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What
is Health?
Upon the untimely death of Linda McCartney
at age 56, USA Today quoted a doctor saying, "Breast
cancer after all is a disease that affects healthy people.
That’s why everybody is so surprised when they
get it."
Your Spine and Nervous System
Even though your brain sits quiet and
silent in your skull and appears to be doing nothing,
every moment it is processing billions of bits of information
from your body about what is going on inside you and
around you and sending out billions of commands: telling
you how fast your heart should beat, what to wear, how
to throw a towel in the laundry and monitoring blood
pressure and chemistry. Your brain makes it possible
to remember millions of moments and express moods, emotions
and feelings.
The bottom of the skull has a large hole
called the foramen magnum. As your brain extends through
the hole, the cable of nerve fibers is called your spinal
cord. Spinal nerves then connect to all of your organs
and extremities to the brain. This allows you to feel,
for example, that a mosquito has landed on your big
toe.
Nerves are Everywhere
There are so many nerves in the body that
if you took away all the skin, bones, muscles and blood
vessels, you would still be able to recognize yourself!
Protection
The nervous system (your brain and nerves)
is very fragile. Brain damage can be permanent, so your
soft tissue in the brain is covered by bone for protection.
The spinal cord is not completely covered by hard bone
because you would not be able to bend or twist. The
surrounding bone stacked like doughnuts, with a hole
in the center for the spinal cord to pass through.
Your Spine
In ancient Greece, when people looked
at the spine from the outside they saw bumps and thought
they looked like horns, so they called them spina, which
is Greek for horn. Now we call it your spine and each
of the bones are called vertebrae from the Latin vertere
or to turn. The spinal column (your backbone) is divided
into 5 sections: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacrum
and coccyx.
Cervical (Neck)
Directly under your skull is your first
cervical vertebrae or atlas, which holds your skull
as the god Atlas held the globe of the earth. Axis
is the second vertebrae in the cervical spine because
it allows the head to turn and tilt. Your spine has
numberical names and in the cervical vertebrae they
are C-1 or Atlas, C-2 or Axis, C-3, C-4, C-5, C-6,
and C-7.
Thoracic (Mid-Back)
The twelve midback vertebrae are called
Thoracic vertebrae and number T-1 to T-12. Each vertebrae
has a rib connected to the right and left side which
forms the ribcage as they round to the front and attach
at your sternum.
Lumbar (Lower Back)
The largest of the vertebrae is in the
lower back. Most people have five bones that are the
thickest and most massive because they have the most
weight to support. Lower back pain is common because
this area takes a lot of pressure from the weight.
Sacrum
The sacrum, located directly below the
lumbar vertebrae, is a triangular shaped bone made
of five fused vertebrae. It comes from the Latin word
for sacred because it was the part of the animal used
in sacrifies. The bone connects the lower body to
the upper body.
Coccyx
Directly underneath the sacrum we find
the tailbone or Coccyx. Three or four vertebrae are
fused together and what remains is what used to be
the human tailbone. From time to time human babies
are born with extra coccyx bones growing outside the
body, a tail. A surgeon can easily remove them.
Your Discs
Your discs are located between each vertebre.
Acting as pading or shock absorbtion, the discs cushion
your vertebrae from bumping into each other when you
bend, walk and run.
Function of your spinal column
- To protect your brain and spinal cord
- To serve as places for muscles to attatch
- To support hips, legs, arms and shoulders.
- To support head and ribs.
If your spine isn’t balanced a lot
of things can go wrong. The stress on your bones, spinal
cord, and nerves will cause pain, weakness, fatigue,
and disease (or the loss of health).
Chiropractors specialize in locating the
unbalance and bringing your body back to balance and
health. They remove the subluxations and realign the
spinal column which removes the stress and dis-ease
from your body.
Americans Aren't Making the Health
Grade
The above headline comes from the June
30, 2003 ABC News online. The story is in reaction to
a report commissioned by the American Academy of Family
Physicians which finds that a full 98 percent of the
1,000 adults polled admit they have at least one of
the unhealthy habits they were asked about, such as
smoking, not exercising enough, handling stress poorly
or eating a less-than-healthful diet.
Among the findings from the study that
were listed in the article are:
- Twenty-six percent said they smoke
at least sometimes, and half of these people acknowledged
it's a harmful habit.
- Only 48 percent said they maintain
a healthy weight.
- About 42 percent of women and 31 percent
of men said they aren't doing well at stress management.
- Thirty-two percent said they don't
limit dietary fat.
- Only 25 percent said they work out
vigorously five or more hours a week.
- Thirteen percent said they don't have
time to watch their fat intake, and 47 percent gave
no reason for not watching it.
When asked why they continue a habit that's
unhealthy, 24 percent said they lack willpower or self-control,
and another 14 percent said stress was to blame. Dr.
Michael O. Fleming, a family physician in Shreveport,
La., and president-elect of the American Academy of
Family Physicians, which commissioned the health behavior
poll made this suggestion, "The main thing is to
begin to take things seriously," Fleming says.
People must realize the importance of managing risk
factors for disease, he says, or they'll pay the price,
probably sooner than they think.
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