Diagnosis & Treatment

Functional Neurology

When determining nervous system function, manual muscle testing can be used to measure the electrical activity in specific muscles and also the brain. The reason that this is possible is because both muscles and the brain have nerves in common. With training and experience, this method of muscle testing is able to systematically determine the body's electrical impulses and the neurological function of different internal organs, receptors, muscles, glands and even the brain and spinal cord as previously mentioned. This is all possible because specific muscles have specific nerves pass through them that also pass through a corresponding organ or gland or have an interneuron (connecting nerves) which connect the nerve in the muscle to the nerve in the gland, organ or brain, etc. The nerves bringing sensation into organs and glands from muscles are called "afferent" nerves. The nerves which leave the organs or glands and go to muscles, skin, tendons, etc. are called efferent nerves (see illustration above.) Through different kinds of touch or pressure on different locations of the skin (receptor organs located on the skin), action potentials (a stimulation which causes the nerve to fire) are evoked in the sensory nerves. An Applied Kinesiology chiropractic doctor can use all of this information (along with other skills and training) as the foundation for the most advanced and elaborate system of diagnosis and treatment ever known to man. This system was first developed by two medical doctors named Kendall and Kendall and was later elaborated on in the early 1950s by a chiropractor named George Goodheart who developed what has today become known as Professional Applied Kinesiology. With skill an practice, the Applied Kinesiology doctor knows that If a muscle weakens, a therapeutic intervention can be made (osseus adjustment, acupuncture point stimulation, myofascial release etc.) that will strengthen the muscle which then corrects jumbled signals that were coming from the nervous system just moments before the therapeutic intervention was made.

If you do not have any type of science background you may be feeling like my friend in the illustration on the right. You may be asking yourself, "What does all of this mean? This sounds like a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo."

What this actually means is that YOUR BODY CAN TALK WITHOUT YOUR EVEN SAYING ANYTHING WITH YOUR MOUTH OR USING ANY TYPE OF KNOWN BODY LANGUAGE. It is really quite amazing. The trained Applied Kinesiology Doctor of Chiropractic simply needs to know how to ask a person's body the correct questions. A simple example follows. The answer to a question is given in the form of a change in muscle strength. Either a strong muscle could become weak or a weak muscle could become strong.

This knowledge has far too many implications to go over on a website let alone an entire series of books. If the patient and doctor are concerned about a food sensitivity the patient has they can test a strong muscle which is related to the organ that is affected by the specific food and then put a small amount of the suspected food on the patient's tongue in order that it stimulate the lingual nerve which then goes directly to the thalamus and hypothalamus in the brain and see if the corresponding muscle which just tested strong now weakens. If previously strong muscle now weakens with the food on the tongue then there is a very strong suspicion that the patient is sensitive to the food and should discontinue eating the food for a period of time until the incorrect physiological response of the muscle is corrected and the patient's nervous system no longer perceives the food substance as a stressor. A food which is a stressor or which the body is sensitive to does not necessarily cause a full blown allergic response. An allergic response is measured by an allergist who sees if - when a particular food or substance enters the body it creates an antigen/antibody reaction. This antigen/antibody reaction is a safety mechanism which the body uses to attack foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses, fungus/mold/yeast, and parasites. However, when the body is not functioning correctly then chemicals (such as foods) that enter the body may create an allergic antigen/antibody response.

By no means does this mean that eating foods which you are sensitive to will quickly cause you to have a disease, but because they put your body into a stressful state and weaken muscles and also organs and glands, they certainly have a negative affect on one’s health. These foods are called stressors because they cause the body stress. When the body is exposed to too many stressors over a long period of time it can then reach a state of ill health or "disease". Once the stressors are removed the body can function normally again and will once again be able to heal itself without interference.