As parents, there’s nothing more heart-wrenching than watching your child struggle with chronic health issues despite trying every recommended traditional medical treatment and therapy, and then also going fully down the road of natural + holistic health remedies – diet changes, detoxes, cleanses, vitamins, supplements, herbs, infrared saunas, and so forth.
You’ve been to countless doctors and specialists, filled numerous prescriptions, and explored various holistic and biomedical therapies, but nothing seems to work. The frustration and helplessness can be overwhelming, leaving you questioning if there’s something you’re missing.
But what if the real key to unlocking optimal potential and healing for your child is doing all the things, but in different order or sequence? What if it’s as simple as breaking things down into a more specific sequence or “batting order” that aligns with the exact pathway or sequence of stress and dysfunction that caused them to get sick in the first place?
What’s so wild about this absolutely vital and life-changing conversation we’re about to have is this – it’s wildly complex and super simple at the same time.
The reason this is going to be such an “Ah-hah!” and “Oh my goodness, he’s talking about us!” type of feeling as we go through this article, and also what will make it so simple for you to understand is – this is likely the exact life you’re living right now.
But what makes it so complex and somewhat hard to grasp is that really no other practitioner or expert out there talks about this absolutely essential conversation and scientific reality.
In today’s world we’ve seen an explosion of not just parents seeking out natural health alternatives and healing options, but we’ve seen an explosion in the number of health experts and practitioners who talk extensively about a myriad of important health + healing topics:
- Gut Health: Microbiome, Gut-Brain Connection, Leaky Gut, Etc.
- Immune Health: Vitamin C + D, Elderberry, Echinacea, IVIg Infusions, Essential Oils, etc.
- Inflammation: Curcumin, Turmeric, Omega 3s, Keto, Paleo, Carnivore, Detoxes, Cleanses, etc.
- Energy: Cold Plunges, Infrared Saunas, Magnesium, Zinc, LMNT, Peptides, Electrolytes, etc.
- Mental + Emotional Health: Meditation, Deep Breathing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Talk Therapy, Yoga, Nature Walks, Retreats, Grounding, etc.
It doesn’t seem to matter if you’re sitting in a medical office or another mom’s living room, or if you’re scrolling Instagram or Facebook these days – everyone is talking about natural health + holistic healing! And the truth is, I personally couldn’t be happier! The name of our practice, after all, is Premier Wellness Chiropractic Care since we opened 16 years ago (as of writing this blog), and that was right at the beginning of the natural health + wellness movement!
But as I map this all out TODAY I now know this to be true – it’s all so GOOD, but it’s also so often incomplete.
In the early stages of my career 80% of our patients were already medicated before learning about our work and giving Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care a try, and less than 20% of them knew anything about gluten, dairy, vitamins, supplements, and so forth. Today that has (awesomely) flipped to less than 20% of our patients taking medications, and over 80% of them have already gone deep down the roads of natural health + holistic healing!
BUT, the rates of chronic illness in kids and families is still on the rise dramatically, and our average new patient today has MORE illness and various health struggles than they did 15 years ago. So that begs the question:
What Is Missing?
The answer to that question that I know has caused you countless sleepless nights mom + dad is actually two-fold:
- Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care
- The Proper Sequence or “Batting Order”
I promise you this parents – you’re absolutely heading down the right path and you’re doing all the right things! Let me first make the case for how essential addressing nervous system dysregulation and dysfunction is first and foremost, and then from there we’ll help you see how to “line up the ducks” just right in order to achieve maximum results and optimal healing potential for your child!
Talking to both parents and providers today nearly everyone understands these crucial concepts after we through the neuroscience and facts, but yet so few practitioners talk about this and collaborate with Pediatric + Family Chiropractors to make sure all of this can happen?
The reason why? Everyone is (awesomely) so obsessively focused on their own individual work, that they forget to look up + look around and help parents find out what’s missing and what the proper “batting order” of healing needs to be.
Because at the end of the day this is NOT about one thing (chiropractic) being “better” than anything + everything else, it’s simply about how important the sequence or hierarchy of healing truly is to achieving optimal clinical results.
