I recently had a conversation with a white-haired weekend warrior who years ago had benefited from the care I provide. He was complaining of sore and stiff muscles around his shoulder blade that just weren’t going away this time. He asked if I thought I could help. I told him that we see conditions like his improve every single day because they are often SECONDARY to what is called a Neural Shift, which is what we focus on correcting in our office.

While this man trusts me, he seemed skeptical that Neurospinal Optimization(NSO) could help him. Why? Because he knows how gentle NSO care is and felt like he needed something more invasive or ‘harder’ to fix the problem.

This is a common belief amongst non-elite athletes and a misconception that not only gets in the way of them getting the care that can get them back on the field (or rink, court, golf-course) but creates a missed opportunity to perhaps increase their performance and health to a new level.

A few days after I spoke to this man, I was on the phone with a chiropractor colleague whose approach to care is very similar to mine. He mentioned that he had been providing care to a high-end athletic trainer who works with many professional athletes who fly significant distances to work with him. The trainer was so excited about what my colleague was doing  that he asked him to work with his athletes as part of his services. These athletes, who have access to the best-of-the-best doctors and therapists absolutely loved the work, understood the value, and knew they had found a unique edge.

Why did the athletes love NSO so much? Because it delivers so much more than temporary relief of pain, muscle spasm and other secondary conditions. In fact, some of the athletes refer to their care as their “steroids” due to the fact that it allows them to do things they could not otherwise accomplish (drug-free by the way).

So, how does Neurospinal Optimization, by focusing on the detection and correction of a Neural Shift affect athletic performance? Here are the top 5 ways:

     1. Increased Body Awareness. Somatic, or body awareness is essential to any athlete. A keen sense of where body parts are in space, how they are moving, and the ability to adapt in an instant is what makes great athletes great. A Neural Shift caused by trauma and stress decrease our awareness by design. Freeing the body of a Neural Shift can produce a powerful improvement in body awareness very quickly. I have had multiple weightlifting patients consistently make record lifts shortly after starting NSO care.

     2. Increased Flexibility and Range of Movement. A Neural Shift is like having too much current running through the wires of your home. Those wires (nerves) connect to every part of your body, including the muscles. Neural Shifts produce tight, inflexible muscles and restrict the range of motion necessary for high performers. When the Neural Shift is addressed with NSO care the athlete becomes more flexible not only through the large muscles, but actually is able to increase their range of motion in the small muscles that precisely move each joint. This range and precision could be the difference between victory and defeat.

3. Increase Efficiency of Movement. The best athletes are the most efficient athletes. A study featured on the cover of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, compared functional MRIs of subjects performing a simple movement before and after care. The result was that after care the parts of the brain involved became much more specific and precise, indicating much greater efficiency.

This study also indicated that the brain was more efficient post entrainment, which has phenomenal implications for both sports and other areas of life.

4. Injury Prevention. Nothing can impede athletic progress more than injuries. Obviously, if you are more aware of your body, more flexible, have a greater ROM and more efficient with your movements a great number of potential injuries will be prevented.

5. Faster Healing and Recovery.  A Neural Shift indicates the body is locked in a fight or flight, or defensive state. In this state all of our resources are directed towards survival – even if we aren’t in danger. This means fewer resources are available for healing, repair, recovery and growth. NSO allows the body to move from survival to ease and healing. I have personally recovered from injuries in literally a tenth of the time predicted by orthopaedic surgeons. A few years ago I tore my hamstring playing baseball. The surgeon prescribed intensive physiotherapy and no running for 10 weeks. With no treatment I was running full speed in 5 days!

There are many ways to have aches, pains, injuries and muscle spasms temporarily relieved. Top athletes know that this is nowhere near enough to ensure top performance in their disciplines. Neurospinal Optimization provides an opportunity to not only get past challenges, but take you to the next level.

Anyone who has visited our chiropractic office knows that we do things a bit differently than your ‘average,’ or ‘traditional’ chiropractor. We take pride in this and are dedicated to continually learning and refining the care we deliver. The next series of articles will highlight and explain what our office focuses on and hopefully answer some of the questions you may have.

Most chiropractors are of the traditional variety. Traditional chiropractors typically have the goals of decreasing muscle spasm, increasing range of motion, and reducing pain. These are worthy goals and most of the doctors I know do a great job of this.

At Nexus/Gault Family Chiropractic we focus on Neurospinal Optimization by utilizing gentle chiropractic entrainments, teaching you specific exercises and perhaps making some lifestyle recommendations in an effort to improve a condition called Neural Resistance.

