Discovering the Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Your Digestive Health

Chiropractic care can improve digestive health by ensuring proper nerve function and reducing inflammation in the digestive organs. By keeping the spine aligned, chiropractors help improve blood flow and relieve stress, promoting a happier and healthier tummy. #healthy815 #icachiropractor #PalmerProud 

www.rockforddc.com

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Hello, Dr. Brant Hulsebus here and welcome to another edition of Ask the Chiropractor. Ask the Chiropractor is my little podcast that I do when someone has a question about chiropractic or chiropractic care, I try to answer. I'm a chiropractor here in Rockford, Illinois. I'm a proud graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and I'm happy to be the team chiropractor of the Rockford Icehogs. Let's dive into it. Hello, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ask the Chiropractor. On this week's Ask the Chiropractor, I'm going to talk a little bit about something we get, we find out usually after we take care of somebody. Usually they come in and tell me they have lower back problems or maybe sciatica going down their legs. Something going on with their lower back or a sciatica, but a lot of people call their SI joints or their sciatic joints. There's no sciatic joint by the way, but that's what they call it. Digestion issues, GI problems. A lot of people come and tell us afterwards they're getting positive results with GI issues. They ask me, is there anything chiropractic related that could be affecting my GI issues? And the way I explain this is that the nerves of your lower back come out and they go down your leg and they form the sciatic nerve. Your upper lower back, they come out, they form the femoral nerve and innervate the top of your thighs. And a couple of them come out and form your operator nerve, which does the groin area. And we know that whenever the lower back's out, these could be areas of trouble. for different people. Like I'm having some numbness here, I'm having some pain here, I get some burning in those areas. Let me adjust your lower back. The pressure on the nerves gets taken off. The nerves feel happy again. The stress is gone and the sciatica goes away. People may go into chiropractors for sciatica, lower back and leg issues since chiropractic started 1895. But a lot of people are finding out that their GI issues improve. The number one they find out, the first thing they usually find out is the constipation goes away. People deal with constipation. We've had little kids come in and we adjust them and they fill their diapers right away. So a lot of times, I'll adjust somebody and they tell me like, hey, within 20 minutes, I had to find a bathroom. Those same nerves that come out of your lower back and go down your legs, into your lower back, into your groin, all that area, they also innervate your small and large intestines, your colon and your small intestines. And a lot of times when the nerves under stress, your GI system goes AWOL. Because you remember, the autonomic nervous system, The nervous system that runs our bodily functions that we don't have to think about like right now. What's your liver doing? I have no idea what my liver is doing. My autonomic nervous system is running that. And you see that's got two modes, autonomic nervous system. It has what we call fight and flight, or in chiropractors and health care, we call it sympathetic. And then non fight and flight, which we call it parasympathetic. Or I call them the chill out nerves, right? Because the danger is gone. It's time to chill out. See, when you're in fight or flight, your digestive system gets turned off because your body believes that you're in danger. Your body believes you're in survival mode. Because I've said this before and I'll say it a hundred times again, that genetically, we are hunters and gatherers. And the only stress in our life, be it chemical, physical, or emotional, would be an animal trying to eat us. And if you had a bear trying to eat you or a tiger trying to eat you, does it matter if you digest your lunch or your breakfast? Absolutely not. So you digest the system, you shut off. During a time of stress and what we know we've learned from some of the studies that are coming out of different areas Is that when your body's subluxated when one or two bones are misaligned That there are chemicals that are released at those joint receptors and those chemicals are your brain Parasympathetic nerves and your sympathetic nerves. And when those get under stress, we know that the chemicals and the change inside those joints are telling the nerves right there that we are in fight and flight. And those nerves are going, in your lower back in particular, those are going down that nerve and telling your leg we're in fight and flight. You can't heal. You can't get better. We have to survive right now. We don't have time for growth and repair. We're being chased by a bear. They go down into your SI joints. They go down to your lower back. your legs. They cause This response where your body's no longer healing or improving, but it's screaming back that something's wrong. Those same nerves also go to that part of your digestive system. So if my lower back's out, it's easy for everyone to understand that it goes down to my leg, causes leg issues, whether it's numbness, tingling, on fire. Burning, painful, whatever that is. Everybody gets that, but the nerves also have that autoeconomic part, which go to your small and large intestines. So if the stress response is kicking down your leg, kicking down your foot, is it possible It's also going to your colon telling your colon. Hey, we're under attack. You better shut down for a little while. And then when you get adjusted and we turn that sympathetic back to parasympathetic, the proper response, what happens then? Then everything starts to heal and goes back to its normal function. If it goes back to its normal function, wouldn't it not be safe to hypothesize that the colon would wake back up and start emptying out and that's why constipation goes away really fast? Also, if you're under stress and your digestive system is upset, heartburn and indigestion, that would be the one between your shoulder blades, your T6. Your stomach doesn't know how much acid they're making. It's not going to take the time to figure it out when you're under attack. It makes too much acid. And as chiropractors, we adjust that area and we help regulate the acid production and heartburn and indigestion go away. Now, I'm not saying we have a cure for all heartburn and indigestion. If you're having heartburn and indigestion from eating too much, Grace greasy bacon cheeseburgers and milkshakes. That's heartburn you earn not heartburn we get rid of So when it comes to indigestion heartburn part of GI issues, yeah, we adjust your upper back and same principles The stomach when it's under stress is either trying to get food in and out as fast as it can Right? It's not going to care about digesting it properly. It just wants to move it. Sometimes when people are really stressed out, they can vomit. That's just, that's the idea. Because under fight or flight, you want to dispel the food rather than deal with the food. But if it goes through the stomach is going to overproduce acid just