COLUMN OF KNOWLEDGE

Chiropractic and the Art of Staying Healthy

By Sean Hopkins, D.C.
When most people think of health and disease, they consider disease to be something outside of the body that invades the body and one’s state of health. This is natural, given the disease model of healthcare that sees health predominantly as freedom from disease. On the other hand, the chiropractic model is health and wellness oriented. Chiropractors first think of the states of a patient’s health, not disease.

Look at it this way. The state of your health depends on what goes on inside your body, specifically on the state of your nerves and nerve transmission. When something occurs within your body that interferes with nerve transmission, dysfunction occurs, and your body is prevented from functioning at its 100-percent, level. When this occurs, disease can then settle within your body, make a home there, and create an inhospitable environment within your body, or a state of “disease.” Chiropractic keeps your body functioning as well as it was meant to function.

Because the human body changes constantly — physically, mentally, and chemically— bones of the spine may move out of line, tighten, collapse, and cause nerve tissue to become irritated or damaged. In chiropractic parlance, these dysfunctions are called subluxations, and prompt discomfort and sickness in the tissues our nerves communicate with. A chiropractor corrects these subluxations and returns them to normalcy to improve nerve functioning, improve daily functions, and direct the body to health.

Removing a nerve interference provides our immune system with a new direction away from acquiring disease and toward wellness. Is this not what we all strive for when we see a doctor whatever his or her specialty may be? Simply put, we want our body to work better. Chiropractors have been putting this wellness-oriented philosophy into practice for more than 100 years.

Every day, chiropractors all over the world see patients who suffer from a variety of ailments — from headaches, sinus conditions, stomach ailments, and blood pressure problems, to ear infections, dizziness, and diabetes, to name just a few. But it is important to remember that chiropractors do not treat disease. Rather, we consider the body to be a self-healing organism, and we treat the nerve interferences that create conditions of dysfunction in the body. Secondary health changes, such as the alleviation of symptoms, occur in patients who see a chiropractor, because chiropractors improve body function and health.

As chiropractors, we know that since the body and our environment are ever changing, our philosophy cannot be chiseled in granite. As Dr. Victor Strang, noted professor of chiropractic at the Palmer College of Chiropractic once stated, “Our philosophy must be alive, ever ready to accommodate new, relevant discoveries in science.”

This is why chiropractors continue to study the efficacy of chiropractic and the results we achieve with our patients. Research statistics on the relation of chiropractic to patients suffering from a variety of ailments overwhelmingly demonstrate the validity of chiropractic care. People who experience chiropractic treatment achieve healthier lives, have fewer doctor bills to pay, require fewer hospitalizations, and have reduced chances for surgery. If you or a member of your family wants to improve his or her health, a visit to a chiropractor will definitely enhance that potential.