DR. VIKAS PURI

A Means to physical and spiritual health

Do you know how healthy you are?  Are you aware that your spine holds the key to your overall physical, emotional and spiritual well-being?  Chiropractors and Yogis understand this, and both provide a means of tapping into your own innate healing potential. This article explores this common thread.

The Yoga Sutras, a text written by the ancient sage Patanjali circa 400 CE, lays out an eightfold approach to Self-Realization. The first two steps involve the “do’s and don’ts” that build our spiritual character. The third step is asana (correct posture). This is followed by higher and deeper states of breath and life force control and meditation until the soul unites with Universal Spirit. Yoga literally means “Union”.  As the wave becomes the ocean, so does individual consciousness unite with Cosmic Consciousness.

According to Yogic Philosophy, for the soul to consciously liberate from the cycles of life and death, the Yogi must consciously raise the life force (Prana) from the lower energy centers (chakras) of the spine to the top of the head, from where the soul will emancipate.

The movement of life force through the spine and out to different body parts is also an important element by which a Yogi can heal the physical and emotional body.

For these reasons, asana (correct posture) is the precursor step to pranayama (life force control) according to Patanjali.  Life force cannot flow efficiently, if at all if there is an impediment due to improper posture. The spinal nerves through which the life force flows, become pinched, which prevents self-healing, or spiritual advancement.

This is the reason ancient sages of India had created Hatha Yoga, physical exercises, to increase spinal flexibility, and improve posture, for the purpose of being able to sit for long periods of meditation and stay healthy in body, mind, and soul.

100 years ago, a healer named D.D Palmer, a native of Port Perry, Ontario, discovered the power of proper spinal alignment after he delivered the first ever chiropractic adjustment, a spinal manipulation, to a deaf man named Harvey Lillard. Harvey’s hearing came back, and the modern science of chiropractic was born.

In reality, it was a reconfirmation of the Yogic Philosophy and Science discovered thousands of years ago. Proper life force movement, through correct posture, is necessary for healing.

Chiropractic philosophy states that there is an innate divine intelligence within us, which fails to express itself when there is interference in the spine. This interference is known as a subluxation.  Subluxations are physical manifestations of stress (physical, chemical, and emotional), resulting in improper spinal alignment, and loss of proper nerve function, reducing the flow of vital energy and communication from the brain to the body. This leads to various mental, physical and emotional symptoms and disease.

Subluxations were known to ancient yogis and modern chiropractors. Health, defined as: “a state of optimal physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being, and not just the absence of infirmity or disease”, presupposes a need for proper posture and spinal alignment.  It is the means for our life force to be directed by our innate intelligence, through our nervous system, to various parts of the body in order to function and heal.

Chiropractors remove these subluxations by way of chiropractic adjustments, helping restore your health, and enabling the Yogi to assume the proper posture required for his/her spiritual practice (sadhana).

Discover the yogic-chiropractic means to better physical and spiritual health today!

BY DR LYDIA THURTON

Somatization is when your body takes emotional pain and creates a physical problem. Patients will have all kinds of diagnostic testing only to be told that everything is normal. More than 80% of patients with dizziness, chest pain and fatigue have no medical explanation.

Patients are frustrated when they are told that a physical symptom is “all in their head.” To them, it discounts their experience and makes them feel crazy. This is not true at all! Your body is trying to talk to you in a way you understand. Everyone understands physical pain, not all of us will acknowledge feelings of sadness, grief and shame. Many of us are taught to disconnect from our emotional state, stuff down our feelings and put on a brave face. When we do this for a long period of time physical problems can result.

Think about your upbringing, with your parents. When you were sad or fearful, were you praised for identifying your emotions? And comforted? If not, then you probably have a tendency to avoid feeling and pretend that things are fine when they really aren’t. Most of our emotional reactions are learned in childhood. It is important to be honest with how emotionally intelligent your household was growing up.

