Back to Health: What Does Health Mean To You and Your Family?

The current view of health holds that if we have symptoms, we are sick and if we are without symptoms then we are healthy. So much of modern health care is geared toward getting rid of symptoms. Some of the sickest people are symptom free. They just don’t feel anything. Their bodies are so consumed with toxins, stress and injury (emotional and physical) that they have shut down. So lack of symptoms does not necessarily prove to be a healthy individual. Conversely, a person with symptoms is not necessarily “sick”.

Many of the symptoms people experience are actually signs that the body is healing, and abating those symptoms can interfere with the healing process. For example, a fever is the body’s first line of defense against infection. The temperature goes up, which increases the body’s activity and signals the immune system to essentially “turn on”. When we take something to lower the temperature it compromises the body’s natural healing response.

When we ingest something that the body considers to be toxic, nausea and diarrhea are healthy responses. When a joint is injured, the body, along with a host of inflammatory chemicals, gives us pain to let us know to be careful, to avoid using it and re-injuring it. It swells to provide a natural splint to the area to protect the injured joint and gets hot as the body increases the circulation to repair and heal the injured tissue. The runny nose we get at the change of seasons is the body sluffing off the old respiratory lining, much like the trees sluff off their leaves and animals sluff off winter coats.

Every symptom our body gives us is a message. The body can only speak to us in two ways, pain or pleasure, discomfort or comfort, ease or dis-ease. When symptoms occur, when our body is trying its best to communicate with us, do we listen to what it is trying to say? Or, do we just try to stop the symptoms?

For example, antibiotics remain the most popular medical treatment for an earache, with doctors reportedly writing 15 million prescriptions per year in the United States alone. It is estimated that at least half of the prescriptions are unnecessary and ineffective for helping this problem. To add to that, most ear infections are viral in nature so antibiotics, in many cases, will not be effective in eradicating the problem. Quieting the symptoms will most likely lead to a recurrence of the symptoms later on.  It has been shown that 80 percent of people with ear infections or earaches get better without antibiotics within 48 to 72 hours.

Due to the widespread overuse of antibiotics, drug-resistant germs have been reproducing rapidly, constantly evolving new levels of drug resistance. For over a decade our health leaders have been sounding the alarm to doctors to stop writing so many prescriptions for antibiotics because of growing drug resistance as well as serious health risks to the user.

As these statistics are becoming better known, people are seeking alternative treatment to keep themselves as well as their family healthy. Chiropractic is becoming more and more the popular choice.

Chiropractic is not the diagnosis or treatment of any condition or disease. The focus of chiropractic is to reduce stress to your nervous system so your whole body can function better.  At Sandstone Chiropractic, we use techniques designed for adults and children that are very gentle, effective and safe.

It’s important to note that chiropractors are not opposed to antibiotics when necessary, but the chiropractic profession acknowledges that over usage is prevalent in our country and that the habits of some prescribing doctors may not have caught up with the latest research, or simply give-in to the persistent demands of uninformed parents.

Health is not the absence of symptoms, as sickness is not the presence of symptoms. Health is a condition of wholeness in which all of your organs are functioning 100%. Symptomatic or not, chiropractic care offers your body the best possibilities for better function, therefore better health.

For the overall wellness of you and your family, participate in all decisions when it comes to the usage of antibiotics and seek other non-invasive forms of care. Remember, it’s your body and you have a choice. Most importantly, initiate healthy lifestyle choices for your family and include regular chiropractic care as part of your family’s goal towards wellness.