Pre- 4th Quarter Journal
Well, journal time
means the end of the quarter and the beginning of a new one. I’m glad to say
that third quarter was much easier than second quarter. What I have learned is
that the curriculum eases up and gets very hard by odd and even quarters. The
upper quarter students have also told me this. Therefore, 2nd, 4th,
6th, and 8th quarters are very challenging. However, 1st,
3rd, 5th, and 7th quarters are not as
challenging or rigorous as the even quarters.
So,
what did I learn during my 3rd quarter stay at Sherman College? Lots
of cool and fun stuff! Here’s a list of all of the classes that we completed
last quarter.
Anatomy III with Lab- (9 hour per
week course).
*** My fellow classmates and I are
proud to announce that we are OFFICIALLY DONE with the cadaver lab! For the
first nine months of the program, we spend four hours per week in the lab
smelling formaldehyde and dissecting cadavers. Although it was fun and
fascinating for the first two weeks of school, you can get tired of that smell
real fast. ***
Neuroanatomy I- This was an awesome
class with the famous Dr. Duke. I heard from other students that Dr. Duke’s
classes are referred to as “Duke University” due to the level of difficulty.
Beginning in third quarter, he teaches one class per quarter for the next 12
months. So, every Monday-Friday we take down every note and hang on every one
of Dr. Duke’s words, because there’s no telling what’s going to be on those
finals! This class was extremely interesting and covered the basic anatomy of
the Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System. Material such as
neurons, fibers, receptors, meninges, Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF), myelin,
splanchnic nerves, segmental innervation, and structure of the nervous system
summarizes the majority of the topics covered. This class is just an ease into
course to get us ready for Neuroanatomy II in 4th quarter, which has
the unofficial title of being the most difficult class in the entire Sherman
program.
Abnormal Psychology
Cardiovascular Physiology
Nutrition- This was probably my
favorite class of the quarter as I learned SO MUCH about nutrition! Being
somewhat athletic, I have been very interested in food and what I put in my
body since starting undergrad. Going into this class, I thought I was eating a
pretty healthy diet. However, I learned so many helpful tips that helped me
make my nutritional plans even healthier and better for me than before. This
lecture course is a study of the major categories of food and their utilization
by the body. The chemistry of vitamins and minerals is studied along with their
biochemical relationship to enzymes. Nutritional deficiency disorders and
sub-optimal levels of nutrients are also discussed. Further consideration is
given to promoting health and wellness of the U.S. population.
In the middle of
this class right after mid-terms, we had to create a three-day nutritional
journal and write down EVERY thing we ate for three consecutive days.
Afterwards, we plugged everything into a computer program to tell us what we
were deficient in or if we had too much of a certain vitamin or nutrient in our
average diets. Turns out, I consumed a lot of calories and had very high levels
of iron and zinc in my diet. Many people in our nation are anemic (low levels
of iron), however, not having enough iron can have just as many negative
effects as having too much iron, as it can put a lot of stress on our liver and
kidneys. Good sources of iron are ANY kind of meats and spinach. However, there
are also loads and loads of iron, zinc, and other minerals packed into a lot of
fortified cereals. Cereals such as Total and Wheaties are advertised to be very
healthy for you. However, if you eat more than ½ a serving of one of these
cereals, you basically just took a multivitamin. These things are loaded with
every vitamins and minerals and if you eat one bowl, you get possibly too much
of these minerals and vitamins. Granted, most of us will simply urinate it out,
but why put that extra stress on the kidneys? So, with that said, be careful or
mindful of fortified cereals. There’s nothing wrong with them. But, if you eat
that every morning and tend to be a big meat eater, you are getting more than
enough of certain nutrients and are just putting stress on places in your body
that there doesn’t need to be. If you eat a somewhat balanced diet that
includes fruits, vegetables, and meats, fortified cereals are totally
unnecessary. I would recommend any type of whole-grain cereal, there’s dozens
of them. But, ideally, the best breakfast for you in the cereal aisle at least,
is simply oatmeal. No fortified vitamins or minerals, and minimal processing are
done, if any at all. Also, they have Beta-glucans in there that are very
helpful with problems like inflammation for our body. It is an excellent
breakfast source, especially with almond milk or coconut milk! That’s only one
thing I learned from this course.
