Health

Most people consider health the most important thing. But what is health? There are many definitions, but my favorite one is. Health is a state characterized by anatomic, physiologic, and psychological integrity, ability to perform personally valued family, work, and community roles; ability to deal with physical, biologic, psychological, and social stress; a feeling of well-being, and freedom from the risk of disease and untimely death (Medilexicons medical dictionary).

The English word "health" comes from the Old English word hale, meaning "wholeness, being whole, sound or well," So health is a holistic concept including body mind and spirit. It involves concepts like Freedom, integrity, adaptability and resourcefulness which are essential to life.

If you went to a hospital or medical center and said that you wanted to be more whole, what would they say? 

What if you said that you wanted to improve the integrity, adaptability and resourcefulness of your body and mind? What would they say then? They may look at you as if you are crazy. They may say come back when you are ill.

This is because our healthcare system has little to do with health. It is actually a disease management system. In other words. If you have lost enough of your physical/mental integrity, adaptability and wholeness, the inevitable result will be some kind of illness, either physical or mental. Are diseases separate entities which attack us and cause bad health, or does bad health lead to disease. In chiropractic we believe we lose our health first and disease is the result.

Our medical system will try to match our signs and symptoms to an illness category which is called a disease. This is the process we call diagnosis. If a diagnosis can be made, usually some kind of drug will be given to try to manage the situation. Manage usually means treating the symptoms rather than cause. It means keeping you more comfortable whilst your health remains compromised. This is why the cause of so many chronic diseases remains unknown and the drugs used must be taken for a lifetime. Most drugs are not designed to make you well. They are deigned to manage your disease.

Our health care system contradicts its own definition of what health is. Improving health and managing disease are not the same thing. Disease management is about allowing you to be more comfortable with poor health. Health care is about developing health. According to our definition of health, the result of health care should be improved anatomical, physiologic and psychological integrity. Improved performance in work, family and social roles, greater adaptability to stress, greater feeling of wellbeing and less fear. Who doesn’t want all of that? Most people need all of that whether they have a disease or not.

Our work is truly health care. Our techniques are designed to help improve all the factors mentioned above. We will measure improvements in anatomic, physiologic and psychological integrity with changes in posture, body language, tension levels, mood and reaction to stress. If these things are improving you are getting healthier. Increased integrity in the spine and nervous system are essential to this process.

Another paradox with illness is that it is the opposite of wellness. Instead of managing illness, we develop wellness. As we develop wellness, we create an environment which is incompatible with illness. This is why such a wide range of diseases resolve with healthcare because as you are creating health you become less compatible with your illness. Your body and mind contain great power for healing which can be released with good healthcare. Which direction are you going in? Look again at the definition of health. How are you?

YOUR SPINE YOUR HEALTH 

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