047- Postural Neurology with Dr. Krista Burns

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor, providing you with elegant and efficient research based content to help your practice prosper and succeed. Now get ready for a variety of dynamic communication tools designed for immediate growth, courtesy of your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. This week we are back with a very special episode. I have Dr. Krista from the American Posture Institute on. She's also involved with the League of Chiropractic Women and a variety of other endeavors. But today she took some time out to talk to me and to you about their new postural neurology program. When we recorded this, they, they had not debuted it, but I know they've been back in the States here for a while and lecturing on postural neurology at a few different locations to rave reviews. So they were gracious enough to come on, explain a little bit about the postural neurology program and also please remain on until the end because at the end she gives a special research shout out and a research cheat sheet and tool specifically for the listeners of the evidence Based chiropractor to be able to download and use in their practice. So without further ado, here is me speaking with Dr. Christa of the American Posture Institute regarding their new postural neurology program. Dr. Christa, thank you for taking the time to come back on.

Dr. Jeff, it's such a pleasure to be here connecting again with you and your audience. I really appreciate what you're doing with the podcast. I just want to give you a massive compliment for providing this platform to learn research on your way to work. It's brilliant. I love what you're doing and it's great to be back.

Awesome. Thank you. So tell us a little bit more. I know I spoke with Dr. Mark a little while ago about the postural neurology program. I got really excited about it. But for the docs out there that haven't heard about it yet, give us a little brief rundown. Tell us a little bit about the program.

Yeah, well, it's really exciting. We're just releasing a postural neurology certification, teaching you how to become a certified postural neurologist. And here's where it's so great. And what makes it different from any other program is that we really focus on results and we focus on applying the importance of the neurology with our everyday practice patients. So what we're not going to do in this course is get really stuck on every single pathway of the brain and every single pathway within the peripheral nervous system. What we are going to focus on is exactly how you can analyze brain function in three minutes or less, Understand how that applies to the posture system and then how you can get in there and make brain based postural corrections strategies right away with your patients. Now you can spend the time doing those strategies with your patients in the office or you can assign it as at home rehabilitation. Whatever works for you in the flow of your office is how we're going to teach you that you can implement postural neurology within your office. And we focus specifically on what's called the eyes, spine and vestibular model. So we go through and explain how the visual system, the vestibular system and the spine, which controls sensorimotor integration. Exactly what that means, how they work together, these systems and how they integrate within the brainstem to control extended upright postural design. It's going to be a lot of fun. Dr. Jeff, I can't wait to share this information.

Sweet. So with the vestibular system is interesting. Is that really one of the key links between posture and neurology? What have you found?

Absolutely. What's so interesting about the vestibular system is the vestibular system does two things. One, it controls our hearing. Okay. But in addition to that, it controls how we stabilize ourselves upright against gravity. So we have those semicircular canals in the inner ear and we have those otolith organs. And every time we change our posture or our position against gravity, the we get a firing of those intricate organs within the inner ear and it tells us to stand upright. So literally every time I slouch forward, that's stimulating to my vestibular system that I need to sit back up straight. Now what's so great about that is that the vestibular system then controls extension. If you look at our modern day habits, we're constantly in flexion flexor dominant posture. Flexor dominant posture is absolutely the decline of human evolution, the decline of human function. So every time we're activating that, that vestibular system through intentional brain based postural correction strategies, we're bringing the patient out of flexor dominance and into an upright extended postural design, which is exactly what we want to accomplish.

That is definitely cool. I think one of the things I hear from docs all over the place is of course there's a variety of chiropractic techniques available out there and many chiropractors. Just like other providers, you have a bunch of tools in your tool belt. That you look for with the postural neurology. How does that fit in with current adjusting techniques? Is there going to be any docs where this skill set wouldn't be applicable to them? Or can it overlap on most chiropractors practices, or how do you see it fitting in?

Yeah. Dr. Jeff, I'm so glad you asked that question, because what I don't want to do is tell anybody how they need to practice. What I'd rather do is provide solutions and a way of integrating postural neurology with your current practice. So you're already doing great adjustments in your office. You're helping so many people. What we're going to do with the postural neurology program is give you the explanation of why that adjustment is so powerful. What exactly is happening in the brain when you integrate that sensory motor system through the spinal column? And you can utilize postural neurology techniques with any chiropractic technique that exists. Whether you're low force, whether you, you do manual adjusting, whether you use instruments, all of it is just a stimulus to the body. It's a powerful stimulus to the body that we own as chiropractors. And so what we're going to do with postural neurology is then provide you with other stimulations of the cranial nerves, for example, that live in the brain stem, or, or some really great vestibular training that you can do as at home rehabilitation. That's gonna complement and support the already really great work that you're doing with your patients with your chiropractic technique.

