From Adjustments to Autonomic Insights with Dr. Rhiannon Ep. 181

Curious about how the nervous system shapes our overall health, especially in children? This episode uncovers the groundbreaking work of Dr. Rhiannon, a specialist in neuro-focused chiropractic, who promises to redefine your understanding of chiropractic care. Dr. Rhiannon sheds light on how her practice diverges from traditional approaches by emphasizing the nervous system over musculoskeletal adjustments and explains why the notorious "cracking" sound isn't the core of effective therapy.

Takeaways

• Chiropractic is not just about cracking bones, but about restoring optimal nervous system function.
• A neurotonal approach focuses on neurological indicators for adjustments and individualized care plans.
• Insight scans assess heart rate variability, thermal activity, and neural motor system function.
• Dr. Clauss primarily focuses on children to optimize their nervous system development.
• She teaches workshops and events to educate the public about the importance of a healthy nervous system.

CONNECT WITH DR. RHIANNON
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Chapters

• 0:10 Neuro-Focused Chiropractic and Adjustments
• 11:03 Comprehensive Approach to Health and Wellness
• 19:45 Optimizing Nervous System Health
• 35:01 Empowering Health Through Education and Workshops
• 38:51 Expressing Gratitude and Future Connections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to Ella Go. My name is Lisa. Join me on the journey in having real raw and uncomfortable discussions about fitness, health and everything in between, because, let's be honest, this journey would suck if we don't get our shit together. Welcome back to the Elegoo podcast. My name is Lisa and today's guest is Dr Rhiannon. Dr Rhiannon, thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. Nice to see you, lisa. I saw you on Instagram and I still don't remember how we actually connected. I think there was like a networking group, and what you were posting on your Instagram was very different. So why don't you let the listeners know what your profession is and what is it that you do? Okay?

Speaker 2: 1:08

I am a neurologically focused chiropractor. My specialty is pediatrics and within pediatrics, sensory processing spectrum, anxiety, adhd kind of that umbrella that really encompasses the sensory root of issues that a lot of kids are facing today. So a neurologically focused chiropractor is different than kind of a musculoskeletal approach of chiropractic.

Speaker 1: 1:34

Yeah, and when I saw that, I was like what is this, like this is so different. So when you say that, you know what does that look like, because you know when people say chiropractor, what is it? They think they think the cracking. So what does that look like with you?

Speaker 2: 1:53

Yeah, so well. First let's just talk about what the cracking is in chiropractic. It's gas that has built up in fixated joints that gets released sometimes and many people crack their own knuckles, crack their own necks and backs, and I hate that it's called crack because that implies people think that that sound is coming from a bone, right, but it's not. It's gas released. And we have a lot of fun with the kids in the office. We call it bone farts and we joke about how the good thing about bone farts is they don't smell. But so that's never the end goal, right? So if that audible does happen, that doesn't mean that we did make a correction to the nervous system, and if it doesn't happen, it doesn't mean that we didn't. So that's never really the end result that we're looking for. But unfortunately you have programs like on the Learning Channel. They had a program similar to Dr Pimple Popper. They had one called Crack Addicts. That was a chiropractor a female chiropractor, unfortunately and it just really plays into that idea that chiropractor's job is to move bones. We are not bone doctors. I joke with my patients I don't care if your hip bone's on top of your head, as long as your nervous system is functioning optimally. So that is really the difference.

Speaker 2: 3:21

Chiropractic, from day one, from the very first adjustment, has been about the nervous system. It actually restored a man's hearing. I was just talking to my team about this in the office yesterday because I said, oh, we got to put on the calendar in September it will be chiropractic's birthday and just kind of reminding them of where chiropractic came from. But I think over the 129 almost years that chiropractic has been in existence, I think a lot of those changes happened in the 80s where people started thinking of chiropractic as bone doctors and cracking and fix my neck, fix my back. Because the insurance companies started covering chiropractic. People didn't have deductibles, they barely had co pays. You could just go to the chiropractor and get your back cracked right, which I mean it's a huge win to have health insurance companies cover another healthcare modality right. So on that end it's a win for chiropractic.

