TRI-5, Wk1, Day 272, Friday

For the record, Tri-5 students didn't have any class on Thursday and only a couple of classes on Friday. Part IV National Boards were still going on Friday and a wing of our building was closed down for testing. Honestly, the most exciting part of the day was the studying I did after classes were over. Along with a classmate, we focused on Cariorespiratory Dx, specifically the 12 lead EKG and various sinus rhythms.

I may have done a better job blogging on Friday because I'm getting mired down in pensive thought. I'm trying to put puzzle pieces together. I'm considering failure of the SA node to fire which may be expressed as Sick Sinus Syndrome, Sinus Arrest or SA Block (the terms are synonymous) Possible etiologies include ischemia of the SA node, certain drugs and, of course, increased vagal tone or vagotonia. Recall, the vagal nerve is parasympathetic Cranial Nerve X. The right vagus nerve directly innervates the SA node and the left vagus n innervates the AV node. Vagotonia would be a hyperexcitability of this nerve and since it's a parasympathetic nerve it would lessen the excitement of the SA node or preferred pacemaker of the heart.

What jumps out here is all the study we did on sympatheticotonia which would be a hyperexcitability of the sympathetic nervous system. Now, if a function of a chiropractic adjustment say, in the thoracic region of the spine is capable of helping to reset the sympathetics back to normal so they aren't so hyper then I would think a cervical type adjustment should have a similar effect on the parasympathetics and, in this case, of the vagal nerve which innervates the heart. We don't necessarily want the vagal nerve to be hyper, just normal in function.

With atril fibrillation or flutter we consider that beta blockers are prescribed to hep quell sympathetic stimulation which, again would be an objective of the chiropractic adjustment.

Kind of thinking out loud but, if a doctor prescribes something to subdue the sympathetics then the underlying assumption would be hyper sympathetics to begin with however a prescription of beta blockers, for instance, would be treating a symptom but WHAT IS THE CAUSE? What is causing the sympathetics to be hyper in the first place?

Although there may be multiple reasons I don't think the relationship between form and function should be overlooked. With this, my thoughts go to Rene Cailliet, M.D. whose article I read on the effects of anterior head carriage which points out deleterious effects on lungs, gastrointestinal function and diminished proprioceptive signals which reduce endorphin production.

I think, if a misaligned spine is difficult for people to relate to various medical issues then perhaps it would be easier for people to consider a portion of the brain being squeezed in a quarter of an inch. Say, for instance, a temporal portion of the skull because misaligned and compressed the cortex of the brain by a quarter inch, or even an eighth of an inch. I think most people could see how such a compression could be a vital issue and perhaps cause problems in the quality of a persons life. Well, the spine is directly plugged into our brain and pretty much daily, we see x-rays of spines out of wack along with various physical maladies.

Maybe today's blog is more an expression of current thinking and an indication of various things I'm trying to put together in order to more fully understand the profession of chiropractic and it's relationship to human health.