A Chiropractor's Confession

For years, people of all ages from all walks of life have consulted my office for help with a variety of health conditions: headaches, back pain, numbness in extremities, fibromyalgia, etc. However, I have a confession to make. I haven't healed a single one. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Yet I have patients say to me all the time "Thanks, doc! You healed me! I feel great!" I humbly accept their gratitude, but in the back of my mind I know that there is absolutely no way I healed their condition.

Now before you assume that I am merely being modest, let me explain what I mean. It is NOT my job to heal the patient. In fact, it is not even possible. Only patients can heal themselves. However, when the cause of the problem involves the nervous system because its function is being compromised by vertebral subluxations, then chiropractic care can go a long way in removing the interference so the body can heal itself. I could adjust a corpse all day long but nothing is likely to happen (outside some cheesy sci-fi flick). Without the ability to heal, no treatment works. Ever. Of course, we help all sorts of folks in our office regain their health, and they are as grateful for the help as were are to provide it. However, we are only allowing them to tap into what they already have, by helping their bodies function the way they were designed to function! Simple, isn't it?

ILet me give you a simple scenario and apply a similar principle, albeit from a slightly different angle. Picture yourself out on the deck experiencing a beautiful spring day. The iced tea is cold, the sun is warm, and your Ipod is providing a fitting soundtrack for the perfect day. Unfortunately, when you get up off your towel to answer an ill-timed phone call (probably a telemarketer anyways), you get a sliver shoved deep into the end of your finger.

Ouch.

Your body is experiencing pain. What a horrible sensation. Or is it?

Without pain, you would not be aware of this little foreign invader, but this pain is putting a big damper on the enjoyment of your spring day. Luckily, you have some Vicodin left over after that bad ankle sprain last year that you've been meaning to get rid of, so why not kill two birds with one stone? A few pills and a band-aid later, the pain fades into the background, hardly noticeable, but as luck would have it, it came back the next morning. But you're out of Vicodins. You could go and get some more pain pills or, better yet, go to a pain clinic and get an injection or a nerve block. Problem solved, right? The pain is gone. Life is good again.

Until the injection wears off. Then what? More pills. More injections. But every time the pill or shot wears off, that pain comes back again. You have consultations with experts that have lots of letters after their names. They order tests with even more letters, which are interpreted by more experts who prescribe even more medications. Now they recommend invasive surgery, to cut the nerve to your finger, or fuse the joints, rendering the finger useless, but they think it might decrease the pain. You don't know what to do. Now you're not sleeping. You toss and turn. So you end up on sleeping pills. Sooner or later, some people start to hint that maybe that sliver isn't even there! This causes anxiety. Xanax to the rescue! But now you can't think straight and your quarterly evaluation was less than stellar and your boss is "concerned." Your stress and lack of motivation (in addition to the side effects of the steroid shots) have caused considerable weight gain. None of your clothes fit. Now, you're depressed. Sure, you have less pain but at what cost? Are you any better off than when you started?

Of course not, because you still haven't dealt with the CAUSE of your problem. The splinter is still there. Every single treatment you have tried has done nothing but attempt to cover up the problem. Where has it gotten you? Depressed, anxious, sleep deprived, overweight, stressed, and much lighter in the wallet.

I know what you're thinking. No one in their right mind would be dumb enough to let someone treat their finger that way. Maybe not. But it happens with the spine. Every single day. I meet people all the time that have been through that exact same scenario. Just replace the word sliver with a spinal misalignment, aka subluxation. These people never had long term success with their spine problems because no one ever bothered to treat the CAUSE. They were too busy trying to dull the SYMPTOMS.

As I said before, Doctors of Chiropractic will never claim to heal you. In addition, we will not merely treat you like a symptom and act to merely dull your pain or be just another Band-Aid. But what I can promise you is that this profession has worked tirelessly to help people achieve better health through chiropractic. You will only get better if you address the cause of your problem. If you have been spinning your wheels with the same old pills and potions and getting the same results, you might want to consider adding a chiropractor to your health care team.