Those who utilize chiropractic love it for the fact that it helps them feel so much better. But did you ever consider what separates chiropractic from other forms of pain relief? There are several ways to feel better, so why not just pop a pill or get an injection?
If you have no regard for your health other than immediate relief from pain, medication could certainly be your best option.
On the other hand, if you understand that pain is merely the outward manifestation of an underlying problem, you would probably be more inclined to address the actual cause rather than simply try to alleviate the symptom. That’s where chiropractic comes into the picture.
You might be surprised to hear that at its core, chiropractic has nothing to do with pain relief. At least not from a treatment standpoint. The relief that comes with an adjustment could be thought of more appropriately as an added bonus of getting your body into a healthier state of balance. The purpose of chiropractic is simply to remove interference from the nervous system, allowing your body to function to its full potential, regardless of the presence of any symptoms. That your pain often goes away in the process is just the result of an outward expression representative of your inner health. When your body is damaged, you tend to hurt. When your body is healthy, a painful symptom serves no purpose.
Pain can be a useful tool in helping to identify which spinal nerve levels, muscle groups, and other bodily structures need some work, but the pain itself is not the focus of treatment.
If you are the average person, you’re so used to living with aches and pains and other chronic nuisances that you eventually tend to accept living this way as your natural state. The tendency is to chalk it up to wear and tear, aging, or family genetics. But while a certain amount of physical abuse can certainly catch up with you, you are cheating yourself of your full life experience the minute you begin to accept chronic discomfort as normal.
One of the most gratifying things I hear from my patients is when they tell me they have never felt so good as they do after having completed a process of comprehensive care. They are genuinely surprised at the difference in their quality of life. But they aren’t talking about relief from sciatica, low back pain, headaches, and so on. Those conditions do resolve, but that usually happens relatively early on in the care process. What most people experience when they stick with chiropractic beyond simple pain relief is that they feel more vibrant and energetic overall. They sleep better. They have more physical stamina. They perform better in athletics. Their mood improves. You name it, I’ve heard it.
Am I saying that you will experience every one of the above improvements when you get adjusted? Not necessarily. That depends on many factors, including your current condition, past history, response to the adjustment, etc. In fact, even if 2 people present with identical histories, and the same exact condition, there is no way to predict precisely how each will respond to care.
But I do know this. You are always healthier with a clear nervous system than with a blocked one. Life is expressed through the nervous system from the brain down. Nerve impulses travel through the spinal cord, exit through the spinal nerve roots between your vertebra, and then branch out into your entire body from there. Any interference in this nerve pathway decreases your potential for health, regardless of whether or not you feel any symptoms.
So when people report better sleep quality, heightened focus, improved digestion, etc., it’s not that chiropractic targets those conditions. It’s simply that we are reestablishing balance in the spine, clearing the nervous system of interference, and allowing the body to function at its highest level.
I have yet to find a pill that can do the same.
Be Your Best,
