Learn how you can be healthy by reframing how you think about health.
Most people believe they are healthy if they don’t hurt or feel discomfort.
In fact, when many of my patients filled out their history form, they would mark a number of conditions that they had and still tell me that they were quite healthy.
How can that be? How can we be taking medicines for a number of conditions and still believe that we are healthy?
We grow up believing that being healthy is normal. We equate it with feeling good. If we have a pain, or upset stomach then we are sick and we want something to make us feel better. We really don’t even think of it in terms of health, we just want to feel better. Until we feel bad, we don’t need help. Pain or discomfort becomes the enemy. Relief is all we want. Once we get relief, we are satisfied. Has health been restored?
The focus of medicine has been treating diseases. What medicine can we create to make people feel better? The idea is that health is natural. Disease must be caused by something external. A broken arm is caused by an external force. Stomach trouble is caused by something we ate. Infections are caused by bacteria or viruses.
Science is proving that our common thinking is mistaken. A classic example is heart failure. Often, the first symptom of heart failure is death. Autopsy reveals a heart that has been in decline for years.
Medicine is claiming to help you prevent disease and live longer by subjecting yourself to tests. You should get your blood pressure checked. You should get your prostate examined if you are male or Pap smear if you are female. Of course mammograms and colonoscopies are also a good idea. Why? Because you can’t tell by how you feel. The list goes on and on.
What if we flipped the script? What if instead of fighting disease, we embraced health? What would that look like?
Dorland’s Medical Dictionary gave a definition of health as optimal physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Health does not exist just because disease or infirmity is absent. Wow. What about that word optimal? That word implies intelligence, thinking, decision, or judgement. Optimal for your heart rate is different if you have been running than if you have been sitting. Who or what decides?
What if we began with intelligence instead of energy? The ability to adapt to new and trying conditions is an example of intelligence. Some scientists are pointing to that possibility.
What controls function? Traditional chiropractic has pointed to intelligence using the nervous system. As AI and robots become more advanced, it seems to support the idea that all of our actions will be explained by programming. Are our brains just biocomputers controlling our bodies subconsciously? Is consciousness just programming and our feelings of having made decisions mere illusions?
Many, if not most, philosophers and scientists will answer both questions yes. Those yeses make me uncomfortable. They mean that my life is beyond my control. They also mean that the fields of philosophy and science are inevitable and worthless. Why bother studying philosophy and science if we cannot change our lives? Of course the answer is we can’t help it.
Why do I refuse to believe the philosophers and scientists? Why do I find joy and peace in controlling my mind? Am I wrong? Or are the philosophers and scientists wrong?
I realize that my nervous system is a biocomputer. I see evidence that I have been programmed. I also have the experience of stopping my programming. I believe that I use my will to change my nervous system. I can change some of my programming. I can also recognize some of the programs and learn to work with them. For example, I can diet and exercise and change my body.
As a chiropractor, I enjoyed helping those who came to me for help. The premise was that problems with the spine affected the nervous system and resulted in the loss of health. If a patients did not have spinal problems interfering with the nervous system, I could not accept them as patients. If they did, we attempted to correct the spinal problem and see if patients could heal themselves. It was quite rewarding.
For example, my son, Ben recently had a sore throat. He wound up in ER. Doctors did a scan of his neck and found an abscess. They couldn’t reach it to drain it. The next day, he went in again. They were able to drain the abscess but he still had a very sore throat. I suggested he come let me check him.
He came to the house. He held up his finger and thumb to make a circle about the size of a nickel. He told me that the syringe they used was that big and they took out about three quarters of an inch of fluid. Doctors told him that he still had pain because of the swelling and pressure on a nerve. He said, “Dad, if you look in my throat it is all black and blue. It just makes sense.” I said, “Of course, it makes sense. Let’s check you anyway.”
We went upstairs to my office. I adjusted three vertebrae. He got off the table and opened his mouth. Then said, “My throat doesn’t hurt.” I told him to come back in the morning.
The next morning he was in pain again. He was out of pain for three hours after his adjustment and was able to eat for the first time in two days. I adjusted two vertebrae. He felt no better. I told him to come back in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, he was still in pain. He only needed one adjustment and his pain was better.
That is an example of the therapeutic value of non-therapeutic chiropractic care. I adjusted him based on my tests. I did not adjust him based on how he felt. Sometimes he felt better and sometimes he didn’t.
That was what I found with patients. However, with consistent checkups patients needed fewer adjustment and very often found their health restored quickly. Often, when medical care had failed.
Here is the reframe. Stop thinking of disease as something you get. Think of health as something you lose. You have stopped adapting to your environment. It is not a fault of intelligence. It is a fault in your nervous system and your body’s response to intelligence.
I recommend regular non-therapeutic chiropractic checkups as healthcare. I work to strengthen my spine almost daily. Even with routine care, I have some degeneration that I am working to rehabilitate. Science has advanced and I’m doing the best I can with new information.