How many times have you had a minor fender-bender, or a slip on the the sidewalk and never gave it a second thought? Maybe your ego was bruised, but you didn’t notice any outward signs of injury. What happened to you on the inside could be a different story.
After a trauma, things may appear fine on the outside, but it doesn’t mean they’re OK on the inside. That’s why we open egg cartons and check the contents for hidden damage before we buy them. The same goes for your spine after any jolt. What may seem like a minor bump from the outside, could actually create SUBLUXATIONS on the inside. (Misaligned vertebrae that interfere with nerve function, and silently diminish health)
What’s the smart thing to do? Get our spine checked for SUBLUXATIONS after any trauma, no matter how big or small. If your kid takes a tumble down the stairs – get them checked. If your spouse backs the car into the fence post – get them checked. If you tripped over the dog on the way to the refrigerator last night – get yourself checked too. Life’s tough enough without having to live it SUBLUXATED.
It’s not uncommon to see clients who get great results from chiropractic stop their care once they feel good, only to return with their original problem or something worse. Many repeat this cycle over and over again – traveling up and down the feel good, feel bad roller coaster of temporary relief, without truly getting healthy.
Chiropractic used correctly goes beyond the wavering cycles of symptomatic care, to pursuing the higher standard of optimal function. Whether you feel good or bad, a body that exists in a sustained subluxated state is less likely to repair itself when injured or perform to its best when under demand. If, however your body is allowed to reach its full potential with regular adjustments and a perpetually clear Nerve System, the sky’s the limit to what you can achieve.
If your chiropractor gets you up and over the first challenging hill on your road to recovery, don’t expect the rest of your health to coast perpetually without some effort to keep it going. Unfortunately, the temporary pain relief ride eventually stops. If you want abundant health, you need to keep the Chiropractic momentum going.
If you’ve ever crashed your bicycle and twisted the handle bars out of whack, you probably got up, stabilized the front tire between your knees and muscled the frame back into alignment before hopping on again. Everyone knows riding a bike with crooked steering could put you at risk for another spill down the road.
After you’ve crashed your body (i.e. lifted a heavy weight incorrectly, fell asleep on the couch or spent 8 hours sitting in front of a computer), your spine may also have slipped out alignment. A healthy posture requires your head, shoulder, hips and feet to line up properly for your spine to maintain functional integrity – just like handlebars of a bike need to line up with the frame and tires to steer properly. If one part of a mechanical structure becomes misaligned (like your head isn’t balance over your shoulders, or your hips aren’t balance over your feet) it will create undue stress on the rest of the system and increase the risk of catastrophic failure.
If riding with crooked handle bars feels awkward, just imagine how your muscles, joints and ligaments feel when you try to perform routine, daily activities with a crooked spine. Maybe those annoying aches and pains are telling you”…it’s time for a trip to the Chiropractor to get straightened out.”
You walk into your Chiropractor’s office, hop on a table and point to where it hurts. But the Chiropractor adjusts a totally different part of your spine…not even close to where you feel the pain. Why is that?
There’s an old saying that goes when you step on a dog’s tail, it barks out the other end. In Chiropractic, that means where you hurt (the bark) isn’t necessarily where the problem is (the tail). Many times the symptom you feel in one area is due to a remote cause. For example, someone with sciatica may feel pain down their leg, but the cause of the problem is a Vertebral Subluxation in their spine.
Chiropractors recognize that if you address the cause of the symptom, the body will no longer have a need to produce it. That’s why Chiropractors focus on fixing underlying problems and not superficial effects. Chasing after symptoms is like a dog chasing its own tail – spinning around and around until it gets dizzy, confused and frustrated. It’s much smarter to address the underlying cause from the start.
Spike a fever – run for some Tylenol. Get an ear infection – dash for an antibiotic. Big Pharma wants us to race for a drug every time a symptom or illness challenges us. But is it better to let your body run its own race without interference from the drug companies?