It’s actually a really good thing that the various providers and specialists on your child’s care team are obsessively focused on their craft. You want the best of the best for your child, and in order to be the best, trust me, it takes a relentless effort and obsessive focus.
Who Can Handle All This? Air Traffic Control
But who then can play this essential role for patients, parents, and the healthcare system as a whole? We can – Pediatric + Family Chiropractors.
Our foremost area of expertise is the brain + nervous system, which as you are about to learn in vivid detail, controls every other part of the body. The nervous system controls the gut, the immune system, the endocrine system, the muscular (motor tone + coordination) system, the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system, and our thoughts, emotions, communication abilities, and behavior. And the list goes on.
The nervous system functions as the “Air Traffic Controller” of the entire body and biology. So therefore the “Air Traffic Controller” of your child’s healthcare team should be the doctor who best understands that essential and foundational system best. That’s us!
(It’s certainly not the conventional pediatrician who has a very basic, pathology only, understanding of the nervous system and neurodevelopment.)
One thing parents share with us all the time is how they feel like they have amazing providers on their team who specialize in one certain area and are working on one individual important healing element, but no one seems to have a handle on the “Big Picture” and is helping them “quarterback and coordinate” the entirety of their child’s healing plan.
With our extensive training and understanding of functional neurology and how the nervous system controls and coordinates all the other bodily functions, a properly trained and experienced Neurologically-Focused Pediatric Chiropractor is perfectly positioned to do that job. Additionally, we almost always have extensive training and experience in nutrition, biomedical interventions, physical therapy, tongue and oral ties, cranial work, and so much more.
Which means if you’re looking for a provider who can help activate and generate “whole body” or “multi systems” healing, as well as help you sort through and decide what other things you should be doing and in what order, you’ll find exactly that in your PX Doctor.
(Major emphasis needed on the “in what order” component, as you’ll learn more about as you keep reading!)
A Deep Dive Into Neurodevelopment and the Importance of the Nervous System
When we talk about neurodevelopment, we’re referring to the order in which a healthy child would develop optimally. This is what we call the neurological hierarchy or “batting order” of optimal development.
I grew up playing baseball, so I love the concept of a batting order. It’s important to understand this sequence to identify where stress, toxicity, and trauma can derail a child’s development.
What I want to emphasize is that the foundational step that needs to happen for a child to heal and develop optimally is often overlooked. In fact, it’s the step that most parents and practitioners are unaware of. And this is where the problem lies. Many parents have tried multiple therapies, diets, supplements, and detoxes without success, and they report that truth and reality to us each and every day in practice. But while they know it to be true, no one has explained to them WHY that is so often the case.
Put simply, the nervous system is the boss. It develops first in-utero, and the way God designed our entire body and overall health to function is that the brain and nervous system must be fully regulated and “operational” in order for other vital organs and functions to be as well. Gut health, immune system function, endocrine and hormonal health, and gross and fine motor development (muscles) are all controlled and coordinated first and foremost by the nervous system.
When the nervous system gets derailed and off track developmentally, so will most everything else downstream. This is why nearly every child struggling with a chronic neurodevelopmental condition like autism also struggles with digestive problems, a weakened immune response, gross and fine motor challenges, sensory processing difficulties, and so much more. Once the brain and nervous system are thrown off track, everything is.
I want to dive into the core foundation of our clinical protocols, which is essential for understanding the optimal path of your child’s development. By the end of this, you will understand where your child’s storm hit, causing them to be sick and out of balance, and more importantly, how to get them back on track.
Neurodevelopment Broken Down Into 3 Sequential Steps
While today’s most advanced neuroscientists and research experts can take what we’re about to go through and make it far more intricate and detailed, that often only serves to complicate for you – parents. Probably another article for another day, but that’s also the challenge many parents face when they finally do find a functional neurologist or nervous system expert – they (the providers) make it way too complicated.
For some providers it’s important to sound smart and look as advanced and important as can be. But for me and our team, it’s simply important to be clear, to keep things simple, and to be effective in both our communication and clinical care protocols.
You want every provider on your team to have a broad depth of knowledge and experience, but you most importantly want them to be able to keep it simple and be able to explain what they’re doing and how it works to you in a way that’s easy to understand and implement.
