Small Changes in Wellness Can Produce Big Results

Published in Natural Awakenings by Karen Adams

Dr. Michael Rehl of Walnut Creek is a chiropractor, practitioner of applied kinesiology, nutritional consultant and certified massage therapist who, most of all, educates patients about their bodies, how they work and what they need to heal themselves.

“I deal with a lot of health problems,” he says. “Many of us are not 20 any more, and we’re kind of falling apart. We’re exhausted and in pain and falling asleep all the time.”

But, he asserts, it doesn’t need to be that way, and we can age gracefully if we understand proper self-care. Rehl offers a holistic approach to identify stressors in the body, whether they’re biochemical, nutritional, structural or stress-related.

He addresses posture, spinal alignment, food and nutrition, supplements and goal-setting, and, most of all, the connections throughout the body’s interrelated systems, aiming to educate patients rather than simply telling them what to do.

He often uses muscle testing to identify muscle weakness and corresponding organ-related issues. For example, he says, if a patient’s liver is toxic, then the pectoral (chest) muscles are likely to test weak. If the pectoral muscles are weak, the back often goes out of alignment. “There is a connection between the health of your insides and the functioning of the musculoskeletal system,” he explains.

Another example, he says, is that many people struggle with digestive problems, but, because it’s a private and often embarrassing problem, they may not talk about it, especially to a chiropractor. But the intestines and those corresponding muscles can become inhibited as a result of the dysfunction, Rehl says, and this may directly affect the pelvis, which in turn affects the low back.

“So many people with digestive issues have low back pain,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of people stop eating dairy and wheat, and maybe do a cleanse, and then a month or two later the muscles are stronger and they feel so much better.”

In the past year, Rehl has been offering neurotransmitter testing through a company called NeuroScience. Patients receive a kit to use in the privacy of their homes, with which they collect urine and/or saliva samples. The kit is sent away to NeuroScience and when Rehl receives the detailed report back, he can identify exactly what may be needed to restore balance.

“I have had people come in who are in their 20s or 30s and are exhausted or in pain and they don’t know why,” he says. “But once we identify the deficiency, most patients see an improvement in their health in a month or two.”

He recalls a young man in his 20s who had depression, brain fog, insomnia and exhaustion who, when tested, was “deficient in everything, hormones and amino acids,” Rehl says. After a month of supplements, he was dramatically better and had his energy and his personality back.

Another patient, a female musician in her mid-30s, suffered from fatigue and fibromyalgia-like muscle pain so severe that she had trouble playing music. A month after her test revealed her nervous system imbalances, the supplements Rehl prescribed for her eliminated her symptoms.

Even so, he explains, he cannot simply adjust someone who is basically unhealthy and expect those adjustments to last. A patient that has fallen and needs chiropractic care, for example, differs from a patient that needs systemic care. There is a difference between psychosomatic illness, which is caused by stress; viscerosomatic illness, which is caused by a dysfunction of the internal organs; and musculoskeletal imbalances, which are caused by structural issues.

Rehl says his job is to identify each person’s stressors, whether they are musculoskeletal, biochemical, nutritional or stress-related, and help them start dealing with them. Many people have complicated medical histories, especially as the population ages, but one big change can cause multiple improvements.

“If, for example, I take wheat out of a patient’s system, if they go gluten-free, sometimes miracles happen,” Rehl says. “They lose weight, the brain fog is gone, their digestion gets better, all from one change.” Or they may simply need a spinal adjustment that they’ve needed since childhood, he adds.

Other patients have learned to deal with stress and remove toxins and, when appropriate, combine approaches. One patient, for example, had stress-induced neck pain that was slow to respond to treatment until she also received Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) therapy.

Even small changes can have dramatic results. Rehl often begins with nutrition, recommending supplements and dietary changes, and when patients begin to feel better they can move on to the next thing. “With your health, you can start with something small, such as a couple of adjustments, or identifying some of the main stressors,” he says. “There is always something you can do.”

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