Understanding Infectious Disease and Immunity

Chiropractors do not claim to treat infectious diseases. What chiropractic does is allow your body to function free of nerve system interference and closer to your full potential. Understanding the spread of infectious disease and how best to defend yourself can lessen the fear as well as your chances of being impacted by infectious pathogens.

Two Types of Defenses

There are generally two types of defenses to viruses and pathogens. One is external and the other is internal. An external defense is something you can do to lessen your chances of being infected, or if infected, decrease the severity of the event. An internal defence is working with your body's own immune system to heighten your natural immunity and decrease the chances of catching the disease or the impact from it should you catch it.

External Defences

External defences include measures having to do with reducing the risk of exposure. These include general cleanliness and disinfectants. Precautions such as avoiding sneezing on someone, or being sneezed on by someone is obvious. Hand washing after using public facilities, as well as the correct usage of hand sanitizer can also help. It should be noted that overuse of hand sanitizer is detrimental and can actually weaken your defenses.

Masks and protective clothing are recommended for use by health professionals who are most at risk to exposure to infectious pathogens as well as for those who are already infected. Authorities in the U.S.are not recommending masks for general usage in lesser risk situations.

Our clinic staff takes every precaution, and is extremely diligent to ensure that our facility and equipment are sanitized to eliminate the threat of infectious disease spread.

Internal Defences

Internal defenses are those that your body innately has. These defenses are an important line of defense against any sort of pathogen. Functioning at the highest possible level, your immune system should be nearly impenetrable to the normal exposure to pathogens that can make you sick. The key here is having your immune system functioning as close to 100% of its innate ability as possible.

Do Not Lower Your Innate Immunity

There are two ways to ensure that your defense systems are functioning properly. The first way is to not do things to yourself that can lower your internal immune system. Avoiding things such as smoking and alcohol are big factors. Avoiding stress as best you can is also important. We should also minimize unnecessary medications and over-the-counter remedies that may weaken the body's ability to defend itself.

A big area that we have control over is what we eat. Processed food, refined sugar, bleached flour, and foods with additives can have a negative impact on your immune system. There is a large volume of information available on what foods negatively impact your immune system.

Lack of exercise or sleep can have a negative impact on your immune system. It has been shown that people who exercise properly and get the correct amount of sleep are less likely to get sick. Daily good habits in this area can help you against the threat of infectious diseases.

Maximizing Your Innate Immunity

Your nervous system controls and coordinates all the systems in your body. Anything that interferes with proper nerve system function will have a negative impact on all your body systems including your immune system. Chiropractic is based on restoring proper nerve system function. The purpose of chiropractic care is to correct interference in your nerve system by correcting vertebral subluxations. Subluxations can cause your nerve system to function at less than optimum and therefore have a negative effect on your overall function and health.

Correcting subluxations through specific scientific chiropractic adjustments help to ensure that your nerve system and, therefore, all systems in your body are functioning as close to their maximum innate potential as possible. This increases your potential to stay healthy.