Chiropractors can work with each member of a family from infants to seniors to ensure that their spine is in alignment which is necessary for optimal, healthy body function and overall wellness.
Starting with the youngest members of a family, how can chiropractic care help support a child’s proper growth and development?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: It’s a great question, and one of the things that I love about chiropractic. It’s very simple and it’s based on a principle, and that it really speaks to the fact that the body is intelligent. There’s an intelligence that takes a sperm and an egg, and 280 to 290 days later, this perfect baby comes out. It doesn’t need help from any doctor. It doesn’t need to be told what to do. This just develops. The intelligence is already in the DNA.
And life is truly an expression of that intelligence. So, it doesn’t really matter how old you are, we check infants sometimes as early as a couple hours old. And then most moms, if they do their pregnancy with us, understand the importance of getting their infants checked, because if they’re lucky enough to have the baby head down, that head is flexed in a forward position. The baby is upside down when the baby is delivered. Sometimes the head gets pulled, and that can create misalignments and put stress on that baby’s nerve system.
Since it’s the nerve system that controls and coordinates every stage of growth and development, it’s so important that the brain’s communication, the messaging, goes from the brain to the end user, which is the tissue cell in that little baby’s body, without interference. Because if the messaging is clean, then the body will execute the orders of the innate intelligence, that inborn wisdom that built the body and runs and regulates and develops the body.
So, it’s about that free flow of information, because if that information gets distorted, well anytime there’s a breakdown in communication, there’s going to be less efficiency. Just like if we were trying to figure out what time we needed to get on and record these calls, and the message didn’t get through or there was static in the line and you misheard me, well, there’s going to be a breakdown and we’re not going to get anything done.
And in the body, it’s the same principle. The innate intelligence that runs, regulates, and heals the body has to flow without interference. Misalignments to the spine, or what we call subluxations, can put pressure on those delicate spinal nerves, change the messaging in the body, and then change the efficiency of how well the body works, and how messages are received from the brain, and information going to the brain is received by the brain so the brain can adapt. So, it sounds really complex, but it’s really very simple because your nerve system controls everything. The better your nerve system works, pretty much the better you’re going to work through every stage of growth and development.
Can chiropractors help the entire family to learn how to maintain proper posture and help correct bad posture habits?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Absolutely. It depends on the orientation of the chiropractor. Some chiropractors focus on sports. Some people like me focus on pediatric, maternity, and family care. And some people will work with ballet dancers or whatever their little niche is. But posture is important to everyone. Now we’re in this information age, and the main thing that we see is this forward head posture from people looking down at their computers, staring at their phones, being on their iPads, and using iPads as babysitters for kids.
Maintaining proper posture and correcting those habits is extremely important for the longevity and health of your spine. So, in our office, we certainly want to take a look at the child’s posture. We want to make recommendations about maybe sleep postures, sleep pillows, and talk about certain exercises and stretching that kids can do. Because nowadays, when I look at these young kids, a lot of them are developing forward head posture much earlier than the adults. Remember, me and you, we didn’t grow up with cell phones. We didn’t grow up with a computer. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have my first computer, I think, till I was close to 30 years old. And so, the stresses and strains that these young kids are going through, their posture needs to be looked at and their parents need to be the ones leading that charge.
It’s interesting to me how moms and dads come into my office and say, “You need to tell little Johnny that he can’t use this posture and you need to tell them he can’t use his phone,” like they’re going to listen to me more than they’re going to listen to their mom or dad. And I certainly advise parents, and there are simple things that we do to kind of make sure that these kids understand that that forward head posture can have a deleterious effect on their health long-term, and the health choices that they make early in life are going to affect their quality of life later. So yes, looking at posture, talking about it, and how they wear their backpacks and how they load their backpacks. We have a backpack safety video and class that we do.
So, there’s a lot of things and yes, posture is extremely important, especially on the developing spine. So, setting those habits up early and setting these kids up to win early is extremely important and a big part of maintaining a healthy spine.
For parents, how does chiropractic care help alleviate some of the physical and emotional stress that comes with parenting?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Well, first-time parents, they always tend to be a little more nervous, right? And so, when they’re raising their kids, they get nervous and they worry and they stress. And then, really their orientation to the world changes on a dime. People are hunched over their babies. The mom is breastfeeding, constantly looking down, which can take a toll on her neck. And she just came off of nine months of intense weight gain, a shift of her center of gravity forward, and now this new bundle of joy. And they’re limiting the amount of sleep that they get because they’re constantly caring for the babies and when they wake up crying. So, the parents are under an awful lot of stress. And the physical stuff, yup, the changes in posture, the muscle tightness. When we adjust the spine, very often the muscles can relax more due to getting rid of the irritation off the nerves.
