A primary enemy of aging... your decay

This has always been a problem because we don't usually get to evaluate a person until they are in pain and over the age 40. This has been a more prominent problem as of late, so I thought we should talk about it.

Your spine and your master control mechanism...your nerves and brain. I know, it sounds boring, but it can change your life and future. We know what happens to the spine so well that we have models of long term damage. If you’ve been in the office and seen the models of the spine, you’ve seen how decay happens.

Why is it important?

#1 It slows you down physically.

#2 It slows the communication from your brain to your body.

Decay and disintegration are natural, but this process accelerates if you don’t do preventative maintenance.

There is a natural downward spiral of a highly organized "thing" to a less organized "thing". It’s called entropy.

Arthur Eddington said this 80 years ago

"The law that entropy increases---the second law of thermodynamics---holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of nature."

What that really means is that If you build a beautiful house with every modern amenity, then never touch it for 30 years, never mow, never trim the trees, never clean, never do anything, what happens?

In 30 years, you'll likely not be able to even see your house. If you do some good maintenance, it can still look really nice.

You can accelerate aging or slow it down depending in your lifestyle. For example, most smokers look older than they are, because of the chemicals they are constantly ingesting.

Another way to look at it...

Does your house become clean faster or messy faster? Which takes more work?

It only takes 4-8 weeks for your muscles to severely waste away if they are completely immobilized. It takes 1-2 years for your body to show degeneration in your spine after an injury to it. The spine is the literal life line to your health. It’s extremely important.

Your body breaks down faster at injury sites. I see it all the time with people in car accidents. There is almost always a low neck joint injured and often doesn't hurt. It degenerates over 25 years and suddenly the patient's hand starts going numb.

Why do I know that? Well, when you look at an X-ray, there is one or two bones that have big gnarly bone spurs on them and the rest are totally normal. That only happens at an injury site.

Here is an example of a person with a nearly perfect neck curve and a person with old neck injuries from a car accident 30 years ago. This person has nearly constant neck pain.

So what can you do? Get your spine checked by a chiropractor every month or so. Once every 5 years isn't often enough. Physiological joint destruction starts happening in 1-2 years after an injury, if left untreated. Pain isn't always present, especially if it happened when you were young.

This has been a common topic of questions in the office this year. The theme often goes like this. People in their 20’s and 30’s are living large and having fun. Then in their 40’s and 50’s those little injuries are now coming back to the surface as degenerative joints and creating chronic pain.

Here is an x-ray of an 8 year old who came in with a traumatic pelvis injury. Look at how crooked her pelvis is. What would happen to that child if she never got adjusted for 20 years? That is often how most adults end up in trouble.

Here's THE short cut to feeling better as you age.

#1. Go to the chiropractor regularly.

I practiced in a town where more than 50% of the population was over 65 years old. I had a lot of Medicare patients.

I have the unique perspective of seeing 80 year old patients who've had 50 years of chiropractic and 80 year olds who've had none. They are VERY different people.

The 2 main complaints of people over 65 are chronic pain and mobility problems. Degeneration is progressive unless you actively try and put energy in to slow it down. Remember “entropy” may very well be the most dominant law of nature. Things will naturally break down unless energy is put in to maintain a system.

Pain is the LAST thing to show up. It only pops up when your spine is out of wiggle room to adapt to the stress it’s under. Your spine is the great chameleon. It will do whatever it can to hide pain from you. A chiropractor can find problems long before you will feel them.

#2 Keep your body moving. Walk, run, do yoga, Pilates, or any thing that keeps you moving. The healthy 80 year olds have a long history of being active.

-Dr. Altman

SLCSAW.com

Call 833-AGE-WELL

Text 801-896-3259

docaltman@protonmail.com

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