How Do You Know If You Are Heathy?

My initial schooling in chiropractic led me to believe that chiropractic was about alleviating back or neck pain. However, if we look at what chiropractic care can actually do for the body pain is only the tip of the iceberg and not the main objective. Pain is an indicator at best and an indicator at worst. An absence of symptoms such as pain does not mean one is healthy. Pain, if you are lucky can get you to someone who can tell you something is wrong on a larger scale...like having a heart attack. (Before reading any more check out this video of Dr. Mancini on television show The Doctor.)

Jim Fixx, the 240 lb., 2-pack a day smoker turned runner who published The Complete Book To Running in 1977. At age 35 he took up running and living smoke free. He died of a heart attack at age 52 after his daily run. Was he healthy the day before the heart attack? I will say, 'no.' Did he have pain telling him he was not healthy? I don't know. It seems many heart attack victims do not know it is coming.

Another example is for those who have suffered the dreadful "gall bladder attack." My understanding is those who have had one do indeed feel as if they are under attack. If one is to base health on being pain free then it would be fair to say that removing a gall bladder and therefore removing the pain that person is in a better state of health than prior to the gall bladder removal. And that would, of course, be absurd as I think most would agree.  

So what is health then? How does one know if they are healthy? Often the answer is we don't. Again, an absence of symptoms is not an indicator of health...not even close. The central nervous system is comprised of sensory (pain, touch, heat), motor (think moving muscles) and autonomic (everything that works automatically without you having to think...organs, glands, blood vessels) fibers. Sensory is about 10% of the central nervous system while motor and autonomic comprise the other 90%...the part you can't necessarily FEEL.

Back to Jim Fixx, he smoked and was 240 lbs. when we stopped and turned to a life of running. However, he still had a heart attack at age 52. Another is Lance Armstrong who was one of the fittest athletes in the world when he was diagnosed with cancer shortly after pulling out of the 1996 Tour de France. Exercise and diet are not all there is to health. So what else? And the answer is your nervous system. Stress from physical (accidents, poor workstation posture, etc.), biochemical (smoking, alcohol, sugar, non organic veggies and fruits, sodas, etc.) and mental/emotional stress (racing the Tour, marriage, finances, etc.) will create subluxation patterns in your spine creating nerve interference. Once those patterns are created they will not change with diet and exercise alone...again Jim Fixx. Detecting those patterns and correcting them using chiropractic adjustments are the key to returning to health along with stopping the stresses that caused them in the first place. Once that is done we see "miracles" as digestion, bowel issues, low energy issues, etc. start to subside and clear. The body is returning to its self-healing, self-regulating ways as the nerve interferences are reduce and corrected. And with this folks have a happier, healthier life. It is awesome to watch unfold. 

We use the Space Certified Insight Subluxation Station (just like on this video of Dr. Mancini on The Doctor!) to detect the interference patterns so there is no guessing with your health. Jim Fixx's nervous system likely had a great deal of subluxations since he was a 2 pack a day smoker prior. The biochemical stress from smoking 2 packs a day is...high.And, again those patterns simply do not correct on their own and the nerve interference disappear. Once the circuit breaker has been tripped nothing we do will reset the circuit until we go to the box and flip the switch to turn the power back on. Same goes for us. How long do you want your organs to be living on less than ideal nerve supply? Don't wait for pain to be your indicator. Get your spine checked today. If it is clear, great! If not, you may want to have some care to get those subluxations corrected.

Thanks for reading.