Chiropractic Questions

Immune System and Stress

October 17, 2023 Brant Hulsebus DC LCP CCWP FICA Season 8 Episode 5
Chiropractic Questions
Immune System and Stress
Show Notes Transcript

Ask the Chiropractor- Immune function and stress and chiropractic effect on stress.  Do people who go to the chiropractor experience stronger immune system?  #healthy815 #icachiropractor #palmerproud

www.rockforddc.com

- Hello and welcome to another edition of Ask the Chiropractor. My name's Dr. Brant Hulsebus. I'm a Chiropractor. I'm a proud member of the International Chiropractic Association, the Illinois Prairie State Chiropractic Association, proud Alumni of Palmer College of Chiropractic and I serve as a team Chiropractor for the Rockford IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Black Hawks. And ask that Chiropractors, my little podcast that I do for when people have questions about Chiropractic or Chiropractic care. I come on and I try to answer your question. I try to do it in a way that you would want an answer from a Chiropractor. So if you had a question about Chiropractic care you should ask a Chiropractor, not a Physical Therapist, a Massage Therapist or Medical Doctor because one simple reason, they're not Chiropractors, they didn't go to Chiropractic College, they have no idea what Chiropractors do. When I sit down with the different athletics and different doctors I've worked with over the years, I find out for the most part they really don't know what I do. They have an idea what I do, but they really don't know. And so it's wrong for them to come off as an expert on what I do when they really don't even know what it is that I do. And I find even like when you ask some doctors questions about supplementations, if they don't know the answer they usually just say, no, don't do it. Now that's a little bit of a gross statement there, but I just find it's always better to find an expert in the field and ask them the question. By no means am I saying I'm the expert in Chiropractic, but that's the one thing that I do know. So people have questions about Chiropractic or Chiropractic care and how it works, they ask me, I do a little podcast and I share you the question in case you also have this question. So a lot of people are asking me, it's fall time now, it's the temperature just did a quick drop and people are asking me about their immune system and how to keep an immune system strong. So this became a really, really touchy subject, something that we would talk about all the time. And then Covid came a couple years ago and now the Government has like come after Chiropractors left and right, friends of mine have had their practices shut down for talking about this topic. So I'm going to give the best answer to this question, the best way I can, try to keep it scientifical, keep it exact. And the bottom line is can Chiropractic affect your immune system? My official answer is- Necessary pause. So I don't, I'm not going to answer that question because I have an answer, but I'm not allowed to answer that question so I'm just not going to answer. So my official answer is no answer, but let's talk some science in the immune system. So the first thing is, what we know about the immune system is that if you're in fight or flight or sympathetic tone or stress your immune system is compromised. We know this through, I mean we've had this in Guyton's Physiology. This is nothing new or exciting news. This is something we've always known. And if your body's in stress, because genetically speaking we are hunters and gatherers. We're designed, we walk on the earth picking fruits and berries and vegetables, killing small animals and eating them and avoiding large animals that eat from us. So that's our genetic code. That's what we're genetically designed to do. And we know the further we live different from our genetic code, the sicker, the more health problems we create. So as Chiropractors and myself being a CCWP, a Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner, what we did is we studied a hunter gatherer tribes. So we looked at the chemical, physical and emotional stress that people are under and how that influences their overall health and wellbeing both in a Chiropractic sense and a nutrition sense and a movement sense. And lastly, not lastly, but a mental sense and how that affects your overall health. And what we do know is that when Chiropractic adjustments happen there are changes in the sympathetic and the opposite the parasympathetic when we're not in fight and flight. And Ogura has studied this now I'm going to spell this for you because the people do my captioning always mess this up, so I'm going to spell it for them and for you. O-G-U-R-A. Ogura. Ogura is a Chiropractic scientist that does a lot of research. And what Ogura found out was really simple is they've been able to mark the changes in the sympathetic and parasympathetic response before and after Chiropractic adjustments. What does that mean? Well, there's trademarks such as when we're in fight and flights. Some of them have been in our salivatory amylase and other things that will we do on scientific terms, your spit. They've been able to figure out that there's changes in the chemical makeups and how our body performs when it's in fight and flight versus when it's not in fight and flight. And Ogura has done research on PubMed. Those of you don't remember PubMed. That's where I go to do all my research. These articles before their indexed with PubMed under undergo intense scrutiny to make sure they are what they say they are. So you go to PubMed, you type in Ogura and you can see some of the research that Dr. Ogura has done on the sympathetic parasympathetic tone and how Chiropractic adjustments tracers have been shown to change the sympathetic and parasympathetic from sympathetic to parasympathetic pre and post care. So we know that when you're in fight and flight, your immune system's compromised. We got that in all kinds of textbooks. Guyton's Physiology, which is like the book that every healthcare provider uses to study whether it's MD, DO, DC, MDM, DDS, whatever. We all use that Guyton's Physiology just like we all use Grey's Anatomy. I'm sure you've heard of that because there's a cute TV show named after it. But we all use the same book called Guyton's Physiology. Guyton's Physiology has basically told us when you're in fight flight, no immune response. Then Dr. Ogura, O G U R A, for those of you at Rev and other people taking notes on PubMed you can see that the doctor here has done research showing that before Chiropractic care, if people are in sympathetic tone or fight and flight reaction they get their Chiropractic care. Several of the tracers that were marked that you be in sympathetic tone or fight and flight disappear or go away after Chiropractic care. So now we've got the research that shows us fight and flight, immune system's no good. Chiropractic care before, if you're in fight and flight you get