Heartburn Help

What could cause your heartburn?

I was chatting in clinic over lunch the other day, and told the story of when I realised that sometimes chiropractic helps with things other than pain. Of course, if you’re a patient of the clinic already, you’ll probably have experienced this yourself but I thought it may be of interest to other people too.

I first became aware of how Chiropractic could help with problems other than back pain at college as a final year intern.

I was treating a lovely lady in her late 60s with purple hair! She presented with low back pain and back then we were only permitted to treat the symptomatic region of the spine, meaning the bit that was painful!

I adjusted her low back and she improved as expected.

Our appointments were quite long at college to allow us time to get a tutor if required, so this gave us the opportunity to talk. On one of her visits, she happened to mention she suffered from heartburn. On further questioning she was taking 13 antacids a day and lots of Gaviscon.

Well, earlier that year I’d written a paper on the somatovisceral reflex, in other words how spinal problems such as vertebral subluxations may affect the body’s organs. Chiropractors are the only people in the world trained to locate, analyse and treat subluxations. These are segments of the spine that are out of alignment or not moving as they should. This can affect the nerve flow to and from the spinal cord and in some cases results in symptoms. In others it can be what we call a silent subluxation where it affects the cells and organs it is supplying without symptoms but it’s health will be affected long term.

This lady had the classic subluxations we would find in someone with a digestive disorder so I asked a tutor if I could treat the relevant area…I picked my tutor wisely, and was given the ok!

The nerve supply to the stomach comes from T6 (one of the bones of the spine), just between the shoulder blades, where I found the major subluxation.

I adjusted the lady and within a couple of treatments she was down from 13 antacids to just 3 halves! I was so excited! Since then I’ve studied with some of the best chiropractors in the world and refined my techniques to help with other digestive disorders such as IBS.

Some of the digestive complaints I have seen since have prevented people from even going on holiday as they needed to be close to a toilet at all times, or that could only leave the house after 6-10 bowel movements in a morning! They were prisoners in their own homes.

Most of these people have had a drastic reduction in the severity of their problems, and some have had complete relief.

The important thing to remember is that chiropractic is not a treatment for any digestive disorder, or any other symptom in fact. Chiropractic is only concerned with restoring correct nervous system communication between the brain and the body. So if your digestive problems are caused by interference in the nervous system, chiropractic may be able to help you. However, if your issues are caused by something else, chiropractic is not the answer for you. The best way to find out is to let a chiropractor check your spine.