Traffic is the worst! If you’ve recently traveled on I-25 in Northern Colorado, you’ve noticed the obstruction to the flow of vehicles traveling to their destination. When traffic is blocked or obstructed by construction, you can expect a few secondary conditions (symptoms) to develop including:
increased travel times
decreased speeds
higher likelihood of being involved in an accident
frustration
poor gas mileage
What solutions would you propose to remedy this situation? Should we…
Remove all of the cars! While that would certainly eliminate traffic, the whole point of this roadway is for cars to travel on! What other routes would become clogged if we simply re-routed the cars?
Treat the surface of the road to make it faster! Chemically altering the road isn’t going to allow the flow of traffic to be normalized, and think about the SIDE EFFECTS of a chemically altered road surface.
Force everyone to drive at the same speed! What would happen if we force everyone to speed up (stimulate) or force everyone to slow down (inhibit)? The problem is – everyone is in a different vehicle with a different destination and level of compliance. People never follow speed limits!
I think you can see where I’m going with this – the only reasonable solution is… TO REMOVE THE OBSTRUCTION!
The problem has nothing to do with the cars, the people driving them, or the road itself. The problem is that the NORMAL FUNCTION of the road has been compromised. Trying to “treat” the situation by addressing these symptoms of the problem is only going to provide a temporary change at best.
How this applies to your health:
The spine holds inside of it your spinal cord – the main communication highway between your body and your brain. It gives off branches from top to bottom much like I-25 has various exits that allow you to branch off to different areas.
If the structural integrity of your spine becomes compromised, the flow of information between the brain and the body can become obstructed. Much like a traffic jam on I-25, the problem isn’t so much that the spinal cord is damaged or that the nerve signals are bad, but rather that their smooth and timely travel along that corridor is being obstructed.
Now, just like a traffic jam, the effects of obstruction are varied and build up over time. Secondary conditions (a.k.a. symptoms) develop over time including:
neck or back pain
numbness/tingling
poor posture
fatigue and decreased energy
shoulder pain
muscle aches
movement limitations
headaches/migraines
When it comes to addressing these problems, what options do we have?
Cut out the parts that are malfunctioning! While surgery is the best option for some things, I think most reasonable people would be very conservative with what they choose to have removed from their bodies.
Slather ointment on it and call it a day! While certain topical products may provide short-term relief, the problem isn’t going to be fixed this way.
Take a handful of pills and hope for the best! Again, there are situations in which this tool is best suited for the job, but many problems do not begin because you have a deficiency of muscle relaxers. Treating structural problems with chemical solutions is a temporary patch rather than a permanent fix.
Sow hat are we left to do!? The obvious solution, in this case, is to – you guessed it… REMOVE THE OBSTRUCTION!
In fact, my job as your chiropractor has less to do with eliminating your symptoms (problem-focused care) and has more to do with keeping your nerve channels open and freely communicating (patient-centered care).
Yours in good health,
Dr. Jane
