Is your Nervous system at 100%?

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My Why

My name is Brooke McWhirt and I am a chiropractic student at Sherman college of Chiropractic in Spartanburg, SC. I’m originally from Clarksburg, WV. My reason for wanting to become a chiropractor is because I want to serve and help others like my chiropractor did for me. I want to allow people to do the things that they love everyday with no setbacks. But how did I get here?

In high school I was a state champion Cheerleader in West Virginia. We are one, if not the only state who still competes on hardwood floor rather than mats. I was a flyer, the girl who got thrown around and was on top of three other girls holding me up above their heads. I had to have extreme back flexibility to be a flyer. There would be times that I would fall from 7 to 8 feet up in the air on to the hard wood gymnasium floor with no one catching me. This would hurt a lot. So eventually I developed some pretty serious back pain at age 15 and my parents and coaches kind of brushed it off because 15 year old girls shouldn’t have back pain, but I did. Eventually came the State competition that year and during warm ups my back was just not cooperating. It was hurting so bad I almost didn’t compete. But my team needed me so I pushed on like I did every other practice and competition. We won the state title that year and thankfully for me the season was over. My mom finally took me to see my family medical doctor and I told him all about my back pain. He took no x-rays, told me to lift up my shirt so he could look at my spine, and all I had was some “mild scoliosis” and he sent me on my way with no help.

I continued to complain and complain about this back pain. Luckily for me, my step dad was a pharmaceutical rep who’s counter-part’s husband happened to be a chiropractor. They were at a work dinner and my mom mention to the chiropractor that I always complained of this back pain, so he told my mom to have me come and in get checked. He took x-rays and did a full check-up on me. Come to find out I was very close to having a compression fracture in one of my thoracic vertebrae and did in fact have some mild scoliosis. I followed my care plan of three days a week for six months. And after each and every one of my visits, I felt like I could breathe again. I felt like I could have my teenage life back. Something else I didn’t mention or realize at the time, is that not only did chiropractic adjustments help me function at my best, it made my annoying allergies a lot more tolerable. Pre-chiropractic I used to have seven or so sinus infections a year, now I may get one a year. I feel the healthiest I have ever been, and see my medical doctor a lot less, if at all. I have no interference in my nervous system, keeping my body working at its highest potential.

So being able to feel this good, made me know from then on, I was going to become a Chiropractor. Being able to help people have that 100% brain to body connection and expressing life at their fullest is the best job I could think of, and being able to do that everyday is just an added bonus.

Cause and effect

Biochemistry is an interesting thing, there is SO much going on in our body that we don’t realize is happening. Our body is pumping out what need and removing what we don’t. It stores things for uses later and we should grateful are body knows what to do without us telling it … “hey, will you make some digestive enzymes for me ?” Because honestly…. I forget to eat lunch some days, I would NEVER remember to tell my body to make or secrete something. So thank you body, for doing what you do best. 

In my philosophy 2 class we are talking about the 33 chiropractic principles and Principle 17 and biochemistry go hand in hand together. “With regard to motion in matter every effect has a cause and every cause has an effect” -Principle 17 . 

Cause and effect happens so frequently within our body. For example, after you eat a meal, your blood sugar levels rise. Cells in your pancreas (called beta cells) are signaled to release insulin into your blood stream. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that allows your body to use sugar (glucose) from carbohydrates in the food you eat for energy or to store the glucose for future use. Insulin is what keeps your blood sugar level from getting to high or too low (which is often referred to as diabetes). Insulin then attaches to and signals cells to absorb the sugar in your bloodstream. 

Insulin is often describes as a “key” which unlocks the cell to allow sugar to enter the cell and be used as energy. So you eat something, which makes your blood sugar rise, then your body tells your pancreas “hellloooo!! We need insulin ASAP” and then your pancreas does it’s thing and and you’re living you life! How amazing is that, simple biochemical cause and effect we don’t even know is happening.

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