Flu Adjustments: Keep Healthy Without a Flu Shot

Flu Adjustments

What is a flu adjustment and how do you get one? A flu adjustment is given by a chiropractor and can be received at our office. Unlike the flu shot that has potential for harmful side effects, the flu adjustment is safe for people of any age, and has no harmful side effects.

The reason flu adjustments work and can help reduce your chances of getting the flu or flu-like symptoms is by improving your body's own ability to fight off the viruses. This is done by strengthening your own immune system by improving the function of your nervous system. Chiropractors are trained and specialize in removing nerve pressure from your body, allowing your immune system to function optimally.

Chiropractic is based on three major principles, outlined below. By understanding these principles you will see how an adjustment from a chiropractor can boost your immune system and decrease your chances of getting the flu.

Principle 1: Your body is self-healing and self-regulating, and is doing so constantly.

Principle 2: Your brain controls everything in your body through your nerves.

Principle 3: If there is disruption in the communication between the brain, nerves and body, it cannot heal and regulate properly.

The first principle states that a healthy person's body has the potential to self-heal and self-regulate. If a person gets the cold or flu, the body will fight off and heal itself of the bacteria or virus. The body is also continually regulating itself. It constantly regulates blood pressure, digestion, immune function, breathing, heart rate, etc. without you having to think about any of those processes.

The second principle identifies what controls your body, and that is the brain. It is the control center that coordinates every function and receives every sensation of your body. This process is only possible if the message from the brain can reach the different organs and parts of your body by way of the nerves.

The third principle is simple. If you disrupt the communication between the brain and the body it weakens, limits or hinders the body's ability to heal and regulate, including how it fights off viruses and bacteria. The good news is that if a chiropractor can remove the disruption, the body has a better ability to heal and function. With a proper functioning nervous system, the body will have a better potential to fight off viruses and bacteria quickly and easily. This is a flu adjustment!

Flu adjustments are specific adjustments given by chiropractors to the area of the spine where there is disruption in the lines of communication reducing the body’s ability to fight of the flu virus due to a decreased immune system. Once the pressure is removed and the nerve is allowed time to heal, the function will be restored to the immune system. With an optimal functioning nervous system, principle one will take effect and the body will have the potential to fight off the virus on its own without any intervention.

Avoid Colds and Flu: Get Adjusted Regularly

Colds and flu are no fun, but we've come to expect to get sick sometime during "flu season." Catching a cold isn't always a bad thing, as you'll learn, but there are ways to keep from getting one entirely, and heal quickly when you do get sick.

Why we get sick

You are exposed to "germs"--different viruses and bacteria--every day. Any of these could make you sick except that your body's defense system kills most of those germs before they have a chance to do any damage (unless you are afflicted with a poor or weakened immune system).

When you do get sick, it's a result of a low resistance to disease. This is usually caused by stress: structural stress (what chiropractors correct), emotional stress, and chemical stress (toxins that your body hasn't been able to get rid of). A combination of two or more of these can allow an infection to take over your body.

3 reasons why cold symptoms aren't a bad thing

When you get sick, it means an infection or virus has gotten past your body's initial defenses. In order to get out the intruder, your body goes on the attack. Your body temperature will often raise to try to kill the invading germs (resulting in a fever), and other systems will do whatever they can to get rid of the bacteria or virus (resulting in a runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing, or in the cases of a digestive infection, vomiting or diarrhea). These symptoms are uncomfortable and unpleasant, but they're a sign that your body is doing what it's designed to, in order to heal from the illness.

If you take a fever reducer, you're taking away your body's ability to kill an infection with heat. If you take a decongestant to stop your nose or eyes watering, you're keeping the virus or bacteria in your body instead of letting your body get it out.

How chiropractic prevents colds and flu, and helps you heal faster

We've established that you get sick because of a compromised immune system. When your body's natural defenses are not functioning the way they should be, viruses and bacteria can get in and attack. How do you keep your immune system working properly? The same way you keep all your body's systems working correctly: by keeping the nerve pathways between your organs and your brain open and healthy. That's what chiropractic does, by keeping your spine in alignment and the nerves in your spine un-pinched!

Chiropractic also helps you heal faster when you do get sick. Sometimes, even with a healthy spine, you might get a cold, flu, or gastrointestinal infection ("stomach flu"). You'll be able to heal more quickly with a properly aligned spine. That's why it's important to come to the chiropractor when you get sick, ideally before you go see any other doctor. Come see us, then go home and rest!

Other ways to get healthy and keep healthy, naturally

Don't fight your body's well-designed defense system. Work with it! Keep healthy by:

• eating nourishing food, and avoiding food that doesn't benefit your body
• getting adequate sleep (at least 7 hours a night for adults)
• drinking plenty of water
• exercising regularly
• seeing your chiropractor at least monthly!

Source:

Koren, Tedd, D.C. (2014). Colds & Flu (pamphlet). TAN Koren Publications Inc.