The Difference Between Life and Rigor Mortis

One of the coolest, yet slightly creepiest experiences I have ever had in my life was during Gross Anatomy II of Chiropractic College, when I had to dissect more than one human cadaver. Yes… a completely dead person, and we were supposed to locate all of the different anatamical structures located inside of this person. Most days, it was a rather crazy experience that you just become numb too… others it was a little easier…

But there was ONE DAY, in particular, during that experience that I will never forget. One moment; that changed everything for me, and my perspective on health and life.

I showed up early this particular day, and began the process of prepping the cadaver for our dissection by myself, when I suddenly caught myself looking straight into the eyes of this person in total rigor mortis; completely dead, and I asked to myself, “What is the TRUE difference between me and her?”

We both have skin, we both have a brain, nerves, bones, muscles, veins, arteries, organs, cells, tissues; we both have all of the material things that it takes to make up a human being, yet I am ALIVE, and she is DEAD. What is the true difference?

This is when I truly understood what the REAL difference between life, and rigor mortis (death) is; INTELLIGENCE.

You see, our lives are lived and expressed through an intelligence within our bodies that is innately there when we are born, it is an intelligence that if you are living exists within you, that never takes days off. It is always fulfilling the supply and demand needs of our bodies to create harmony, homeostasis, and keep things WELL, and at ease within us. When we get injured; it dictates healing, when we eat; it dictates digestion, and excretion, when we absorb nutrients; it knows where it is needed to support nourishment and repair in our bodies.

All of this happens, without you even being conscious of it. It is the wisest, smartest, and most powerful doctor that exists; and exists within YOU. This innate intelligence is in all of us, but some of ours is more efficient than others, which is why some of us are more healthy, and some of us are in pain, or sick. And some of us are alive, and some of us just live, and some of us die. Its a fact of life that is known, but rarely talked about…

This intelligence and expression of optimal life, and truly the abiltity to LIVE, is carried out through our nervous system. Your brain, spinal cord, and spinal nerves are what create intelligence, harmony, and LIFE within your body.

This is something that is super easy to incorporate every day, and it can have a great result on your neck’s overall mobility and range of motion. If you suffer from neck stiffness, or pain, every morning when you get in the shower when you start your day (or at the end before you get in bed), take your neck through all of the ranges of motion, while warm/hot water is massaging the muscles of your neck. Because heat acts as a blood flow promotor by increasing the diameter of blood vessels, it can allow for proper drainage of inflammation, and help promote proper nutrients to the muscles, and discs of your neck. Be very careful when you first start doing this, and work your way to deeper ranges of motion, as you get more comfortable. You can also increase the effectiveness of this by incorporating warm olive, coconut, or mustard oil to the muscles of your neck, as you self-massage them in the shower.

This is why, in dealing with the sickest of the sick in the community of Little Rock, and those that have been dealing with pain for months, years, and sometimes decades; I focus 100% on the nervous system.

It is THE single most important system in the body, the heart does not beat without a nerve impulse to tell it to beat; the lungs do not fill with air, without a nerve impulse to tell the muscles to contract and bring air in; all of the vital essentials that truly are the difference between LIFE AND DEATH start and end with your nervous system. So… now understanding this.. I ask two important questions.

How is your nervous system performing, or functioning?

If you are sick, in pain, suffering, and everyday approaching and tinkering a little bit closer to a state of disease, would it not make sense to start with how this system is performing, instead of treating the specific organ that is controlled by this very system, and intelligence (heart, liver, muscle, etc.)?

As one of my favorite teachers, and former orthopedic instructor used to always say, “Just something to think about…”

Yours in health,

Dr. Grant, drgrantdennis.com, (501)-420-2815