The Importance of Spinal Maintenance

Maintaining your spine could be one of the most significant health investments you could make. The American Institute for Preventative Medicine states that 60 - 80 million Americans or 8 out of 10 people will at some pint suffer from back pain or neck pain. This 22 billion dollar industry could be greatly reduced and our future greatly secured if people would learn the importance of spinal maintenance. Maintaining anything provided longer life and better function with minimal problems. Most importantly, maintenance is more cost effective than correcting problems.

Fundamentally, if you neglect anything that requires maintenance it will develop a problem. Problems develop silently until enough damage occurs to trigger a symptom or crisis. Unfortunately the crisis or symptom may not occur until significant or even permanent damage has occurred.

Take your car as an example. If you never opened the hood of your car to maintain the engine, what would happen? A problem would develop, of course. It would continue to develop until a crisis and symptoms occurred. In cars, we have warning lights that tell us when we have problems so we can correct them before crisis and symptoms occur. If brakes were wearing then, a sensor light would go on to warn us so we could fix the problem before the brakes got into crisis and ruined the metal drum resulting in a grinding, squeaking symptom. In the human body, there is no warning light. Problems develop silently until enough damage accumulates to fire off a symptom. The symptom is the effect of the problem that accumulated over time.

Heart disease is another good example. Eating high fat foods over time, is known to clog arteries. This problem is called heart disease. you do not feel heart disease. You feel the heart attack when enough disease has accumulated. The heart attack is the symptom or the effect of heart disease in the crisis stage.

The spine requires maintenance from birth for maximum nerve integrity and optimum health potential. When neglected, spinal misalignment or subluxation occurs and causes nerve interference which results in tissue and organ dysfunction. The subluxation is a silent problem. Over time, when enough tissue damage or dysfunction occurs, crisis and symptoms result.

Many people go to a chiropractor to correct their back problem (subluxation) yet some do not maintain the corrected spine. That is like never opening the hood of your car again after you had to rebuild the engine because you did not maintain it to began with! Or going back to high fat foods and no exercise after getting a heart attach and a coronary bypass!

Before you can maintain your spine you have to make sure that your spinal subluxations have been corrected. To confirm your correction, make sure your doctor shows you before and after tests (x-ray, s.e.m.g., postural patterns etc..). Symptoms are not the gauge for subluxation correction. If subluxations are not corrected, you will be merely managing a problem rather than maintaining the correction.

M - Maintenance - Optimum Health Potential. The spine should be maintained from birth for maximum nerve integrity & optimum health potential.

P - Problem - Subluxation (Silent). If the spine is not maintained it will develop a problem. Problems develop silently without symptoms.

C - Crisis - Accumulated Damaged Tissue (Symptoms). Over time, when enough damaged tissue accumulates, you will develop a a symptom and possibly permanent damage.

Maintaining your spine is not only smart for your health, it is cost effective.

Maintaining your spine requires three things...

Fluids - Drink plenty of fluids, preferably water, to lubricate the joints. Studies show this lessens arthritis.

Movement - Exercise and stretching on a stable structure will enhance flexibility and mobility. Exercise on an unstable structure could be harmful over time.

Adjustments - Chiropractic adjustments are essential to provide proper alignment for stability, mobility and flexibility. You can not achieve optimum spinal maintenance without chiropractic adjustments.

Start spinal maintenance with your children and maintain your spine throughout your life, so you can insure more optimum function and health potential. Your future will be spent doing the things you love to do rather than battling damage and degeneration.

REFERENCES:

Certainty Practice Products 1996

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