The Triad of Health: How Applied Kinesiology Supports Individualized Healthcare
“When educated and innate intelligences are able to converse with each other...(a possibility, which a not very distant future may disclose) we shall be able to make correct diagnosis."
D.D. Palmer (the father of chiropractic predicting the development of Applied Kinesiology), 1914
What is Applied Kinesiology?
It’s likely that you have never heard of applied kinesiology, or if you have, are not entirely clear on what it is. That’s understandable since healthcare assessments like muscle testing are often mistakenly referred to as applied kinesiology.
In reality, while applied kinesiology is a specific, neurologically based muscle testing, it’s only fully useful as a clinical tool when used in concert with a full history, physical exam, lab studies, and other appropriate testing given the patient’s concerns.
When used alongside these other methods of gathering health information, applied kinesiology provides a trained professional with context to help make sense of all of the gathered data. Pairing the context and data together means that as your chiropractor in Medford, I can create an individualized, specific treatment.
Applied kinesiology is like binary code for the body! The practitioner is asking the body yes/no questions based on different input to the nervous system to see what exactly the patient’s body wants.
How Does Applied Kinesiology Work?
But what does it look like to visit your local chiropractor and have them use applied kinesiology?
As an example, let’s say a patient had some sort of infection and they are feeling all better except that their lungs still feel sore and not fully healed or they have an annoying, lingering cough. After performing a lung exam, symptom survey, any other testing the doctor feels necessary, the next step would be an applied kinesiology analysis to contextualize the findings and test the person’s nervous system.
For this patient used in the example, their doctor would likely test the serratus anterior muscle since it’s a lung associated muscle. Let’s say it tests inhibited (weak) on both sides. Using that information, the next step is to assess what will help facilitate (strengthen) the muscle. Is it a lower cervical subluxation or fixation, meridian point, a cranial fault, Bennett or Chapman reflex, reactive muscle pattern, clinical nutrition needed, emotional balancing, etc.
Once the issue is identified using applied kinesiology, the care plan for that patient is better able to target the root cause of the issue, and thus you get personalized care for your body and whole self.
The Triad of Health and Applied Kinesiology
Just as I do with every patient who comes to see me for chiropractic support in the Rogue Valley, applied kinesiology is a tool in my larger kit focused on the triad of health.
What does that mean? That I approach every patient’s health and concerns from the perspective of the triad of health: structural, biochemical, emotional/spiritual. Each aspect of ourselves as whole humans need to be in balance to have a robust, healthy, thriving life.
The key to helping a patient in their health journey is to know their why.
That why will vary from person to person. Maybe it’s to get on the floor with the grandkids, hike the PCT, to not have to use daily pain medication, be able to garden without knee pain, not have to wear long sleeves to cover up a skin condition, etc. Once the patient and I have established their why, then I can set up a care plan to support their goals and address imbalances in the triad of health.
Let’s look at what each of the three sides of the triad of health are.
Structural is the scaffolding of our physical body. Our muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, fascia and so on. The modalities that assist balance here are chiropractic, craniosacral, massage, stretching, muscle balancing and coordination, specific exercises, and more.
Biochemical focuses on things like our organs, hormones, adrenals, and gut health. To assess health at the biochemical level, we assess labs and other studies. Support comes from individualized clinical nutrition, dietary recommendations, specific selfcare routines, and chiropractic.
Emotional and/or spiritual is a piece of our health puzzle so frequently overlooked in the current Western medical model. We assess the need to treat with Neuro-Emotional Technique and check for psychological reversal in addition to making recommendations for areas of a patient's life that need some focus or cleaning up. As part of this focus, we do work with chiropractic care–it’s not uncommon for patients to experience an emotional release during an adjustment. Our mind-body connection is innate and strong.
Thriving Family Chiropractic in Medford, Oregon is Your Home for Applied Kinesiology
I hope that this basic overview of the triad of health was helpful in clarifying why a focus on whole person health is important, and how applied kinesiology can support your journey to health.
Thriving Family Chiropractic is currently accepting new patients! If you’d like to find out more about how compassionate, person-centered chiropractic care can help you live a robust, healthy life, don’t hesitate to contact us or schedule an appointment today.