known as “vertebral subluxations” inhibit normal spinal movement, which causes nerve interference resulting in decreased nervous system, function, improper healing and accelerated aging

pain or symptoms. This is similar to a cavity eating away at a tooth.

Any force that the human body cannot adapt to can cause a vertebral subluxation. Such examples include auto accidents, work related injuries, stress, sports, and repetitive movements even the birth process.

Vertebral subluxations are devastating to a person’s health and longevity and are well documented by leading health authorities.

Chiropractic is a health care system that is founded on the premise that a properly functioning nervous system is essential to overall health and function of the human body.

function, which maximizes the body’s inherent healing potential.

Chiropractic adjustments restore normal nerve function; improve spinal biomechanics, range of motion, reflex arcs, and posture, all of which are

essential to a properly functioning nervous system.

Doctors of Chiropractic are experts in spinal structure and body mechanics. Chiropractic adjustments restore and maintain the structural integrity of the body by correcting spinal subluxations. Chiropractors emphasize the importance of posture to overall health, a concept that has been often overlooked in traditional

methods of health care.

Health care is slowly changing from a symptom, disease based system to a function, and performance based system in which the structure of the human body is restored and maintained. Correction and maintenance of the structure of the

spine is of paramount importance in the pursuit of optimal health and longevity

Wellness incorporates all the elements for preventive health care -- nutritious diet, aerobic conditioning, good posture, strength training, rest and periodic spinal adjustments. Wellness really involves all aspects of your life. Although millions of

people have experienced relief from back and neck pain through chiropractic care, the focus and intent of chiropractic is far beyond the elimination of symptoms, but rather is in the correction of subluxations in order to ensure a properly functioning nervous system.

Dr. Lee Hadley, Syracuse Memorial Hospital