One of the best aspects of my journey to get Fitter by Fifty has been how much I have already learned in the relatively short period of time I have been laser focused on my health. In the last five months, working with the professionals at Strata Integrated Wellness Spa, I have received a better health education than I have in the last 49 years combined.
It is such an incredible asset to have all these experts in a wide variety of fields under one roof and have them all working together to customize wellness treatments just for me. Just as important as the treatments themselves, has been the education they have given me throughout the process. For me, once I understand the “why” and the “how” of something, it is much easier for me to retain the information and make the necessary choices that improve my overall well-being.
One of the areas that I knew little to nothing about was chiropractic care. I had never been to a chiropractor before and let’s be real…we have all heard conflicting stories from friends over the years about how they either love going to the chiropractor or it was the worst thing they ever did. Me…I envisioned a guy much like Inspector Clouseau with an office full of torture chamber devices salivating over the chance to crack my neck.
My experience with Dr. Shane Wells, American Doctor of Chiropractic, could not have been further from what I had envisioned in my mind. Dr. Wells DOES solve mysteries…but they are the mysteries related to the signals that our bodies send to our brains and how those signals create responses in our bodies that can show up as pain or dysfunction. As he explained to me, most people are well aware of the five senses including sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. And when any one of these senses is triggered, it sends a signal to our brain and we have some sort of response. But in actuality, there are many more than just these five sense-related signals. There are signals being sent to our brain from approximately 19 “Neuroreceptors” that are constantly monitoring and communicating with the brain about the state of our organs and tissues. Dr. Wells can recognize these clues and use them to get the body back in balance.
These neuroreceptors respond to a wide variety of stimuli and when they are over-stimulated, perhaps due to some sort of trauma taking place in the body (like spraining an ankle, getting a tattoo, or stitching up a small cut you received as a child), they send alarm signals to the brain creating a compensatory response. The brain tells the rest of the body to compensate for that trauma and this results in a dysfunctional neuroreceptor pattern. This response is what allows our bodies to heal. But if that dysfunctional neuroreceptor pattern is not reset back to its “normal” state, then your brain continues to receive these alarm signals and they build up layer upon layer. This can go on for years and years and result in symptoms that may seem completely unrelated to the original trauma.
Confused yet? Let me give you a real-life example from my own treatments with Dr. Wells. On my first visit, he asked if I had any issues going on that he could address. I told him of a relatively new issue I have been having over the last few years with a lot of hip pain…both hips…they really start to hurt and feel like bone is grinding on bone after I have been standing or walking for long periods of time. I’m not yet 50 years old, so I really didn’t think I would be a candidate for hip replacements just yet! He asked me to list all the injuries or traumas my body has had throughout the course of my life…anything from surgeries, to cuts and scrapes requiring stitches, to broken bones. Fortunately, I have had zero surgeries so far in my life, I have only had stitches once, and I have only broken one bone.
I was a competitive horseback rider for many years and was bucked off a horse at a show resulting in a broken Coccyx…more commonly referred to as the tailbone. Yes, that’s right…I literally broke my butt! Dr. Wells ran a very short series of reflex tests while having me hold and stare at a piece of paper with two lines on it and determined that that particular injury could very well be the cause of this hip pain decades later. When that injury occurred, my brain received alarm signals from the neuroreceptors, and the brain responded with compensatory signals that allowed that part of my body to rest and heal. But without those neuroreceptors being “reset” back to their normal state, my body continued to receive alarm signals that have built up over the years. To put it quite bluntly, my butt has been taking a really long rest at the expense of my hips!
In order to remedy that, the neuroreceptor patterns have to be reset and according to Dr. Wells, this is an easy thing to do. What is NOT easy to do, is to explain exactly how Dr. Wells does that other than to say it is…well…kind of “magical!” And by “magical,” I mean effective but hard to explain! It is at this point, where life-long skeptics such as myself, really need to have an open mind and suspend our preconceived notions about methods of treatment. For me, I decided to be completely open to healing…even if the treatment seemed, well…unusual.
After discovering the trauma points and performing a few reflex tests, Dr. Shane, “Magic Man” Wells points at some areas that have experienced trauma, then there is some poking or tapping on arms, shoulders, head, and legs. This is the stimuli needed to reset whatever neuroreceptor needed work. There is a lot of pushing your arm or your leg against his hand to see how easy or difficult it is to pushback against the pressure. There are even a few devices thrown into the mix like a little hammer that thumps your back, or the shoulder blade sander from “wax on/wax off” that Mr. Miagi made the Karate Kid use to wax his car. By the end of the session, your body has revealed all kinds of mysteries and the Magic Man has analyzed the clues and all but fixed them forever.
After four treatments, I still can’t tell you exactly what happened, and do it any real justice, but I can say that my hips feel a lot better. They aren’t perfect, but they do feel much better. And I know that as I continue these series of treatments, my hips will feel better each time. Through these treatments, I also will be able to discover other areas that still have issues resulting from seemingly unconnected trauma and can get those neuroreceptors reset. It is very exciting to have some understanding about how this type of treatment can be of such benefit and more importantly, to see such positive results.
I have seen several children going to him for treatment and think about how lucky they are that they can deal with these little traumas we inflict on our bodies at such a young age and avoid the years and years of build up of dysfunctional patterns. Breaking an arm now and resetting those neuroreceptors will help these children avoid lifelong problems with their shoulders, backs, and other areas that could be affected without such treatment.
As has been shown to me over and over throughout all of the treatments I have received at the Strata Integrated Wellness Spa, well-being is about getting and keeping yourself in balance…mind, body, and spirit. I still haven’t gotten my neck cracked by “Magic Man” Wells but he’s taught me that that’s not all chiropractors do…in fact it is less than 5%…and what he is doing is far more important with long lasting impact. It makes perfect sense to me!
Join me next time on my journey to get Fitter by Fifty in which I will learn more about the importance of “nutrient dense” food with Kellie Gragg, Strata’s Healthy You Registered Dietician/Nutritionist.
Until then, I’m Poppy Potter getting Fitter by Fifty!
