The case of a snoring 10 week old infant

This is why my passion is so high for chiropractic. Last week a patient brought her 10 week old infant in for a checkup. He had been snoring since birth...albeit very cute, not normal. His mom also noted he was gassy and bloating after eating, and that she was "not able to get a lot done because he always wants to be held"....often a sign of discomfort. It was also noted that his head was tilted to the left which was very noticeable while in his car seat.

Examination of the spine revealed...subluxations (often a person's first trauma is done at birth resulting in subluxations) in his spine most noted in the upper neck and low back. We proceeded to adjust these areas (infant adjustments are very light touch). After 2 treatments his mom noted his snoring subsided (yep, gone!), he was not gassy and bloated like he had been, his desire to be held much of the time was "definitely" less...meaning he was likely to be more comfortable, and his head tilt to the left was no longer present. Wow! How cool is that?! A 3rd visit indicated a barely detectable subluxation in the upper neck. Infant subluxations will often clear very fast and now I will not see him for another month.

Two adjustments cleared out his snoring, head tilt, and the need to be constantly held. The gas and bloating are subsiding as the body has to do a bit of healing. Super positive changes. Very cool to say the least! Fast changes when one gets the nervous operating interference free. Simply stated developing without nerve interference is key to attaining optimum health as all functions in the body are controlled and coordinated by the nervous system. 

This is why I got into the profession!

Development Of A Child's Nervous System

When you were just an embryo at about 3 weeks after conception your nervous system started to form. This was your first system and all others came after that because the nervous system is your foundation. And your nervous system, consisting of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves controls and coordinates ALL functions of your body. So let's say you are suddenly roused out of your relaxed environment of your mother's womb with what feels like a squeezing or pushing sensation. "What is happening to me? Why am I being forced out of this comfortable, chill place? And where am I going? And what's the rush?" After what seems like hours of being pushed and squeezed you finally go through an opening where these enormous hands (or if you are really unlucky...forceps) greet you and start pulling. As the doctors hands pulls from your head sometimes twisting to get those shoulders to come out you just try to hang on and suddenly...your new life begins. "Whoa!" you might say to yourself. "That was a bit violent don't you think? My neck hurts!"

The reality of the birth process resulting in subluxations (see previous blog for definition) is very likely in much of the population. Subluxations at birth can cause lifelong issues. Remember the nervous system controls and coordinates ALL functions of the body. Growing and developing with subluxations can sometimes have devastating effects leaving a parent to wonder why their child is developing slowly.

"90% of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by movement of the spine. This would be analogous to a windmill generating electricity." Whoa! Do you get that? So movement of the spine is needed to stimulate and get nutrition to the brain! That is huge! If your spinal segments are not moving (subluxated) you are not generating the electricity at the capacity you are capable of producing.  By the way, a really smart person figured this out and won the Nobel Prize for it in 1981.

So what do you think will happen to an infant who is subluxated from birth and has areas of his or her spine not moving? For one, their brain may not develop in an optimum state which may lead to speech delays and learning disability. What else? In one of my patients who is 8 years old they came in with the inability to balance on one leg along with learning issues. After just 4 adjustments to his upper neck he was able to start balancing. After another 4 adjustments he was able to balance on one leg in a steady fashion. We removed the subluxation and his body's nervous system started operate more optimally. Both his brain's balance centers are getting the stimulation and nutrition they need to operate and the muscles that are needed to be strong for balance are also receiving that stimulation. He's elated with the results so far. Other issues that may occur are ear infections, colic, gas, burping, bloating, constipation, etc.

Do your child a favor and get their spine checked by a chiropractor today. If there is nothing there you only spent an hour of your time. Should there be a subluxation you can either head off a potential problem or allow the healing process to begin on a known current issue. Infants and children respond fast to care. For all of my patients I screen their children for free. Detecting and correcting subluxations when they are young can have a very significant impact on there quality of life.

Thanks for reading.
Steve Noble, DC

The POWER Of The Chiropractic Adjustment

Imagine going through all of your teen age years with acne covering your entire face. Those kids did not fair too well in the dating circles back when I was in high school. Imagine having acne that actually caused your face to swell and have pain associated with it. And now imagine looking at yourself daily in the mirror, seeing acne where some are the size of a quarter staring back at you as you apply another hopeful treatment to rid your face of those red mounds filled with puss. This was a 19 year old patient who came into my clinic about four months ago.

Three months after having come in his acne was all but gone. I'm a chiropractor, so naturally I did not treat his acne. What happened though?