Nice. And in regards to that, I know with a new skill set and with some new techniques and using the vestibular system, is there any special equipment that chiropractors need to have in order to do this? Or. I mean, I haven't taken the course yet, so this is. I apologize for a very basic question, but is there. What are the basic tools that a chiropractor is to need to have, aside from the knowledge and obviously the systems and processes to implement? But are there any special tools necessary to get started with patients right away?

Yeah, you know what's so great about that is you don't actually need anything to get started right away. Implementation can be so simple. We're going to show you everything that you can do, starting from implementing with no equipment, all the way up through getting the more expensive equipment. So specifically with the vestibular system, just to give a clinical takeaway that you guys can all do with all of your patients, is you can start Testing them on one leg balance. So you have them stand in one leg balance with proper posture and watch to see which side they sway to. Every time they sway, they're going to sway in the direction of their dysfunction. Meaning that how you train, that is exactly how you tested it. So without any other equipment necessary whatsoever, you can start having the patient do one leg balance progressions in your office or at home. So, so, for example, starting with one leg balance, doing that for 30 seconds. Once the patient can do that, have them close their eyes, eliminate the visual fields of gaze to make it more difficult and really challenge that vestibular system to get neuroplastic changes. And then from there, they can do it on a wobble board or a Bosu ball. You know, there's a lot of different options to progress them forward to continue stimulating the nervous system without any additional equipment.

Nice. I mean, obviously you've done your homework. The program sounds great and I'd love to hear. I'm always interested in a little bit more. More of the behind the scenes. So how did the development of the program come about? How did it come to fruition? How does it tie in with your previous work with the American Posture Institute? I'd love to hear a little bit of behind the scenes.

Yeah. And again, thank you for asking that question. Because it was a desire to learn more, to fully understand exactly what's happening in the body. So we have what's called the certified posture expert program, and we wanted to take that one step further and focused on brain based neurology to understand the neurology controlling the posture system. So if you think about it, we have all these patients coming into our office that are responding really well. Here's the catch. There's this whole new modern day patient called the Millennial. And what these patients are presenting with. And I'm going to generalize by saying Millennial, it's very specific. You'll notice it now when it starts coming into your office, is that these patients have what's called digital dementia. And they're so sedentary and seated in front of technology. They're growing up in a world where it's normal to be in front of a screen, whether it's an iPad, an iPhone, or a computer, for eight hours a day with seated sedentary posture that does not activate their vestibular system whatsoever. And so what we're finding is that these kids, these adolescents and adults, present with different needs than any other patients we've seen in the past. And so we had a patient come in his name was David. Actually he came in with that and it was really disconnected. And that is what inspired us, that single moment to learn more about the brain and how we could help him and then realize that a whole new generation of patients is presenting with modern day symptoms or modern day presentation that we need to be prepared to take care of. Because this is the future generations of every patient that will be walking into a chiropractic office. And if we work together to uplevel our knowledge of what's going on in the brain in relation to the postural system as a profession, we can actually position ourselves as the go to experts to take care of of this problem that no other doctor is prepared to take care of. So that right there was the inspiring factor. And from then on it was a lot of seminars, a lot of textbooks, and just fully digging into the neurology and then breaking it down in really a great way that makes it digestible because neurology can be pretty complex. So we took away the most important aspects and put it together in a program.

Nice. Well, I appreciate that as somebody who studied the pathways in chiropractic school.

We'Ve all memorized them. Right. We all sat there before tests memorizing each pathway, each part of the brain. And then unfortunately, if you guys had the same experience that I did in Cairo school, is that nobody really put that application together for me. So I sat there and memorized the pathways, but nobody told me how that would apply to my patients. And I felt like we could really use that. And so a lot of people, when they take this program, what they're telling me is it's everything they wish they learned in school because they did learn a lot of this information in school, but we didn't know how to apply it. And that's where we really focus with postural neurology.

Well said. I think the application is key and really your example, it touches right where I want it to go. I noticed in some of the literature I saw regarding the program and I'm anxious to get started with it. But it touched on the limbic system and that's interaction with posture. So what have you found regarding emotion and posture especially? I mean, and I think it would tie in with some of these millennials and people who depression is rampant, I guess, people of all ages. But how do you find posture and emotion tie in and how does that work in a 10,000 foot view?

