Learning Disabilities and Learning Delays; Lectures at Dekalb County Library

   It's easy to think that all the functions of your body and mind are initiated by the brain.

  But that's only a small piece of the full picture.  In order for anything to happen, the brain must know the world around it.

  That comes from the senses.

  We're taught in school that we have 5 senses, but that too is not accurate.  We have much more than that.  Beyond the 5 we know about there is a broad category that makes up a 6th sense.  Yes we all have a 6th sense!!  

  Sadly it's not quite as cool as Spidey Sense but it's still enormously important and has a disproportionate influence on the brain, our lives and our health.

  It's called proprioception.

It is the sense of our body's position, and movement.  Every moment of your entire life your brain is taking in this awareness.  Asleep or awake,, moving or still.  And it is the key sense that becomes distorted more than any other by our modern lifestyle.

  It's the integrated function of that sense that overwhelmingly influences Sensory Processing Disorders.  And in turn how the concept of sensory processing disorders give rise to the host of learning disabilities; dyslexia, autism and ADHD.
  I lecture on this topic from time to time at my local library.  We will discuss what things you can do on your own to facilitate improvement and how Chiropractic care plays a roll in the correction of some of the originating distortion in the brain.

  Where:

Tucker-Reid H Cofer Library

5234 LaVista Rd

Tucker GA 30084

770-270-8234  

click here Google Map to library

  When:

Contact the library to see when future dates are planned.

  Why:

The ability for a child to functionally and adaptively, grow their mind and improve their ability to learn is Obviously a big deal.  1 out of 6 children have challenges with this, and if I can help, I will try.

A Sensitive Adjustment for a Sensitive Nervous System

  I consumed a great book recently; Quiet, by Susan Cain, among the many significant things I learned, was about some fascinating research on the natural born sensitivities of the nervous system.  According to a Harvard child psychologist, Jerome Kagan PhD about 15-20% of 4 month old babies' nervous systems were wired a little tighter (my simplification) and were more sensitive to new sensory input.  As these children became young adults they were healthy and turned out fine, the point though, is that the highly sensitive ones were slightly more than twice as likely to be introverted rather than extraverted.
  So, this got me thinking; if about 1 out of 5 people actually are more sensitive to stimulus simply because their nervous system is built that way, maybe they need a different kind of chiropractic adjustment?  There are over 200 formalized techniques to deliver a chiropractic adjustment, but in a very broad oversimplified way of looking at it, chiropractic adjustments come in two varieties;  segmental and tonal.  Segmental means the individual bones - or segments - of the spine and the curvatures of the spine are addressed.  It's usually done with more force and in more areas of the spine, the stereotypical adjustment that makes a lot of noise is in this category.  Tonal is a type of adjustment that addresses more of the tone and subtle adaptability of the spine, usually with less force and sometimes in fewer areas of the spine.  (I know many of my fellow Chiropractors reading this are cringing at how ridiculously oversimplified this is). This is a much less common way of adjusting.  I probably deliver 1 out of every 50-100 adjustment exclusively this way.
  Now, the whole point to any chiropractic adjustment is to affect the nervous system in a positive pro-healing, pro-adaptability kind of way.  And maybe 1 out of 5 of my patients has a nervous system on the more sensitive side.  So I've been paying closer attention to how people identify themselves, as an introvert particularly.  And using that as a clue to see if they would be someone who would benefit more from the softer adjustment or an adjustment in less areas.  Ultimately I think it's more than 1 out of 5.  Based upon my experience, even before this book and new idea, I suspect it's 1 out of 3 or even more that would benefit more from "less" - less areas of the spine and less force.  Maybe this is why it's called "practice".  It's always a process of learning and growing.

People need People

Research shows that feeling lonely over time is far more accurately predictive of developing brain disease (dementia, Alzheimer's) than is feeling depressed.

Being social, feeling supported and being supportive, laughing and spending time with friends is more positively impactful on your health than is quiting smoking.

People need people.  We are pack animals.

Chiropractic and the Brain

1) The brain functions in patterns, repetitions or habits.  Some patterns are set to initiate protective mechanisms.  Some patterns are for growth and repair.

2) All funtional patterns of the brain have expression in the body.

3) The default brain patterns are for growth and repair.

4) Protective patterns that are activated for a prolonged period of time are damaging to the body and the brain.  A subluxation is an expression of this prolonged, damaging, protective pattern.

5) The chiropractic adjustment of the subluxation gives feedback to the brain, which can alter patterns.

6) Adjustments can interupt or initiate protective patterns.