a Chiropractic care that you can leave elements of fight and flight. And then when you're not in fight and flight when you're at ease or homeostasis, not in the reaction mode of fight and flight, we know the immune system levels go up. How do we know that? Blood tests, real easy, white blood cells more white blood cells better your immune system, the faster changing. So this is why a lot of people when they don't feel well or they're starting to feel run down or feel like they got something coming on, will go see a Chiropractor. Now am I saying that they should come get adjusted? because you won't catch the cold or the flu? No. Am I saying you should come get adjusted because Chiropractor can help boost your immune system and make your immune system function better? No, what I'm saying is that when people get adjusted the research has shown they leave the fight and flight and go back into normal tone. And people in normal tone according to all the textbooks that we use to study before and after Covid, that it actually helps your immune system tremendously not to be in fight and flight. And so Chiropractic adjustments according to the studies have shown to move you from one to the other. This is why a lot of times after somebody gets a Chiropractic adjustment they might start sleeping better they might feel more relaxed they might, they're digestion might change. These are all things that do with fight and flight with a sympathetic response to a danger. So a lot of times in this time of the year, in the fall we have a lot of people come in for a couple of extra visits because they feel like they just feel better when they go. They just feel better. They don't feel as run down. They don't feel sick. So that being said, that's what we see. Now today, I just got back from traveling and while I was traveling I saw lots of people still wearing masks. Lots of people still wiping surfaces down and some people have compromised immune systems and they have to do these things. But what we know too, and we even learned this with Covid, I think I can say this that I'll I'll just say what natural acquired immunity is. Okay? I won't say it's better or worse or anything else. I'll just say what it is. Natural acquired immunity is when I'm exposed to something my body makes antibodies and antigens and then my body's now prepared. Should I seek that again? So if I walk around with a mask on all the time I don't get as exposed to stuff. Now again, if you have a compromised immune system or you're going through a healthcare crisis none of what I'm talking about applies to that's a whole different set of rules. But if you don't have a compromised immune system and your immune system never gets exposed to nothing you stay home means they avoid people. You work from home, you don't get around you don't get to practice as much as other people. And if your white blood cell production's not as well as it could be because you're in fight and flight you also kind of leave yourself vulnerable. So as Chiropractors, for myself the care I do this type of year, one, I don't wear a mask. I don't worry about hiding from everything. I want to get mild exposures to everything. So my body makes those antigens and it prepares me for it. What if it comes at me big time? I also do get my spine checked regularly because I don't want to be as in a state of sympathetic should the flu bug arrive at my house. I want to be able to get my fly swat around and kill that flu bug. I want to be prepared for it. So I do get like to get little micro exposures to everything. That's why I enjoy seeing so many patients today because every patient that comes in brings a little something, a little potpourri of germs and other things that my immune system gets a practice on. And because we don't like, we're not just hanging out a long time and spend tons of time together. I don't get a massive dose of anything. I get little micro doses of everything. So when I walk through the grocery store you'll never see me have a mask on unless there's a law requiring me to have a mask on. I want to get hit by everything. So my immune system uses it to function. Why do I, why am I confident that my immune system's going to function good because I'm not in a state of fight or flight because Dr. Hays or Dr. Dace here got me adjusted and I'm ready to go out in public. That's my theory. That's how I, that's how I choose to live. Am I telling you if you get Chiropractic adjustments and run around without stuff on you forever, good? No, I'm just telling you what I knew, what I choose to do. I'm sharing you my information, how I choose to do it. So how does Chiropractic affect the immune system? Well, we're waiting for more more advanced testing equipment more advanced testing stuff. because the way we want to test it there's no way to physically test what we're talking about. But what do we know? We know for a fact, according to Guyton's Physiology G U Y T O N S, Guyton's Physiology that this is how the body functions and works. We know that when you're not in fight or flight your immune system has a better chance. What else do we know? Ogura, O G U R A is in the research that shows that before Chiropractic care, if you're in fight and flight and after Chiropractic care, you'll remove yourself from fight and flight and go and go the other direction. No more we call parasympathetic and you'll be more ready to fight stuff. because your body won't be thinking it's under attack it'll be ready for the white blood it'll be ready to make the white blood cells. It needs to adapt to the germs and your environment around you. So as Chiropractors do we see a lot of people that come in because they don't feel very well and they have their side effects are getting, packing them up and they're, they feel like they're congested. They feel like they might be coming down with something. They come in and say, Hey, I want an adjustment. I think it'll help me get over this faster. We see it all the time. Do we have a commercial that says that? No. What we do know is that when I'm out in public with you and you bump into someone you know and you say, is he your Chiropractor? They say Yes. Why do you go? The most common answer I hear all the time I just feel better when I go. So there you have it. Does Chiropractic affect the immune system? That's my official no answer, but I'll explain to you a bit how the body works how Chiropractic adjusts work. And you can do your own math. Alright, I'm Dr. Brant Hulsebus, Chiropractor. If you want more information check me out on Rockforddc.com That's R O C K F O R D D C .com and you can find more information on the immune system and how the body functions and works there. And if you have a question for me you can find all my information there. Or if you have a question you'd like to have on the show go ahead and hit us up right there and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Alright everybody, stay healthy, stay safe. We'll see you real soon.