4 Heart Health Hints #3

When a group of children is asked to name an organ of the body, the heart is typically one of the first to come to mind. That’s because we learn its importance at a very young age. The heart is a power-house pump that pushes blood throughout the body and back again. The heart is a well-oiled machine…until it isn’t; then a devastating reality becomes apparent – the heart is only as strong as we make it.

So what can we do to keep our heart strong, healthy, and pumping? I have 4 Heart Health Hints to get your blood flowing (and keep it that way!)

# 3  Improve Your Nerve Function

Blood pressure is one easy to measure indicator of heart health. High blood pressure can be indicative of a heart that is not functioning at its best; working hard, but not efficiently to pump blood throughout the body. Low blood pressure can also be a red flag that your heart is not pumping blood as it was designed to. If your blood pressure lows when you move from a sitting to standing position, this could be an indicator of a heart health challenge.

When an organ is not function at its best, the answer may be that it is simply suffering from a lack of communication between it and the body’s control center (the brain). Typically, it’s not the brain giving the organ the cold shoulder, but the lack of clear communication is due to an interference that is blocking the signal.

Chiropractic adjustments are designed to remove that type of interference (what chiropractors call subluxations) to allow the proper flow of information to and from the brain and other part of the body. That’s why individuals with high blood pressure see their numbers improve with chiropractic care.

A very interesting study was conducted on 50 patients with early-stage high blood pressure at The University of Chicago Hypertension Center testing the effectiveness of chiropractic adjustments on lowering blood pressure. 25 patients underwent 8 week of chiropractic adjustments while the remaining 25 received 8 weeks of placebo adjustments. None of the patients took medication during the 8 weeks.

Compared to the placebo group, those who received true chiropractic adjustments saw an average of 14 mmHg greater drop in systolic blood pressure and 8mmHg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure. George Bakris M.D, the director and study leader said that "This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination and it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems."

Pre and Post x-rays were taken in this study. The pre adjustment x-rays showed that the atlas (or top bone of the spine) was misaligned (subluxated). Even the smallest misalignment to the atlas puts pressure on the brainstem, which boasts control of the cardiovascular system as one in a long list of duties. The post adjustment x-rays for those individuals showed that the atlas was re-aligned and the pressure on the brainstem released.

This study mirrors what I see every day in the office. When we remove subluxations, the result is a better functioning nervous system. When our nervous systems are functioning at their best, the systems of our bodies heal and function at their best. That includes the cardiovascular system and the heart. You can’t get much simpler than that.
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Dr. Dan Turo is the owner and chiropractor of Turo Family Chiropractic located in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, PA. Follow him on facebook and twitter.