January 2008: Traditionally a Time For Resolutions

Why Don't I Make Them Any More?

By Dr. Jim Campbell

It's always kind of a shock to get to this time of year-every year we turn the calendar page to November and are surprised that the year has flown by so fast! And then it's a real race to DO everything: final yard clean up, the Thanksgiving feast, getting the Christmas decorations out, untangling and putting up those lights and the wreaths, cutting the tree (yes, we found a great tree farm in Greeley that kept our tradition going from back east in New Jersey of supporting family owned farms and cutting a fresh tree), doing holiday party prep, cleaning carpets, making the cookies, eating lots of food, etc., etc. It becomes a blur!

And inevitably the page turns and it's the New Year-Whew! And of course, our thoughts turn to new beginnings and resolving to do something about our health, our weight, our looks and habits...something! Well, last year, my wife and I made some changes in our lifestyle that have had amazing and long lasting effects so that we don't have to make those resolutions this year.

The changes had to do with nutritional cleansing and weight loss and I must give the credit to my wife for finding the program and having the vision on this one because I really didn't think after all the things we'd tried over 20 years, that anything would really work BUT the result was that we lost 105 pounds together, I lost 55 and she lost 50-and we have kept it off for this whole year! This is the first anniversary of a New Year's where we are NOT resolving to do something about a problem that had been bothering us for the last couple of decades! Instead we can resolve to get out more in this beautiful state of Colorado and participate and enjoy the freedom of movement that comes with our dramatic changes in how we feel and look. Exercise definitely looks better in this gorgeous environment than it did back in New Jersey!

My wife, Molly, discovered the program called Isagenix that helped us both get over our dependency on carbs and caffeine and gave us dramatic weight loss results. It taught us some basic rules and helped us learn a simple schedule for pure food intake and increased water consumption. My patients back in New Jersey were so interested in our physical changes that they petitioned Molly to help them, too, and her life as a Weight Loss Coach was born! Molly would tell you that she is the last one to ever think she would be coaching weight loss and cleansing because she had a terrible time with her weight for so many years but now after successfully getting us to the year mark and coaching scores of people to their goals as well, she "owns" the title.

One of the things I've learned from listening to Molly coach her clients and from being on the receiving end as well in this process is that you have to be ready for the change. Your head and heart has to be in it for your body to change. She will not accept a client to coach during the holidays, she knows that there is just too much temptation and too much of an uphill battle at that time. She makes sure that the person has at least ten days to begin the program without an event like a wedding, reunion or big party where the temptations might just be too much or the explanations would be just too inconvenient. It has worked well for her clients.

I have similarly found that my patients have to have the desire to change, to get out of discomfort or pain and change the way they think before my adjustments, cold laser or detox programs will be effective. The way you think can really help to relieve pain.

This was not always a common way to look at things. Way back when in the 17 th Century when Rene Descartes came up with his theory of dualism, it was a revolutionary thought that the mind and body are completely separate. Descartes, a physicist, physiologist and mathematician, made an agreement with the Roman Catholic Church that he, a man of science, would restrict himself to the study of the physical body and religion would deal with the "mind". And from that time on, the studies of mind and body have for the most part, remained two distinct and separate fields. Scientists stayed within the realm of what they could see and measure and those dedicated to religion concentrated on thought and reason and emotions with a spiritual connection.

The first problem with this separation is that medicine used science as its only measuring stick. Procedures are only used if they pass strict scientific testing. This means the procedures must be able to be seen and measured. If they can't be seen and measured and proven through scientific experiment, they do not exist and will not be used in medicine. But...what if you put your hand in a bucket of water? What happens to the water? It rises, right? It rises by the exact amount that your hand takes up. It happens every time so it's called a law, the law of displacement. Now, what happens if you put your hand in the ocean? Well, we know that your hand displaces water, it has to, it's a law. The problem is, can you prove it? After all, you can't measure it, you can't see the results. So did the ocean actually rise? Of course it did. It rose a tiny un-measureable bit with the tools we have at this time.

So what's my point? The point is that by throwing out the mind-body connection simply because it could not be scientifically measured, medicine has ignored one of the most powerful healing forces known to man. How do I know it's such an important healing force? In 1981 a neurobiologist, David Felton, at the Indiana University School of Medicine discovered that the immune system is hard-wired to the brain through the nerve system. He used special fluorescent stains to trace nerves to different body locations such as bone marrow, lymph nodes and the spleen. He discovered that a network of nerves led to blood vessels and that cells of the immune system and nerves in the thymus and spleen ended near clusters of other cells that help to control nerve function. He actually saw in a spleen tissue sample the nerve fibers from the central nervous system-the wiring that leads to the brain-together with white blood cells-the key players in the immune system. He showed proof that the immune system and central nervous system are connected.

For the first time, there was scientific proof that the immune system is under direct control of the brain. Why is this so important to you as you begin another New Year? My question to you as you begin 2008 is: what are you thinking your immune system into doing? Are you thinking yourself healthy or sick? From my perspective of 24 years of chiropractic specialization, I have to ask: since your nerves serve as the communication lines between your brain and your body and immune system, are you sure those lines are open so your brain can keep you healthy? If you have misaligned spinal bones, your brain may not be able to communicate properly with your body and with your immune system. Having these spinal misalignments, or subluxations, may cause pain and may also weaken your immune system, leading to sickness and disease.

Keep your spine free from misalignments and get out of pain! Come in to see me for a check up. Mention that you saw this article in yourhub.com and your check up is FREE (a $75 value)! My office is located in Rejuvenation at 33 N. Main Street, Brighton, CO 80601. The telephone number is: 303-655-0250. .

And if you are interested in learning more about my wife, Molly's, nutritional cleansing and weight loss program, you can go to her website: www.weightloss4health.isagenix.com.