Then the emotional component is, look, we’re all standing in emotional stress, right? And when we’re under stress, our bodies crank out the sympathetic hormones, particularly cortisol and adrenaline, and those make the muscles tight. And cortisol actually shuts off the immune system. I know we’ve talked about that in the past.
When your immune system isn’t working, your body’s not as efficient as healing and regeneration. That’s the important thing, because when you’re under stress, your body’s in fight or flight and it shuts off the immune system to save the body’s energy for running away or fighting or whatever it might be. The body has no real interest when it’s in sympathetic overdrive or under stress in healing and rebuilding because that’s also metabolically expensive. So, a lot of parents under stress are certainly going to have any type of musculoskeletal stuff magnified in their body. Also, the stress keeps them in that cortisol and adrenaline chemistry, which is not good for the body. If you don’t burn those chemicals out, they’re going to linger on and have a deleterious effect on your health. So, by correcting the spine, getting the pressure off the nerves, getting them more relaxed, very often their emotional state as well as their physical health improves significantly.
How does chiropractic care support healthy aging so parents and grandparents stay active?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Well, there’s a chiropractor who talked about wellness in he’s like, “Think well, move well, sleep well, and have proper nerve supply.” And those things are really important. Staying active as we get older, as you and I both know, it gets harder because there’s more pain. The body’s ability to regenerate slows down as we get older because our bodies heal and regenerate by just replacing damaged cells with healthy new ones. But when you’ve made a copy of a copy of a copy for the genetic replication over a lifetime, that starts to break down a little bit. And the cells we make, the collagen is not as elastic so our skin gets more wrinkly and we have more stress on our body. And the body has to do more to keep regenerating. And sometimes it’s hard for the body to keep up. By keeping the joints well-aligned, reducing friction limits the amount of degenerative change that you see on the spine.
The other important thing is that, again, just enhancing nerve system function so the body is more efficient at replacing and regenerating those cells, because it’s all a function of the nerve system. And like we say in chiropractic, the better your nerve system works, the better your body works. So, chiropractic can help everyone stay active and maintain good alignment and prevent further degeneration, particularly with light degenerative joint disease or some of the arthritides, because the smoother the alignment, the smoother the motion, the less degeneration you’re going to see.
So, it’s important to support children as well as adults. And what I always say, you’re never too old, you’re never too young to start caring for your spine and the alignment of your body, because caring for the spine and maintaining good alignment is going to help your nerve system function at a much higher level or optimize it. And again, the healthier the nerve system, the healthier the body, the healthier the person is.
What advice would you give to families who are considering chiropractic care but are unsure where to start?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: In my office, and I’m sure in a lot of chiropractic care offices around the country, there’s a lot of information on our websites. You can certainly call up and ask questions. The thing that we do in our office that’s somewhat unique is we offer initial consultations and screenings at no charge. What that does is it removes the barrier, because nowadays it costs $100 to shake hands with a doctor at least, right? In my office, you can come in, you can give us your history, we’ll ask you a couple of questions, I’ll explain what chiropractic is and what it is not. Then, we’ll do a posture screening. And then, if you feel after that posture screening and talking with me that it’s worth your while to follow up and have the exam, then we’ll do the exam. But if you’re not comfortable or it’s not a place for you, then you can walk out of our office and not be charged.
But there’s so much information, and I encourage people, when you call an office, ask questions. Write down your questions, and then get them answered. And if the CA or the person answering the phone isn’t really satisfying the questions and answering them adequately, ask to speak to the doctor. Most doctors who give a hoot will certainly pick up the phone. I know I do. And then, you get to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. If what the doctor says resonates with you, then it’s probably a great start. But some people just don’t understand fully or need more information, and it’s a great opportunity to do that. I’m sure there are many doctors like me that have a big heart and really want to help people. And that’s how we do it in our office. I can’t speak for the entire country, but ask your questions, look at their website, and if those things resonate with you, then it’s probably a good fit.
Learn More
To speak with Dr. Gregg Rubinstein, visit www.ChiropractorMidtown.com or call (212) 977-7094 to schedule an appointment.
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