Health Problems Are Insidious
In November we discussed how the nervous system is connected to your overall health and well-being, based on four fundamental principles:
- Your body is a self-healing, self-regulating organism. It is designed to heal itself.
- Your nervous system is the central computer system which runs the body.
- Any interference to the nervous system would then necessarily cause malfunction and ill health.
- The role of chiropractic is to restore law and order.
The question then arises, “What causes interference to the nervous system?” Well, simply put, your nervous system, being really soft and delicate needs to be protected by something hard, like a suit of armor. The brain is obviously protected by the skull. The spinal cord is, of course housed in and protected by the spine. But since the spine is made up of several individual movable bones, if one of those bones loses its normal motion and position, this can cause big problems with the delicate nerves which exit the spine at that level, and hence resulting in malfunction (and pain!) to the organs and tissues supplied by that nerve.
Well then, how does the spinal bone (If you’re into doctor talk, they’re called vertebrae.) lose its normal motion and position? This is where the confusion arises. Most people associate spinal health problems with injuries: car accidents, work injuries, sports injuries, bad falls, etc. And although there are clinics that specialize in treating such injuries, as a generally practicing family chiropractor, only a small percentage of patients come to me with these types of problems, probably around 2 per cent.
The overwhelming majority of new patients tell me that they’re complaint seemed to materialize from thin air! “I didn’t do anything”, they state. “It just seemed to come on by itself!”
Well in fact, the problem didn’t just come on by itself; it was caused by something. That something is the little stresses that we all experience in life. The little bumps and falls, the emotional stresses, etc. This is why spinal and nervous system health problems more often than not arise insidiously and without warning.
It’s just like your teeth. Most dental issues (cavities, wear and tear, mal-alignment, etc.) do not arise from a sudden injury to the mouth! They’re innocuous, developing over many months or years. This is why we think nothing of having a dental problem fixed, even in the absence of symptoms. We go for regular dental check-ups, and take our kids along, even when there’s no toothache. It’s funny how we all take this proactive approach for our teeth, yet for the rest of our body, we have to virtually be on death’s door before we’ll do something about it! It doesn’t make much sense, does it?
Your spine is no different, and the problems that arise need to be handled the same way.
That’s it for this month (and this year!). I’ll be very much looking forward to speaking with you again in 2011.
In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday, enjoy yourself, but don’t eat too much. Yeah, right!