I’ve intentionally left out some deeply intricate developmental components such as respiration, oxygenation, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) production and flow, as well as things such as primitive reflexes, tongue and oral ties, methylation or detox pathways, and so forth. I did so because if you can’t tell just by reading that sentence, they are quite complex conversations.
But even more so, each of those important health components are directly governed by and coordinated by the function of the nervous system as well. They are more “secondary” and “tertiary” components of optimal neurodevelopment instead of primary and foundational, so while we do have other articles and educational videos discussing them, we’ll leave them out of this “thesis” paper.
So with that in mind, let’s take the complicated process of neurodevelopment and simplify it into these three (3) sequential stages and provide a quick explanation of each one after.
#1 – The Nervous System
Let’s break down the good path first, and then we’ll show you where the Perfect Storm comes in, which throws kids off the path. At the base of our health pyramid is the nervous system, which we can also call the autonomic or central nervous system interchangeably.
Without a doubt, the foundation of our health, as God designed us, is our nervous system.
Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist and researcher, once said, “The function of the nervous system is to perceive the environment and coordinate the behavior of all other cells.”
Therefore it makes perfect sense that what’s called the “neural tube” is the very first thing to develop in-utero, serving as the first components of the brainstem and the central + autonomic nervous system. From the first moments of life on the nervous system then controls + coordinates not only basic life functions like the heart beating, lungs beating, and food digesting and assimilating – but it also will oversee and organize all neurological development from that point forward!
Fast forward super quick to the action steps + solution = in order to generate true foundational, sequential, and optimal healing we must FIRST ensure that nervous system function and regulation is activated and optimized! If we don’t do this FIRST, then everything else is limited in what it can do and the results we should expect.
#2 – The Motor System
The second most important thing in the hierarchy of the health of the body is the motor system, which includes the muscular system. This is our movement, balance, and coordination system, and when it comes to brain and body function – everything is tied to movement.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase “movement is life” then you know what we’re talking about here. If you’ve already dug deep and have been learning all about gut health (microbiome) and its role in brain and nervous system function, you may be surprised that we don’t put that ranked first in the ranking of what’s most important to overall neurodevelopment for your child. But the truth is for a developing child, that phrase “movement is life” is even ten times more important and accurate because of its absolutely essential role in stimulating and organizing brain and nervous system development.
Every childhood development expert of any kind knows that movement or motor development is the key to brain and nervous system development overall, and therefore essential to a child’s social, emotional, behavioral, sensory, and speech development later on in life.
But what not enough providers and other experts understand is how essential our movement-based system and development is to things on the inside as well, gut function (motility, absorption, assimilation, elimination, etc.) and immune function.
Have you ever eaten a big unhealthy meal in an airport then got stuck sitting on a plane (aka NOT moving) for hours afterwards? How did that make you feel? Now imagine that you’re a child whose emotional and cognitive development is still very much in process AND now both your body (motor) and gut (discussed way more in the next section) are both limited and NOT moving or functioning well! How do we expect them to respond, behave, and connect? Not well.
Movement absolutely is life, but there is one more important point here parents must know – muscles can’t move themselves. The tone and coordination of the nervous system must develop and function properly FIRST, in order for the tone and coordination of the muscles to then develop and function properly NEXT.
If your child has a weak core, spasticity, balance problems, stimming, toe-walking, incoordination, or other “movement-based” challenges and disorders it’s very likely that traditional movement-based therapies like PT + OT may not be enough to fully address them and achieve optimal results. Not because they are not awesome and generate incredible results in this area, but because they are likely working with a stuck, subluxated (more on that term later), dysfunctional nervous system.
Think of it like trying to restore and rebuild a home that sits on a cracked, crooked foundation. No general contractor worth their salt would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars remodeling a home that sits on this “subluxated” foundation. They’d first be sure to repair, restore, and rebuild the foundation until it’s just right, and then they’d get to work on the plumbing (gut), HVAC (respiratory), electrical (neuromotor), and brain-based (finishings like floors, paint, furniture, appliances, decor, etc.) after that.
If your child has plateaued or even regressed with their motor development despite months or years of therapy, it’s essential you add in Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care and put that first in the lineup. For thousands of our patients over the last 15+ years, once they started getting adjusted they then returned to these incredible therapies and finally started to see results and increased momentum as a result!
