Renewability, sustainability, and energy conservation are all over the news. Every newspaper's front page and every television nightly news program features sustainability daily. These are important issues, not only for the health of our planet, but also for our physical health and well-being.

Our physical health depends on how we maximize our available energy resources - how we use our body's stores of energy, how we replace and renew that energy, and how we practice conservation of our physical energy.

The interaction of all the elements of human physiology is exactly analogous to the interaction of ecosystems in the global ecology. It's an interesting and powerful comparison.

Energy resources in our body consist of nutrients obtained from food, oxygen, and stored energy in the form of sugars (glycogen) and fats. We gain energy by eating good food and balancing our nutritional choices from all the major food groups.^1,2 We gain energy by having efficient and well-toned cardiovascular and respiratory systems. We gain energy by having strong muscles. And we gain energy by getting sufficient rest.

How we use these resources depends on instructions from the nerve system. Being able to use these resources efficiently depends on the underlying tone of our cells and tissues, which in turn depends on normal flow of information in the nerve system.

Hyperactive nerve systems and sluggish nerve systems - due to a variety of causes - create imbalances up and down the line.³ Systems perform abnormally. Your metabolism slows down or speeds up. You don't digest your food properly. You use too many or too little resources for a given task, and the job doesn't get done properly. Muscles get tight. Joints get stiff. You have pain. You get sick.

In these cases you're using more energy - due to inefficient systems - than you're taking in. You're not sustaining your resources, you're depleting them. Sooner or later, your entire system will begin to breakdown. You have chronic pain, you're tired all the time, you toss and turn when you should be sleeping, and you're irritable during the day.

Energy is not being renewed. Your body's out of balance, physically and metaphorically.

Chiropractic treatment directly addresses these energy concerns. Chiropractic care is all about energy management and conservation of resources. Gentle chiropractic treatment focuses on restoring balance to nerve systems, muscular systems, and physical structure. Energy begins to flow to where it's needed most, chronic pain begins to resolve, and you begin to sleep more restfully. You have a greater focus and get done the things you want to get done during the day. Your relationships with family and friends are more enjoyable, and life itself becomes much more fun.

Your chiropractor - your energy conservation specialist - is an important natural resource for your well-being and your family's well-being.

¹Katona P, Katona-Apte J: The interaction between nutrition and infection. Clin Infect Dis 46(10):1582-1588, 2008
²UNESCO, Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific: Population, nutrition, and health. Bull Unesco Reg Off Educ Asia Pac 23:260-268, 1982
³D'Melllo R, Dickenson AH: Spinal cord mechanisms of pain. Br J Anaesth April 15, 2008