Speaker 2: 4:23

But on the other end chiropractic just becomes this really fast. You know, we can just see a bunch of patients really quickly and move a bunch of bones and as long as we get an audible, people think we've done something right. As long as we've got an audible, then they say, oh, yep, great and it felt good, and then we move on to the next patient. But what is the analysis that we're using? How are we determining what to adjust, how are we determining when to adjust and what is our end goal that we're working toward if it's not that audible, if it's not to move a bone?

Speaker 2: 5:01

So that's where neurologically focused chiropractic and the neurotonal approach to chiropractic comes in, because in our analysis, yes, there is still palpation you know, using our hands, what we feel. Yes, there is still looking at asymmetry in posture. Yes, there are still musculoskeletal, physical indicators, but there's so many neurological indicators that we need to be looking at as well. And that's what the neuro-tonal approach really is about is looking for the neurological indicators for what to adjust, when to adjust and what is the frequency and duration of care plan that's appropriate for each individual patient, not a one-size-fits-all across the board.

Speaker 1: 5:46

Okay, so you're saying all this and people are listening and they're like wait a minute. I thought that's what they do. Let's go back to the cracking. So they're not adjusting bones.

Speaker 2: 5:59

So do bones move? Do bones move when we do an adjustment? Sometimes, sometimes, yes, sometimes no. There are chiropractic techniques that, when applied, there's not even a physical thrust, and they're highly, highly effective techniques. So this is an interesting thing that I got into actually just yesterday in my practice, because I had a mom bring her child into the office and she's been seeing another local chiropractor for, I think, over 20 years, okay, and the technique that that chiropractor practices in their practice is called network spinal analysis. It's an incredible technique, incredibly effective, and it is not a technique that applies force, right A thrust, to adjust the patient's nervous system. And so that doctor had contacted my practice to ask my staff what techniques does Dr Rian in practice? And they didn't know how to answer that. And so they came to me and said what do we say to this doctor? And I said we really don't have an answer because in my practice we take a neurotonal approach. So there's well over 100 chiropractic techniques, okay, and they all work and they're all amazing okay. So I think one of the things in my profession that would help my profession would be if we stopped being so narrow-minded and said, well, we have to do this technique, this one works or that one works. They all work. They're all incredible.

Speaker 2: 7:30

And there's two parts to a technique. There's the analysis, right. There's how we're getting the information. What are our indicators that are telling us what to adjust and when to adjust and when not to adjust? That's really important too. Chiropractors need to know when not to adjust something right, just because we have some indicators for maybe 10 different subluxations and subluxation is the fancy word in chiropractic for stress stuck on in that area. Okay, maybe there's 10, 10 different areas that we see some indicators that something could be adjusted there, but does that mean we adjust all 10 things that day? We have to really suss out what are the primaries, right, and we want to make sure that we're not putting overwhelming input into the nervous system all at once. That's where frequency comes in, right.

Speaker 2: 8:22

So many patients come in and they think we're going to fix everything in one adjustment, right, but that is way too overwhelming to the nervous system. That's why we have to have a care plan where we can work on things in a certain sequence. So techniques have indicators and that's an analysis that tells us how we're going to adjust, what we're going to adjust, what we're not going to adjust. And then there's the application of the technique right, what way do I adjust this?

Speaker 2: 8:50

Is the patient laying down? Is the patient sitting up? Do I use an instrument? Do I use my hands? Is there a thrust? Is there not a thrust? I mean, there are so many different variables there. A neurotonal practice we use a lot of neurological indicators from multiple techniques to give us the information, but specifically neurological scans, which I know you and I will end up talking about and then we apply adjusting techniques from multiple different techniques that are appropriate for that patient's nervous system. At that time A patient may be adjusted with one technique method on visit one and on visit 20, they're being adjusted with another techniques method because we're meeting their nervous system where it is in their healing process.

