Nutrition At Corrective Chiropractic
Nutritional therapy is the process of using nutrition to heal dis-ease in the body.
Dr. Wickstrom addresses more than just diet counseling.
There is no question that the quality of foods today in the average diet is sorely lacking. In the United States, we are grossly overfed, yet undernourished!
Every day our bodies are breaking down at a rate of 24 billion cells. Hopefully (and as designed) we are rebuilding 24 billion cells per day. If not, we are degenerating. The definition of degeneration is when you are breaking down faster than you are rebuilding. The purpose of eating food is to supply the essential nutrients the body requires to build, rebuild, provide energy, and function.
Eating isn’t just filling space, satisfying the taste buds, meeting a social obligation or preventing starvation. Every physiological function in the body is dependent on specific nutrients for function. If the body does not receive proper nutrients, a function is reduced. If you put dirty gas in your car, it may still run, but not efficiently. In the body, we call that disease.
The purpose of nutritional therapy is to ascertain if there are deficiencies that are contributing to a disease or lowered function.
When looking at the causative factors of adverse health conditions, we assess them based on 3 principles:
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“What is missing that the body needs to heal with?” This can be ascertained using a variety of tests, and also in questioning. The body can only heal if the raw materials needed to heal with or provide a function for, are present in the body.
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If the raw materials appear to be present in the diet, why is the body not utilizing them? Is the person digesting, are there issues with absorption through the intestines, or are nutrients getting into the cells? Where is the faulty mechanism? This must be corrected in order to re-establish good health.
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What is interfering? Is there something gobbling up the nutrients faster than they can be utilized? A prolonged stress response and chronic illness can deplete reserves, gobbling up nutrients faster than in a healthy body.
Recognizing that the body has the innate ability to heal itself if it isn’t healing, we have to ask “why not?”
Nutritional therapy involves digging deeper and deeper to find the causative factors of disease. Nutrition is only one essential component, and perhaps the most overlooked one.
Herbal medicine is the art of repairing one’s health using herbs and is complimentary to nutritional therapy. Herbal medicine is also referred to as “herbalism”, or “folk medicine” because it originated before modern medicine came to be. Although herbal medicine primarily utilizes plants, it may also encompass the use of minerals, shells, animal parts (such as liver or kidney glandular), and even bee products (such as propolis), fungal products (such as mushrooms), and tinctures that have a plant or homeopathic substances in it.
Herbs are food.
They provide a variety of nutrients needed by the body to support or restore function.
Modern medicine originated from herbal medicine, and herbs are still the original sources of compounds that are duplicated by the pharmaceutical industry. Fortunately, herbs have far fewer side effects than their drug counterparts; however, herbs still need to be used judiciously. Too much of any good thing can also be a bad thing if not used correctly. This is why it is advisable to counsel with a practitioner experienced in herbal medicine.
Although herbs have a reputation of being used mostly to treat ailments, the real power of herbs is in their ability to prevent certain maladies. As with all plants, herbs contain sufficient quantities of micronutrients that are necessary for the building, repair, and function of all systems in the body.
Herbs can be given in many forms. They can be in a pill or capsule form, boiled/steeped as a tea, prepared as an alcohol or glycerin extract, in an herbal syrup or in salves and applied topically. The flowers, roots, stems, bark, berries, leaves, seed or whole plant can be used.
Herbal medicine is accepted as a primary part of normal health care in most countries including industrial, but only as a secondary means of healing in the United States. Typically doctors in china will prescribe both an herbal remedy and a drug remedy simultaneously. The world health organization estimates that 80% of the world population relies on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care.
As with any form of medicine, alternative or conventional, discretion is needed as herbs can interact with medications and so it is important to work with a practitioner educated in the proper use of herbal products.
Herbs can be an important part of any health regime, along with good nutrition and corrective chiropractic care of the body.
