Here’s a question that recently came up in our practice. After answering it I remembered how people tend to think about what we do as treatments for various conditions, so I thought that I might share this answer with you.
Here was his question: My friend suggested taking my child to a chiropractor for his cold, rather than going to the doctor, because it really helped her son. I’m just a little skeptical about it. How does chiropractic care help a child’s common cold?
This is how we answered it: The larger question is whether or not a child with a simple cold really needs to see a physician. Keep in mind that your child’s body is designed to live in this environment, and the common cold is a normal adaptive experience in which the body adapts to outside stressors.
Photo courtesy of: verywellfamily
Cold symptoms are often a cleansing process that happens in the presence of microorganisms or other outside irritants. Should a child fail to improve in a reasonable amount of time, have a very high fever, or other alarming symptoms, then of course their care should be considered urgent.
In no case should a child see a chiropractor as an alternative to any other necessary care because chiropractic is not an alternative to anything else. However, chiropractic care is essential to a person’s ability to function properly. That’s because a subluxated vertebra insults the body’s nerve system, interfering with a person’s internal communication between the brain and the rest of the body. Since the brain is responsible for controlling and coordinating all body functions, the effects of a subluxated vertebra can be far reaching, even devastating. The good news is that a precise chiropractic adjustment corrects a vertebral subluxation.
The questioner asked how chiropractic care helps a child’s common cold. The answer may seem surprising. A chiropractic adjustment does nothing to treat a cold, but it does a lot to help the child.
Photo courtesy of: Educate midland
Remember, the brain controls and coordinates all functions of the body. That includes all normal physiology as well as the immune system and the healing process. But vertebral subluxation distorts the messages coming from the brain to the body. The question then becomes Does a child function better with a good nerve supply, or a distorted nerve supply? The answer is obvious. A child with a cold needs a good nerve supply, and a child without a cold needs a good nerve supply. A child playing soccer needs a good nerve supply and so does a child studying arithmetic. So the answer is really simple. Healthy or sick, everyone performs better with a good nerve supply than with a distorted nerve supply. Click here for more on better performance.