Speaker 1: 9:40

God, it's so good. Okay, I think that people forget that the central nervous system includes the spine.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Yeah, the neuro spinal system.

Speaker 2: 9:48

I was just teaching a workshop last night that I teach pretty regularly, called the perfect storm, and we were taught it and it's really geared at talking about birth trauma and the process of giving birth, especially in this country, and we were talking about how. So when an embryo is formed, the very first thing that is developed in an embryo is the brain and what's called the neural tube right, which becomes the brainstem and the spinal cord. So your central nervous system, which also houses your autonomic nervous system autonomic, think, automatic autopilot right system, autonomic, think, automatic autopilot right that nervous system, its job is to perceive, perceive sensory right, and coordinate the perceive the environment and coordinate the function of all other systems of the body. So every other system that develops the gut, the immune, the motor right, Social, behavioral learning, all of these other things that develop are all coordinated by that central and autonomic nervous system. And so for us to want optimal function of the other systems, we have to look to the nervous system and make sure that it's able to support those other systems.

Speaker 1: 11:03

Exactly. Oh, my God, that's so good, okay, so let's talk about the tools that you use and what you use to. I don't want to use the word diagnose, but maybe diagnose, assess, however, you use it to see where a person needs the assistance.

Speaker 2: 11:20

Yeah, we kind of call it in the practice. We kind of call it like our CSI, our investigating, right, I'm a detective, and so where do we start? First? We start with the story. What is that patient's story? What are the physical stresses that they have encountered, right?

Speaker 2: 11:35

So, whether we're talking about an adult or we're talking about a kiddo, what was the birth process like? Right? And we can even go backwards and say, well, what was mom's stress levels during pregnancy? What was maternal stress like? You know, what book are moms given when they announce that they're pregnant? What to expect when you're expecting? Right, it's a scary book. It's kind of like a horror book.

Speaker 2: 12:01

Moms are under so much stress throughout their pregnancy Um, we're, we are. Moms are under so much stress when, throughout their pregnancy, we are treating pregnancy like it's a disease, like it's a pathology, right? Um, was there for? Were there fertility struggles and what sort of medications and things like that were? When you bring your kiddo to the pediatrician, how often are they asking you about the birth process and whether they use either manual extraction or forceps or vacuum extraction or a C-section, and how is that playing a part in that first pediatrician's visit? It's not really right. So we look at physical stresses that have impacted the nervous system. So birth trauma for kids. What about adults? What's the biggest physical stress adults are dealing with? They're sitting all day long. We've engineered a society that we don't have to move in. It's wild. It's wild. And we're sitting on that sacrum, the base of the spine right, and we're looking down at phones and tablets and all of those things all day. So we're inflection and we're compressing the base of the skull and the base of the spine, the occiput and the sacrum, and that is the home of the part of the autonomic nervous system that is the brake pedal. It's supposed to calm the system down so that we can rest, digest, heal, grow, repair. So we're already locking that part of the system down with those physical stresses. So we look at that part of the story.

Speaker 2: 13:34

What are the emotional stresses that are at play here? And there's so many times, especially when I'm talking to a mom you know what was your pregnancy like? Was it stressful? Well, it was a normal pregnancy. And then we keep digging further. And they moved, they changed jobs, there was a death in the family, they were trying to figure out financially how they're going to support this new member of the family, right, but they're saying, oh yeah, it was, it was normal, normal pregnancy. Those are huge changes, especially moving. I have a lot of patients moving right now and when we are changing the environment that's supposed to be our stable place, right, our home, our sanctionary, that's incredibly disruptive to our nervous system. So physical stresses, emotional or mental stresses, and then we look at chemical stresses.

