How We Are Making Our Children Sick

The purpose of the immune system is to allow us to live in harmony with our environment. In fact, most of the trillions of foreign cells present within our body coexist peacefully, and in some cases even contribute to our health and well-being. In spite of this, chronic diseases such as allergies, asthma, and eczema, which were rare several decades ago, have risen exponentially, especially in children, quadrupling during the last two decades.

The number of asthma sufferers in the United States is expected to double by the year 2020, affecting 1 in every 14 people and outnumbering the combined projected populations of New York and New Jersey. A growing number of scientists now believe that the routine measures taken to suppress and prevent infections actually weaken certain responses of a child’s immune system, allowing other less appropriate responses to operate without control. The reduction of childhood diseases has been heralded as one of medicine’s finest accomplishments, yet there are growing suspicions that infection intervention may be having an adverse effect; as childhood infections have decreased, chronic afflictions have increased.

The immune system has two different aspects: the cell-mediated immune system and the humoral immune system. The cell-mediated immune system involves white blood cells and specialized immune cells which “eat” antigens, or foreign particles in the body. This helps drive the antigens out of the body causing symptoms such as skin rashes and the discharge of pus and mucous from the throat and lungs. The cell-mediated response is associated with the beneficial acute inflammatory illnesses (not a correct term) of children, and represents the externalization, or driving out of the infection.

The other aspect is called the humoral immune system whereby antibodies—special defense proteins—are produced to recognize and neutralize the antigen. It is a persistent humoral response that is associated with chronic allergic-type diseases.

In order to be healthy, a child must keep a balance between the cell-mediated system and the humoral system, with the cell-mediated system predominating. The cell-mediated response is activated by the natural exposure to bacteria and viruses, in the way children are exposed by interacting with their friends. Through repeated exposure to infectious organisms a child develops a diverse repertoire of immune response patterns. It is the cell-mediated response that protects a child from future illness, and develops the type of immune response we commonly associate with life-long immunity. The cell-mediated system suppresses the activity of the humoral system. The more active the cell-mediated activity is, the less active the humoral system is.

However, if the cell-mediated system is not properly stimulated it does not fully develop, leading to an abnormally high production of humoral system antibodies. A humoral system that is continually engaged will overdevelop, creating a hypersensitive environment. When infants are exposed to germs early, their immune systems are pushed to go in an “infection-fighting direction.” Without this push, the immune system’s shift to infection fighting is delayed, and it becomes more likely to overreact to allergens—dust, mold, and other environmental factors that most people can tolerate.

Early life experiences are believed to play a crucial role in the formation and patterning of a child’s immune system. Sensitization begins in utero and the first few months of life are crucial, for once cell-mediated/humoral imbalance occurs it tends to persist until specific measures are taken to shift the immune system back to equilibrium. There are several ways that pattern the reaction of the immune system toward either the cell-mediated response or the humoral response based on their timing and frequency. The important thing for a parent to understand is that their child’s immune system will react based on the way it has been patterned and programmed to react. If your child’s current immune capacity is poor, then it is possible to improve it by making better choices in the future.

In part 2 of 6 we will discuss ways to improve your child's immune system.
How confident are you that you have done everything possible to insure your child's immune system is functioning at its highest level? Not sure, then I am excited for you to read the next 5 issues.

“Wringing Out the Stress of LIFE.”

Your Nerve System is the ultimate sponge, soaking up all the experiences, sensations and stresses you encounter every day.  Like a sponge, it can only absorb so much before it becomes over-saturated and spills stress into your body.  The result… PAIN, SICKNESS and WEAK PERFORMANCE!

The best thing you can do to prevent Nerve System Over-Saturation is to get checked by your Chiropractor regularly and adjusted when necessary.  Adjustments gently “wring out” accumulated tension in your Nerve System before it has a chance to build up and affect your health negatively.

If you're feeling super-soaked from the stress of Life, bring your saturated nerves to the Chiropractor for some TLC.  You'll experience more energy, improved sleep and a better overall feeling of wellness if you do.

“One Adjustment and a Bottle of Windex”

If you've ever tuned into the A&E television program Hoarders, it doesn't take a genius to quickly realize it's going to take more than a bottle of Windex to clean up all the garbage, moldy food and rotting animal poop that's been accumulating in those houses for years and years and years…

But some people accumulate health problems the same way, and unrealistically believe it will take just a visit or two at the Chiropractor's to fix all their issues.  From years of neglect, bad advise and denial, their chronic illnesses pile up until they can no longer recognize the healthy state their body used to be in.  By the time they decide to see a Chiropractor, they've got a real 'dis-ease hoarding' problem and unfortunately one adjustment isn't enough to clean up the squalor.  

The goal of Chiropractic isn't to temporarily sweep your symptoms under a rug to make things look good on the surface, but to actually roll our sleeves up and get rid of the underlying clutter once and for all.  Sure it might take a little more time and a bit more elbow grease to transform your health our natural way, but in the end your human house will be clean, pristine and habitable again.

"Treating the Bark vs. Adjusting the Cause”

You walk into your Chiropractor's office, hop on a table and point to where it hurts... expecting to get adjusted right in that very spot. But the Chiropractor starts working on a totally different part of your spine, not even close to where you feel the pain. Why is that?

There's an old saying that goes when you step on a dog's tail, it barks out the other end. In Chiropractic that means, where you hurt (the bark) isn't necessarily where the problem is (the tail). Many times the pain you feel in one area is actually a referred symptom from somewhere else. For example, someone with sciatica may feel pain down their leg, but the source of their problem is a Subluxation (vertebral misalignment) in their spine.

Chiropractors recognize that if you remove the cause of someone's symptom, the body will no longer have a need to produce it. That's why the main focus of a Chiropractic visit is to locate and correct the underlying problem, and not the superficial effect. Chasing after symptoms is like a dog chasing after its own tail. You only end up spinning around and around until you get dizzy, confused and frustrated. It's much smarter to address the underlying cause.