High Performance Health & Learning For Our Children

For those of us with children it won’t be long before our thoughts and activities will center around preparations for school. It’s up to the school system to “educate” our children. It’s up to us to provide our child with a healthy state of being within which they can maximize their educational experience. What we must remember is that any communication process is a two-way interaction involving transmission and reception. This just does not effect the learning process, but, will have effects on other aspects of the school experience such as physical activities/sports, social integration, behavior, etc.

A child’s general health status is paramount in relation to these concerns. Every decision that we have made and continue to make for them that effects their level of health will determine how well they will perform in these capacities. Unfortunately, many people think of health simply as a matter of how we feel and whether or not we have symptoms. Our present system’s focus on symptom relief and the ubiquitous drug advertising is, to an extent, responsible for this state of misunderstanding.

Health is not just about how you feel, rather how well we are functioning as human beings. Physical symptoms are only a very small part of the total health picture. Our health permeates every cell in our body and delineates to what capacity we can “perform” within the different domains of our lives.

Before we go any further, let’s look at some definitions. Health has been defined as “A state of wholeness in which all of the body parts function 100% at all times”. One definition in Websters for “performance” is “functional effectiveness”. Noting that function is coming up a lot, we find it is “the normal or characteristic action of anything that depends on and varies with something else”. So, our perception of high performance capabilities in school activities is dependent on a healthy state in which all of the child’s faculties are working at their optimal normal capacity at all times dependent on certain variable inputs. So, in relation to our children, what are these variable inputs?

In Wayne Dwyer?s “Real Magic”, he discusses cutting open a tomato seed as a child to see the “little tomato” inside. There was no little tomato, only the potentiality for the growth of one. From conception on, we also have certain potentiality that genetically predetermines what we can be, not that we will. From that time on we exist in a life of external and internal stressors. The dynamics of our inborn “innate” intelligence’s efforts is to adapt to these, through our nervous system, striving to reach our optimum potential.

Our health and performance capabilities, therefore, are dynamic and constantly changing responding to the positive and negative forces that influence them. The key to this is how well we can “express” our given potentials. To maximize expression, we must reduce the negative influences (interferences) and maximize the positive ones (support) that facilitate our functional processes. We categorize these influences into three areas: physical, biochemical, and mental/emotional.

In the biochemical category, we subdivide this into two main areas: improving nutritional input and reducing toxic burdens. Coco-Puffs, Coca-Cola, processed breakfast meals, and super-sized value meals do not provide the nutritional basis necessary for proper mental processes let alone the proper building blocks for healthy developing bodies. The consumption of as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible are a given.

Convenient, sugar laden and refined flour meals send your child into the classroom with a sugar buzz for an hour or so only to go into a mental slump thereafter. They are there physically but nobody’s home mentally. They need complex carbohydrates in their meals to give the brain a sustained release of quality nutrition for proper mental function. Also, reduce the intake of artificial sweeteners (Nutrisweet and other aspartame products) as there is strong evidence that they may be acting as neurotoxins in the brain.

Partially and wholly hydrogenated fats are also a significant component of much of the typical American diet. The brain and nervous system need high quality fats for appropriate neural function (Read “Smart Fats” by Dr. Michael Schmidt). Examples of quality fats include olive, canola, and other non-processed oils, cold water fish (salmon, cod), and nuts. The obesity problem in our country is not primarily due to fat intake as much as the amount of sugars that are dumped into the body which are converted into fat and stored.

Toxic burdens can adversely affect brain chemistry. To reduce as much as possible, focus on chemical exposure. Your skin is an organ and absorbs chemicals that it comes into contact with, therefore, use gloves when handling these agents. Also, keep in mind that inhalation is a big source of toxins. Fumes, especially subtle toxic gasses, from new paint, carpet, cleaning agents, furniture containing pressed wood, polyurethane coatings, herbicide and pesticide sprays, etc. all add up to toxic overload.

Finally, any drug, prescription as well as over-the-counter, that you give your child can have negative effects on the body’s biochemistry. Think drugs are safe? Aspirin killed more people in the U.S. last year than AIDS did and approximately 3,000 people die of adverse reactions to medication every week! Another consideration are vaccinations that warrant your prudent review of the current literature. The amount of mercury that your child is getting in recommended vaccinations ranges from 3O-78 times the maximum amount that is acceptable! Big questions are now being raised in the medical field as related autism occurrences have skyrocketed in the last ten years. Even if your child doesn’t become autistic, how much mental potential may have been permanently affected by the vaccination process? (See www.chappellhealth.com and click on “Vaccination” on the side index). In Michigan, you DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE VACCINATIONS TO GET INTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS! There is a philosophical waiver.

As to the physical aspects, exercise is a given. Along with proper nutrition your child’s brain and body need plenty of oxygen for proper metabolic functioning. Get them up and get them moving, preferably outdoors.

Of primary concern to any functional aspect of the body is a properly functioning nervous system. The nervous system and related neurotransmitter substances regulate and control all processes within the human body. Plain and simple, your child needs to be checked for vertebral subluxations (misalignments of the spine) by a subluxation-based chiropractor. You’re thinking to yourself, “Why? My child doesn’t have back pain.”

The fact of the matter is, true chiropractic was not intended to be a back pain therapy. A subluxation-based chiropractor’s main focus is the detection and correction of subluxations which begin early in life, cause nerve interference, and may exist for years before you have symptoms associated with them. Actually, the asymptomatic ones are the dangerous ones because you may not know they are there until you have a significant health problem.

Chiropractic is the largest, non-drug healing profession in the world. We got that way by getting results and being the safest form of health care available for your family. Subluxations can have a significant detrimental effect on your child’s performance capabilities. Among the observed effects of subluxation correction have been improvements in emotional, behavioral, and neurological problems such as asthma, bed wetting, anxiety, low mental stamina, inability to concentrate (ADD), hyperactivity (ADHD), discipline problems and even low grades, i.e., IMPROVED PERFORMANCE!

Improved nerve function balances the body’s biochemistry which effects the third area of concern, that of the mental/emotional. Obviously, other efforts to enhance self-esteem and self-confidence are extremely important.

So, the process of increasing your child’s performance capabilities is based in creating a healthier, wellness lifestyle. They are dependent on your guidance and decisions to remove the interference to their innate intelligence’s ability to express it’s full potential. Words from the Pocahontas song “Colors Of The Wind” state that you will never know how high a sycamore will grow if you cut it down. In the same respect, you will never know to what degree your child can perform, what heights they can reach, if there is interference to their capability. (For more information visit our website.)