No one enjoys feeling poorly, or suffering and experiencing pain.
Symptoms are unpleasant. We have been taught to view them as bad and
we seek ways to alleviate them as quickly as possible, but it is often
without regard for our health or without understanding their role
in our health and well-being.
It is important that we understand that pain and symptoms are not
always bad. Our body was designed with an intricate warning system
in order to make us aware of injury, harm and danger. Pain tells us
to avoid hot stoves, remove the pebble in our shoe and in a hundred
other ways, how to prevent injury and harm. To cover up pain in these
types of situations is not only unwise, it is dangerous and often
invites further serious injury. It is like having an expensive fire
alarm system in your home and disconnecting it before going to sleep
so that it does not awaken you in the middle of the night. That is
its job! Further, symptoms can possibly be an indication that the
body is doing its job perfectly. Eating tainted food could precipitate
a bout of vomiting and diarrhea. While they are admittedly two of
the most unpleasant symptoms, they could save your life as they rid
your body of unwanted toxins. Trying to prevent these symptoms could
be harmful to your body.
We also must understand that symptoms may be indicative of a serious
medical problem that requires immediate attention by a physician or
some other provider of therapeutic measures. To make this determination
necessitates extensive years of study and training. Your chiropractor
has chosen not to pursue that education or provide that service. Diagnosis,
the art of finding the underlying cause of symptoms, is not part of
the practice of the chiropractor.
Finally, we must understand that the service the chiropractor provides
is not related to symptoms. This is what makes chiropractic different
from therapeutic services like medicine. The vertebral subluxation,
a misalignment which interferes with the proper functioning of the
nervous system generally has not symptoms. That is what makes it so
dangerous. It can occur in anyone and give no indication of its presence.
But when the spine is subluxated, the entire body is being deprived
of its ability to function at its fullest potential. That is a serious
matter. To wait until symptoms appear, as a result of perhaps months
or years of improper function, it not the best approach to maintaining
one's health.
While chiropractic is not a treatment for symptoms or their cause,
the person receiving chiropractic must have an understanding of the
role of pain and symptoms so that he or she can make intelligent decisions
regarding matters of health. We will be happy to explain to you further
our role in your health and well-being so that you can be a better
informed person and a better expression of life and health.
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