Contrary to what we are often told and have learned your body will actually self-heal and self-regulate. Your body is actually really smart, much smarter than most will give it credit. The nervous system is the first system to start development when we are just an embryo. This is because the nervous system controls and coordinates ALL functions of your body: thoughts, movements, digestion, bowel movements, etc. To build a house we do not start with the refrigerator we start with a foundation (your nervous system) and go up from there and if that crumbles so goes the house (your body). The brain, spinal cord and nerves make up your nervous system. If your nervous system shuts off so goes your body...i.e. quadriplegic. For your body to function at 100% optimum health it must be free of nerve interference (subluxation). Nerve interference is similar to static on a cell phone. "What? I can't hear you?" If the signal becomes too weak the line goes dead. If the nerve impulse slated for the organ or muscle is not at 100% the organ or muscle also will not be operating at 100%. This is what was happening to my patient with acne. They had nerve interference (subluxation) (unbeknownst to them because unless there is pain associated with the subluxation we will not always know it is there...which is the case probably 97% of the time) causing an organ to not operate as it was intended. The result was a toxicity of sorts that was most likely responsible for their acne.

As the brain sends signals down the spinal cord to its final destination of an organ or a muscle it must pass through the spinal column (vertebra). If there is a section not moving or moving in a manner not designed to do a nerve interference will be result. Meaning the nerve flow is interrupted or compromised creating static in the line. The magic for my patient was this...once we got the area of the spine associated with the intestines (ileocecal valve or ICV to be exact) moving and doing so in a proper way their acne started to clear. Once we restored movement, the static was no longer there and their ICV started to work again. After three months not only was their acne cleared by 95%, but their confidence and outlook on life had improved a great deal as you might imagine it would.

We did not treat the acne but we did remove the nerve interference that was inhibiting nerve flow to their ICV which was creating the toxicity. All the creams, pills, food elimination, supplements they tried could not do what adjusting their spine did...remove the nerve interference or subluxation and allow the body to self-heal and work as it was designed. Now imagine how their life would be had they been adjusted and had proper chiropractic care as a child. Yep. Seemingly no acne. Probably would have been a different high school experience.

Thanks for reading.
Steve Noble, DC, CCSP

Next blog: what CAUSES the subluxation of nerve interference.

Aging Athletes...Have No Fear

Ned Overend prior to winning another National Championship

Remember the movie that Sylvester Stallone put out in 2006 named Rocky Balboa? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s and you were not living off the grid in some far off place you remember all the Rocky movies and were probably more than a little stunned, shocked, "serious Stallone?", when he released "Rocky Balboa" 30 years after he first took to the ring. A "mid-fifties" boxer stepping back into the ring against the heavyweight champ...seems a bit far-fetched. But maybe not that far-fetched according to this study/survey which found that living a sedentary lifestyle was the biggest reason for physical decline in athletic performance not aging as many of us would (like?) to believe.

So could Rocky Balboa really have been able to compete in the boxing ring against a much younger opponent? Many will remember George Foreman reclaiming the Heavyweight boxing title 20 years later at the age of 45 against a 26 year old opponent. At 42 years old Baseball Pitcher Nolan Ryan found himself on the American League All-Star Team and play in the major leagues until he was 46 years old. Ned Overend, mountain biking legend, in 2010 at the age of 55 won the US National Single Speed Championships....that is a mountain bike with only one gear. Finally, there is Ed Whitlock who at the age of 72 ran a sub 3 hour marathon; 2:59:10. Amazing! And then at 74 ran a 2:58:40...lowering his time. Perhaps Rocky could have reentered the boxing ring against a much younger opponent and not get beaten senseless. 

Aging does appear to favor the endurance athlete as opposed to the power athlete. The study mentioned above which focused on marathon runners, reports there is no significant age-related decline in performance before age of 55 and after that only moderate decline. They also reported 25% of the 65-69 year old runners were faster than 50% of the 20 to 54 year olds. Nice! This study showed there is a faster decline in strength. It does not give age breakdowns other than to say the age group was between 30s and 90s and that a decline is seen faster in weight lifting as opposed to endurance and sprinting events.

Those athlete in their 40s and 50s can hopefully rejoice at the prospect of being able to remain competitive with the younger generation for years to come. Decline is natural but that decline is something that we have more control over than we tend to think possible. This is really exciting! The human body adapts and want to exercise and move. The "Godfather of fitness" Jack Lalanne is living proof of what an aging body can do. This man at the age of 96 stills shows up at the gym for 30 minutes of cardiovascular work and 90 minutes of lifting weights. In his 60s he did feats of strength and endurance that surely anyone can appreciate such as swimming across open water pulling boats while handcuffed. And I would bet at 96 he can still outdo a great deal of the population in number of pull ups and push ups.