Speaker 2: 14:21

I don't think anyone at this point is in denial of what a toxic world that we're living in right now, right From the cleaning products, our personal hygiene products, our food supply, our water supply. I mean we live in a very toxic world and I think that one of the things that has gotten really tricky again. I feel like I keep referencing the 80s, but back in the 80s I feel like chiropractors really got associated with being anti-vaccine, anti-medicine and that kind of made this world where it was like you're either pro-medical care or you're with us or against us, right, and in this practice we don't do that at all. We want to support families in whatever choices they want to make, but there's no denying that medications are toxic to the system. I mean they are, but sometimes they're necessary.

Speaker 2: 15:17

Medicines save lives, right. There's no denying that vaccines are toxic to the system. In fact, the way a vaccine works is by causing stress to the system. That's the way, that is the mechanism of a vaccine working. So we have to look at this big picture of you were layering on physical stresses, emotional stresses, chemical stresses, and eventually there's that last drop of water that makes that cup overflow. And so we really dig into story which eat with each individual patient on that case by case basis, even within a family Right, and then so that's our subjective. Then we go to the objective, which are the scans Right, and those are the. Those are the really cool part.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Yeah, I mean no seriously and I you know, as you're talking, it almost sounds like you have a chiropractor and a therapist all in one. I mean seriously because you are not. You're taking the person and and you could probably resonate with this where you know the thought of going to see a doctor, you took care of a part. No one asked you well how's your home life?

Speaker 1: 16:26

How's it going? Like? No doctor asks that, you know, but you are taking that person as a whole. You're asking them their history, how they're doing, because that is all impactful to that person's issues, right?

Speaker 2: 16:39

Well, that's what the nervous system is dealing with, right. The nervous system is dealing with your external environment, right. What is the temperature outside? What is what's the weather? What am I hearing? What am I seeing? What am I smelling? Right, all these external things. And then it's also perceiving what your internal body is telling it, right. What am I hungry? What are my hormones? What are? What's my microbiome? Right, everybody wants to talk about the microbiome right now, which is important. But we need to remember, you know, we want to talk about the gut brain connection. Can we please start calling it the brain gut connection? I don't know why we're putting gut first Because, again, that nervous system is the first in the sequence of development, so it needs to be the first in the sequence of healing.

Speaker 2: 17:26

So you're seeing people looking for they want to try supplements, they want to try diet changes, they're on a parasite cleanse, they are using all the essential oils, we're doing therapies. All of that stuff is amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. But then they hit a wall, right, because if the nervous system isn't regulating properly, you can't achieve your optimal results with those incredible therapies. You know, a lot of times I'm talking about kids a lot of times. You know there's incredible. You know, all over the place, but locally I can speak specifically to. Locally there's incredible incredible pediatric OTs, incredible pediatric PTs, speech therapists, dieticians I mean we have incredible resources here, but families are hitting a wall where they're going.

Speaker 2: 18:13

Yeah, I saw some change but we're still not really getting there. But when we start with a neurologically focused approach first and get that nervous system healing and regulating and get that momentum in the nervous system, we open up the window for the nervous system to integrate and adapt to those therapies or those diet changes and all the other things that moms and dads are trying. The window is open and they get incredible exponential results there. So we need to stop thinking it's a one thing or another. It's not neurological chiropractic or physical therapy, neurological chiropractic or medicine, neurological chiropractic or speech or diet, or we have to set the stage for the nervous system first and everything else that we're trying is working so much better.

Speaker 1: 19:02

My God, you had to collaborate with a therapist. Could you imagine?

Speaker 2: 19:05

Yeah, no, I know most of the local therapists, and if I don't know them, I want to know them, because we need to work together to serve these families.

Speaker 1: 19:13

It makes total sense. Oh my goodness, all right. So let's talk about the scans, because those are really cool, I love it.

Speaker 2: 19:19

I know the scans are really cool. It's incredible technology and it's something that we now have. In the past 15 years or so I mean about 20 years ago there was the beginnings of the technology. There was Tytron's that did a version of the thermal scan, but now we have it's called insight scans, okay, which is I love that Dr Fletcher has it named that because it gives us insight into the nervous system, right.

