Remember all the different magical candies that Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory could make? Wonka’s Whipple- Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight, Everlasting Gobstoppers, the Chewing Gum Meal, the Lickable Wallpaper, the Chocolate River, and so many more. There were dozens and dozens of different scrumdiddlyumptious candies in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory each with its own unusual identity. But that imaginary factory has nothing on you!
You too are a little factory. You don’t make candies though, you make chemicals. That’s right—you are a little chemical factory. That shouldn’t be surprising because we need chemicals to live. In fact, our entire existence is based on millions and millions of chemical interactions. Your body is constantly making, changing, and destroying chemical compounds in your body so it’s impossible to detect and count them all. Besides, there’s still so much we don’t know about our bodies that some chemicals may not have even been identified yet.
Many chemicals, though, have been identified and they all play a specific role in the function of the body. Some chemicals make us energized; some make us sleepy. Some chemicals make us happy; some chemicals make us sad. Did you know that the chemical composition of a tear that you make when you are crying is completely different than one that you make when you get something in your eye? Researchers believe that the chemicals that you release in your tears when you are sad help aid you in the feeling of comfort you experience after you cry. (Amazing, right?)
One particular group of chemicals, called hormones, works like the body’s messengers. They travel through the bloodstream to a specific place or to multiple tissues or organs to help them do their work. They affect a variety of different processes in the body including growth and development, metabolism, reproduction, and mood. It is estimated that the body produces over 50 different hormones. One in particular, called thyroid hormone, affects cells throughout the body and is involved in regulating the growth of cells, controlling heart rate, and the speed at which calories are burned. Just one chemical does ALL those things! And all the others are equally important!
Hormones are made by glands and glands produce chemicals in varying quantities and qualities based on nerve messages from the brain. If your glands are going to produce the right chemicals, in the right amount, and at the right time, it is critical that your nerve system function optimally.
Nerve messages come from the brain and travel down the spinal cord out the nerves to every cell, tissue, and organ in your body, including your glands. Because the spinal cord is so important, it’s protected by bone—25 movable bones stacked on top of each other to be exact. Because these bones can move, they can sometimes move out of alignment and distort the proper function of these vital nerve pathways. This is called vertebral subluxation and when it happens, your body cannot work the way it was intended and that includes the glands and the production of body chemistry.
Chiropractors check to make sure that the bones of your spine are well aligned and not interfering with the function of your nerve system. The clearer your nerve system, the better the communication and the better your chemical factory can produce all of its many products. So see your chiropractor regularly and keep your factory processing at its scrumdiddlyumptious best!
—By Judy Nutz Campanale, DC, ACP, FCSC (hon) Provided and published by ICPA. For more information, visit discoverkidshealth.com