Thanks for reading.

A scar is a scar right?

"He with the most scars wins." Scar tissue distorts the body. But what does that mean, "distorts the body?" And should we be concerned? In short, yes. No one can achieve top performance with scars on the body, or rather scar tissue in the body. The physical appearance of a scar is one thing what is occurring underneath is altogether different. It pushes, pulls, distort cells and the extracellular matrix (myofascia...that thin layer you clean off the chicken breast.) thereby distorting the body and biomechanics. Donald Ingber, Phd, MD studies what this all means and writes about it in this paper titled  Mechanobiology and Diseases of Mechanotransduction (a mouthful I know but do not shut down the browser yet). Here, the winner with the most scars is not the winner. 

"The global shape of the cell determines it's behavior (e.g.growth versus differentiation (from simple to complex) or apoptosis (cell death)), and these effects are mediated through tension dependent changes in cytoskeletal (cell skeleton) structure and mechanics." Whew! OK, what does this mean? "The global shape of the cell determines its behavior..." means a cell that has changed shape by means of something such as scar tissue which pushes, pulls or crowds its way in will alter the function of the cell. Not good! Scar tissue from surgical procedures or traumas will therefore alter the function of cells. A scar becomes a stress point because the scarred tissue is not able to move fluidly thus causing a pull onto surrounding tissue, or cells. What happens next is loss of range of motion, altered biomechanics and altered cell function. Right sided ACL surgery? I consistently see tighter shoulders and hips. Hysterectomy, c-section and appendectomy scars...yikes...often low back pain, tight shoulders, tight hips, etc. The scar tissue is not able to move as freely as healthy tissue which puts stress on surrounding tissue and distorts at the cellular level. Distortion of the tissue or cells is what will lead to disease often local to the area of injury

Communication is also altered at the cellular level. Remember that myofascia I mentioned above? Well that is a matrix (Alfred Pischinger's research explains this nicely) where communication signals are relayed to call for an action such as neurological function, hormone control, and circulation. Restoring this communication is paramount toward relieving that distortion...it is like a black hole otherwise. Once communication is restored and the adhesions removed the body's response can be nothing short of shocking. I have seen major gains (up to 40 degrees of range of motion) in hip movement from the release of both knee surgery scars and scars such as those from c-sections. Strength in muscle that have been tight and weak will suddenly start to fire and feel relaxed and strong again. This unwinding of the body allows for less distortion and better biomechanics. It also allows for better cellular function and less chance for disease. These are very profound changes and it is the reason I ALWAYS impress the need to release scars and do so within the first 2 visits for my new patients. It is a fundamental piece of restoring optimum health.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me. Thanks for reading.

Ibuprofen Is Good Right?

Ibuprofen? Good? Not quite. Naturally there are "side effects" to pharmaceutical drugs such as Ibuprofen or NSAIDs (Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug). Side effects are unintended consequences of an action where the good of the intention is typically offset by the bad of the side effect...sometimes there are good side effects but NSAIDs or Ibuprofen do not fall into this category.

Three populations typically use NSAIDs. The first is the patient in chronic pain typically from arthritis where they take say 800 mg.day. The second is a patient who got injured today. They will load up over the next few days trying to decrease that pain and reduce swelling. The third user is the athlete who often times is using them prophylactically to prevent soreness afterward running or whatever they participate in.

Inflammation occurs through a cascade of events in the body and NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen inhibit a step in the cascading process preventing or reducing inflammation. The side effects of Ibuprofen us are rather nasty in my humble opinion. In this abstract the author ponders whether "The ever-emerging anti-inflammatories. Have there been any real advances?" and in the first statement says "Gastrointestinal (GI) (the stomach and intestines) Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) from the NSAIDs are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in arthritic patients taking these drugs." Not a good side I am certain we can all agree. Another known side effect are stomach ulcers for the "long term user." NSAIDs block a pathway that produces the protective mucous lining of the stomach causing ulcers (HOLES!) in long term users. Again, when the stomach goes south so goes the body. The need to protect the GI tract cannot be overstated. Damage to the GI tract will result in a compromised nutrient absorption. And this, of course, leads to stress onto the entire body.

Cardiovascular health can also be compromised from NSAID use. The author of this abstract cautions against the use of NSAIDS for patients with musculoskeletal (muscle and joint pain) pain for patients with known cardiovascular and gastrointestinal issues. This abstract gives warning against those with gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, liver disease, platelet issue, asthma, and children overdose to name some of them. The NSAID creates stress on the body and for those bodies already under stress it can be quite bad.

