Where do we need to exert Energy?

We are in an energy crisis. I'm not talking about what you may think when I mention energy crisis. I'm talking about our personal energy crisis in our own bodies. What I mean is this: When we go through the process of thinking, our nerve cells in our brain form neurochemicals called neurotransmitters. These are formed from the nerve cells and passed to other nerve cells in order to pass information from one cell to the other. What I'm saying is that when we go through the process of thinking, every thought is converted to a chemical signal that passes from one nerve cell to other nerve cells. Every chemical formed has a molecular make-up, and a certain charge to it. When I say charge, I am talking about the positive or negative charges that come from the atoms that make the molecules that are the chemicals. When I ask the question of what else in our world has positive and negative charges, most people think of batteries and magnets. When we have thoughts, we create molecules that have positive and negative poles. In short we create magnets inside of us. If our thought process is really efficient, we can cause physical changes in our body. We can stimulate the production of chemicals for healing, for breathing faster or slower, for increasing or lowering our heart rate and for changing our response to the environment. We can cause our whole body to become a giant magnet. I do not assume to know how far away our body magnet can attract things but our own body's physiology will change. For example, if I thought about crime in the city and how much I wanted to stop crime, I would make lots of chemical neurotransmitters relating to crime. Even though I wanted to stop crime, I could be attracting more crime to me, because I spent a lot of time making crime neurochemicals. If I really wanted to stop crime I would need to think about safe practices and security, and a peacefull society. I would form safe practice and secure neurochemicals. This would attract more safe and secure things toward me. I know this sounds juvenile, however this is something worth our time. If I really want to change health care than I must spend my energy thinking about an ideal health care system. I can't spend so much of my energy fighting against a health care system I do not want, because most likely I will get it. I must put forth a quality plan and put my energy behind it. If I want a different candidate for President, Governor, or Mayer I need to support the different candidate instead of fighting against the candidate I don't want. There is something very interesting about the human body. This is that the human body does not contain nerves that register negative signals. In other words: we do not have a "Not" nerve. We feel cold because there is no heat signals, and we see black because there are no color or light signals. Notice what happens when we tell ourselves or others "not" to do something. Isn't it the first response to do what we are "not" supposed to do. We have better effects when we have ourselves or others "do" something other than what we do not want to do. We have so much potential for good in our world but often times resort to making time for the bad. I like the Beatles song -"Imagine," I think we should imagine a world like we want and not one that we do not want.

Sports for Children

(Re-write from article on Dr. Godard's older web site)
Recently my wife and I had another little baby. Combined with seeing all the young people who go through the doors of our clinic, I am often reminded of the special needs of young children. The physical needs of our young people are quite different than our own. First of all, their body proportions are different from ours. Compared to an adult, a young person's head is large relative to the size of his body. Relative to the rest of the body measurements, the shoulder girdle is smaller, the hips are thin and narrow, and the abdominal cavity is larger. Inside the body, the nervous system is still maturing. The bone structure by weight is about one-quarter cartilage to three-quarters hard bone, which is much lighter and less dense than adult bone structure. When a young person exercises, there are different dynamics at work on his body than there would be for an adult. The weight bearing is slightly forward as compared to an adult. To compensate for that, the child has the tendency to arch the low back more. If we had children perform the same exercises as adults do, we would damage their low backs, shins, knees, and necks. The limberness in a child is proportional to the amount of calcium deposited in his or her bones, muscles, and connective tissues. On average, bones do not completely harden until around twenty-five years of age. It is a mistake to subject young people to weight-lifting exercises requiring power-lifting techniques much before the age of seventeen. The extra weight on the growth plates cause the plates to die, preventing the bone from achieving its potential height. Some exercises better suited for young people are those involving the pushing and pulling of their own weight. For example: push-ups, pull-ups, dips, one-leg lunges, squats without weight, leg press with body-weight, and running stairs. If the child has scoliosis, a modified weight lifting routine can be started to help the spinal muscles pull evenly.
Certain sports have been shown to be harder on young children. Soccer and basketball tend to stress young legs, specifically the tendon connection just below the knee. A child unconditioned to large amounts of activity starting soccer or basketball at ten to twelve years of age can develop knee pain that will last even at rest. Smaller children starting an intense soccer program at five to eight years old can damage the leg's growth centers. The trick is not to be a fanatic about sports for these young people. They should be learning the fundamentals of the sport and mild competition. Some recommended sports for young kids are swimming, football, and playing in the playground. Believe it or not, for a five to eight year-olds, football is very safe due to the amount of padding and the low demand for constant running. When the child's physical structure is in line, he or she will perform at higher levels. I have evaluated several young people's physical alignment and helped with sports performance through chiropractic adjustments. Above all else, if the child has fun at the sport and is learning its fundamentals, then the child will have a great future in that sport they choose.