|
 Chiropractic
| Dr. Paul
Kohler, D.C., C.C.S.P.
Dr. Paul Kohler
is a sports degree-certified chiropractic sports physician. He
specializes in family and sports injuries. His practice,
Back2Health, has been operating in Bridgeville for 15 years,
treating people of all ages with gentle techniques. For more
information, call 412-257-3228 or email docndonna@comcast.net.
Excuse
Me, You’re Eating my Cookies!
Writing this first
column for the first issue of the South Fayette Source, I am
reminded of a trip I took back in my early days as a
chiropractor. Traveling from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles for a
seminar, I had a brief layover in Chicago and had to dash to my
next flight. On the way, I bought a bag of David’s
chocolate-chip cookies and hustled onto my flight. I ended up
with an aisle seat, the middle was free and a middle-aged woman
sat in the window seat. I tossed my carry-on onto the seat and
the flight took off. When the plane leveled off, I said to
myself, now would be a good time for a cookie. So I reached in
the cookie bag, grabbed myself a cookie and to my surprise the
lady next to me did the same thing. We matched each other cookie
for cookie all the way to L.A., neither of us saying a word.
When we landed, I figured I had to say something, so I said, “Good
cookies, huh?” She just
gave a “harrumph,” pushed her way past and took off down the
aisle. I reached over to grab my bag from the seat and what did
I find but my bag of cookies. We were eating her bag of cookies
the whole time. Suddenly I had a mental shift, from thinking
this lady was a no good ungrateful grouch, when it turns out she
was actually a rather decent and generous person. The moral of
the story is to keep an open mind. You may think you have all
the answers, but instead you may just have egg (or chocolate) on
your face.
In life not
everything is necessarily what it appears to be. The same can be
true of your health. A healthy life is not a destination, it is
a journey, with many twists and turns. Health can be lost, it
can be regained, but ultimately we want to make sure we have as
smooth a ride as possible before the trip is over.
I want to introduce
you to some concepts of health and healing and how to live as
healthfully as possible. I believe that all sickness and disease
comes from stress. Stress has three main forms: emotional,
physical and chemical. Similarly, there are three main aspects
of health: emotional, physical and chemical (think blood
chemistry). A good example of emotional stress is having too
much work to do and not enough time to do, like publishing a new
magazine when some silly contributor doesn’t have his article
in on time. Stress like that can literally kill you as it
affects your physical and chemical well being. This is termed
the fight or flight response and developed initially as a
response to a perceived threat. In man’s earliest days, when
someone was confronted by, say, an angry bear, he had to quickly
decide whether he was going to fight it, or whether it was time
to high tail it out of there. In this situation, man’s body
releases adrenalin (a chemical) which ramps his body up for
action. This was all quite desirable and necessary for survival
back then but in our modern world we don’t usually have that
kind of physical threat. Today’s big threats are trying to get
lunch in a half-hour while also running to the bank. Our bodies
still get ramped up, even if there is no fighting or running to
do, and that chemical buildup can eventually cause physical
changes (a.k.a. disease). As you can see, stress of one type can
affect all three aspects of health negatively.
An example of
physical stress might be falling down the stairs. That
definitely will cause physical grief, along with emotional pain
and chemical stress (swelling and bruising).
Chemical stress can
be illustrated by someone being exposed to road fumes. The fumes
can alter their blood chemistry making them physically nauseous
and emotionally irritable.
It is through these
same means — physical, chemical, and emotional — that
health can be maintained and/or restored. How many of you have
heard of someone using positive thinking, laughter and emotional
support to recover completely when doctors said they only had a
year to live? Chemical means could be used if someone had a
staph infection and took an antibiotic to kill the bug.
Chemistry could also be affected positively by nutrition as in
the use of Vitamin C to ward off a cold. Lastly, physical means
such as the chiropractic approach could be used to help someone
get rid of headaches. Using physical stimuli, such as heat, ice
and electricity to reduce muscle spasm, along with gentle manual
or mechanical introduction of motion to the joints can often
eliminate or greatly reduce pain and body dysfunction.
I think proper
physical, emotional and chemical support can go a long way to
maintaining or restoring someone’s health. Try it today with
someone you love, give them a hug, a glass of water and a back
rub. I’ll bet you’ll feel a little better yourself.
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Game
Night Traditions
