Today we are talking about all things thermography. I'm answering those burning questions like what is a thermography scan? What do the colors mean? Why do you do them? These, along with many others are just some of the questions we get asked all the time in the office.
At Owl Chiropractic there are 3 goals we are constantly working towards when working with patients.
Improve your nervous system function, because your nervous system is the master control system of the entire body. The healthier a nervous system is, the healthier a person is. PERIOD.
Improve the biomechanics of your spinal joints. When a spinal joint is moving correctly, the likelihood of the joint pinching or interfering with the nerve function is decreased.
Improve the structure or the alignment of the spine. When the structure of the spine is restored it is stronger. So, the surrounding soft tissues, muscles, ligaments, and tendons don't have to work as hard.
The order they are listed in is their order of importance, improving a patient's nervous system function is the top priority at Owl Chiropractic so having an objective tool to monitor this process only seems logical.
Thermography is a well-documented tool used to measure nerve pathways involved in the control of skin temperature. Physiologists (doctors who study how the body works) also know the more adaptive or dynamic a system, the healthier that system is. Meaning change or die, if an organism, tissue, or cell can not adapt/change to its environment it will die.
This is why we always stress to our patients that change is the most important thing to look at when looking at their thermal scans. If their scans are changing their nervous system is changing. When you are changing you are adapting, you can heal and you are healthier!
If you are not adapting you are dying. When a joint is not moving properly and pinches on that nerve exiting the spine, the nerve signal gets compromised. Think about a garden hose and the water pressure leaving the hose. If the hose is pinched, the water leaving the hose is not as strong, fast, or powerful. The grass that is getting fed from that hose is not as green or healthy as the grass next door.
Does that make sense?
The same is true for the nerve signals. When the nerve signal is strong and powerful it can fire at will, it can tell the organ to change, speed up or slow down, make more hormones, and make less so the body can deal with whatever situation. If the nerve signal is pinched, this ability is lessened, the ability to change and adapt is less.
Ok, so we want to change but what do the colors mean?
Typically on a thermal scan, a more chronic long-standing issue will cause the nervous system to be more sympathetic (aka fight or flight mode) and colder. This will show up as dark blue areas on the scan. If a patient has a more acute issue, the color patterns will be more deep red in color. The doctor also looks at the average normal temperature, which is well documented to be 93.5 F. The more a patient's scans deviate from that normal temperature, either colder or hotter, the more in trouble the nervous system is.
What do the lines mean? The doctors also look at the actual shapes or patterns of the lines and we match them up to structural findings, the subluxations from the DDR.
This is why getting a thermal scan before your adjustment is so important, we need to know where the starting point is for that adjustment.
To make sure we changed the patient's physiology we do a post-scan, because remember change or die. Another way I explain this to my patient is, that the DDR tells the doctors where the problem is, and where the subluxation is, and the scans tell us when to adjust it.
Again we know how important your brain and spinal cord are so having the proper tools to measure their dysfunction is a no-brainer…. See what I did there.
Remember your health is your greatest asset. You only get one brain and spinal cord and the highway of nerves that communicate between them, so take care of yourself. People sadly don’t value their health until it's gone but the power of health lies in your ability to adapt to your environment.
Wouldn’t you want to know how healthy your nervous system is and wouldn't you want an objective way to monitor it? Always remember your health is worth more than a guess and Owl Chiropractic has your back.
For more information on thermography check out this blog where I talk about Breast Cancer, the importance of early detection, and how thermography is used in breast cancer screenings for even earlier detection than mammography.
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