Chiropractic For Conscious Kids

Chiropractic for Conscious Kids

With the ever increasing overstimulation and environmental toxins our children are exposed to daily, their wonderfully made bodies are unfortunately unable to handle the burden.  These burdens affect their immune system, digestive system, and nervous system.  What I see most often in my practice is the imbalance of all of these systems.

I am going to focus specifically on the nervous system.  Our nervous system is the control center and communicator of everything that happens in the body.  When overstimulated, the body can be in sympathetic dominance.  Sympathetic dominance is also known as the “fight or flight” mechanism. Unfortunately with the overstimulation that occurs, children can be in this state for a long period of time.  Symptoms include having trouble sitting still, resting, and relaxing.  They will feel anxious or worried. They have a very active mind and continually have the need to be doing something constantly. They become very sensitive and easily upset or angered when not getting there way or doing things they do not want to do.

The parasympathetic nervous system has an opposite effect on the body.  Low energy, slow starters, and hard to motivate or get excited.  A great way to describe the sympathetic and parasympathetic is the sympathetic is like the gas pedal and the parasympathetic is like the brakes.  

Why is this an important part of understanding how to help kids become more conscious?

It is hard for children to become conscious if in the sympathetic dominance phase.  Meditation and mindfulness activities seem impossible because they are in the “fight or flight” mode.  Their nervous system is so overactive it can cause burnout in their immune system, digestive system, and stress responses.  As adults, we can all remember what we felt like when we were very stressed out and how sensitive our bodies were.  The mind is overactive and hard to relax.   

When in the parasympathetic dominance phase, children tend to be slow starters, tend to be more quiet and lacking energy or motivation.  Again, this all affects their immune system, digestive system, and stress response.  

Chiropractic brings balance to kids.

What is amazing about Chiropractic is its ability to help balance both a child who is overactive and a child who is under active.  Every Chiropractic adjustment will help balance the nervous system which then helps balance all other systems in the body.  As a child is growing, its body is constantly adapting to everything around them.  When imbalance occurs, it is difficult for children to be more conscious.  Conscious kids need balance more than anything in their life.  Conscious kids need physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual guidance.  Chiropractic helps the physical need which then helps with their mental, emotional, and spiritual need for conscious development.  Chiropractic has become an essential part of my patient’s lives because they feel the difference and know the importance and understanding of balance.  Our children are the future and deserve the best in health and life.  

Dr. Chris A. Hengesteg

Owner of Hengesteg Chiropractic

12439 Poway Rd., Ste. A

Poway, CA 92064

www.chiropracticpoway.com
Facebook Page: Hengesteg Chiropractic

858.679.8179

You do Chiropractic on kids?!!!

"You do Chiropractic on kids?!!! They're so small, doesn't that hurt them?  Why would they need Chiropractic?" In the 12 years of Chiropractic service to the community, it seems like I have heard this a million times.  If a new patient has never had Chiropractic before, one of the most important things as a Doctor of Chiropractic is to teach.  Doctor means teacher.  It is our duty to teach people natural ways to help with common health problems.  Most people who come into my office have  pain in their low back or neck.  Why do they have pain?  Is it a pain killer deficiency?  Is it a muscle relaxer deficiency?  Nobody has a pain killer deficiency or muscle relaxer deficiency.  Their body is telling them something.  That something is their body's response to a pinched nerve which can lead to many other complaints of muscle weakness and muscle spasms.   We specialize in finding what areas in the neck or low back is pinched, relieve the pinched nerve which then allows the body to be in balance and function at its peak.
First time to a Chiropractor?
I like to explain to first time Chiropractic patients the basic concept that if a nerve is pinched because of a misaligned vertebra in the spine, it can cause pain.  Once they have grasped this truth, which I call Chiropractic 101, I like to take it up a notch and tell them what Chiropractic was founded upon.  This is where awesomeness happens.  I show them a standard nerve chart found in any anatomy book or medical book.  I show them how every muscle and organ is controlled by the nervous system.  I show them how every function in the body like our immune system and stress response system is controlled by the nervous system.  In order for our body to fight off bacterial infections or viral infections, it is essential to have optimal nervous system function to be able to recognize the invaders coming into the body.  I emphasize how important this is for infants and children to develop a stronger immune system and that's when I usually get the surprised interruption, "YOU WORK ON KIDS?!"  And I respond with an exciting "ABSOLUTELY!"

