From the moment that we are born until our last breath, health is ultimately our responsibility. Along this journey called life, we have lots of decisions to make in regard to our health and well-being. Today, information is readily available to us via the internet. Some of this information is good and some of it is not. But when it is all said and done, what we put in our bodies, whether it is a pill, a vitamin, water, or fast food… those decisions ultimately leads back to how we were educated on the topic of health. And this education is never-ending.
I was fortunate that I grew up in a naturopathic household. Our parents tried to feed us good nutritious food, we only drank purified water and if we did eat fast food, it was a rarity. We also took good care of our bodies by getting in moderate exercise, spending a lot of time outdoors, and listening to our bodies when they are not well.
Too many times in today’s society, we seek the easy answer, the quick fix, or the get-rich scheme. However, in regards to your health, it is not possible to go through life abusing your body, giving it crappy nutrients, and then when it breaks down go to your doctor and say “Fix Me.” Good health starts early and continues until we die. How our last years of life will be is determined by the choices we make today.
In 1895, Daniel Palmer made the discovery that when there is a misalignment of the spine, this can cause interference to the nervous system. This discovery led to the chiropractic profession. However, chiropractors were not the first practitioners to utilize adjustments to the spine in order to help improve health. There is anecdotal evidence that the ancient Greeks used manipulation of the spine as part of their treatment practices over 2000 years ago.
Today the chiropractic lifestyle encompasses many components of living a healthy life. The chiropractic lifestyle recognizes that food is the best medicine and that a well-functioning nervous system is one of the key components of health. Chiropractors do not ignore the components of rest, exercises, and good hydration along with nutritional support.
What is the chiropractic lifestyle?
To me, the chiropractic lifestyle is simply the living of life with as few outside interferences as possible. There are 6 components to the chiropractic lifestyle. Nutrition, hydration, rest, exercise, positive thinking, and chiropractic adjustments. Other essential factors are gratitude, educating ourselves on health and wellness, avoiding those things that make us sick, and avoiding putting dangerous chemicals into our bodies.
Nutrition: This is probably one of the most important components of living a healthy life. If we eat crap our whole lives, then our bodies cannot rebuild the muscles, skin, blood vessels, etc and our bodies start to break down. Good nutrition is making sure we have all of the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to metabolize and rebuild. Eating fruits, vegetables, raw foods, and fresh foods, and avoiding processed foods are some of the keys to good nutrition. Of course, there is more than the above, and books have been written on the subject. But the basics are fairly well covered above.
Hydration: Water is the key to life. We can go for 40 days without eating but cannot survive for more than a few days without water. However, today’s water is not as clean as in years past. Today, there is a lot of good technology to help bring clean drinking water to our chemical free. Our office has invested in a state-of-the-art water purification system, which we make available to our patients.
Rest: If we do not rest our bodies, then our bodies do not have a chance to heal. Rest is vital to a well-functioning body. It is recommended that we get 8 hours of sleep each night.
Exercise: Exercise is a vital key in a lot of ways. It helps us to keep our weight at good levels, it helps to elevate our heart rate which helps to exercise the heart and it provides our bodies with the needed endurance of working or playing for long periods at a time. Exercise does not need to be long and drawn out. Exercise can be brief, but it needs to be consistent.
Positive thinking: Positive thinking is important because what we focus on will manifest in our lives. If we talk about being sick and tired a lot, then we are going to be sick and tired a lot. If we have good self-talk about being alive, active, and healthy, then these will manifest in our lives as well. Another important component of positive thinking is not listening to others when they talk negatively. This negativity will not lead to you having better health. Do not listen to those who are negative, but rather adopt a positive thinking attitude.
Chiropractic Adjustments: Based on Palmer’s findings in 1895 and the subsequent 128 years of treatment to patients and research, it is clear that chiropractic adjustments can and do make a difference in our health and well-being. This is why many of the top professional athletes utilize a chiropractor as part of their health program. This is also why patients in our practice do so well with their overall health. When the body is moving the way nature intended it to move and the interference to the nervous system is minimized, good health is possible.
The bottom line is that it is important to make the right health choices in your life. Our doctors have many years of experience and love to talk to patients about wellness and preventative care. We love it when a patient wants to take charge of their own health and utilize our years of experience in that quest. We often say in the office that we do not heal anyone, but that the body heals and it heals at the greatest speed when there is little to no interference to that healing.
If you would like to adopt the chiropractic lifestyle, give us a call and we would be happy to speak with you about this.