A courtesy of Healing Touch Chiropractic and Dr. Gary Easter August, 2005
Back to School It's the end of July and next month our kids here in Georgia start back to school. When I was a kid growing up in the wilds of West (by God) Virginia, the appearance of back to school ads about this time was like someone raking their nails down a chalk board. Summer was an endless stretch of freedom winding into the distance like Interstate 66 through the Midwest, and like that road which finally comes to an end, so (unfortunately and with remorse) did our summer vacation. Things have changed considerably since my childhood. Now when I have to go back to school each year for my continuing education credit, I'm a little excited to see what new things I can learn. This year I attended the Life University Homecoming in Marietta Georgia and I have to say I came away with some new nuggets of information that I would like to pass onto you. We've all heard for years how women tend to be primarily right brain dominant and men left brain dominant. How women are the creative, thinking, analyzing ones and men are the doers of action and masters of spatial relation. Girls tend to excel in reading and art, while boys excel in math and sports. How does this information relate to our everyday life? I'm going to share a couple of theories with you, give you the information and let you decide. Left sided brain function is associated with higher dopamine levels. A neurotransmitter that has many effects on the body. One of them is increased levels associated with increased aggression. This would account for boys more aggressive behavior in general. However, a point often missed is the effect of amphetamines on dopamine levels. Amphetamines cause an increase in dopamine levels. Ritalin and other ADD drugs regularly prescribed to children are amphetamines. They are prescribed to calm the children's behavior whereas in a normal adult they cause extreme excitation, the exact opposite effect that it has in children. The mechanism for this difference is little understood in the literature. If boys start with a left brain dominance more so than their other counterparts and then is put on Ritalin as a child for ADD, at what point does the drug stop the calming effect and start the aggression-inducing effects it has in adults? This is a question that should be further looked at. Why is it that it's only the teenage boys on Ritalin that shoot up high schools and not girls on ritalin? Right sided brain function is associate with sympathetic nervous dominance. Sympathetic nervous dominance causes the ph of the blood to become more acidic. In order to balance the blood ph the body is forced to leach calcium from the bones. Add to this problem the blood acidifying effects of soft drinks, coffee, and a high protein diet, and it's easy to see why girls are more prone to osteoporosis when they get older. Now, you are all asking, (or maybe just me), what has this to do with chiropractic? Simple, Studies have shown that decreased input into the brain from a joint complex can lead to brain hemisphere inequality through the idea of Neuroplasticity. Chronic injuries to a joint in the body and subsequent decrease in motion can exacerbate brain hemisphere dominance. Chiropractic, by normalizing joint motion and subsequent neural input to the brain can help lessen the effects of brain hemisphere dominance. For those of you who zoned out back at the beginning of this article just like I used to do in Mr. Hutchison's algebra class, the point of this article is, don't be afraid of learning something new. Keep an open and chiropractically balanced mind. Laughter Therapy One of my greatest memories of summer where popsicles. My son Josh loves them, and this year the popsicle sticks themselves have some jokes on them. Here are a few: Q: What do you call a flying turtle? Q: What do cobras study in college? Q: What did the cook name his son? Q: What can lizards do that snakes can't? Q: Where does the catcher sit for dinner? Q: What do you give a snake with allergies? Enjoy the rest of your summer.
|