Research reported in the Journal of Leukocyte Biologyfound evidence that elevated body temperature helps immune cells work harder to fight colds and the flu – so much for lowering fevers with Tylenol. Still yet another study from the journal Pediatrics reports doctors write over 10 million UNNECESSARY prescriptions for antibiotics every year, dangerously raising the risk of antibiotic resistant infections for society as a whole.
Chiropractors acknowledge that symptoms are your body’s attempt to save itself…not the start of a 100 yard dash to CVS. Current best practice is to wait for natural responses like fever and inflammation to do their job, instead of false starting with drugs and interfering with what nature knows best. As long as you’re in adjustment (clear Nerve System), your body will innately know how to run its own healing race.
If you ever want to observe perfect biomechanics, watch a toddler pick up a toy from the floor. You’ll never see them bending over, moaning in agony like an old man. They drop their hips, maintain a perfect center of gravity while lowering themselves, then pop right back up with the ease of an Olympic lifter.
Interestingly enough, they never attended an ‘ergonomics’ class to acquire such perfect form. their little bodies are innately designed to do it – and at one time in your life, your body worked like that too. You were able to lift, bend, sit, walk, run, sleep, and with perfect, innate biomechanics. But somewhere along the way, your body picked up bad habits and compensated movements that now create pain and physical limitations in your daily Life.
If PAIN is your body forgetting how to line up and move the way it was originally designed to, HEALTH is the return to the original blueprint. If you want to get your Life back, remind your body how it was meant to function. Sound like the perfect job for a Chiropractor.
In a recent Mayo Clinic study, researchers determined that nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and more than half receive at least two prescriptions. Twenty percent of U.S. patients were also found to be on five or more prescription medications. When it comes to health, Americans aren’t as free as we think we are.
Chiropractors believe true freedom comes from IN-Dependence – relying on the Power that made you, to heal you and keep you well. IN-dependent Chiropractic patients know they innately possess what it takes to heal. They trust in the wisdom of their bodies to handle what ails them instead of running to the medicine cabinet for every cough or sniffle. They’re the 30% who would rather give Mother Nature the chance to do her job, than usurp her role with drug intervention.
Big Pharma won’t stop advertising and pushing their products until we’re 100% dependent on them. This Fourth of July when you’re celebrating our country’s freedom, take a moment to reflect on your body’s freedom, take a moment to reflect on your body’s freedom as well. Are you truly as IN-dependent as you want to be?
I’m forever reminding my spouse (with total love of course),”…honey, don’t let the gas get to E. Fill up when it hits a quarter left because you don’t want to run out of fuel when you need it the most – like when on the highway with a car full of kids.
Likewise, you don’t want to let your ‘Chiropractic gas needle’ get to E before you come in for an adjustment. Some patients feel they can go several weeks or months without an adjustment because they’re cruising along, just feeling fine. And it’s true. Based on our health, lifestyle and activity levels adjustments can hold for a while – but not forever. Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10 patients who fail to gauge their adjustments properly, show up with some ache or pain as a reminder they’ve waited too long. And that’s not how maintenance care works.
Maintaining a healthy spine is a proactive decision…something you do regularly not based on how you feel, but based on what you need to stay on the road of Life. The next time you wait too long for your next adjustment and experience the hurt, consider filling your Chiropractic tank way before it gets seriously low again.
A house built on a strong foundation lasts. The same goes for your health. If you want a healthy body for Life, you need to build it on a solid foundation of health care that can support it for a long time.
Chiropractic’s foundation is its Principle which acknowledges we all possess an intelligent, vitalistic force within us that maintains our existence and keeps our bodies working in perfect order. When this Power is allowed to express itself 100%, we have health. When the Power is interfered with, we have Dis-Ease. Eating properly is important, and so is exercise…but if the Power doesn’t flow, your whole house will crumble.
Health built on a foundation of drug therapy is risky and cannot stand for long. Health built on a foundation that supports the innate wisdom of the body, can weather any storm. What foundation is your health standing on?
