Home
About
Blog
New Patients
services
Contact

rochester chiropractic 

rochester chiropractic 

WElcome TO

Explore our blog that focuses on holistic care for any and all ages - pediatric well-being, pre/post-natal health, and adult vitality.

THE BLOG

family

kids

kick the sick

pregnancy

blog home

chiropractor checking for neck subluxation
read the post

What is Subluxation?

New Patients

Today we want to discuss a topic with you that may be unfamiliar but can make a significant difference in your child’s health – we call it subluxation. As parents, understanding what subluxation is and how it impacts our children’s health is absolutely crucial.  Once you understand what subluxation is, you will be all in trying to find a way to get rid of it.

Subluxation is stress on the nervous system, which can lead to a range of issues. Including gut problems, sensory issues, emotional and behavioral challenges, and immune system issues. However, on the other side of subluxation is a healthy nervous system that regulates the gut, immune system, and motor system and gets everything in sync with your child’s brain or hard drive.

Subluxation is not something that you’ll typically hear about from a standard pediatrician or medical office. Unfortunately, the medical definition of subluxation is outdated and simplified, leading to a lack of understanding of its neurological component. This is where neurologically focused pediatric chiropractic comes in – this is our specialty.

As parents, you need to know the science and story behind subluxation. So let’s break it down visually. Subluxation is a significant issue that can be tackled by a trained neurologically focused pediatric chiropractor. By figuring out whether subluxation is the root cause of your child’s health problems, you can take steps to eliminate it and get your child’s health back on track.

The Three Parts of Subluxation

Subluxation is a three-part problem. The first part is a misalignment in the neuromotor system, which includes the musculoskeletal and neuro spinal systems. The spine, in particular, is the most influential motor system we have.

Misalignment in the spine leads to fixation, which is better described as tension or altered tone. If you’ve taken your child to a pediatric therapist, you’ve probably heard about proprioception, tone, coordination, and other motor-based challenges. These are the first parts of subluxation, affecting much more than just the musculoskeletal system.

The third element of subluxation is where the real challenge comes in because it causes neurological imbalance within the brain and nervous system. This leads to interference and imbalance in the central or autonomic nervous system, called Dysautonomia. When subluxation shifts the nervous system into sympathetic “fight or flight” dominance, it can negatively impact the thriving, growing, digesting, sleeping, resting, and immune function of your child. We need that gas pedal side of the nervous system for survival, but it is not where we thrive.  It doesn’t help us grow, digest, sleep, or rest. 

So when the spine and the neuro spinal structural system are under too much stress, this results in a stressed-out nervous system. This system is our access point to the central autonomic nervous system, which is how God designed us. 

The central nervous system, or autonomic nervous system, is protected by the skull and spine. It includes the brainstem and the vagus nerve. Subluxation alters the function of the nervous system, and it is our job as chiropractors to make safe, gentle, natural drug-free adjustments to clear out the subluxation and reduce stress.

3 Main Systems Impacted by Subluxaiton

Subluxation impacts three main systems in your child’s body: the gut, immune, and motor systems. When subluxation is present, it shuts down gut motility and gut function, which can result in reflux, colic, and constipation. It also impacts the immune system, making your child more susceptible to ear infections, respiratory challenges, and autoimmune disorders.

Finally, subluxation affects the motor system and developmental milestones, which can impact your child’s ability to reach important milestones. If your child is having tantrums, sensory or behavioral challenges, and is not sleeping or developing appropriately, this could be a sign of too much stress stuck on the nervous system.

If you want to address subluxation and improve your child’s health, please give us a call at 507-424-0655. Our office will use INSiGHT scans to measure and find the stress on your child’s nervous system. We can measure and find exactly where that stress is located, how much there is, and how bad it is. This allows for the creation of a custom care plan that addresses the subluxation and reduces stress.

Getting rid of subluxation can lead to incredible natural, neurological healing, which improves the gut, immune, and motor systems. Your child will sleep better, regulate their emotions better, and overall function at a higher level. 

Please share this and send it to a friend desperately trying to get their kid healthy. Subluxation may just be the answer they are searching for.

read the post

Why is Vagus Nerve Health So Important For Our Kids?