#3 – Gut + Immune Health (Digestion, Microbiome, etc.)
The third area that’s critical for your child’s health is gut health. The gut is connected to both the immune system and the brain (and more), and it’s essential for overall health. Many natural health approaches focus on the gut as the first step towards healing, which is a great start. But I want to remind you that the motor system is just as important, and that before gut health can fully come into play and respond, we’ve got to make sure the foundational component of nervous system regulation and function is fully online first.
Think of it this way: the trunk of the tree houses the gut, immune system, respiratory system (oxygenation), endocrine system, and motor system, and is obviously essential to the health expression of the tree (health = green leaves | sick = dead, brown leaves). But even more vital to the overall health expression of the tree is the root system. In this simple analogy, the roots are the nervous system, which even anatomically and structurally looks just like the root system of the human body (just in a top down vs. bottom up design).
(If we run that analogy out even deeper, the spinal cord could even perhaps be more accurately called the “trunk” of the tree, serving as the essential “middle man” between the roots and the branches, leaves, and so forth. Meaning if we describe it that way, the nervous system and spinal cord become even more important and essential to overall health.)
Although the gut-brain connection is often discussed, it’s worth noting that the brain-gut connection comes first. Simply put this means that the brain and nervous system control gut motility, absorption, assimilation, and elimination functions first, and then from there the gut is loaded with sensory nerves that “report back” to the brain what’s happening, what’s working, and what’s not.
That is why so many parents will work hard on restoring gut health and improving the microbiome with a goal of improving brain and neurological function for their kids, and see some change and improvements, but maybe not complete and total transformation. The “missing link” in this equation then is not just the gut alone, but the brain, nervous system, and vagus nerve specifically. The vagus nerve and nervous system as a whole exert a significant amount of control and regulation over both the gut and immune systems.
When it comes to the connections between the nervous system and immune function, it’s important to know that the nervous system also modulates inflammation and mucus production. It also helps direct the production and function of essential immune system components such as cytokines, immunoglobulins, and so much more. If the nervous system is stuck in a perpetual subluxation pattern, that means it’s always stuck in sympathetic fight or flight overdrive, which over time suppresses immune function and alters mucus production and inflammatory regulation (plus so much more).
The Vagus Nerve: The Official Brain-Gut-Immune Connection
This deep dive into the nervous system’s essential role in regulating gut and immune function would not be near complete without at least a brief discussion on the vagus nerve.
This crucial nerve is actually a cranial nerve, meaning it branches from the brainstem region just above the foramen magnum (intersection between the brain and the spinal cord and body). It’s often nicknamed the “wandering nerve” because it’s the longest cranial nerve by far, and makes its way down through the neck and into the abdomen, helping to control and regulate such vital functions as breathing, heart rate, and digestion.
We also now know that along with its “rest and digest” functions, the vagus nerve helps control and modulate the immune response, inflammation, and also is heavily involved in regulating our emotional and social connections and responses.
When it’s working optimally the vagus nerve is perhaps the most important nerve in the entire body. Which also means, when injured and interfered with, it causes all sorts of both acute and especially chronic health problems. Since the vagus nerve is extremely sensitive to physical, chemical, and emotional trauma, when children are exposed to what we call “The Perfect Storm” (way more on this later) it can lead to vagus nerve dysfunction and a whole myriad of health issues related to the autonomic nervous system, gut and microbiome, immune and endocrine system, gross and fine motor tone, speech, social and emotional regulation, and more.
If you really want to nerd out over what’s now termed the Neuro-Endocrine-Immune Supersystem and how it all connects together, then this incredible new research paper on how it all works the essential role Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care plays in helping modulate and optimize its function, then click this link and get your nerd on!
Understanding how these systems connect together is crucial as they form the basis of our overall health and well-being. Once we establish a healthy nervous system foundation, we can then move on to more complex functions such as behavior, emotions, social interactions, speech and communication, focus, memory, cognition, and decision-making, all of which are regulated by the nervous system and form the “top” of the neurodevelopmental pyramid shown below in diagram and video form.