to push it through and get it going. Because it doesn't want to take time to really break it down and do its thing. So if we adjust you between your shoulder blades, get that sixth thoracic vertebrae, a lot of people tell us that their heartburn and digestion goes away. Exact same concepts, exact same principles as the lower back and the small intestines and the colon. Let's talk about the small intestines for a second. That's going to be more of your upper lower back. If your chiropractor ever tells you that you've got issues at L1, L2, creating a pelvic rotation, then we're thinking that your small intestines are upset. And if your small intestines are upset, then they're not going to digest things as well as they could. And when they don't just digest things as well as they could, that's where we get irritable bowel and stuff like that. Again, there's lots of reasons people get that. But some people report that after getting their upper lower back adjusted, their irritable bowel actually improves. It gets better. So is there a link between that and chiropractic? A lot of patients will tell you there is. Definitely there is. It's the exact same principles and concepts again here. At the upper, lower nerve's coming down. They're in fight and flight. If they're in fight and flight, the body's just trying to move it along as fast as it can. Not going to properly digest. It's just going to grab the things they can grab and keep it moving. And that's when people can get really bad, irritable bowel. So that's what we see in chiropractic. Now, the fun thing I always have is with babies. Because I always tell babies, parents of babies I should say, if your little baby's up all night fussing, colicky, if your baby's not sleeping, or if your baby's not having bowels to come on in. When we adjust the little ones for bowel problems, they literally start going in the room with us as we adjust them. Sometimes a lot of times I'll put the baby on their side, adjust their lower back and the gas will just start coming out right away. Cause you know, babies don't have a filter. They just let it go. So that's what we see all the time. So when we adjust the little ones, we get It like happens like instantly and that's really cool. I even had one little guy come in, he didn't have a dirty diaper for four or five days, and I told mom a long time ago, if you don't like what the pediatrician says, just bring the little guy in here and I'll give him an adjustment to give you a different point of view and walk him through it. And so the pediatrician had told mom, it's okay if the little guy doesn't have a dirty diaper for four or five days, babies do that. Whenever someone says something like that, just ask them to try it. You don't have a bowel for four or five days and tell me how you're doing. It's normal, it can happen. I just had a little guy and he was up all night filling diapers. I even remember dad getting a hold of me, asking me how to turn it off. Because my mom and dad were tired and they wanted to go to bed. Yeah, we adjust little kids for that all the time. They come in here, a lot of times I believe during the birthing process, not only can the neck go through some stress, but the hips can go through some stress, and the hips will pull on the lower back. So when we adjust the little babies for this, it's like instant dirty diapers. I can't even remember my daughters in the NICU having this issue too, because they my kids never did well with dairy, and the NICU gave them dairy, and they got backed up, and I just went in there and adjusted them, and I just remembered that They were having to clean the isolette out after I was been there because I got them going so well. With little babies, if you know anybody with little kids dealing with constipation, I can tell you that they could find out right away with chiropractic, whether it helps or not. So if you have little ones with constipation, checking the chiropractor is not a bad idea. Again, with all GI issues, there's so many different factors and so many different causes and so many different reasons why people have them. But stopping your chiropractor might not be the worst thing to do. I mean that this subluxation, the two bones misaligned, isn't there. Okay, You just adjusted me my lower back Do you think you could help me with my irritable bowel or my constipation? I look at him and said you know what those weren't the areas that were out. So Maybe it's something you ate. Maybe it's something else you're digesting But if you go in the chiropractor and those areas are out and we adjust you then we expect to see more positive outcome with those issues. Maybe not the end all be all cure, but a more possible favorable outcome with those issues. So there you have it. Chiropractic with GI issues and digestion issues. How does it work? What do we check? What to expect? Now, if you're a patient that's been dealing with GI issues for a long time, you don't really have lower back pain, you don't really have sciatica, maybe you're thinking chiropractic can help you. It's real easy. Every chiropractor has a chart of all the nerves and where they go and they're hanging in every room of their office. Go to the chiropractor, have them take some films of you, look at your spine, see what's misaligned. If it matches up or one or two levels off, there's a good chance the chiropractor might be able to help you. With these things, you don't need three times a week for six to eight weeks to get results. You're going to find out within, usually within the first six visits, if not sooner, whether or not chiropractic is going to make a change in this area not fix it in six visits, but make a change in this area right away. You're going to be like, wow, I sure did feel better today after I got adjusted. Maybe there's something going on. So if you want to see a chiropractor for this would be the, this is how I would find out whether or not I'm a candidate for it. Cause if those areas are normal on you and you're still having these problems, maybe it is something you're eating. Maybe it is, maybe your body's just doing a healthy response to a toxin you're putting in it. And that's, you put bad stuff in, you get bad results, you get bad outcomes. There you have it. There's my answer on GI issues and chiropractic and digestive issues and chiropractic. Now remember, if you have a question for a chiropractor, ask a chiropractor. Don't ask anybody else cause nobody else studies chiropractic. Medical doctors and ortheos and, Every other type of physician, orthopedic doctors, they don't have any training in chiropractic. They're not qualified to answer your questions. Find a chiropractor to ask your questions to. You can also always go to chiropractic. org. That's our national website. All kinds of good stuff and information there. There's actually a journal on that website that you can read about for kids at chiropractic. People who get certified in pediatrics have to do a paper in order to get their certification. And they do a publication there all the time. It's free to read. It's free to the public. So take a look at it. Alright, if you have a question for me, leave a comment below. Go to our website, hit the links, you'll find me. Leave a comment below and we'll get back to you. Maybe next time you'll be the question of the week and ask the chiropractor. Thanks everybody.