I will bore you with the rest
because I think it is important. However, this is not upper cervical chiropractic!
This is just some interesting stuff that I learned that can help benefit our
bodies.
-
Water is important! There are four main ways our
bodies detox. 1) Digestive System, 2) Our skin (sweat), 3) Our lungs (breathing
out toxins and CO2) and 4) our Urinary system. It is very important to drink
lots of water as this may be our most important detox system. I have learned
from a naturopathic doctor and toxiocology expert that it is ideal to drink
HALF of our body-weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 160 pounds, ideally
we drink at least 80 ounces of water per day in order to help keep our bodies
hydrated and in order to flush out unneeded toxins in our bodies. Also, don’t
just chug four bottles of water real quick to get your daily total. Within a
20-30 minute span, if we drink anymore than 6-8 ounces of water, it overloads
our kidneys and they send it straight to the bladder and we don’t utilize any
of the water to get into our cells. Space it out. Drink 6-12 ounces per hour
throughout the day and trust me, you will have no trouble whatsoever reaching
your daily total. If you are strenuously working out that day, it is ok to
drink more than this amount within the allotted time due to excess loss of
fluids during intense workouts. In addition, the middle of our intervertebral
discs consist of 88% WATER! Can you imagine the negative potentials of being
dehydrated when the discs that hold our spine together are 88% water? A lot of
neck and low back pain simply come from compressed or herniated discs in our
country. I am not saying that none of these people drink water, or it even is a
correlation, but water definitely cannot hurt our bodies if we are smart about
it. Drink water!
-
With many people struggling with slow acting
metabolisms, here a few tips to spike your metabolism that are bullet proof,
and don’t have to anything with caffeinated or synthetic products.
§ Right
when you wake up, EAT! Even if you aren’t hungry, EAT! When we first wake up,
we have been sleeping from anywhere hopefully from 6-10 hours. This means when
we wake up, our body is in a fasting state and our blood glucose levels are at
all-time lows! Even if you are not hungry, get some complex carbohydrates and
good protein in your stomach. This will jump-start the metabolism and gets your
body the proper fuels to begin the day. BUT, BEFORE you do any of that, drink
6-8 ounces of water to help wake up the stomach and get the stomach acids
flowing properly before we shove a bunch of complex carbs and proteins which
are difficult to breakdown in there.
§ With
that said, DON’T be eating right before bed or in the middle of the night.
Unless, you are a wrestler or weightlifter of some type and are consciously
trying to gain weight, we should not be eating right before bed. Our circadian
rhythms are on the OFF side of the switch, our parasympathetic system kicks in
more than compared to the day, and our bodies simply respond to food
differently. For example, excess carbs late at night might not necessarily be
stored for energy because we are about to go to sleep, so the body can just
store it as adipose tissue (fat stores). Also, when our bodies are somewhat
hungry or not completely full before we go to bed, we release more Growth
Hormone compared to other folks who eat right before bed. Growth hormone is of
course one of the hormones that help us grow as a child and adolescent, but as
adults, it plays a huge role in muscle gain/retention and fat loss! For folks
who eat pizza, snacks, or even a “healthy” bowl of cereal before bed, this causes
their insulin levels to spike. Insulin is the antagonist hormone to Growth
Hormone.
§ Smaller
meals! Eat five-six small meals per day, versus two or three LARGE meals. When
we only eat one or two large meals per day, our body goes into starvation
states and stores up food differently. Basically, the body doesn’t know when it
will get its next meal, so it stores many nutrients as excess glycogen and
fats. On the contrary, if we eat every two-three hours, our bodies are
constantly digesting and taking in new food, this will really spike your
metabolism! You ever watch a puppy eat? They grab 2-3 bites and then run away
from the bowl and go back a few minutes to a few hours later. That’s what we
should do. Similar to water, don’t try to stuff all of our caloric needs and
totals into a couple of sittings/meals.
§ Exercise
of course! You can eat very healthy, but exercising is a very important
component of health and wellness. Along with sleep. Our bodies grow, heal,
recuperate when we 1) HOLD OUR UPPER CERVICAL CORRECTIONS and 2) when we sleep.
