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From the day I was first able to sit behind the wheel of a car, it was driven into my head by my father: Don’t forget to check the oil, water, power steering fluids, etc. and make sure you get the oil changed every 3,000 miles! Oh yeah, and make sure you check the tire pressure periodically, too. That’s a lot of stuff for a 16 year old kid to remember… especially one who is just excited to just be driving!
I’m sure I’m not the only person to receive this advice. Take care of your car, and it will serve you for years. Makes sense, right? How many of us receive the same advice from our elders or peers about the proper maintenance of our bodies? We don’t come with an owner’s manual. We don’t have a 10 year limited warranty. We don’t even have a receipt, so that we can return our bodies to Wal-Mart in the event it’s “broken”. So, how do we know the right things to do to make our bodies last? Do we look to our parents? My parents generation is suffering from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, emphysema, and a myriad of other health ailments. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a great example for me to follow.
We can check with our doctors. They know more about our bodies than we do. Right? Consider this: How many prescription drugs have been introduced to our gullible western culture, just to be taken off the market because of certain “complications”. Don’t get me wrong. There is a time and place for medicine, but doctors are human, just like you and I. Research is often limited to short term effects of drugs on the human body, and the long-term outcomes can not possibly be predicted for each person who uses them.
One of the greatest problems with being a human is that we are vain. We want to look as good as possible on the outside. To put things in perspective, nobody will ever say to you, “Don’t take this as a come-on, but you have a beautiful spleen!”, and you certainly won’t see a couple of guys in a bar say to each other, “Dude. Did you see her pancreas? I think I’m in love…”. We tend to forget about the parts of our body that aren’t in plain view. It’s only been in recent years that we, as a culture, have started to focus on the health of our heart. Men are now getting colon and prostate screenings at 40, and women are getting breast exams regularly. As a society, we are now beginning to realize that an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure.
When it comes to the inner workings of the human body, probably no system is more important than the nervous system. It controls and regulates every other system in the body, much like the electric power in your house controls all of the things that keep you living comfortably – your heating and air conditioning, your refrigerator, the lighting, etc. Usually, we take these things for granted until an electrical storm or downed power line causes us to scramble for the flashlight and candles, and gives us justification for consuming all of the ice cream in the freezer, for fear it might “go bad”. The same thing happens in our body (except for the ice cream). We really don’t pay attention to our nervous system until we get in a car accident and we have shooting sensations from our neck down our arm, or we slip and fall on the ice, bruising our buttocks (and ego) and start experiencing shooting sensations down our leg (something known as sciatica). These are obvious examples of damage to our nervous system – kind of the equivalent to blowing a fuse in your house. But what happens when the effects (or symptoms) are not so obvious?
Did you know that the mere weight of a dime on a spinal nerve can reduce the function of the nerve by 60%? Since less than 10% of the nerves in the body are sensory (which means the kind of nerves that inform you that you are experiencing pain), there is a good chance that you will never even realize that you have compression on that nerve. So, what is the impact of this minor compression on a nerve, you ask? Great question, I say. Let’s say that the compression on that nerve is located somewhere in the upper back, in the area which supplies nerve supply to the heart. Would that concern you? I would hope you are nodding your head right now. The problem is that there is no pain associated with this nerve irritation, or compression, and left untreated for days, weeks, months or years can result in considerable health problems. But, don’t worry. Your hair looks great and your car is running perfectly!
Every individual needs to realize the plain and simple fact that your body needs to be maintained, and maintained better than your car. This not only means eating right, remaining active, and having good hygiene, but you must also keep your nervous system functioning to its greatest capacity, so that all of the other systems of the body may function well. This part of your body maintenance is handled by a chiropractor. By restoring your nervous system to a higher functioning level, you will have less pain, greater mobility and greater immune response. These seemingly minor changes can change your entire life! When you have pain or dysfunction in your body (irritable bowel, headaches, allergies, etc.), do your sleep well? How is your performance at work? How is your interaction with your friends and loved ones? How is your energy level, your confidence, your ability to play sports, your posture, your overall external appearance?? I know it sounds goofy, but yes, chiropractic care can change your life, your level of success, and even how you look!
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Source by Tyler Schwartz