If you have children, do you remember how many times they fell down learning how to walk?  Fell off their bike? Fell of the couch?  Running on the sidewalk and tripping on the imaginary tripper something and fell face first?  When they learned about gravity at the playground?  How about the child birth delivery?  Was it an easy delivery or were forceps used?  Was it a c-section?  When you start to think about it, you realize how many times your kids have had traumas.  These traumas all add up and can take a toll on their body.  There is more than just bumps and bruises going on I guarantee it.
What is the problem with all of this?
Kids are very resilient to pain.  Once the tears are gone, you might think they are ok and kiss their boo boo and watch them discover gravity again. But one major problem is kids have different pain tolerance responses than adults.  They are growing so fast that the body will minimize the pain receptors in their spine and joints and use them for emergency purposes like a broken bone or dislocation.  A misaligned  bone in their spine might not be painful to them but could have a drastic affect on their posture along with their immune system and stress response system.  It is worse than ever with children and teenager's posture with cell phone addictions and hand held gaming system addictions.  They are training their bodies to constantly look down. Their posture develops into what is called Anterior Head Carriage.
3 Things I Check Every Patient
You take your kids to the dentist to see if they have cavities to prevent their teeth from decaying,  The dentist  is finding any problems before it's too late.  You could look at their teeth and think there is nothing wrong.  Chiropractic is the same concept.  Chiropractors can find something wrong with the spine in the child's neck, back, shoulders, hips and more.  When a child comes into my office, I look at 3 things.  Posture, Function, and Subluxations.
Posture:  The first thing I look at is their posture.  When looking directly at them, is one shoulder higher than the other?  Does their head tilt to the left or right?  Do their hips twist forward or is one hip higher than the other on one side and the body above compensates?  When looking at their posture from the side, does their ear align above their shoulder which should align above their hip which should align above their ankle?
Function:  I muscle test major muscle groups in the body.  I muscle test their hip flexors, IT Bands, glut medius, glut maximus, trapezius, posterior deltoids, anterior deltoids, and sternocleidomastoids. With any type of misalignment of the hips and spine, there will be a slight dysfunction of the muscle's strength hence why all athletes get Chiropractic before their game.  I say everyday is a game to a child.  Now as children grow, the muscle dysfunction can cause more imbalance and be more susceptible to injury
Subluxation:  What bone or bones are misaligned causing the posture to be off?  Like a dentist finding the cavity, I find the misaligned bone.  This is called a subluxation.  Children can have multiple subluxations.  I correct the subluxations to help regain their posture and restore proper function in their body.
Feel Great Again!
With 1000's of adjustments in 12 years, correcting subluxations and posture has changed children's lives!  It has been very rewarding to have parents tell me their children are sleeping better, have longer attention spans, prevented tonsillectomies, bed wetting improvements, stopped ear tubes being put in, recurrent strep throat issues went away, inhaler reduction for asthma, digestive issues went away, posture is normal, improvements in their athletic performance, and reduced the amount of times they get sick in a year.  If a child does get sick, Chiropractic treatments help their body fight the sickness faster.  What if every parent knew how amazing Chiropractic could be for their children?  What if every child was under a Chiropractor's care?  Can Chiropractic be the revolution needed to change our Sick-care system into an actual Health-care system?  Absolutely.

In great health,

Dr. Chris A. Hengesteg D.C.

Your Own Healing Journey

One of the most common questions I hear in my office is, "How long will it take for me to feel better?"  I know the patient wants a straight answer but sometimes it is hard to give.  Why?  There are so many variables in the healing mechanisms of our bodies.  Your healing journey can be completely different from someone else's journey even if you both have the same health issues. I like to put healing into 4 categories; physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
Physical 
Physical involves the body and its 12 major systems in the body; integumentary, skeletal, muscular, immune, lymphatic, cardiovascular, urinary, digestive, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, and reproductive.  Do these systems function together or is it helter skelter? For example:  If your digestive system isn't working properly, it can cause a decrease in your immune function which can cause your endocrine system to not function properly which can lead to slower metabolism and slower healing capabilities.  So many variances can occur with all of these systems.
Mental
Mental involves the person's own thoughts hence the phrase mind over matter.  If you constantly say things like "I will never feel better", "I'm never going to heal", "I hate being overweight", "I hate being sick", "I am always sick".  The negative statements you say in your head or out loud do have a drastic effect on your well being.  These negative phrases impact your body and when repeated over and over will create exactly what you are saying.
Emotional
Emotional involves our emotions such as anger, grief, resentment, shame, guilt, and low self-esteem.  We live in a physical world ran on emotions.  We have all experienced these emotions whether it is being angry because we are stuck in traffic and late to work; grief from the loss of a loved one; resent the decisions made in the past; can't stand my boss; and the list can go on and on.  I believe that negative emotions have the greatest negative impact on our overall health than anything.  A phrase that has helped me tremendously is "it's not what happens to you, it's how you respond."
Spiritual
Spiritual is the most important aspect of one's life yet probably ignored the most when it comes to healing.  We have to remember the quote by BJ Palmer, who was a major developer in chiropractic,  "The power that made the body heals the body, there is no other way."  In order for all of our systems to communicate together, our mental thoughts to have any cause and effect, our emotions to be felt, there has to be a connection with the highest possible power that exists, God.  This connection is through Spirit.   When one realizes our truest and deepest core of our being is founded upon Peace, Love, and Joy, letting go of our negative emotions and mentations allows our connection with Spirit to be at its greatest.  This allows for the greatest healing potential possible.

So when I am asked, "How long will this take before I feel better?"  As you can see, there are number of variables to look at.  Some cases can be very simple and some are very complicated.  Join me on this journey as I write more in depth about each category and bring you great ways to help your life and awareness of the importance of all aspects of healing in your journey.

In great health,

Dr. Chris Hengesteg