We are all familiar with normal body temperature: 37 degrees Celsius. How do we know when someone has abnormal eyesight? How about an irregular heartbeat or high blood pressure? How do we know if the air pressure in our tires is too low? The only way to appreciate abnormal is to know normal.

When it comes to normal, we are not expecting anyone to be perfect. However, if your head displaced beyond what is acceptable and your muscles are locked with a significant amount of abnormal tension, this is an indication of Neural Resistance. This is no different than the strings of a guitar being too tight or the amount of electricity running through the wires of your home being even a bit too high. Because the amount of resistance in your nervous system is too high, extra stress is placed on the muscles which then pulls the spine out of its normal alignment thereby placing abnormal stress on the tendons, bones, ligaments and discs.

What would happen if there was too much electrical current running through the wires of your home? Would it be reasonable to suggest that you lights would burn out more quickly? Would you expect your appliances to not work as well? Do you think that over time you may actually have to replace faulty major appliances as a result of this abnormal electrical current?

As you probably guessed, the problem is abnormal resistance, but in this case in the wiring of your home. Traditional doctors, regardless of what area of healthcare they are in, typically look at managing Secondary Conditions rather than focusing on the underlying cause. The traditional doctor will replace the burnt out light bulbs and repair your refrigerator. Will any of that correct the problem?

What would you do first if this were your home? Of course, you would get out of that house for a short time and hire an electrician who focuses on wiring take care of the problem. After that, and a little work on the secondary effects from the abnormal resistance you’re good to go.

The next article will look at some of the secondary conditions, or symptoms that may result from the presence of Neural Resistance.

Let’s be honest – the public has a lot of distrust when it comes to chiropractors and their recommendations for care. I hate to admit it, but some people have a perception that chiropractors try to ‘get you’ to come in more (or more often) than you really need to so that they can make more money. In fact, I have spoken to people in other cities who raved about how pleased they were to find such an honest chiropractor who just told them to come back whenever they were in pain. To some, chiropractors are right up there with used car sales-people when it comes to trust.

While I have no doubt believing that a few chiropractors are less than scrupulous – like any other profession – people need to understand that a chiropractor’s recommendations will differ based upon their objectives and focus.

Most chiropractors are of the ‘traditional’ variety. They focus mostly on reducing muscle spasm, increasing range of motion and reducing pain and are typically pretty good at achieving those objectives. So, a doctor focused on getting you out of pain will make recommendations based on what they find and then when the pain is gone you are done. When the pain comes back, so do you.

At Nexus/Gault Family Chiropractic, we focus on something different. Our focus is Neurospinal Optimization which has the objective of detecting and correcting Neural Resistance (NR). Neural Resistance is when your nervous system is literally strung too tight or too loose like a poorly tuned piano.

We are usually unaware of NR, especially at the beginning. Over time, if it is not addressed a variety of SECONDARY Conditions may result. Some of these secondary conditions are back pain, headaches, poor posture, muscle spasms, and – because the nervous system coordinates  our organs – even anxiety and digestive problems.

Now, because we are focusing – and measuring and monitoring – what is underlying or PRIMARY to the secondary conditions we recommend a plan of care designed to correct the Neural Resistance – not just the secondary conditions that often take care of themselves when their cause is cleared up.

While everyone is different, there are certain minimum requirements that we have found necessary to take care of moderate NR. We have different objectives for our patients and therefore different recommendations and results.

Is this care for everyone? Nope, some people only care about having their secondary conditions handled and for them, working with a good traditional chiropractor, physiotherapist or massage therapist will be a better fit.

On the other hand, someone who wants to have their Neural Resistance handled, yet wants to follow the recommendations designed to only address secondary conditions will be disappointed. It just doesn’t work and in fact we prefer not to work with these people for obvious reasons.

Once a patient has successfully completed an initial phase of care and reduced their NR to an acceptable level, we OFFER optional PROTECTION plans that allow them to protect the investment they made during their initial care, and OPTIMIZATION plans that will allow them to continue to progress in their care.

I hope this article sheds some light on why chiropractors make the recommendations they do and why they are sometimes drastically different. I also hope it explains the purpose behind the recommendations we make at Nexus/Gault Family Chiropractic and why we get the results we get.

Clear Day is less than 2 weeks away (April 20, 2013) at the Martintown Community Centre. There are still some spots available, so let Adele or Cindy know if you would like to participate in this transformational event.