Hippocrates the Father of Wellness part 1

 Hippocrates, the father of all doctors, was a 'wellness' advocate. He has been quoted "Look well to the spine for the cause of disease".  Wow, sounds like something one of those crazy queeropractors would say. Yet, here we have the father of modern health care looking to the spine as the root cause of organic disease..interesting. Organic disease? Organic disease means non-pathologic disease or a disease state that is not precipitated by an infection or toxic influence from outside the body. In short it means that your organs are not working as efficiently as they could be.  Examples of organic disease include asthma, idiopathic kidney failure, headaches, migraines, weakened immune system, autoimmune disorders (the body doesn't recognize itself as friend and sends the immune system in to attack it) the list can be virtually endless. In other words organic disease has no pathogen that 'causes' it. 

 We have to remember that Hippocrates, genius though he was, didn't have references to draw from or corporate interests to 'direct' him.  He observed the fact that the brain was connected to the body through a series of fibers which were housed inside the spine.  He reasoned that areas of spinal lesion, what chiropractors call a subluxation, caused interference to the transmission of nerve impulses. A spinal lesion, as described by Hippocrates, was an area where two or more vertebrae were locked or were partially dislocated placing pressure on the nerve disrupting nerve impulse flow thereby causing the organs attached to those nerves to function abnormally, the beginnings of organic disease.

 So 2500 years ago the idea behind chiropractic was studied.  Through observation of his patients reactions to the manipulations, as he termed his realigning of the spine, he theorized that by keeping the spine mobile and aligned nerve function would cause the body to heal itself more efficiently.  In the absence of normal nerve flow disease would follow. The idea was to prevent disease states from occurring by keeping the spine aligned i.e. maintenance care.  It was this very idea of maintenance care that earned chiropractors the scorn and admonition of mainstream health care throughout the 20th century.  But as I mentioned earlier, it was one of the first ideas to be considered by Hippocrates 2500 years ago.