Did you know if your ribs are not moving correctly it can decrease your oxygen to your brain? This means the organ that needs oxygen the most is losing optimal function due to a single or multiple ribs being fixated!! Did you know ribs being subluxated can lead to low back pain? Ribs that are extremely irritated can cause people to go to the E.R. only to be told everything looks unremarkable and leaving the person baffled as to what has them in so much pain. Ribs are valuable to our existence and protection but we also need to make sure they are moving on a regular basis. Ribs are directly linked to breathing and oxygen levels in the brain too. The brain has 85 billion neurons and 67 billion of them can be found in the cerebellum which is the area of the brain that allows us to coordinate our daily life.The cerebellum is responsible voluntary/elective movements, motor skills such as balance, coordination, and posture. This area makes up 78% of the neurons in the brain and is extremely sensitive to high, low, and normal oxygen levels. Breathing oxygen is critically important to every single cell of your body and ribs are intimately involved in inhibiting this oxygen to the brain if they are not moving correctly. At Archetype Health this is one component of your weekly visit. Keeping your body moving is important but checking ribs and your spine is critical to your health. Everyone needs to get their body checked regularly it absolutely directly correlates to a normal functioning human no mater the size, age, or demographic. Follow my rabbit hole as I dive a little deeper into the importance of your spine, ribs, and body moving correctly and how it absolutely will affect your life for the good or bad.
Guess what? most people have ribs that are stuck and don't even know it! Ribs are a sleeping giant and do not cause pain unless a repetitive task happens like moving a home, working out after not for a bit of time, and many other unique activities we choose randomly to perform. Other aspects of your body not moving appropriately are because of dehydration, activation of immune function, unhealthy spine, or improper biomechanics when lifting something heavy. The cause can also be unknown which is what usually happens when ribs become irritated. So, what does a misplaced rib feel like? The pain can be extremely mild - extreme to send someone to the emergency room. people literally can’t breath and feel they are having a heart attack ( link to other article) If you feel this way or you have pain in your back along your thoracic spine, its usually that your ribs that are not moving. In todays society we are fixated in many sedentary positions for hours and it leads to severe harm to our health. Our “modern” society is something has trended lower and lower in our daily movement over the last 20 years. A great correlation to breathing and movement is measuring daily steps. The average American steps 7-8000 per day, your ancestors racked up 20,000 steps daily! Thats a 60% decrease in movement!! This sedentary trend has caused humans to be susceptible to chronic disease and codependent on medications which leads to more immobility and less oxygen to the brain. Sitting drastically decreases neuron activity to the brain and increases the bodies sympathetic state which is known as our "fight or flight" response and decreases our parasympathetic "Rest and Digest" part of our nervous system. Not moving daily allows us to continually miss the mark of "turning on" our brain daily and living in a constant state of decreased oxygen to the brain. We are literally sitting ourselves to death, our brains are not being fully turned on because we fail to move our daily recommended amount.
If there's a decrease in global movement there's also a decrease in breathing which ribs are directly correlated. If movement is decreased multiply years, decades, or a whole lifetime of decreased movement and oxygen levels, it leads to disease of the human and a significant lesser quality of life. How do we fix this problem? We have to get our bodies to move as optimal as our ancestors did. Other supplemental movements that help us fill the 20,000 step void is the chiropractic adjustment, when done correctly can mobilize ribs and increase oxygen levels with each adjustment given. Your upper six ribs correlate to the part of the brain that is responsible for breathing, it is extremely important to keep these ribs moving. If they aren't moving it can lead to many health issues. Even if you are moving consistently these firsts 6 ribs not moving can effect your overall oxygenation levels in the body. The upper ribs are mostly effected and utilized with exercise. If you sit at a desk, chances are you are not breathing for optimal function for your body. Being immobile for an extended period of time is considered the new smoking of 2021. We literally are killing ourselves slowly. When people sit they even more sabotage any chance of breathing the number of breaths per day needed for a healthy brain and body, they have a significant spike in disease and dysfunction. A result of our reduced breathing and daily movement is waking up fatigued, tired, and wondering why after 8 hours you are still feeling this way. Imagine this, what is the window to health? breathing correctly? a functional human being? POSTURE! Anyone can look at posture and “quasi diagnose” bad posture. look at just about anyone walking down the street, your coworkers, churchgoers, friends, family, or people at the airport (my favorite) Look how far forward their head is in front of their shoulders, (from the front) notice the rounded shoulders, or a hunched spine. Another great example is holding a breath. If you can not hold your breath longer than 45 seconds you may need to move more or have your ribs adjusted :) Both will increase your ability to breath normally.
Optimal brain health is directly linked to oxygen intake, you have direct control over oxygen intake and how to best optimize it. What posture are you in all day? It’s important to move every day. Our ancestors walked nearly 20,000 steps per day!!, the average American gets 7-8000 steps per day don’t be part of this statistic. If you don’t move 20,000 steps per day you take in a significant less amount of oxygen per day. We need as much help assisting this per day here are some suggestions., All exercise helps, chiropractic adjustments, eating a cleaner diet reduces stress on your system allowing it to work better and having a plan to live a life of natural health will exponentially help you move more oxygen into your body. Get moving and don't stop till the day you die. Movement truly is life and it also gives you the power to electively turn on your brian.
At Archetype Health our patients ribs are check with each chiropractic adjustment and assessed in our movement programing. We want to ensure your spine and ribs are moving correctly and stay in the correct position permanently. We want to see you be the absolute best version of yourself.
This is why I built Archetype. We are here to serve you.
Dr. John
-Your Chiropractic in Birmingham Alabama
