The Totem Pole of Health

As you have read in the previous chapters, you body does not lie, it will talk to you, you just need to listen, and while it talks to you it talks to ever other part of the body.

The body is a system of systems, each system is a part of the whole, the same way that a car can’t operate with 3 wheels or without an engine, your body needs each system linked to function correctly.

The body has its own hierarchy of survival reflexes, or what it deems more important to lest important in the body for survival.

They are in descending order:

1. 1. Breathing
   2. Mastication-eating
   3. Visual- seeing
   4. Auditory- balance
   5. Upper cervical spine
   6. Digestion

1. Emotional
2. Pelvis and sacrum
3. Slave joint – arms and legs, everything else

The above are known as the survival reflexes because each system is necessary for survival of the body, but the order they are in, is how the body has prioritised what systems are more important and least important in this chain.

In order for you to correct any fault, you must know what has caused that fault!

Systems lower in the chain will be sacrificed by systems higher in the chain whenever they are faulty, so if you are a therapist or doctor, treating a lower system problem, you will need to look at a higher system to see what’s causing the symptom expressed lower in the chain.

Let’s go through the chain one by one to get a better understanding of them and their role in the body.

The respiratory system is responsible correct breathing, allowing the diaphragm to expand and contract, to draw air into the lungs and to maintain correct posture.

If you can’t breathe in enough air you damage the organs and eventually die!

The correct breathing moves the spine into extension on inhalation and thus lengthens the spine by a mechanism known as the cerebrospinal pump, which helps to pump fluid up and down the spine causing a stretch on the spine allowing fluid to move through the spaces of the spine.

Most people in the west rather than moving the body up/down through correct breathing- move forward- round their back and backward when breathing causing back pain or rock side to side, which can cause a pinch on the lower spine.

If there is a fault in the ability to breath the body may sacrifice any system below (which means any system) to try to correct this fault, typical adaptations of the body could be tight shoulders, overused neck muscles, headaches and much more.

Mastication or chewing is the 2nd most important system in the chain and is dependent upon a correct movement of the lower jaw or correct bite position.

Chewing food is dependent on correct jaw alignment; in order to survive the body needs to eat hence why this system is so high in the chain.

If the jaw is misaligned such as shifting to the left, it will cause the right shoulder to either lift or the right levator scapular (muscle from the neck attaching to shoulder) to become very tight, the results of which will cause the left hip to raise, the right knee to twist inward and left ankle to buckle.

The importance of seeing is also very important as the 3rd system in the chain, if your right eye for example is stronger than the left, the head will twist toward the left so that the right eye is used to focus more than the left.

Think about when you take a picture with a camera or look through your keyhole, I’m sure when you think about it; you will note that you look through the same eye all the time! This is you dominant eye.

Most people have one eye stronger, and in tests going as far back as the 1920’s othomalagists found 1-5 people having one eye significantly stronger.

With a head rotated to the left, the shoulders rotate counter or to the right, then every system below with turn counter to each one above them causing all types of pain and dysfunction in your body from knee pain to back pain.

I’m sure by now you understand the point, and the intricate nature of the systems working as a chain, and why it is important to understand this totem pole!

Rather than detail the possible dysfunctions for the rest of the body I will summarise the rest of the totem pole below:

The 4th system being the auditory system enables balance and equilibrium, and is best developed through activities such as Swiss ball training and outdoor sports like surfing.

The 5th system is the upper neck or cervical spine, which has more nerve endings than most other systems, if you damaged your neck (upper spine) it will affect balance and the lower points of the spine.

The digestive system or gut is the 6th system in the chain, with most people in the west chewing their food a limited amount of time, which will create a poor ability to digest food, because “digestion starts in the mouth”

The emotion system although the 7th system in the chain acts as a floating column in the chain because it can override every system depending on the emotion causing even death!

The sacrum and pelvis act as the 8th system in the chain, they aid walking and general locomotion or movement of the trunk and low back.

With 85% of people in the world experiencing a period of severe back pain at some point in their life, and 98% of those who suffer back pain being caused by weakness and dysfunction of the sacrum and Ilium.

The final system in the chain is known as the slave joints or everything else, which are the arms, elbows, knees, low back, feet and ankles.

The body will sacrifice any of these systems first because they are deemed least important for survival.
Now, when you look at the body correctly you start to realise that if you don’t assess the chain above you will not see the true cause for the symptoms expressed below!

A functional knee is dependent upon a functional ankle, which is dependent upon a hip and more importantly a functional core!

Symptoms are as stated earlier, signals coming from problems all of which emanate from issues higher up in the chain.

If your’re not working with someone who understands the chain, then they are guessing, and if you’re guessing you’re not assessing!