Restoring Automation to Human Health

I’ve often claimed that health is our natural birthright, and I’d like to go a little deeper into what that means to me by stating that health is automated. What exactly does that mean? It means that we actually have very little control over our bodies. We can consciously control our movement and speech. Some claim to be able to control their breathing, but just try not breathing. We like to believe we have some control over our thinking, but when I listen in on the endless chatter in my brain, it seems to run all on its own.

Beyond those few things, there exists a vast orchestra of millions of electrical and chemical events occurring in our bodies each second, all conducted by the brain and nervous system. All this activity has the ultimate goal of keeping as close as possible to homeostasis. Homeostasis is defined as, “the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.” Millions of these processes occurring each second are not under our conscious control; and not even in our conscious awareness. The brain and body run on automatic for the most part. I now equate health with how well this automation is working.

One area where we want to avoid automation is in the lifestyle choices we make on a daily basis. The food you eat, your activity and exercise levels, getting adequate sleep, and managing your stress all have a huge impact on your health. These choices can either be an upgrade or a downgrade to the automation of your body’s function. Too often it seems that we make a lot of these choices out of habit rather than with our conscious awareness. How often have you found yourself snacking on some not-so-healthy option without really thinking about it? Many lifestyle choices seem more habitual than conscious, often to our detriment.

Unfortunately, many of us are operating in compensation rather than automation. Compensation occurs when the body can’t automatically adapt to internal and external challenges due to disruptions in signaling between the brain and body due to injuries, infections, and even mental and emotional stressors. Our bodies then have to divert energy and other resources to the area of compensation in order to adapt and attempt move us back towards homeostasis. Symptoms arise from compensations, indicating that automation has been compromised.

For more clarity, let’s consider a hypothetical situation. Imagine that you have been in an autoaccident and injured your neck. The injury was at the level of the 4th cervical vertebra, and the automatic function of the muscles which keep it stable has been disrupted. Of course, there is pain and inflammation at the site of injury, but there is also a cascade of other things happening. Cervical 4 has a direct influence on the function of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain which keeps us in homeostasis. Our ability to maintain homeostasis is now compromised. Our body has to compensate more to adapt. Each time we lose a degree of automation and go into compensation, our overall function is downgraded. We don’t have enough energy for normal repair and maintenance, and slowly our bodies begin to break down at a faster rate than they can rebuild and repair.

Much of the treatment available in the medical, and even in the alternative health care spheres are directed towards dealing with compensations, rather than helping the body back towards automation. As a Chiropractor, I think of all the years that I adjusted spines, often in the same places, week after week. I’m not saying it wasn’t helpful for my patients, but I didn’t see the automation of spinal balance and stability returning. Drugs largely treat the symptoms of compensations, and do nothing to help automation. Instead, these are another downgrade to our overall function. I can’t count the number of times patients have related that they’ve been told they will need to take some medication for the rest of their life.

Let’s not abandon hope, because NIS is a simple and effective way to switch from compensation to automation. The Neurological Integration System helps restore automation between the brain and body. By getting direct feedback from your body via muscle response testing, an NIS practitioner can help your brain recognize and correct compensations, allowing the return to our original designed function of automation. Only when our body is able to function automatically, in accordance with its’ original design, can we attain true and lasting health. NIS gives us the ability to interact directly with the very intelligence that monitors regulates every function in your body.

Many of you have experienced NIS and are aware of how it feels to move from compensation to automation. I have the privilege of seeing this happen with patients daily, and am still in awe of the brain’s ability to restore automation and homeostasis. I’m so excited about the new NIS protocols released recently by Dr. Allan Phillips, the founder and developer of NIS. I was able to witness some seemingly miraculous things happen at our recent Masters seminar in Salt Lake City. While NIS has been proven to be effective for years, ongoing research and advancement of practices currently leads me to see automation restored at a deeper level than ever before. The miracle happens when automation is restored, and a demonstration of the innate healing power of our bodies occurs.

While NIS can be a great way to restore automation, if you continue to make poor lifestyle choices, your body will never be able to reach full automation. This is because these choices become stressors, requiring compensation for your body to adapt to. Automation does not imply lack of choice or personal responsibility. To the contrary, we should look at the choices we make on a daily basis by asking ourselves, “Will this contribute to or detract from my body’s ability to function automatically? Is it an upgrade or a downgrade? What will be the consequence of binging on sugar, over consuming alcohol, eating junk food, or sitting in front of the TV for hours on end be for me? Can I engage in a better alternative to this action?”

Although there it can be very helpful to have the support of health professionals and/or loved ones, no one can make these choices for you. Minute by minute, every day, you are faced with the opportunity to consciously decide how you will fuel and regulate your body’s automated function.