Beyond Bone Alignment: The Brain-Centric & Holistic Factors for Lasting Chiropractic Results

This podcast episode challenges the conventional understanding of chiropractic adjustments, asserting that their primary mechanism is not merely moving bones but rather stimulating the brain, creating a "pattern interrupt," and retraining the nervous system. Dr. Ekberg explains that adjustments activate various receptors, sending signals to the brain, which can be verified by EEG studies. This process is akin to skill acquisition, requiring repetition to establish new neurological patterns and habits, thereby addressing issues like poor posture or muscle spasms as learned behaviors.

The core distinction made is that for an adjustment to have a lasting effect, the brain must be able to process the signal and build new neural pathways (synapses). This requires not only energy (glucose or ketones, and oxygen) but also essential raw materials or "building blocks" derived from nutrition, including essential fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and cofactors found in whole foods. The speaker highlights that deficiencies due to processed foods can impede this crucial rebuilding process, leading to temporary results from adjustments.

Practical insights focus on identifying and addressing factors that interfere with the brain's ability to process signals and create lasting change. These include poor digestion (leading to inflammation and nutrient deficiencies), food sensitivities, metal and chemical toxicities (emphasizing the dramatic increase in environmental chemicals since 1950), chronic immune factors, and even electromagnetic fields. The recommendation is to support the body holistically through improved nutrition, digestive enzymes, and detoxification strategies, which can significantly enhance the efficacy and longevity of chiropractic care. Initial adjustment frequency of three times a week is suggested to interrupt patterns, with stabilization expected within weeks if underlying factors are managed.

Broader implications underscore that the modern environment, characterized by processed foods, widespread toxins, and increased stress, makes lasting chiropractic results more challenging than in previous decades. The episode advocates for a holistic, brain-focused approach to chiropractic, emphasizing that maintenance adjustments are crucial due to ongoing environmental stressors. It promotes a vision of health that extends beyond symptom relief to achieving a fully functional body and a stable brain, encouraging both patients and practitioners to understand the complex interplay of factors influencing overall well-being and the profound neurological effects of chiropractic care.

it is not about moving the bone I don't care how many chiropractors have told you that it is about the alignment of the bone that's not what it's about

it's about the effect on the brain what happens in the brain when you move the bone because the brain controls and regulates everything in your body

when we stimulate when we do something like an adjustment which is also very quick and very sudden it's very different from a stretch for example we have a pattern interrupt it's like a defibrillation in a sense it's like a surprise to the brain

all skills that you have are patterns in your nervous system it is by creating habits and patterns and pathways that are habituated that you can carry out actions and skills automatically so posture muscle spasms they're also habits misalignments are also habits that we need to interrupt and that we need to retrain

in order to change the skill in order to retrain the pattern we have to make new synapses we have to enhance we have to enlarge the pathways involved and that means we have to build something we have to add materials we have to have raw materials with which to build new synapses and new pathways

nutrition becomes incredibly important for the adjustment to work

if someone has poor digestion then they're gonna have inflammation and they're gonna have deficiencies because they can't break down the food so it causes inflammation they can't break down the food so they can't absorb the micronutrients

50 60 70 years ago people got a few adjustments and they got tremendous results because we didn't have such processed food such poor digestion we didn't have so many deficiencies we didn't have metal toxicity chemical toxicity they've added 80,000 chemicals in our environment since 1950

I believe a maintenance for most people should be maybe once a month every six weeks every couple of months very few people can go even longer than that and still do well but again it's not about symptoms it is about having a fully functional body

very very few people even very few chiropractors understand what chiropractic is they are great at moving the bone they're great at getting people better but they don't really understand the profound brain effects and the the complex picture that they're influencing