The mechanism of sleeping is very important for the human body; we should be sleeping
at least 1/3 of our lives if we want to be healthy!
Ok, on with the next class, can you
tell that nutrition was my favorite class?
Philosophy III-
Literature Search and Historical
Review
Toggle/Palpation III- this is the
last introductory course for the toggle/recoil mechanism and palpation. In this
class, we master the toggle/recoil mechanism and begin with muscle palpation!
The first quarter dealt with static palpation, the second quarter dealt with
motion palpation, (putting the spine through different motions to pick up on
normal mechanisms and any musculoskeletal restrictions). This quarter, we
learned how different muscles and ligaments affect the spine ranging from the
atlas, all the way down to the sacrum. The first five weeks covered all the
muscles and ligaments from the thoracics, lumbars, sacrum, and iliums. The last
four weeks was just cervical muscles. Does this give you an idea of how
important our Upper Cervical spine is since we devoted half the course to the
rest of the body and one half to just this area? We learned how to carefully
palpate and examine the muscles that deal with the upper cervical subluxation.
This was very interesting, but one thing I did learn in this course is the
difference between a tight muscle and a muscle causing a misalignment. Even
though more than a few muscles might indicate a certain misalignment, it is
very important to still have x-rays taken from your upper cervical doctor
creating a three-dimensional picture of the misalignment. It can be guesswork
and negligence without x-rays. Now that we have completed all three courses for
the toggle/palpation program, we are now officially starting the technique
courses!! Guess what the first technique course is in the Sherman curriculum?
Upper Cervical Technique! I will be learning and will become proficient in
side-posture HIO and knee chest by the end of June! I am very excited about
that, after this quarter, all I will need to learn is how to take x-rays and
analyze them, and I will be on my way to being able to correct people in the
clinic in about 12 months!
So,
that’s what I have been going through for the past 12 weeks. Just enjoyed a
nice Spring Break and am now back in the swing of things as a FOURTH QUARTER upper
cervical chiropractic student! Speaking of Spring Break, it was phenomenal.
First, after finishing our last exam of the quarter, all of my classmates and I
rushed to our favorite Mexican restaurant down the street. We had some AMAZING
food and drank a beer or two in celebration of our recent completion of another
quarter at Sherman College of Chiropractic. Afterwards, I raced home to the
mountains of North Carolina to be with the family. That night was the second
night of the sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. My dad, little brother, and I
really enjoy March Madness, so I rushed home as soon as I could after we were
done eating. For the next few days, I basically just watched a lot of
basketball and kind of sat around letting my brain relax from all of the late
night studying.
On Wednesday of
that week, I drove down to Wilmington, NC to see my girlfriend and spend some
quality time with her. Get this, there was a healthcare career fair being held
at UNCW (my alma mater) during the week of my Spring Break. All of the
admissions representatives from Sherman were busy doing career fairs and
information meetings at North Carolina State and East Carolina. So, since I am
the only UNCW alum at Sherman College, the admissions department asked if I
could represent the school at the career fair. I of course said yes; what’s
better than representing my school while being at the beach for my Spring
Break? It was still a great experience and great exposure for myself and my
school. I got to talk upper cervical chiropractic with a few of UNCW’s Freshmen
and Sophomores. So, after the career fair, I did plenty of relaxing and hanging
out. I went to the beach several times, and spent some quality time with my
best friends. It made me appreciate the time I had at Wilmington and in some
strange way, it reminds me that I have a long way to go in my journey. The
secret is to just take one day at a time, and trust that God is in control.
Every day is a gift, and nobody promises tomorrow. Cherish the small stuff with
your friends and family, because there is no telling what will happen later on
down the road.
Now I’m back here
at Sherman plugging away. One day a time. It can get kind of tough waking up
every morning at 7:00 am and sitting down 7 hours per day listening to
professors try to stuff as much information as they can in our heads. But,
every day we get a little smarter, a little more appreciative, and a little
closer towards getting out there and serving
by removing brainstem subluxations. That’s the goal. That’s the dream. See
you next quarter in the summer time! I sometimes like to end with some words of
encouragement from the greatest book ever written, here’s what I thought I
would share today…
“Therefore I tell you, do not be
anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about
your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor
gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his
span of life? But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is
alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O
you of little faith?”
