Why should I come in if I don’t hurt? – April 2002

Taking Control of Your Health

The Stern Chiropractic Newsletter

Featured Topic: WHY SHOULD I COME IN IF I DON’T HURT?
Referral Corner:
The Greatest Compliment my Patients Can Give is the Referral of Their Friends and Loved Ones. Thank You For Your Trust. This month, I would like to thank the following people for their trust: The Opper Family, Debbie Stern and Scott Fishkin.

Charity Corner:
Stern Chiropractic is collecting donations for The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A matching contribution up to $500 will be made by Stern Chiropractic. Please join me in helping to find a cure.

Topic of the Month : WHY SHOULD I COME IN IF I DON’T HURT?

For proper preventative care dentists suggest that you come in twice a year for check-ups, auto mechanics recommend that your car get a lube and oil every 3,000 miles & Eastern culture suggests that health be maintained by balancing your Qi (life force) with acupuncture 4 times a year with the change of seasons. I recommend that you have your meridians balanced with the change of season and/or come in for your chiropractic check-up and wellness care every 1-4 months (depending on your health and condition of your body).

The principles of Holistic Health state that health is more than just not being sick. A common explanation is to view wellness as a continuum. The spectrum represents all possible degrees of health. The far left end represents premature death. The far right end is optimal health. The center point of the continuum represents a lack of apparent disease (no symptoms). This places all levels of illness on the left half of the wellness continuum. The closer you get to the right end of the spectrum the higher you level of physical, mental and emotional performance will be both at work and play. Something else to consider is that just because there are no symptoms, does not mean that nothing is wrong. For instance, the first symptom in many heart attacks is death. Frequently, the first symptom of high blood pressure is not noticed until irreversible changes have occurred in the cardiovascular system. The same thing applies to the majority of the cases of low back pain. I frequently get calls that sound like this: “Hey Doc, I just rolled out of bed this morning and my back is killing me and I have pain in my leg and foot.” Most low back pain is not due to one traumatic injury causing a disc herniation. Most low back problems, problems with muscles and joints, and much of the damage caused by internal disease, is due to repetitive micro-trauma. This means that you continually perform certain activities with some sort of muscle, joint or organ dysfunction that you are not aware of.

Why Doesn’t It Hurt When Something is Wrong?

Your body is an amazing machine that has a great ability to compensate for dysfunction. Picture a big bucket inside your body that is filled with your body’s resources. The bucket starts out full but empties in response to illnesses and injuries, such as being delivered through the birth canal, falling numerous times as a child, having few common childhood illnesses, get in auto accidents, … (you get the picture). Your body was doing a great job of covering up all these accumulated dysfunctions, because we know that you did not get treated each time one of these things happened. Instead you just waited until it stopped hurting then you figured it was “all better”. But, in fact, it was not better. Your body was just compensating for the dysfunction.

When Do I Start To Know Something is Wrong?

Every case is different, but as more things happen and your bucket empties, you are less likely to be able to compensate without some pain or discomfort. For instance, I always ask the person who “just rolled out of bed and has back pain”, “Did you recently have a cold? Are your allergies flaring up? Etc.” The answer is usually “yes”. This or another insult was the “final straw that broke the camel’s back” and emptied the bucket. Now the resources had to be pulled from the “Weakest Link”. In the case of this example, it was the person’s low back.

What Can I Do To Prevent This?

The answer is take care of yourself and put a little effort into making sure you will be healthy enough to do all the things you want to do later in life. All the current trends are focusing on maintaining health. At Stern Chiropractic, all my patients receive lifestyle, ergonomic, nutritional and exercise counseling, along with evaluation of current vitamins and supplements and recommendations, by a trained physician, about what they should be taking and doing. By getting regular chiropractic and acupuncture care, along with making appropriate lifestyle changes, you can restore resources to your bucket and decrease/slow down the degeneration that would otherwise occur.

Please feel free to call or email me with questions. I am always happy to share what I know with you and I would be happy to provide a FREE in office consultation by appointment.

Products of the Month : Co-Enzyme Q10 (CoQ10)

Good health starts with good nutrition. I highly recommend that almost everyone take a good multi-vitamin and additional antioxidants. I recommend different antioxidants for different purposes. One of these Antioxidants is CoQ10. CoQ10 is crucial to every cell of the body because it makes ATP molecules (the energy the body runs on). Studies show that CoQ10 improves angina, arrhythmias, left ventricular dysfunction and high blood pressure. It can reduce your risk for heart attacks and congestive heart failure. Certain drugs such as cholesterol lowering drugs, antidepressants, blood-pressure medications and diabetic medications deplete your body of CoQ10 and probably suggest a need for additional supplementation.

I hope this information helps you take control of your health and your life! If you have any questions, feedback or have any suggestions for future topics, please call or email me.

If you know someone who would be interested in receiving this newsletter, if you would like to receive this newsletter via email, or if you would prefer to no longer receive this newsletter, please let me know.

Don’t forget the importance of maintaining your health with regular chiropractic and acupuncture care.

Sincerely,

Gregg Stern, D.C., FICPA