Do You Know Where Your Foot Is? Part 2 of 2

The cops in Minority Report, a fictional story by Philip K. Dick that later became a blockbuster movie, operated under the assumption that they could prevent crimes before they happened. Rather than wait for the bloody aftermath of a crime they knew was about to happen, they would swoop in and apprehend the pre-criminal in the moments before the crime would be committed.

How fantastic would it be if healthcare worked that way? If, instead of waiting to heal the body until after an accident occurs, the accident could be prevented in the first place? Well, that's precisely what Activator chiropractors attempt to do.

In the previous post, I listed how proprioceptors in the foot are connected to the spinal cord by way of the low back. One of the most common conditions in elderly individuals is degenerative disc disease (this is not a "normal" aging process, just a very common one). When the discs between spinal vertebrae lose their capacity for motion, they also lose their nourishment, shrivel, and die.

As the discs get smaller, the vertebrae get closer together, irritating and chafing the precious nerves between them, the nerves which travel in and out of the spinal cord, crisscrossing the body with information whizzing at blazing rates of speed like so many futuristic supercars.

The nerve is chafed, the proprioceptive ability diminishes, and... an elderly person loses track of the exact position of her feet for a split second, snags her toe on the edge of a throw rug, and falls to the floor.

Did you know that the leading cause of traumatic death in the elderly is falling? Something as simple as a fall can shatter an osteoporotic hip, which causes devastating loss of mobility and independence, requires hospitalization and often nursing home care, and causes death in 1 in 5 elderly victims.

Did you know that the risk of falling increases for any person who regularly takes more than one prescription drug? Proprioception is severely limited by all toxins, especially those whose purpose is to interfere with the normal operation of the nervous and immune systems. Persons who take even one psychoactive drug are also at increased risk for a fall.

If low back mobility is maintained as a young person, wouldn't you have a better chance of avoiding degenerative disc disease in your later years? And if you avoid that disease, wouldn't your proprioceptive nerves have a better chance of working properly? And if your proprioceptive nerves work properly, and you were healthy enough to pass up prescription drugs, wouldn't your toe be less likely to drag that extra inch thirty years from now? And if you don't fall in thirty years, will you live longer, healthier, and happier?

My answer is Yes. I like to think of myself as your very own Peoria Activator Minority Report chiropractor. Chiropractic is not just for back pain and headaches and neck pain, it is for the prevention of injuries and the preservation of well-being. The Future Can Be Seen. Injuries Can Be Prevented. Do you know where your foot is?