With the colder temperatures comes more time indoors near other people and fewer opportunities to get out and get fresh air. In other words, cold and flu season is upon us.
As adults, we are familiar with the phrase that something is “going around” as we seemingly watch one person after the next go down with an illness. Parents of children who are in day care or are school age are acutely aware of this concept as an ailment seems to pass from one child to the next in a classroom or school. But while many children may catch a cold or the flu that is “going around,” many do not. There can be several reasons for this, but one that is particularly important is a strong immune system that is prepared to fight off bacteria and viruses. Proper nutrition and plenty of sleep are keys to a strong immune system, and chiropractic is also increasingly seen as an important immunity-boosting factor.
This is because there is now understood to be a strong connection between the nervous system and the immune system. Chiropractic adjustments directly impact the nervous system, which is considered the control center of the entire body and includes your brain, spinal cord and nerves, because adjustments put the body back into proper alignment and eliminate interference between the nervous system and the rest of the body. When parts of the body are misaligned, there is interference in the transmission of nerve impulses, affecting various parts of the body, including the immune systems. Among other connections between the nervous and immune systems are adrenal glands, and chemicals and hormones that are produced by cells of both systems. According to Pathways to Wellness, research has also shown that “the brain uses nerve cells to communicate directly with the immune system.”
It’s been nearly 100 years since chiropractic care was first linked to improved immunity. During the flu epidemic of 1917 and 1918, chiropractic patients fared better than the general population, and a study of the data found that “flu victims under chiropractic care had an estimated .25 percent death rate, considerably less than the normal rate of 5 percent among flu victims who received no chiropractic care.” In more recent times, other studies have shown connections between chiropractic and immunity, like one that determined that “disease-fighting white blood cell counts were higher just 15 minutes after spinal adjustments.”
While we try to do all that we can to prevent our children from getting a cold, we can’t keep them in a bubble, stopping them from coming into contact with the illness-causing virus or bacteria. That’s why it’s important to take the step of having your child visit Dr. Jacob Fletcher for pediatric chiropractic adjustments to ensure that the nervous system is in alignment and that all of the body’s systems are functioning well so that the immune system can be prepared to fight off any flu or cold-causing germs your child is sure to come in contact with. Call us at Well Beings Chiropractic Family Health in Lakewood, Colorado, at 303-238-6500 to learn how we can help boost your child’s immune system this flu season.