Finally, I found these two studies which were quite telling of Ibuprofen use in the athletic population. These studies were done on athletes who ran the Western State 100 Mile Endurance Run. The first study concluded that athletes who used Ibuprofen prophylactically did not experience a decrease in post race muscle soreness versus those who did not but did see "elevated indicators of endotoxemia and inflammation." Yikes! What is "endotoxemia?" It is bacteria present in the blood and the danger is stated in the following statement: "The presence of endotoxins in the blood, which, if derived from gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria, may cause hemorrhages, necrosis of the kidneys, and shock." Again, we can all agree this is not a good outcome I am certain. Here is the kicker though the user group saw an INCREASE in inflammation! The very thing they were trying to prevent was increased! Ibuprofen CAUSED inflammation in this population. Furthermore this study saw an increase in oxidative stress among the Ibuprofen users. Oxidative stress means an increase in free radicals...free radical stress causes all sorts of damage not the least premature aging. Hence the anti-oxidant craze.

So what to do when one is inflamed? Fortunately, there are great alternatives to this stomach destroying product. Proteolytic enzymes work great, actually promote healing and I can't find anything on Pubmed where they damage the stomach...or any side effects. This study shows the power output of a muscle to be higher post exercise by those treated with Bromelaine, a proteolytic enzyme, than those left untreated. Herbs such as Curcumin, Capsaicin (essentially cayenne pepper), and Tumeric also play powerful roles in anti inflammation and protection of the GI tract....not too mention cancer preventive!

Using supplements with an array of these properties will often deliver a very powerful anti-inflammatory effect with no side effects. Any healthy store that sells quality supplements...not Costco, Safeway, etc....will have supplements of this nature. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line. Thanks for reading!

Splenda: A Poor Sugar Substitute

I was inspired to write this blog because I was in the grocery store today and found a book about cooking with Splenda, the ARTIFICIAL sweetener. Serious?! I went to Amazon.com and...wow, there are a lot of cookbooks out there promoting Splenda as a great alternative to sugar (super low calories yet still sweet), some by supposed "health experts" (I make it a rule to never trust "the experts.") Splenda, also known as sucralose (well this is actually the main component of Splenda), is found in diet drinks, ice cream, protein bars, vitamins, toothpaste to name ONLY a few. Look at your gum, over-the-counter drugs (those sweetened so swallowing them tastes a bit better), salad dressings and on the restaurant tables in those little yellow packets where real sugar used to sit.

So what is the big deal right? Well...here is the big deal. One can suffer from any number of conditions such as sluggishness, fatigue, legs feeling like lead weights, mood swings, severe cramps in females, joint pain, painful bowel movements, bloating, dizziness, confusion, depression, headaches, and nausea as well as reproductive and immune problems.* In this study using rats "the numbers of total anaerobes, bifidobacteria, lactobacilli, Bacteroides, clostridia, and total aerobic bacteria were significantly decreased" in the gut as examined through a stool analysis. Meaning the pH had gone up (away from acidic or toward a more basic state) and the gut flora was now out of balance or decreased. The problem with a higher pH is not only breaking down of food but also the gut losing the ability to break down microbes (i.e. bad bacteria) compromising the immune system. And as I stated back on the post Why Use Probiotics? altered flora result in poor absorption of minerals. This malabsorption can then lead to any of the conditions listed above. The body loses its ability to detox and obviously a high toxicity will not serve your body well. We can all agree with that. Pretty big deal right?

If you are experiencing these conditions and use Splenda (or are not experiencing and using Splenda) STOP all Splenda products immediately, meaning do not eat them...hopefully it's obvious I would suggest that...and "Flush Your System." For two month use probiotics, mulit vitamin and MINERALS (I suggest multi-vitamin/mineral daily for your entire life), and undenatured whey to rebuild and detox your body.

You can find studies out there where they will report Splenda to be a safe product. Here is what I tell my patients though, "Serious?! You want to put artificial food into your one and only body? Keep it simple and eat nothing processed." Inevitably these artificial foods turn out to have damaging effects. And now don't even get me started on High Fructose Corn Syrup or Aspartame. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions call the office, send me an email or get a hold of us on Facebook.


*Splenda: Is it Safe of Not? by Janet Starr Hull, phD., Pickle Press, 2005
*FIRST, "A Magazine For Women On The Go" Article titled "Tired All The Time?" June 26, 2006 pp 25-26