The Stages or Sequence of Neurodevelopment
Once again in the name of simplicity and easy understanding, let’s break this down into two (2) stages. They are as follows:
- The Basics of Brain + Nervous System Development
- Advanced Brain Development
The basics need to develop over the first 6 to 12 months in a major way, but really the first 1 to 3 years of life are actually all about the basics of neurology. What is quite interesting is that human babies are born quite underdeveloped as compared to many other higher functioning animals, especially when it comes to the brain-based developmental components.
There is a lot of development and maturation that needs to occur at a rapid rate the first 1-3 years for our children. Which is why the early onslaught of The Perfect Storm full of stressors, toxicity, and trauma is so detrimental and throws development off track so significantly for millions of kids today.
Then after the “basics” of development, we get to the big stuff, such as speech, communication, emotional regulation, sensory processing, decision-making, focus, cognition, and so forth. Sometimes to keep it extra simple for parents to understand, we separate these two stages into “body” and “brain” developmental stages. The “body” needs to go first with eating, breathing, digestion, movement, immune function, and so forth. Then once those “body basics” are online and functioning, the more “advanced brain” development kicks in, leading to speech, communication, socialization, cognition, and behavioral and emotional regulation.
While there is no specific moment in time or dedicated age where neurodevelopment transitions from “basics” to “advanced” functions, and they develop in unison as time goes on, the real take home point is this – the basics of neurodevelopment and core bodily functions must get “online” and become fully operational first, or the brain and advanced functions never will be.
I can’t state the importance of this enough, and perhaps the best illustration is by discussing one of our teen and young adult Intensive Neuro Cases, Francesca. This amazing young woman had been struggling with her health truly from infancy on, with a very classic “Perfect Storm” developmental history full of a stressful pregnancy, traumatic birth, and then truly just constant sickness and struggle throughout her life.
Eventually all this altered nervous system function and development, combined with the chronic disease and health struggles that the dysregulation allowed to set in for her gut and immune health, Francesca became anxious, depressed, and started to battle epilepsy and seizures as well. She was taken from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital, and tried medication after medication.
After years of this struggle and only continuing to get worse, her amazing mother heard about our work as Neurologically-Focused Pediatric Chiropractors, and came to our clinic (PWC Chiropractic) for a 2-Week Intensive Care Program.
Upon intake the very first thing we took into account and went to work on was NOT Francesca’s brain and “advanced” neurological struggles. Instead, we went to work on the basics.
Francesca’s digestion was a mess (severe constipation) despite tons of diet changes, detoxes, and natural health endeavors, and her sleep, immune, and motor (posture, movement) systems were all absolutely wrecked as well. We needed to get her sleeping, pooping, and moving better plain and simple before we could expect any amount of advanced brain healing to happen.
So with the first week of care and adjusting, the ONLY thing we focused on and went to work on activating and improving with specific adjusting protocols were those core or “basic” components – sleep, digestion, immune function, and movement. And guess what? It worked!
She started sleeping better, pooping easier and more often (she LOVED those conversations lol), moving better and with less discomfort, and her breathing, sinuses, and immune system all got better as well.
Then from there, we knew her brain and deeper layers of nervous system dysfunction and stress were ready to heal, and they did! She’s now a thriving young woman who’s driving, soon to be married, and living a full and healthy life!
You can read more about Francesca’s incredible story here, and by doing so you’ll really see the full and complete clinical picture we’re looking to draw here with this in-depth article designed to help you find that missing link and essential “sequence” to FINALLY getting results for you child, teen, or young adult as well!
The Perfect Storm, Subluxation, Dysautonomia, and Nervous System Dysregulation Simplified
At this point, it’s likely that you’ve got the “big idea” of this article, illustrating that nervous system healing and restoring optimal function to that foundational system FIRST is the most overlooked and “hidden in plain sight” key to optimal healing and recovery for your child.
But, you may still be asking yourself – “What causes the nervous system to get so derailed, off track, dysregulated, and dysfunctional in the first place?”
The answer to that is something we’ve mentioned quite a few times already – a concept we call “The Perfect Storm” and something I first started teaching to anyone who would listen to me all the way back in 2008.