Speaker 2: 19:45

So there's three scans that we do. The first is an HRV and that's a heart rate variability. So you and your listeners may be familiar with that because it's in a lot. A lot of runners would wear that around their chest, right. Or now it's in your smart watches and things like that. I have an aura ring that is looking at measuring things like that. So what's heart rate variability?

Speaker 2: 20:09

Well, your heart rate is controlled by your autonomic nervous system Autonomic, think, automatic. You are not in control of it and your heart rate should be variable, okay. So if you're at rest, hopefully you're at rest while you're talking to me. Hopefully this doesn't stress you out. If you're at rest, right, we have a normal resting heart rate. But say you're at rest, hopefully you're at rest while you're talking to me. Hopefully this doesn't stress you out. If you're at rest, right, we have a normal resting heart rate.

Speaker 2: 20:32

But say you're driving down the road and a deer runs out in front of your car, you're going to have that stress response instinct. Your heart rate's going to go up, you're going to start sweating a little bit, you're going to start breathing a little more rapidly and you're going to have that boom instinct. Hopefully you slam on the brakes. And if you're a mom, what do moms all do? Put their arm out to cover their passenger side. Right, I'm not a mom, but I have learned that from my mom. So I'm just protecting my purse, but I still do it. But so, and then what happens? The deer crosses the road. If you're in upstate New York, then you wait because you know there's probably two more coming. And then five minutes later you're back driving down the road singing along to the radio and your heart rate has come back down to normal, you're breathing normally, you're not sweating anymore.

Speaker 2: 21:20

So your nervous system has switched into stress response really quick and then come right back into your normal, regularly scheduled program, which we call parasympathetic. I tell patients remember P, it starts with a P. When we are at peace when we are at rest. So our heart rate variability we measure that over a period of time so that we can see is your autonomic nervous system adapting appropriately to the environment? Appropriately to the environment? Most people have the stress response stuck on. Stuck on, which means all the things that are supposed to be happening in the parasympathetic that peaceful, restful response is being inhibited. Right, vagus nerve is most commonly associated with parasympathetic. You found me on Instagram so you probably see a lot of things about the vagus nerve on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 22:12

One of the coolest things for neurological chiropractic right now is that a lot of people are talking about nervous system regulation on the internet. Right, they're talking about regulating the nervous system with somatic practices, with infrared therapy, with red light, with cold plunges all really cool modalities that help strengthen nervous, the regulated nervous system. But when a nervous system is already dysregulated, those things can actually reinforce the dysregulation. So again, sequence, right, we need to start with resetting that autonomic nervous system with neurologically focused adjustments, and we don't know what that looks like for you or for me or for anyone, until we do those scans. There's no one size fits all. So the HRV really gives us an idea of where are you at in your adaptability and your reserve, your activity ability to be able to respond to the stresses.

Speaker 2: 23:20

And then the thermal scan. The thermal scan uses infrared technology to show us where there is asymmetry in the autonomic activity. So the analogy I like to use with my patients is if I Google mapped your autonomic nervous system, if I used Google map for Lisa's autonomic nervous system, my HRV would be my satellite view. Where are you on the map? Where is Lisa right? Then my thermal scan is like my street level view. Now I can see exactly where that stress is. We can locate it, okay. So the HRV, we detected it. The thermal, we have located it. Okay.

Speaker 2: 23:54

And then the third scan, the EMG. It's looking at our neuromotor system, which really ties the nervous system to the traditional view of chiropractic, of musculoskeletal right, the postural system. Everyone thinks we're bone doctors. Actually a woman wore skeleton earrings to my talk last night. So it really ties the nervous system to the musculoskeletal system, this EMG, because like an EKG, which is reading the electrical activity of your heart muscle, or an EEG reading the electrical activity in your brain, the EMG is reading the electrical signals, the electrical activity energy between your brain and your posture muscles. So how is the brain using the postural system to adapt and respond to stresses? Right, that's what we see and that's where we're able to quantify, measure numbers-wise, the total energy in the postural system. How is the brain using this musculoskeletal postural system to adapt to stresses, to be stuck in a stress response?

