childhood illness

As a child I remember getting croup (barking cough, usually worse at night) every once in a while.  One night last week, my young son woke up with that familiar barking cough.  Though I knew what it was and there was little chance of any serious problems, it still gets your heart racing when you awaken to your child in distress.  As a dad, I went in to his room to help comfort him and calm him down.  As a chiropractor I also checked him to see if he needed to be adjusted.  He did, and after the adjustment he settled down pretty quickly and went back to sleep.  He did not have any more problems that night and his body quickly took care of the problem in the next day or so.  Some may say it is just a coincidence or it was something else that helped him besides the adjustment, but I don’t think it is a coincidence.  In this post I wanted to talk a little about the importance of chiropractic for kids and some possible ways that chiropractic helped my son in this specific case.

First off, if you are not familiar with croup, it basically refers to a loud ‘barking’ cough.  So really it just describes a set of symptoms and not necessarily a ‘disease.’  Croup is caused by inflammation or swelling around the vocal cords causing the characteristic ‘barking’ cough usually due to any number of viruses that affect the upper respiratory tract.  It typically gets worse both at night and when a child is upset or agitated and takes a few days to run its course.

Chiropractic for Kids

So how would chiropractic help croup or other common childhood illnesses?  First, the broad answer is that chiropractic helps the body function better by removing interference from the nervous system.  The nervous system is the way the body sends information from the brain to the body and vice versa.  The nervous system really controls everything in the body.  If the body cannot get the right information out to its various parts, they will not function correctly.  This can decrease the effectiveness of the immune response, affect blood flow to different parts of the body, or even affect mood.  By restoring proper flow of information the body works the way it is supposed to in a highly coordinated manner.  The body is able to do everything better when it can send information without interference.  It’s the same idea as how much easier it is to get directions somewhere when you don’t have a bad phone connection.

How Chiropractic Can Help

Blood Flow

Now more specifically in the case of croup, how might an adjustment help?  Well, for my son I adjusted the very top bone in the neck (C1) which can have effects throughout the entire body.  One thought why croup is worse at night may be the difference in blood flow while sleeping.  While lying down more blood would be able to go into the head and neck area which could cause increased swelling which makes symptoms worse.  There have been studies that have shown that after an adjustment to C1 there are improvements in things such as blood pressure which in turn can affect blood flow to different parts of the body.  It is plausible that a change in blood flow to the area may happen after an adjustment.

Tight Muscles

Also tight muscles regularly accompany misalignments of the spine.  For this case, in the upper neck it is possible that tight muscles could also affect the flow of blood and lymph to or from the area affecting swelling around the vocal cords.  This is similar to one explanation of how ear infections are helped by chiropractic – tight muscles may affect the Eustachian tube not allowing the inner ear to drain properly leading to ear infections.

Stress

Finally, the stress response is driven by a branch of the nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).  When the SNS is more active, the body is revved up and ready for action, also called the fight or flight response.  Through personal observation, people who have spinal misalignments often seem to be more in this fight or flight mode and after an adjustment tend to be able to relax more.  With the SNS more dominant it is likely to be more easily agitated or on edge and in the case of croup that would likely lead to worsening of symptoms.

Conclusion

To be completely honest, I do not always know the exact mechanisms through which chiropractic helps a person in each individual case, but I know that chiropractic helps.  I focus on helping families improve the health, vitality, and well-being of their children – providing a strong foundation for their future health.  That is why I feel that chiropractic for kids is so important.  If you would like to know more or schedule to have your child checked, call our office today.