One day a large truck was driving through one of the busiest tunnels in New York City.  The truck was so large that it got stuck in the tunnel and could not back up or move forward.  Traffic eventually got backed up for miles and miles.  Dozens of traffic, bridge, tunnel, road, and truck experts were on the scene for hours trying to figure out what to do.  Just as the situation and the frustration of the experts was beginning to get out of hand, a 10-year-old little girl poked her head out of the window and said, and “Why don’t you just let the air out of the tires” The dilemma was resolved.  MORAL:  When life and the world aren’t working out, re-assess everything!

   Even though Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years make up a total of 3 days, most people just call November, December, and the first part of January - “The Holidays.” We often use “The Holidays” as an excuse to be irresponsible and careless.  We use it as a license to eat massive amounts of food, put all sorts of horrible “Holiday” items in our bodies, stop exercising, miss adjustments, overspend, and put important things off because, after all, it’s “The Holidays.”  In total, we end up with a 6-10 week reign of terror on our lives and bodies.

Following this pattern, by the time we are 40 years old, we would have spent 10 years doing serious, possibly irreparable, damage to our bodies, our finances, and in fact, our whole lives. 

Here is one of the single most important things you can do to maintain health and keep the effects of stress at a minimum;

MAKE SURE YOUR ATLAS IS CENTERED AND FREELY MOVING UNDER YOUR SKULL.

What is your Atlas?

The Atlas

Atlas in Greek Mythology is the god who holds the globe on his shoulders. The atlas in our bodies is a tiny, two-to-four-ounce bone that holds the entire weight of the head on it shoulders. The head weighs about the same as a bowling ball, between 8 to 10 pounds. The atlas is the most movable bone in the entire spine; it is also the most vulnerable to injury. An accident or injury can tear loose the connective tissues holding the bones of the neck in place. The atlas bone can then become wedged out of position. This misalignment can affect us in three ways.

1) Spinal Cord Irritation And Disruption: This situation can stress our digestion, breathing, blood pressure, as well as muscles. A misaligned atlas will affect nerve signals to 15 sets of postural muscles, muscles that help us stay upright. When a bunch of muscles doesn’t function, as it should, the muscles that are doing their job have to work harder to compensate, which makes them spasm and causes us to tire easily. The brain tells all of the body parts what to do through signals from the brain to the brainstem, to the spinal cord, out through the nerves and into the body. The nerves go to every muscle and organ. When the atlas shifts, twists or tilts out of position it can irritate the spinal cord, causing nerves in the spinal cord to fire. It is like when an army wants to block a radio transmission from their opponent. They will broadcast static on the same frequency. Listeners can hear that someone is speaking but can’t make out the words. When the atlas shifts out of place we are likewise able to function, but a clear signal can’t get through.

2) Impediment of Blood Flow The second way that the misalignment will affect us is by diminishing blood flow to or from the brain. Decreased blood flow can cause headaches, as well as fogginess and grouchiness. We don’t think as clearly.

3) Dural Torsion (Which means stress on your spinal cord) that immediately affects body functions and how you and your body adapt to stress. When the atlas twists out of alignment, it will twist this sack. If I took a dishtowel and grabbed both ends, then started to twist the towel and kept twisting, you would notice that the two ends would begin to be forced together. The same thing happens in our backs. Something called the “Dura Mata”-in Latin it translates to (Tough Mother) surrounds our brain, brainstem and spinal cord. It is a sack filled with CSF (cerebro-spinal fluid) that bathes your whole central nervous system with nutrients to say the least. Our brain is floating in this sack for protection. The sack part is very tough. It attaches to the different bones in the skull, our sacrum (tail bone), and the first bone in our neck. Our head and tailbone get forced together, jamming the discs in the back and the joints in the neck and back. This compression causes wear and tear that leads to degeneration of the bones and wears on the discs. Because the dural sack attaches to the sacrum and tailbone, it will twist the sacrum, causing the hips to rotate and a leg to go short. This can lead to hip, knee and feet problems. This puts extra pressure on the skull; the torsion in the “Dura” will lock the skull bones down creating headaches and TMJ problems.

As you can imagine the impact over time will increase the wear and tear on our bodies, which will accelerate the aging in our body and cause even worse problems in the coming years.

Please take time to take care of yourselves during this holiday season. Remember it is much easier to maintain good health then regain it once its lost.

In Love and Peace, 

Dr. Craig Kaler