Speaker 1: 25:02

Wow, I'm speechless. I mean, it makes sense, it just makes sense, all of it makes sense, but it's just at this point. I still can't believe that we're not doing more of that, and you're definitely doing that. Let's switch gears here. So your target audience and I think that was the video that I saw you had a baby on your lap and I'm like what is she doing? A chiropractor with the baby. I'm thinking she's going to crack his back, but that sounds scary, I know.

Speaker 1: 25:32

And you did something where I think the child couldn't walk or didn't have those, um, motor abilities or wasn't talking or whatever. And you did something where I think the child couldn't walk or didn't have those motor abilities or wasn't talking or whatever. And you did something and they just started doing what they needed to do to grow, to develop. So what is your target audience?

Speaker 2: 25:51

Well, I could give a big umbrella A lot of times when someone says to me how do I know if I, if I need to see you? And so a lot of times I will say I try to say it nicely, but if you're alive and you have a nervous system, you should probably get it checked. That's like saying to a dentist how do I know if I need to see you? Well, do you have teeth Right? But no, primarily, primarily, we really focus on kids in my practice. I mean, my oldest patient is 95. So that's obviously not a child. But we focus on kids in my practice because that developmental window of the nervous system, if we can get in there, I mean that sweet spot is really before age seven. But, um, the earlier the better. Because the the amount the better, because the amount I mean the amount of neurons, the amount of nerves, brain cells and neural pathways that a child is making in one day is equal to what we're making in a whole year. So if we can get in there and help that nervous system really be adaptable and heal and grow and develop in an optimal way, that sets them up for incredible success going forward. But we have incredible success with adults.

Speaker 2: 27:02

I mean, I had a man in his 80s come in. His wife tricked him to bring him into the office he didn't know where he was going because he would not have come if he did and he actually had spinal surgery. He was fused from three different spinal surgeries, from C2 down to L4. So all I could adjust was occiput, base of skull C1, the very top vertebra where the brain stem is L5 and the pelvis. After two weeks of adjustments he regained control over his bowel function, control over his bladder function, control over his reproductive organs, to the point that then his wife became a patient because he was chasing her around the house.

Speaker 2: 27:42

So you are not a lost cause if you are a grown-up, but when we can affect a kiddo's nervous system, obviously we can affect the trajectory of their nervous system development. We can affect the trajectory of their nervous system development and we are having, at such a young age, significant physical stress with the birth process, right. Significant emotional stress during pregnancy and when baby is born I mean think about the stressful environment in a hospital, right and significant chemical stress with early use of antibiotics, early use of vaccines. Again, we're not saying not to do those things. I want families to make choices that feel right for them, but we need to acknowledge this perfect storm of things that are impacting our kids. You know, developing nervous system.

Speaker 1: 28:35

I was going to ask you for a success story, but that is such a good.

Speaker 2: 28:40

I mean I have a patient who is a teenager, he's 14. And he had very quickly gone from walk and talk and move in normal teenager to walk a walker than a wheelchair. I mean they went to the National Institute of Health, boston Children's Hospital, all over the place trying to find answers and getting no answers and after 12 adjustments he walked into the office. So we really just and again chiropractic. I want to be very clear about this we do not diagnose, we do not treat. I do not treat anything. I do not treat colic, I do not treat ADHD. I do not treat autism, I do not. I mean I don't treat anything. I do not treat colic, I do not treat ADHD. I do not treat autism, I do not. I mean I don't treat anything, I don't diagnose anything.

