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As a chiropractor and acupuncturist, I notice on a daily basis that our current mainstream healthcare model is largely sickness-based. That is, we generally don’t seek help unless we are ill or injured. However, things like yearly check-ups with your family doctor, for example, are preventative in nature. If your doctor happens to find early warning signs to potential health problems, measures can be taken to prevent them, and thereby you maintain your health, instead of managing your sickness.
This concept bridges the gap between sickness and health.
In chiropractic care, this concept of prevention is known as maintenance or supportive care. We know that the nervous system controls and coordinates all structures and functions in the human body. Any problems that may affect or irritate the spinal structures may therefore negatively impact the related structures, organs, and functions.
If we are able to minimize these stressors on the physical structures of the body, then we are potentially preventing these negative impacts. This requires a shift in our current way of thinking whereby we transcend the sickness/injury mindset to the prevention mindset.
It is all too easy to simply do nothing when we are ‘feeling good’ but if we make the effort to maintain our ‘healthy’ status then we are less likely to enter a ‘sickness’ status. Obviously there are things that are unpredictable such as certain injuries. Unfortunately, if we do enter the ‘sickness’ realm, we are probably doing some damage to our bodies. If we do this often enough, we may suffer permanent repercussions.
Why wouldn’t we want to prevent this from happening?
Oddly enough most of us do not have a problem performing regular maintenance check-ups for our cars. If we didn’t do this, there would be an awful lot of broken cars out there. Of course, this applies to all aspects of our lifestyles such as diet and exercise.
Chiropractic care is one piece of the puzzle. As the saying goes,
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