While just like we could’ve taken the neurodevelopmental section way deeper than those three (3) core, sequential components, we could do that here with The Perfect Storm, but we won’t. We’ll keep this to a 3-step sequence as well:
- A high stress (often high risk) pregnancy and fetal development period
- Birth intervention and trauma (forceps, vacuum, c-section, induction, breech, cord-wrapped, etc.)
- Early exposure to antibiotics, other medications, toxins, etc.
With the central thesis of this article being more about the essential, all-too-commonly overlooked aspect of nervous system regulation and healing, we’ll save back even more the more basic breakdowns of The Perfect Storm concept. However, you can read all about it in full detail here in this in-depth scientific article.
The take home point is simply that not only is nervous system dysregulation and dysfunction hard to find since very few medical (traditional or biomedical) providers understand it and talk about it, but even if they did, there is no medical testing that looks for and finds nervous system dysregulation, dysautonomia, subluxation, and dysfunction.
Putting It All Together For Optimal Results
If you’ve been working on improving your child’s gut health, diet, and limiting toxins, you’re on the right track! Likewise, if your child has been receiving PT, OT, Speech Therapy, ABA, and so forth, that’s great too. And finally add in those amazing essential oils, homeopathic remedies, parasite cleanses, and primitive reflex therapies and it’s a sure sign that your child is absolutely on the right track to optimal healing and reaching their full potential!
If you’ve read this in-depth article to this point and had even the slightest feeling of having done the “wrong” things, please know the exact opposite is true! You’ve done an amazing job and no doubt facilitated some incredible healing results already. Plus, you’ve “set the stage” for Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care to work and get results far easier and far faster than if your child and family still lived an unhealthy lifestyle and didn’t install all of those wonderful supports.
The Healing Sequence Matters Most
As simple as it sounds, the sequence of things matters most. Each individual form of natural, holistic, integrative care is amazing and does its job. But what if we could unlock something within your child’s brain and body to make sure that every single thing on the healing naturally list could work even better?
Let’s list out some very specific examples that we experience all the time and will likely give you the final piece of clarity you’re looking for:
Sleep
The first and perhaps most important improvement the vast majority of our patients experience early on once they start getting adjusted is vast improvements in sleep. Both getting to sleep and staying asleep. But most importantly, getting restful + restorative high quality sleep. This allows for so much more neurological healing throughout the body, because simply put, nothing is more essential than sleep.
Digestion (Gut + Microbiome)
The nervous system controls gut and GI function in every major way, coordinating essential functions such as absorption (getting nutrients in), assimilation (sending them to the right places and coordinating their functions), and elimination (detoxing and getting toxins out of the body).
This means that all of those healthy foods, vitamins, and supplements going into your child’s body will absorb, assimilate, and work so much better, and the detoxes and cleanses can work far better as well. If you’ve tried all sorts of Functional, Integrative, and Biomedical Therapies for your child and they haven’t worked well yet, they may kick in and work far better after chiropractic care is added in!
Immune + Respiratory Function
Once adjustments kick in one of the first vital functions we see regulate better and improve is breathing and respiratory function. Simply put, the “plumbing” and drainage system of the body works better, and kids are almost instantly less congested, full of mucus and inflammation, and can breathe and regulate their body much better than before. This helps them not only feel better, but allows the entire nervous system to be more relaxed and efficient, allowing other systems to function and heal better going forward.
Motor Tone + Coordination
Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care enhances neuromotor tone and function by addressing subluxation and neuromuscular dysfunction head on, which improves communication between the brain and body, and stimulates neuroplasticity, aiding in the development of motor skills and coordination. This applies to both gross motor milestones (which are typically achieved first), and fine motor skills as well.
This type of chiropractic adjustments is able to target tense and spastic muscle groups and get them to release and clear tension, and also activates and strengthens weakened or exhausted muscle groups, leading to improved muscle tone and strength essential for gross motor development. This is why so many kids who previously had plateaued and struggled in PT, OT, and Speech Therapy previously begin to see such massive gains once they begin getting adjusted!
Sensory Processing + Integration
While we can easily map the science of subluxation (and thus adjustments) to things like digestion and immune function, nervous system dysfunction and subluxation are very clearly related to sensory processing and integration, and immediately throw it haywire. Which means once the neurologically-focused adjustments kick in and clear those brain-to-body connections and communication pathways, sensory issues begin to fade and improve. This especially allows for Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy to be far more effective and long lasting.