Speaker 2: 29:23

What do we do? We investigate to find where stress is stuck in the nervous system. We help remove that stress to calm and balance the adaptability of the nervous system so that we're not constantly in the stress response but we're in that growth, healing, repair response, that parasympathetic, where the nervous system is meant to adapt to challenges. We're going to have challenges in this world. Right, we were not meant to live in utopia, but our society has gone so far beyond what our nervous system is capable of adapting to, right I joke with my patients your nervous system was not designed to adapt to taxes and traffic. It just wasn't. And so we need to help the nervous system have better coping strategies, better adaptability, because taxes and traffic aren't going away, and neither is trauma, neither is sitting, neither is technology right, that's not going away. We're sitting here doing this on a computer, right? I mean, these things aren't going away, and so we need to give our nervous system the ability to adapt in a healthy way to that.

Speaker 1: 30:37

Yeah. So a question that I had as you were talking, um, as far as you know the things that we need to do so that we can live our best life ever, um, I know people are probably thinking well, exactly what is it that you're doing for me to make me better? So you do put your hands on people, but what are you doing?

Speaker 2: 30:58

I do, okay. So a neurologically focused adjustment, a neurotonal adjustment, that impulse into the nervous system, whether it's through light touch, whether it's through a small thrust, whether it's with an instrument, okay, that impulse into the nervous system. The research out of New Zealand, actually incredible, incredible research by Dr Heidi Havik, great research coming out of New Zealand chiropractic has shown that that neuronal impulse goes directly to the brain all the way to the prefrontal cortex, so the very front here. Okay, and they've shown on EEG increasing activity there by 20%, which is that's a lot on an EEG. And it stimulates both hemispheres equally, which is very important.

Speaker 2: 31:49

Because you have one hemisphere that is more dominant and associated with sympathetic, detail-oriented focus stress response. Then you have another hemisphere that's more focused on big picture, calming, putting things in perspective, right, and so we want again that adaptability. We want to be able to have both systems able to work so that we have an appropriate response to our environment, right, the stress response gets a bad rap. So we don't want the stress response to go away. In fact, many of the adults that we do scans on, they have been stuck in the stress response so long that we see their stress response is exhausted, it's tanked Okay and we actually have to work on getting that back online. So a neuronal adjustment helps balance the brain's ability to adapt.

Speaker 1: 32:40

Okay. So yes, you are touching people. You are you know, and I am not cracking babies, not cracking babies, their spines haven't even fully formed.

Speaker 2: 32:52

yet no usually baby. Babies sleep through adjustments. Baby, it's very light touch, um. You'll see a lot of babies on the Instagram and you probably don't even know I'm adjusting them on the Instagram because they're just laying there in a pillow.

Speaker 1: 33:05

It's definitely a very skilled profession. Yeah, but babies that aren't pooping.

Speaker 2: 33:12

What are babies born supposed to do? Eat, sleep and poop. And what our moms? You'll never find a practice that talks about poop more than a neurotonal chiropractic office. But what are moms so frustrated with? Their babies aren't sleeping, they're colicky, so they're not digesting, right, right, and they're not pooping. They're constipated, and what are they told to do? They're either told that they're going to grow out of it or give them Miralax or give them gas drops.

Speaker 2: 33:40

But what about why? Why is this happening, right? Well, when we deliver a baby and we use a giant pair of hands or a giant pair of pliers or a giant plunger to pull baby out of mom, okay, either with a C-section or the old fashioned way, okay, we're putting pressure and manual trauma on the upper cervical spine, which is where the vagus nerve comes out. Everybody wants to talk about the gut brain connection. That's the vagus nerve, right? That is the calming, that brake pedal to allow the body to go into rest and digest, heal, grow, develop, right. And so when we have trauma to that area, that system gets shut down. We're thrown into a sympathetic fight or flight and you have these babies that are colicky, that are miserable, that aren't pooping, that are spitting up right, because they're not eating, sleeping pooping properly, which?

Speaker 1: 34:34

is the only thing they were designed to do.

Speaker 2: 34:44

It's so true, though, oh my.

Speaker 1: 34:45

God, that is so. Listen, I could talk about this Like I am just in awe, I just love it. I just love this stuff. What do you have going on for the practice? Like I know that you have like an event, I think a talking event but what do you have new coming up that people could come and listen and know more about you?

