Chiropractic patients commonly seek out care for an ache or pain. Understandable isn’t it? Patients believe that as soon as their pain is gone, they will be better. The irony is patients do not actually come in because of pain. People in pain become patients when pain starts to prevent them from activities they love to do. Pain becomes a motivator to take action so they can return to a certain quality of life. The wellness revolution is in full swing. As we gain a stronger understanding of human potential we see a tremendous capacity for longevity and the expression of vibrant life. Scientists have discovered isolated populations of people that live extremely long lives without any evidence of disease (120-150 years). Most people will spend more money on their “health” in the last two weeks of their life than they do their entire lives!Dr. Eric Plasker said it best, “Many people spend the first 50 years of their lives ignoring their health while they accumulate wealth, only to spend the next 50 years losing their wealth to buy back their health. Knowing that your longevity potential is 100 years gives you an opportunity to place your health at the top of your value scale.”

Who wants to “manage” their pain? Wouldn’t you rather have it gone? More importantly wouldn’t you rather understand why its there in the first place so you can prevent it from returning? Americans have had enough with drugs and surgery. As a society we are fed up with the options that medicine gives us. There are only three options in the medical world. 1. Live with it. 2. Take a drug and hope the side effects aren’t worse than the pain. 3. Have surgery and perhaps you will feel better but “maybe not.” Who’s going to gamble on those odds? This is by no means a medical bashing article. This is a description of a philosophy of health care that is failing when it comes to pain patients. There are countless medical heroes and much of their work is life saving. However, they also miss the “forest for the trees” sometimes. When a patient comes in with pain, this is a great opportunity to educate them. Chiropractic care and medicine belong in two entirely different philosophical camps. Lets explore the metaphysical stance of each or the nature of reality that each branch of health care operates on. Medicine is a reductionist model. They attempt to break the human body down into its simplest form or parts. They study cells, tissues, organs, biochemical pathways etc…separately. Each is its own branch of science. Medicine asks the question is the body producing too much or too little of a something. Further, they ask if there is a chemical they can add to the body or something they can remove surgically so that homeostasis can return?

Chiropractors teach that the human body is a self-healing and self-regulating “organism” and certainly more than the sum of our collective parts. Our organs, tissues, cells and emotions all interact dynamically to create a living and thriving being. How can we attempt to reduce a creature so advanced into a double blind randomized control trial? We absolutely cannot! To do so ignores the essence of human existence and our position atop the animal kingdom. We are capable of emotions and complex thought. We can conceptualize time and space. No other creature can do so. Humans belong in a holistic model for the very nature of holism considers the dynamic interaction of the three facets of health: structure, biochemistry and emotions. Structure includes our cells, organs, bones, muscles, tissues and the nervous system. Biochemistry includes chemical reactions, toxicity, the food we eat and the air we breathe. Emotions include our thoughts, stressors, and “head chatter” the 2500 words per minute which streams through our conscious brain telling us who we are and what we are capable of. One system cannot function independently of the other. When each system works synergistically with the other, without disturbance, vitality exists and the body can thrive.

What happens when one of the three branches of human health becomes stressed (structure, chemistry or emotions)? Do you think it has a direct affect on another system? Absolutely! An EMPHATIC YES! Is it possible that emotional stress in the body can have a deleterious effect on the body and compromise the structure of the musculoskeletal system? You bet! Often this manifests as pain. The medical profession puts a band-aid on the pain metaphorically. They cover up said pain with anti-inflammatory pills, pain killers and life numbing, life robbing drugs. The root of the problem was emotional stress however for this example! The drugs yank the batteries out of the smoke detector and make the patient believe nothing is wrong! Meanwhile, the house is still on fire! Any surprise why the pain keeps returning? The diagnosis was blown! The emotional stress was the real cause of the problem. Do emotions affect biochemistry in the body? Has anyone ever made you so mad that it felt like your blood was boiling? Does this raise your blood pressure? SURE! If an individual lives in a chronic state of emotional overdrive, is it likely they will have high blood pressure? YES!

Pain is NOT your problem! It is the title of this article and it is the fundamental answer to the confusion and frustration regarding the pandemic of chronic pain in this country. Pain is NOT the problem. Pain is a symptom and an invaluable protective mechanism built within your body to prevent further damage from occurring. Pain makes up a small percentage of the nervous system, roughly 10%. The other functions of the nervous system work silently and thanklessly. Pain is a warning to listen up because the health of the body is threatened. Because of the societal demand for productivity, we are trained to ignore pain, or to numb it so that we can continue to press forward. Our mothers, fathers, teachers, preachers, coaches, and big pharmacy have always taught us to “shake it off, don’t worry about it, walk it off, don’t rub it, be tough,” etc…

Here is a little secret, *whisper* we were LIED to! Who told us to question the origin of our aches and pains? We were never taught to be sensory acute to our bodies. At this point you might believe aches and pains normally appear out of the blue sky. Absolutely not! They only seem like random occurrences for the externally driven person. The external person is the eternal victim. This is the “why me” type of person; the person who blames bad luck, bad germs and bad genes on their circumstances and their health. The way we feel on the outside is a mirror image of what is happening to us on the inside. Aches and pains are warning signals. They are progressive sirens that will get louder and louder the longer you ignore them. We should train our kids to appreciate what pain means and to value the role of the nervous system in the body so they grow up to be internally driven. This would help to eliminate the problem of chronic and unexplainable pain. When you start living internally and taking action towards your own health, we better comprehend how everything in life is an outcome of our efforts and investment. Positive or negative. If you are a person suffering from chronic pain, I will guarantee that you have been poorly educated in regards to a proper diet, effective exercise routine and the impact that emotions have on physical health. Or you might struggle with implementation. You have likely never taken much responsibility for your own health. You have never recognized the root of your problems because you have lived externally up until today and nobody told you. Because I care about you so much and you deserve to express life optimally, start challenging yourself now. Take massive action!

Pain is your wake up call. Pain demands that you change your life and take control. You will be forced to change your behavior and environment as you work to isolate the “why.” “Why” is the pain there in the first place? As you go through the process, you deepen your understanding of health to a point that it cannot contract to its original size. It is not possible to unring a bell! The more you take action and embrace the process, the stronger and more internally driven you become. This leads to knowledge. Knowledge and experience together lead to personal power!

The investment in your own health and in chiropractic care is a proactive and preventative action. By taking such extraordinary action and shifting your paradigm of health, you break free from an outdated belief system that has not been serving you. When you join a gym and they give you a membership card, does it come with a guarantee that you will get leaner and stronger by joining? Of course great looks and a clean bill of health not guaranteed. Their is an investment of your energy and effort required. No different than life, you must show up, sweat and participate! Keep this in mind. In life you are either the “observed” or the “observer.” Observed people live internally and consciously. Each and every patient in my office pays cash for their care for this reason. Practice members at Transformation Chiropractic choose to live optimally for as long as possible because they value life. My educated patients appreciate that they must be committed to their health and to their treatment plan to get the most out of care. They enjoy the journey that is wellness. There is no pinnacle to wellness or point where you have “made it.” As long as you remain on the journey, the value and results last. The only absolute destination in life is death. Human potential is how we choose to utilize the interim. When we hold ourselves accountable to achieving said potential and we choose to live internally, this is our free will!

Dr. Shaun Stuto is a missoula chiropractor and owner/founder of Transformation Chiropractic. Transformation Chiropractic is a chiropractic wellness center in downtown Missoula, Montana. Visit our site today and learn more about how you can start creating a life of abundant health.

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