According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), all elementary to middle school grades are supposed to understand the following concepts in the name of “science literacy”. I was actually dumbfounded by this report because if everyone did know these basic tenets, the chiropractor’s job wouldn’t be half as difficult. Yet I still meet people that haven’t yet correlated the arm is connected to the body is connected to the spine is connected to…
It’s supposed to be elementary level! So if you’re an adult reading this, please make sure you know the following to avoid any embarrassment at a local pub quiz:
- The brain enables human beings to think and sends messages to other body parts to help them work properly.
- The brain gets signals from all parts of the body telling it what is happening in each part. The brain also sends signals to parts of the body to influence what they do.
- Interactions among the senses, nerves, and brain make possible the learning that enables human beings to predict, analyse, and respond to changes in their environments.
- Internal cues (such as hunger) and external cues (such as changes in the environment) influence the behaviour of individual organisms. Humans and other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.
- All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions when living in a constantly changing external environment.
- Regulation of an organism’s internal environment involves sensing that environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within the range required to survive.
The developer of chiropractic, BJ Palmer, expressed roughly 70 years ago that his most critical concept was “survival value”. The nervous system is constantly adapting to its environment and as it breaks down due to overwhelming stress, poor communication and bad signalling leads to destructive survival value, disease and death of the organism. Chiropractors use the spine as a tool to influence the function of the nervous system so it can better adapt to its environment and thus increase its survival value. Chiropractors know when, where, how and why to adjust to create this positive influence to allow the brain to continue to do what it is supposed to do: Function at 100% capacity.
Elementary, my dear Watson.
Reference: The Dana Foundation. The Brain in Science Education. August 11, 2010.