Speaker 2: 34:59

Okay, no, great question. Well, we teach workshops that are free to the public, not just to patients. Okay, I teach the perfect storm workshop, where we talk about the root causes of ADHD, anxiety, spectrum sensory. We really dive deep into the birth process and that birth trauma. So I teach Perfect Storm usually every month.

Speaker 2: 35:20

So if you go to our website, cdfchirocom, so C, as in cat D, as in dog F, as in Frank chiro for chiropracticcom, there's a workshops tab, and so whatever current workshops are coming up are always on there. We also put them on our Instagram. Coming up are always on there. We also put them on our Instagram. Same thing at CDF Chiro, we teach a raising healthy kids. Naturally, where we talk about, obviously we talk about neurotonal chiropractic, but we also talk about what are the other things that you can do lifestyle wise, right, you talk about a lot of lifestyle stuff on this podcast.

Speaker 2: 35:56

What are important things that everyone should be doing? We should be moving our body movement, right? The majority of the stimulation to the brain that calms the brain is movement of the spine. Okay, why do you think these sensory kids that are stuck in fight or flight, okay, and their spine is stuck, their spine is fixated. And so what are they doing? They want to hit things, they want to move their head. They're stimming, they're trying to get stimulation, sensory input, to calm the brain. That's why exercise movement, I don't I.

Speaker 2: 36:29

The reason I don't say exercise is because exercise is intimidating to people, right? So I tell it just I just want you to move your body. I'm not telling you to go sign up for a 5k, I'm not telling you to go do a hit class. I'm just telling you, just move your body. Get up every 45 minutes from your desk and walk to the water cooler, hydrate and walk around for five minutes. Just move your body. So movement. Hydrate your body.

Speaker 2: 36:51

Eat food, food, actual food, okay. Food came from nature. Just because it's edible does not make it food okay. There are edible, food-like substances those are not food. Okay. So eat food and please, please, sleep, sleep. People are priding themselves on oh, I only need six hours of sleep, I only need four hours of sleep, I, I. People are priding themselves on oh, I, I only need six hours of sleep, I only need four hours of sleep.

Speaker 2: 37:19

People ask me how I keep up with two practice locations as a solo doctor. I sleep, I have clear boundaries around my sleep, so, um. So we talk about things like that in raising healthy kids. We talk about some natural ways to boost the immune system, things like that. About things like that in raising healthy kids. We talk about some natural ways to boost the immune system, things like that. And then we teach a birth and beyond class too for mamas who want to get pregnant, are pregnant, maybe just had a baby. So we teach a lot of workshops. I speak all over the capital district. I'll speak at the opening of an envelope, if you want me to, because people need this information. So we're in Albany, we're in Wilton, um, and maybe we'll have more locations, who knows? We're bringing on more doctors into the practice, um, so we can serve more families.

Speaker 1: 38:07

Oh, I love it. I'm so glad you're doing this work and I think that when people are listening to this again, I don't think the sense of nervous system with a chiropractor. You're like the first person that I've heard talk about that connection, because that's what it is the central nervous system. And then working on kids because that is so critical You're saying let's get to them while they're developing so that they don't get to a point where they're completely stuck. Not that you can't make those changes, but it's going to take a little bit more time. The work that you're doing. I'm so happy that you're doing it. I'm so happy that you're bringing in more awareness to it. I can't thank you enough for it. Thank you so much for being a part of this and I like all the things, the movement, all of that being stuck like it's just it's all connected. So again, thank you so much for being a part of this.

Speaker 2: 39:07

Thank you, lisa, have an awesome day and I know we're going to connect again soon.

Speaker 1: 39:11

Oh yeah, we will. And I will make sure that I will put all the links to get a hold of her practice. She's got two locations, the addresses. You'll have access to that, as well as the Instagram page, which is pretty cool Because, like I said, what got me was the baby. I was like what is this? So definitely check that out and again, thank you so much for being a part of this and until next time. Bye, thank you.