Written by Dr. Milan Lassiter, Chiropractor, 1303 W. Main St, Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 254-5765
This is a follow-up to the previous blog (click to read it), Forks in the Road; Choices of Two Friends. The synopsis of the previous blog is that if you’re making bad decisions in one area with your health choices, you’re probably making bad decisions in many areas, which can lead to dire consequences down the road for your health and life-style.
People who go to chiropractors are often proactive with their health in many ways. They’re more likely to seek out information about their health, have active lifestyles, be more careful and mindful about what they eat, dislike taking medication (unless their life depends upon it), and be more sensitive to what’s going on with their body. Chiropractic care is part of a lifestyle…it won’t give you good health on it’s own. You can’t go to the chiropractor and expect it, in and of itself, to give you good health, if you’re also smoking cigarettes, eating fast food all the time, and never exercising. The funny thing is that you’ll notice that people who go to chiropractors usually have very active lifestyles, make conscious decisions about what they eat, don’t like taking medications, and are much more likely to preventatively take natural supplements.
Chiropractors have a simple health philosophy:
It’s more simple and logical to maintain your health, while you’re healthy, than to let your body break down and then treat the problem or symptoms.
Now, I know that people get sick and they get diseases…and I certainly wouldn’t tell someone to stop taking their high blood pressure meds or to forgo their medical treatments for diabetes or cancer. But there are a lot of proactive things that we can do to keep ourselves healthier and prevent sickness. Even the medical literature shows that many of the things that lead to a higher risk for health problems are related to lifestyle choices that are directly under our control (ie: lack of exercise, bad diets, too much sugar, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking cigarettes, lack of hydration with water, gaining too much weight, etc.). There are also risk factors for health problems that are not related to lifestyle choices, such as genetics, family history, gender and race, or unknown environmental exposure. The point is, there are plenty of things that are directly under our control through the choices that we make everyday. If you’ve been making poor choices, it’s never too late to make better choices or to change some of the things that we do on “auto-pilot.”
Chiropractic care keeps your body moving well, so that there’s not so much “arthritis” and stiffness that typically develops as we age. Chiropractic care enhances performance and prevents injuries in athletes. Many people describe a certain “vibrancy” after a chiropractic adjustment. This happens because there is a lot of increased stimulation to the body with a chiropractic adjustment (ie: increased dilation of blood vessels, increased oxygen around the body, improved nerve receptor stimulation). Ultimately, chiropractic care influences the way your nervous system functions (chiropractors adjust the spine, and your spine surrounds and is attached to your nervous system). Since your nervous system controls everything that happens in your body, there can be many changes in your body that happen with chiropractic care.
Chiropractic care is an important part of a proactive, healthy lifestyle. Most people come into my office for pain relief, but if they’re conscious about their health, they periodically continue with their chiropractic care with a proactive “tune-up” to enhance their health…this is no different than trying to eat more consistently with healthy, natural foods or working at maintaining a regular exercise program. All these things are about having a better quality of life by attaining a better quality of health.
Dr. Milan Lassiter, Chiropractor, 1303 W. Main St, Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 254-5765
