article archive
February 2007
When the nerves ain't happy
ain't no body happy
by Dr. Will Tickel
(With the kind permission of
Dr. Tickel's family, here is the final article Will wrote
for The Chiropractic Journal.)
Wiggle a finger. Wiggle a foot.
Now take a deep breath. And let it out. How'd all that take
place? The nerve.
It's a fact of life. The nerve system runs
the body. The most classic of all the anatomy books, "Grays Anatomy," says
the nerve system is the master system, directing all other
systems in action. When the nerve system isn't working right
the body isn't working right either. Simple as that! And
what would cause the nerve system not to work right? Interference.
You don't have to attain a college education to have a nerve
system that knows what to do. You were created with a system
that knows all there is to know about life. God made you
that way.
Okay, you say. Everyone knows this. Now what?
When's the last
time someone checked your nerve system? And just who would
that nerve system checker be? It wouldn't be a cardiologist.
That's the heart or circulatory system. It wouldn't be gynecologist.
That's the reproductive system. Not the gastroenterologist,
ophthalmologist, or urologist. They check other systems. It
wouldn't be the orthopedist. That's the bone and joint checker.
It could be a neurologist, but usually that's only after the
unhappy nerves have been unhappy so long that symptoms are
showing up elsewhere, further down the road to sickness and
disease. So who's the nerve doctor?
See your neighborhood chiropractor
Chiropractic is the philosophy,
science and art of healing, which deals with the unhappy nerves.
The chiropractor looks to discover any interference in your
system that may lead to unhappy nerves. Because an unhappy
nerve system can cause problems in any of the other systems
it serves ‑‑ circulatory,
digestive, reproductive, respiratory, even the immune system.
Makes the chiropractor's job a rather important one, don't
you think?
When a person understands just what chiropractic
is and what a chiropractor does, most likely, he or she will
try chiropractic. It just makes sense to correct the cause
of the unhappiness or lack of ease in the body instead of doctoring
or drugging the effects.
Miracles beyond belief.
Sometimes, when you share what you know
about chiropractic with others they respond, "I don't
believe in that [chiropractic]." Next time you get that
response, reply "You
don't have to believe in it. You simply have to try it. If
it works for you and gets results that's what counts." "Besides," tell
them, "even though when it
comes to choosing a health care professional or a type of
care it's not a matter of having a belief in the practitioner
or the type of care, by and large." Tell them, "What
matters about your beliefs is whether or not you have faith,
confidence, and belief in the inherent healing wisdom of
the body itself."
Share with folks how your confidence
comes more as a result of your experience in witnessing the
body at work than it does from your years of formal education.
Ask
yourself this question, healer. Was the health care delivery
system in better hands before mass marketing and advertising
by outside influences such as pharmaceuticals? Were the practitioners
better intentioned, for instance, before the third party payer
got involved? Did the more intimate doctor‑patient relationship
that comes from the patient paying for the care improve the
patient's health and degree of recovery? Could the apprenticeship
policy for educating the health care professional have been
more effective than the academic system of today? These are
questions worthy of your attention from time to time as a healer.
Which
brings me to the words of an early American writer and philosopher,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is quoted as saying, "We
are shut up in schools for twenty years or more to learn
a bellyful of words, but we do not know a thing." There's
a great deal of truth in the words of Emerson, seems to me.
One
final point.
The nerve system runs every body. In a very real
sense, the functioning nerve system is what separates the living
from the dead. The nerve system runs every body, not just
some bodies. Unfortunately, not everyone has experienced
how chiropractic can impact the nerves and how that can change
lives. It's our job, those of us who do know, to tell everyone
so they can have a choice in the matter.
Simple as that!