This past weekend I was inspired to write a blog on the "expression of health". It is a concept that we as Chiropractors try to instill in our patients/practice members daily. It is a concept that some find to be challenging when it comes to what they have traditionally been taught as "health" by the "sick-care" system of this country. A concept that when viewed from an open-minded perspective makes perfect sense.
My inspiration began when I flew from Jacksonville to Philadelphia for a close friends' wedding. While on the plane I decided for once to not have my headphones in and just take in through my senses the environment I was in. It amazed me to see how many people were "expressing health". There was sneezing, coughing, throat clearing, etc. from left, right, front, and back! This was just the beginning of my exposure to what most would view as excessive exposure to "sickness".
I was picked up by some fellow colleagues from the Philadelphia airport and we took a roadtrip to Cape Cod where the wedding was held. The trip took around 8 hours. While on the road we began noticing that one of our Chiropractor friends was beginning to "express health" with what seemed like the "flu". The rest of us continued to be exposed to this for the duration of the weekend, including the 8 hour trip back to Philadelphia. It was enough exposure to get someone "sick" but why were none of us beginning to get "sick"? The answer is simple. We were interference free, furthermore, our nervous systems were functioning optimally which in turn allowed our immune systems to function optimally.
In a situation like this it is common for people, when they begin to "express their health" as nature intended, to suppress their "symptoms" with chemical poison. Imagine this concept, we go camping and are in need of drinking water, what do we do? We go down to the nearest stream and collect some water. We then boil the water to kill the bacteria that may have been in that water. Wouldn't it be an amazing concept if the human body were to do the same when a foreign substance (ie. bacteria/virus) were in our system? Oh wait...it does carry out this natural process. But traditionally we try to suppress this by taking medicine to bring that fever down. The human frame is an amazing thing embedded with processes that were intended for survival, processes that need no help just no interference.
According to Dorland's Medical Dictionary, Health is defined as: "a relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one is living. Current views of health and illness recognize health as more than the absence of disease. Realizing that humans are dynamic beings whose state of health can change from day to day or even from hour to hour, most authorities feel it is better to think of each person as being on a graduated scale or continuum ranging from obvious dire illness through the absence of evident disease to a state of optimal functioning in every aspect of one's life."
To add to Dorland's definition, it is a scientific fact that the nervous system controls every cell, tissue, organ, and system in the human body. The "expression of health" is a natural process that was embedded by a higher being to protect us from harm. It should not be viewed as "sickness" but rather an "expression of health" that is telling us that something is interfering with the nervous systems communication between the brain and body and vice versa.
Let's face it, every day you and I face physical, chemical and emotional stresses. The quality of our lives is based on how well we adapt, overcome and rise above them. I propose that we go through, rather than around. That we use natural, rather than artifical. That we revitalize, rather than numb. That we release, rather than control. That is what Chiropractic is about, allowing what nature intended rather than interfering.
