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My Why

WHY- IGNITE THE FIRE

Look well to the spine for the cause of disease.
— Hippocrates

Did I choose chiropractic or did chiropractic choose me?

When pressed to find YOUR WHY as to why you chose the career path you did, it’s hard to form all your years worth of thoughts into one, solid statement. As a child, you aren’t encouraged to think “why.” You ask your parents questions just for them to refute with, “because I said so.” The chiropractic profession has been through h*ll and back, constantly fighting against the medical profession to prove ourselves. The world is yearning for a change and I truly believe chiropractic is the answer.

I grew up eating and breathing chiropractic. My father, whom is not a Chiropractor, ignited my fire almost ten years ago. He was speaking at a CE chiropractic convention in Ohio and brought me along to help work. I knew what he did for work, but it wasn’t until that day that I actually understood it. Hearing him speak about how life changing this profession was, ironically changed my life. Hearing the inspiring stories of wives getting their husbands back, mothers seeing their babies be filled with life again, the athletes being able to run again, etc. These are the miracles that fuel the chiropractic fire.

Back in Ohio, there was a new Chiropractor in town. A wife was dragging her reluctant, elderly husband to see the new Chiropractor because she saw life changes and wanted to share the experience. The husband received an adjustment and went home without a word. He was a farmer, so being tough and dealing with pain was bred into him. A few days later, the husband showed back up to the clinic, but without an appointment. The doctor greeted the man only to be met by tears. The elderly man began to explain that he had been dealing with urinary incontinence for 20 years and for the first time last night, he was able to leave the house and go on a date with his wife. THESE are the life changing stories that ignite the fire.

In North Carolina, there was a Chiropractor that had a mother and daughter as patients. The daughter suffered from a severe case of Autism. The daughter was unable to eat normally, speak, use the bathroom, walk, understand human interaction or learn in a normal school environment. The mother heard about chiropractic through a community health talk and decided to finally take her daughter after exhausting any other options. Within five chiropractic adjustments, the daughter said her first few words. Now, two years later, the daughter is running up and down the clinic halls, speaking normally, eating properly, using the restroom correctly and is enrolled into a normal school. The mother is now able to hold her daughter without her having an episode. THAT is life changing to a mother and family. This ignites the fire.

I chose to become a chiropractor because of these stories. So many people do not know about what chiropractic can do for them, their families and their animals. Animal chiropractic also holds a special place in my heart. Animals are underestimated in the importance of their spine health. Horses and dogs are focused on by being main animals of sport, however, all animals with a spine deserve it. My mission is to serve families and animals to the best of my abilities. So, after everything is said and done, I have concluded that my WHY is, “to ignite the fire by promoting the bodies ability to self heal itself in my patients, their family and their furry friends.”

Chiropractic Expressed Through Biochemistry

Biochemistry? Yes, it’s gross isn’t it? Biochemistry may be everyone’s most dreaded class in school, but it gives rise to a lot of explanations as to why things happen the way they do. Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. These biochemical processes give rise to the complexity of life. Sound familiar? Maybe only for a few, but chiropractic has a set of founding principles. These 33 principles set the foundation of our profession and were created by our founding fathers over a 100 years ago. In this blog, I will be explaining how a biochemistry concept shows chiropractic.

Of the 33 Chiropractic Principles, I will be using Principle 17: Every Effect has a Cause and every Cause has Effects.

This principle can be applied to numerous life situations, inside and outside of health. Even the journey of life is a constant cause and effect battle. Now, the language of biochemistry isn’t one that is used often on our patients. However, there are those select few that wish to have more “proof” or more “science” behind what we believe and how the body naturally functions. Chiropractors are not chiropractors by day and biochemists by night. Although, our schooling is started with a solid understanding of the cellular view of our bodies and how these bodily processes occur every single day. Biochemistry has a scary stigma around it, but it doesn’t have too. Now, lets get into explaining a simple biochemical process in our body.

Everyone knows how important it is to eat a balanced, healthy diet. Ever since we were a child, we were drilled with that knowledge and told to eat our fruits and vegetables. But do our parents really know why those certain foods are good to our bodies or what nutrients we are really gaining from those foods? Among our other essential food groups of carbohydrates, fat, and protein, we also need what is called amino acids. There are 20 amino acids, with 9-10 of them being essential to our body. Essential means that our body cannot produce these amino acids and we must get them from our diet. Amino acids are used as building blocks for proteins, enzyme metabolism and precursors for thousands of active compounds. Needless to say, our bodies need amino acids to function.

The common molecular structure of an amino acid is an alpha carbon that has an amino group, a carboxyl group and a hydrogen atom attached to it. Each amino acid has a different amino group that differentiates it from the other amino acids. However, all the amino acids contain nitrogen. This nitrogen component is what makes amino acids so essential to our bodies. I’m not going to go and list all of the amino acids, as they are long and confusing (although, it is tempting to name them and show off a little bit). These essential amino acids come from many food sources, however you can get all of them from high quality protein animal meat. Animals need essential amino acids too, so by eating their meat, we benefit from their stored amino acids. Plant proteins also offer essential amino acids, but they must be paired correctly as some of them are missing a few of the 9-10 essential amino acids. Foods such as grains, vegetables, legumes and nuts offer amino acids, but a diet must be comprised of a mixture of all the plant proteins. This is where vegetarians can struggle with not meeting their proper nutritional needs by excluding meat products.

Now, why does our body need these essential amino acids? What makes them so important? Like I listed earlier, these amino acids contain nitrogen. The body wishes to be in what’s called, nitrogen balance. Nitrogen balance is the normal condition in which the amount of nitrogen incorporated into the body each day exactly equals the amount excreted. The body can experience a positive nitrogen balance when the amount of nitrogen incorporated exceeds the amount excreted. This is when the body is experiencing growth, during pregnancy, the recovery phase of injury or surgery, etc. Its a good thing! This is where most people strive to be and why we promote a healthy, balanced diet. But when there is a positive balance, there must be a negative. Negative nitrogen balance occurs when nitrogen loss exceeds incorporation. This is when we start to see protein malnutrition, starvation, uncontrolled diabetes, infections and several dietary deficiency’s. In third world counties, these deficiency’s are commonly seen due to the improper diets and their lack of access to meat and whole foods.

This is a present day issue that numerous people and bodies deal with. Even for us people in the United States that have access to proper nutrition, there are still people suffering from malnutrition. This is why I love chiropractic. The chiropractic profession treats a patient as a whole. Not just a symptom or condition. We promote overall health and want to help a patient be as healthy as they possibly can be -inside and outside the clinic. I plan to treat animal patients alongside my human patients. We know that our animals diets are extremely important, and yet we seem to feed them better than we feed ourselves! Our bodies are meant to be self healing. Chiropractic helps to remove the vertebral interference and allow the body to function at its optimal level. By having the spine free of interference and the body properly fed and nourished, the possibilities are endless!

Introduce Yourself

Hello!

I am Madison Hoag, a student at Sherman College of Chiropractic. I am from a small town in Ohio where my mother, father, brother and horse still reside. I am in love with chiropractic and have wanted to be a Chiropractor since high school. I plan to serve families and animals, specifically equine, back in Ohio once I graduate. I am now here, living my dream!