If you have children think about your reaction to their emotional pain. This is especially critical for young boys. I feel much of the violence in our world is perpetrated by men who are hurting emotionally. And have no safe outlet.

Physical abuse or sexual trauma puts people at increased risk for somatization. If you have trauma in your history your body may use somatization as an ego defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms protect our minds from having to re-experience painful events. Instead of reliving the abuse you suffered, the body turns that pain into a sore back, or period cramps, or digestive upset. You are still experiencing pain, but body pain feels safer to us. Mental, emotional pain is much more unpredictable and complex to treat.

When a condition starts out of the blue take stock of your life. Are you upset at someone and biting your tongue? Do you feel powerless? Do you feel disrespected? Are you heart-broken? If you have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression or another psychiatric illness you are at increased risk to have your body talk to you. Digestion, sleep and physical pain are all very real consequences of mental illness.

When emotional problems are the cause, often illnesses will be in multiple body systems. For example, stomach cramps and headaches, insomnia and heart palpitations, painful sex and nausea. Symptoms can be vague and ever-changing. It can be very frustrating and scary for the patient because they know something is wrong but they hit a dead end with every test.

If this sounds like you, take an honest look at your emotional state. There is no shame is having emotional pain. Being a caring, compassionate human being means that there will be suffering and hurt. The more truthful you are with yourself and others, the better off we all are. If your body is talking to you, try your best to listen.

BY DR LYDIA THURTON

Sometimes I disappoint my patients. Some patients come to me because they want to use natural medicine to heal themselves and I have to be honest and tell them it just isn’t going to work. This is especially prevalent in my Caribbean patient population. They recall a great-auntie that had a bush tea that could cure anything. It’s a big let down when I refer them back to their doctor for pills or surgery.

One of my biggest pet peeves about some natural healers is that they sell people a dream of miraculous healing just to make a buck.  It makes me furious. My conscience won’t let me do that. If natural medicine won’t help, I have to be honest.

Cancer cures are a big one. Patients are afraid of radiation and chemotherapy, for good reason. And want to try to heal cancer with juicing, alkalinizing their diet and avoiding sugar. I have no problem with natural cancer care alongside main stream medical strategies. There are naturopathic doctors that assist in the care of cancer patients with intravenous vitamin C and mistletoe extract. If I had cancer I would look for this complimentary care myself. But at this time I cannot recommend natural cures for cancer without conventional care. Use both.

I actually stopped taking on cancer patients as a young naturopath after I watched a patient die. He was using natural therapies from the very expensive Gershen Institute in Florida. He spent his life savings and they starved him, made him vegan, when he shouldn’t have been and it accelerated his death via massive weight loss. It scared me, but opened my eyes to the down side of natural medicine.

Autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and irritable bowel diseases need natural medicine as an add on. The drugs are toxic and diet is a big factor in healing. However, once these destructive diseases start on a path of mayhem they need to be put in check with pharmaceuticals or surgery.

Let me give you an example. My best friend has Crohn’s disease. This is an inflammatory disease of the digestive tract that results in terrible pain, poor digestion and serious consequences like malnutrition and even colon cancer. She managed herself with diet and supplements, but there was one area of her intestine that was so damaged she developed scar tissue. That scar tissue was not fixable with natural medicine. She needed surgery and that diseased area of her bowel was causing intense suffering. After surgically removing that area of the bowel she could carry on healing herself with diet and yoga, which she did. This a great example of how to marry natural medicine with conventional. 

Some infections need antibiotics. Some cases of depression need antidepressants. Some pain patients need orthopedic surgery. We push our bodies harder than ever before. And our environment and food supply is more toxic than ever before and this means that sometimes natural means can’t overcome our illnesses. It makes me sad to disappoint patients that are fearful of surgery and medication and want to go the natural route. My biggest advice is that natural medicine works well when you nip things in the bud. When a disease festers it can progress to a point where natural just won’t work. Act quickly if you are adverse to conventional medicine. Seek to prevent illness whenever possible.