Pediatric Chiropractic

The Vagus Nerve is all the craze right now! Any search on google will generate thousands of hits with life and “health hacks” galore.  With all the research, biohacking, and natural science that has been reported lately, it’s cool to hear about a part of our nervous system that can have such an amazing impact on our health and adaptability.

But did you know the vagus nerve is also very important for our kid’s development, behavior, and sensory comfort? Let’s dig into the science of an active vagus nerve and a vagus nerve that is “turned down.”

If you are in the health world and follow natural, holistic living, there is no doubt that you’ve heard of the vagus nerve. Being a pediatric chiropractor, I would be very remiss if I didn’t talk about the vagus nerve and how it can help you and your kiddos because it is the answer to so many of our health challenges.  

What Is the Vagus Nerve?  Turn It Up or Turn It Down

The vagus nerve is a nerve that comes out from underneath the skull on both sides and goes throughout the entire body – through the heart, lungs, and digestive organs. You may have heard about the vagus nerve in relation to the brain-gut or gut-brain balance, which has much to do with digestion. While that is one of the incredible things the vagus nerve can do, it has more all-encompassing action that’s so important for our kids.

There are two main things that the vagus nerve does. If you turn it up, it is a sensory relaxer, so it will help the body rest, relax, and digest.  If you turn it down, it allows the other side of the nervous system to take effect –  the go, go go, fight or flight, busy brain side.

What you really want is a balance of up and down regulation and what we usually end up needing for our kids is to turn the vagus nerve up because, in the world we live in, it’s so often turned down. That’s why our kiddos seem to have that busy brain, fight or flight more often.

The Vagus Nerve and Rest/Sleep, Emotional Regulation, and Digestive Function

When we turn it up, that results in three effects on our kids. Number one is rest and sleep. The vagus nerve allows the body to sensory deregulate to help the body block out all external noise. This allows the brain and body to calm down, which helps kids get to sleep and stay asleep.

The second thing is emotional regulation – the relaxed side. When our body is turned down on the vagus, it feels like you’re running from a bear in fight or flight. So if you have a three-year-old like me, you know they can go haywire sometimes because emotions are controlled by that up or down regulation. We want to get that vagus nerve turned up for our kiddos.

The third has to do with our digestive side. There’s so much more that goes into that brain-gut connection. Not only is digestion so key for moving fluids throughout the body, but it’s huge in feeling comfortable and developmentally ready for kids.

If you have a kiddo who is six months to a year old and they’re working on walking, talking, adding in foods, and are starting to get away from bottle or breastfeeding, if they’re not digesting, it’s going to slow everything else down. So the vagus nerve is vital for babies as a developmental milestone to help them jump ahead with the sensory system, motor system, movement, social system, and walking. 

The Vagus Nerve and Birth Trauma, Stress, and Physical Trauma

This is where chiropractic comes in because pediatric chiropractors can have a major impact  on turning that vagus nerve up when needed. Because of where it is located, it can be impacted in a negative way by three main things we see. 

It can be affected by birth trauma. If you had a stressful pregnancy or delivery, had to use forceps or a vacuum, or had a C-section, that can impact and turn down the vagus nerve immediately during the birth process. 

Secondly, the vagus nerve can be impacted by the toxic stress levels we are surrounded by today. When our environment comes at us with toxic items, that can affect our gut which communicates back and forth with our brain. If the gut and brain are imbalanced, it will cause the body to do all different things, like turning the vagus nerve down, resulting in that flight or flight mode.

The third thing is when kids are playing sports, having accidents like falling off their bikes, and experiencing these big physical stressors in their life that are causing them to 

get tight, tense, and hold that extra energy. Physical stress affects the vagus nerve, not only impacting this upper cervical region but in turning it down. 

So if you are struggling with sleep, emotional regulation, digestion, etc, and are trusting your gut that they’re all related… you’re right! That is because it is all controlled by the vagus nerve. 

We use technology in our office called INSiGHT scans to measure this nerve and see whether it is turned up or down. If it is more turned up, chances are, you are going to have a much easier, well-regulated rest, digest, chill kiddo that can adapt and overcome a lot of things.

If it’s turned down, they most likely want to do those things but might struggle to get them done. That’s where we come in, and we really want to help you. We know that every kiddo is unique, so we will put together a custom care plan to help your child reach their full potential.