Yeah, it's so incredible when you look at the research because it's so intricately connected. The posture system and the limbic system. Literally, how we present ourselves in space is a reflection of what we're thinking and how we're feeling. And the opposite is also true. So research demonstrates that if I sit in a horrible posture, even if I was in a good mood and happy, if I were to sit in a closed negative posture, shut off, I would have a lower evaluation of myself. They found this through research, versus if I sit up right with a nice postural design, then I'm more attentive, I'm more aware, more alert, and have an overall better feeling of self confidence and a better feeling of self leadership on top of it. So we have all kinds of research studies showing links between posture and depression, the dynamic posture of fibromyalgia patients, and how a stooped posture is actually affecting their entire gait pattern and how that gait pattern is then affecting their ability to perform normal activities of daily living and respiratory modulation. You know, it goes on. There's an absolute effect between posture and that limbic system. One other really interesting thing is the reticular activating system. So the reticular activating system, which is in the brain stem, is the ras. So it's our ability to be alert and awake. So if you think about going back to Cairo school, we were just talking about school. If you look around a room and there's a bunch of students sitting in their room and the lecturer is talking in the front, and you look at the postures of all the different students, you can see whose reticular activating system is really firing. These students are going to be the ones that are sitting up straight, that they're engaged, they're alert, versus the posture of a student who's totally just laying on their desk, you know, half awake, or they're completely slumped down in their chair, you know, they're nodding off to sleep in between every other word of the lecturer. Those are exact examples of how you can see how your posture relates to your alertness, how it relates to your ability to learn and take in information, and that reticular activating system which is located in the brainstem. So that's just a little example that we can all relate to after chiro school, no doubt.

I was just thinking, I don't know if I'm happy that the teachers didn't take your course when I was in school or if I'm sad that I hadn't taken the course before. So anyway, I will leave that to be determined later on. I really thank you for taking the time. I know I can speak personally that I'm excited to dive into the program, certainly excited to obviously have you on today and share the information and the knowledge. I mean the hard work that you both have put in and the knowledge that you've gained and kind of distilling that down in an application based format. I just kudos to you because I think that's exquisitely important. And we didn't even, I made it the whole episode. We didn't even talk really about American Posture Institute at length or League of Chiropractic Women or any of the other multitude of items that you're involved in to help further chiropractic.

Well, you know what, Dr. Jeff, you get me talking about the brain and I can go on for days.

Well, again, I really, I thank you for all the hard work that you've put in. I certainly thank you for the job that you've done thus far. I can't wait to see where things go and I certainly can't wait for the postural neurology program. So we're going to have all of this information certainly in our show notes and there'll be plenty of opportunity to be able to learn more about your program. But is there anything else you'd like to touch before we finish up?

Well, again, I just want to say thank you for providing this platform. I love that you're emphasizing evidence based chiropractic. That's so pertinent and important. And in addition to that, because I also support an evidence based practice protocol, I'd like to offer a free gift for all of your followers if you want to head over to americanpostureinstitute.com neuroresearch I've put together a guide which has the top 20 research studies that every brain based practitioner must know. So here's the deal. I know that you guys don't have a ton of time to just be looking up research studies all day long. So what I did is I just put the best ones together in this resource guide and gave you guys a summary with the citation so you can have that as a reference. Just showing you exactly what you're doing to the brain and how effective it is through your treatment protocols. So you guys can pick that up@americanpostureinstitute.com neuroresearch awesome.

I'll have that link in the show notes as well and I will be downloading it shortly. Shortly.

Perfect.

Thank you Dr. Christa and I hope you have a great day.

Hey, thanks to you too.

All right. That was a Great interview with Dr. Christa be on the Lookout for Postural Neurology before we wrap today, I wanted to say a few words, as I do each and every week, about Rock Tape. Rock Tape is proud to be a sponsor of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Rock Tape offers the world's best kinesiology tape, pain relief, topicals, mobility tools and functional fitness accessories. New from Rock Tape is rocksauce Chill, a powerfully cool pain relief topical in a convenient roll on with 6% menthol. It's stronger than the freeze competition. They are more than a tape company, they are a movement company. Learn more and get access to your medical discount by visiting rocktape.com Hope you have an awesome week in practice. Doc and I will talk to you soon. We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosive practice development@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office. We look forward to providing you with more dynamic communication tools for immediate growth right here on the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Sam.