Want a lasting solution to your health problems that is cheap, it only takes 5 minutes, you only do it once, and it lasts forever? I’m sorry. It doesn’t exist. And yet, we keep looking for that quick and easy solution that will solve all of our problems. If that describes you, don’t feel bad. It’s human nature. On social media, I often see teasers that say that you can solve diabetes or other significant health issues with a few simple ingredients that are already in your cupboard. I sometimes click on the link out of curiosity only to find, after 18 minutes of scrolling, that you have to use THEIR forms of the ingredients put together with THEIR special patented method in order for those simple ingredients to actually work. And for a small bundle of money, they’ll send it to you on a regular basis.
I’ve often heard the phrase, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. While that is wise advice in some cases, it’s often not very smart. Perhaps a better saying is “the best cure is prevention”. It isn’t very smart to wait to go the dentist until you have a horrible toothache in a tooth that ends up needing to be pulled. I see my dentist every six months, even though I have no symptoms! I take vitamins and minerals, not to treat a disease, but to keep me healthy so I’m less likely to have to treat a disease. I don’t wait until I’m broken down on the side of the road to do maintenance on my car. I don’t hold off on taking a shower until I stink. It makes a lot more sense to care of things, especially your own body, with small and simple things that you do on a regular basis to maintain a good status quo.
As a chiropractic physician, I often see people come in for a spinal adjustment because they’re in pain. When you’re hurting, especially in your neck or back, the chiropractic office is a great place to go. It’s a natural, effective way to address the source of the pain. Unfortunately, many people stop coming in for care prematurely for one of two reasons… either they feel better or they don’t feel better. If they feel better, as they usually do, they will sometimes say, “Thanks, doc. You did a great job. If I’m ever hurting like that again, I’ll be sure to come back.” If they don’t feel better after one or two treatments, even if they’ve had the problem for a long time and have tried other approaches without much success, they sometimes decide that this is not an effective approach and they don’t come back.
There are multiple reasons why this way of thinking is not best. Pain is often the tip of the iceberg. The body does a great job of putting up with less-than-optimal conditions as long as it can. Outside of sudden accidents, pain is often something that comes on long after the problem began. If all you do is just enough to get the pain under control, then all you’ve done is to lop off the top of the iceberg, leaving the biggest part of it below the surface where it will continue to cause problems. What types of problems? It isn’t just about pain. Spinal misalignments (subluxations) interfere with proper communication between the body part and the brain. In fact, recent research indicates that it causes faulty responses in the brain. The reality is that it takes time to get the vertebrae to stay properly aligned and moving right for healing to take place properly. And even then, there are plenty of ongoing challenges that your body has to deal with such as toxins, posture, stress, etc., which necessitate regular adjustments to maintain a healthy spine and body. What I’m really trying to say is that chiropractic should be part of a healthy lifestyle, not just an occasional act of desperation to pull your body out of a jam.
So, you might be wondering — why you can’t just pop the spine back in place and be done with it? Aligning the spine isn’t like stacking bricks. It’s actually less about the bones and more about the ligaments. The ligaments are holding the vertebrae in place or out of place. Ligaments are strong connective tissues that don’t change shapes quickly or easily. Also, your brain gets used to bones being in particular positions and will generally work to maintain those positions. So, it’s more about retraining the spine than rearranging the spine.
If you’ve read any of my other blog entries, you know that I do a lot more than chiropractic, although I am still first and foremost a chiropractic physician and I believe strongly in chiropractic philosophy. With the other energy work that I do, the basic principle is the same. There’s no magic pill or procedure that will cure all of your ills, at least not all at once. It’s all a process and a lifestyle. It all starts with a health mindset. Don’t focus on disease, but rather on being proactive with having a healthy mind and body.
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