The Optimal Health through Death and Elite Athletic Ability through Disability Continuums sets forth the bidirectional course of how the human body is in a state of dynamic flux along a biological continuum-‘State of the Organism’. This continuum extends from optimal health to death, and each person in San Francisco CA passes through the continuum stages. From optimal health, humans move to a state that may be termed as a departure from health, then to disease, and on to the expression of a specific disease, complete with signs and symptoms.
People with mild departures from physiologic normal should be treated before they experience pathological changes. An early departure from health that is not yet expressed as illness is much less classifiable as disease. In this stage, the healthcare goal is to determine the patient’s position and direction of movement on the biological continuum by tracing the gradual deterioration, and then restoring the body’s internal resistance before disease develops. This early treatment, directed at the vertebral subluxation complex and its crucial relationship to the spinal cord and the spinal nerve roots, is of utmost concern to the chiropractor, as is the functional capacity status of the patient.
There is also an ‘Elite Athletic Ability though Disability Continuum’, which has parallels to the ‘State of the Organism’ continuum described above. It is difficult to identify a discrete point within most human functions where a line can be drawn between ability and disability. Therefore, it is essential to develop a standardized reference against which function can be compared to differentiate elite athletic ability from disability and the stages in between. Within that reference, a distinction should be developed to clarify treatment for prevention and a return to optimal health and elite athletic performance, rather than just focus on the standard treatments from the continuum of dysfunction through disease to death, and from sub-normal ability through impairment to disability.
The health promotion model we advocate is to optimize both the ‘Optimal Health through Death’ and ‘Elite Athletic Ability through Disability’ Continuums for a better health status. These two continuums’, which run parallel to each other as displayed in the attached graphic- ‘Optimal Health through Death and Elite Athletic Ability through Disability Continuum’, can act as a template on directing behavior toward lifestyle choices which increase our internal resistance. The goal is to increase one’s internal resistance on each side of the triad of health in order to meet the structural, chemical, and mental stressors we encounter.
HUMAN ADAPTATION TO LIFE STRESS IN SAN FRANCISCO CA:
Humans can adapt and successfully function within a range of external conditions if we are given regular exposure to those conditions. Each individual possesses an intrinsic and biological dynamic that interacts with and mitigates external forces. The potential for healing is our natural heritage when we are free from vertebral subluxations, nourished with a balanced diet, and get adequate sleep, clean air/water, regular exercise, proper posture, and when stressful living is well managed.
The adaptation goal is to build the body’s internal environment (including structural, chemical, and psychological hardiness) to best resist the external environment (including traumas, toxins, microorganisms, nutrient deficiencies, temperature extremes, and stress). When the body must function through a wide range of conditions, it becomes greatly strengthened and builds an enlarged scope of adaptability. Rather than be victimized by the external world the body adapts more efficiently to its surroundings.
Each side of the triad of health (structural, chemical, and mental) has its internal resistance that copes with the physical, chemical, and psychological stressors that produce responses within the body. Conditioning factors can selectively enhance or inhibit a stress effect. Thus, conditioning may be internal (caused by genetic predisposition, age, sex, and/or other structural, chemical, and mental factors) or external (caused by treatment with hormones, dietary factors, the removal of nerve irritation, and/or stress management). Under the influence of such conditioning factors (which determine sensitivity), a normally well-tolerated degree of stress can become pathogenic and cause diseases of adaptation, selectively affecting the predisposed body area.
Some good can come from physiologic challenges, if not taken beyond the limit. Evidence of a positive effect is apparent, since repeated exposure to arousing stressors may lead to physiological toughness, which is an increased capacity for responding to stress, plus the increased resistance to the potential damage that stress can produce. It appears that the greater one’s internal resistance, the greater the ability to resist distress, and the greater potential for optimal health and elite athletic performance. When internal resistance is at suboptimal levels in the structural, chemical, and psychological realms, the chance of dysfunction is greater and there is an increase in the signs and symptoms of injury, illness, and impairment.
The doctors of the future will push their patients up the ability and biological continuums toward ‘optimal health and elite athletic performance’. Our goal is to help increase our patient’s internal resistance by improving their biomechanical, biochemical, and bioecopsychosocial status. In addition, keeping the structural, chemical, and mental stressors to a minimum. In addition, it is important to avoid other risk factors for injury, illness, and disability so that our patients and clients can resist the signs and symptoms of disease and disability. The chiropractic physician specializes in the biomechanical neuromusculoskeletal realm, which promotes ideal locomotion, neurophysiology, and good musculoskeletal function for optimal health and elite athletic ability.
Orthomolecular physicians specialize in the bio-chemical electromagnetic realm, which promotes ideal combustion within the body’s energetic systems for optimal energy needs, physiology, and detoxification. The psychoneuroimmunologist specialize in the bioecopsychosocial realm, which promotes ideal relationships with nature, others, and oneself toward the goal of optimal health and elite athletic performance. A balanced triad of health means a balance of the human body, mind, and spirit, thus better adaptation in today’s rapidly changing society. The patients that come into our offices are multi-dimensional and complex in their presentations.
The triad of health helps us view their overall dynamic presentation and dysfunction. In addition, spinal subluxations, peripheral nerve entrapments, and dysfunction in the sacral occipital respiratory function can affect the information processing occurring within your central and peripheral nervous systems. Circulation can also be compromised, as the vessels pass through muscles that may be tight due to guarding from joint dysfunction or from prolonged awkward posture that have caused muscles to shorten.
When insults to the biomechanical, biochemical, and bioecopsychosocial systems within the body are managed, patients are able to heal, adapt, and experience optimal health and elite athletic performance and be hindered by neither disease nor disability. As healthcare providers, we need to convey to our patients and clients that being fit in a technological society means taking responsibility for a chosen lifestyle and making smarter choices that affect wellbeing.
Lifestyle choices that mimic our ancestors’ past, which incorporate natural physiological efficient postures, movement, nutrition, relaxation, and play can help one achieve optimal health and elite athletic performance. Active and healthy lifestyles enable a patient’s mind, body, and spirit to function at peak efficiency and better adapt to our changing world. For overall wellness, we help our patients and clients have less distress in each aspect of the triad of health. In coordination, we must arm our patients and clients with more factors which increase internal resistance in each aspect of the triad of health. As healthcare providers, we must also practice what we preach. Our patients look to us as model educators and our personal progress offers our patients persuasive guidance in their paths toward optimal health and elite athletic performance.