Emotional + Behavioral Regulation
When the nervous system is subluxated and stuck in a sustained fight or flight response, the entire brain shifts into a more “wound up” and hypersensitive protective mode. This perpetual response causes overactivation of the amygdala (emotions) and shuts down or suppresses function in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making, emotional regulation, cognition, memory, and other vital functions there.
Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care has been shown to activate and stimulate the prefrontal cortex, likely explaining why parents report that their children are more responsive, follow directions and listen better, transition easier, and have less big emotions, meltdowns, and tantrums once starting care. If you’ve tried all sorts of cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, and so forth and have not yet seen changes, you may be able to unlock better results once your child starts chiropractic care!
The Power of Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care is unique in that it goes deep into the roots of your child’s health, addressing the neurophysiological, gut-immune-endocrine, and motor developmental aspects all at the same time and with ONE singular intervention. That right there is probably one of the leading reasons why so many parents and even other providers are so skeptical of chiropractic care. They are no doubt thinking, “How can ONE thing provide so many seemingly endless benefits?”
Just take a look at this visual progress report from Perfect Storm pediatric patients at our practice, PWC Chiropractic:
What’s really quite something is that those percentages don’t even reflect the full picture. We ask those questions every 2-4 weeks throughout what’s called the Neurological Restoration Care Plan, which most often for tough neurological cases like we specialize in and are focusing on with this article, can actually be a total time of 6-8 months.
When we look at the data of how many Perfect Storm kids see improvements with sleep, gut + immune function, and behavioral / emotional regulation throughout the entire care plan the numbers jump up to 60-80% and above! Name one other form of care out there that is able to achieve those sort of “multi-systems” benefits in that many of their patients? It’s truly why we wear t-shirts in the office every single day that say — Expect Miracles!
Take the Next (First) Step
To learn more about exactly how our Clinical Process works, all about our incredible Neurological INSiGHT Scans that help find this deepest layer of stress + dysfunction, and how our specialized type of chiropractic care is different and gets the drug-free healing job done like nothing else, visit these links:
By accessing the nervous system in the way that we do, we can positively impact every system in the body. Not only does that generate incredible amounts of drug-free healing on its own, but it creates a neurophysiological environment in which everything else you’ve been trying begins to work better and generate greater results as well.
You’d be hard pressed to meet a type of provider more excited to work in harmony and collaboration with the rest of your care team. While the nervous system is foundational and optimal healing must start there, we know full well “it takes a village” to get chronically sick kids better. It’s never just one thing that gets the entire job done, but it can be one thing that holds up the job for good if it’s indeed missing.
Pediatric Chiropractic and Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care might sound too good to be true to some parents who have spent so many years and thousands of dollars trying to help heal their child already. But we know that once care begins and you start to experience those improvements in sleep, gut function, immune response, sensory processing, emotional regulation, behavior, energy, movement, and so much more, you’ll start to have your hope and confidence renewed in full once again!
To finally get to the real root of the problem, you need to get to a Neurologically-Focused Pediatric + Family Chiropractor. This will be the first foundational step toward your child’s healing that could also unlock optimal results from everything else you’re already doing!
To get started right away, check out our PX Docs directory to find a PX Doc near you.
If you’ve tried everything and feel like giving up, we urge you not to lose hope. This kind of chiropractic care may be the missing link you’ve long been searching and praying for.
As parents, we never give up on our kids, and we hope this has shown you that you’ve been doing all the right things but may just be missing that one thing, and that specific “sequence” or “batting order” that will help them all work 10X better.
We’re here to help you find that missing piece and help your child reach their fullest potential!
Expect + Experience Miracles,
Dr. Tony Ebel + The PX Docs Network
PS. What if you read this entire monster of an article and because you’ve already tried chiropractic care for your child are now wondering, “Is this kind of chiropractic care different from what we tried?” The answer is likely YES! To learn more about the difference between this specialized form of chiropractic and more standard, spinal-focused chiropractic care and perhaps why you did not experience results with previous chiropractic, check out this blog article I wrote on that specific question or concern.
