PhilosophyPhilosophyPhilosophyWhile the word "philosophy" may bring to mind ancient Greeks or bearded scholars in dusty libraries, the philosophy of health is a vibrant study that influences how we live. It helps us make critical choices about how we treat our bodies.
Too often, people respond to every symptom by gulping down pills to alleviate the discomfort. When they catch a cold, they buy an over-the- counter remedy from the drugstore. When they feel tired, they take pills to stay awake and when they want to sleep, there's a pill to take for that, too. There's a bottle of pills to combat headaches and another for irregularity and still another for diarrhea. If you have a symptom, the drug companies have a remedy. The message to the consumer is, whatever is wrong, just pop a pill and you'll be fine. We call this the mechanistic "Medical Philosophy of Disease."
Every one of us has symptoms from time to time. When something goes wrong in the body, we get a rash, feel pain or experience discomfort in one of a hundred ways. The body's warning system is at work. Like the red lights on your car dashboard or a screeching smoke alarm, symptoms tell you it's time to check something in your internal machinery. For the followers of the Medical Philosophy of Disease, these warnings are treated by attempting to fix the symptoms and not the cause. These people believe something from the outside will change something on the inside. That state of mind is dangerous to one's health.
Let's go back to our warning system analogy. Say the oil light comes on. What are you going to do? Pull into your nearest gas station and put a quart of oil in the engine or are you going to disconnect the light so you won't see it? What are you going to do when the smoke alarm comes on? Just pull out the battery and go back to bed? The logical answer doesn't require much thought. Back to your body. If you get a pain in your head, are you going to check out the cause and correct it? Or are you going to take a pain killer and assume the problem is gone because the symptom has been alleviated? Are headaches the result of an aspirin shortage in your body?
When you realize your body is somewhat similar to a machine, then it's obvious what the answer has to be. You recognize the need to fix the internal mechanism so the machine is working well again. That's the vitalistic Philosophy of Health. It's the belief that health comes from within. A properly functioning body can do everything naturally that pills attempt to do chemically. Your body is its own greatest pharmacy. Furthermore, the body knows when to heal, how to heal and when to stop healing and go back on maintenance.
If you cut your hand, what would you do? Of course, you'd clean the cut, apply a topical antibacterial cream and bandage the wound to keep it clean while it's healing. So far, so good. But these are external treatments. What would you suggest your body do internally? Would you have to have your tissues swell to cut off the blood flow to the cut? How about sending special chemicals to the area so the blood will clot? Would you remember to send extra white blood cells to prevent infection?
The fact is, if you had to stop and try to remember all these steps, your hand would fall off before you figured out how to heal it. Fortunately, your innate intelligence knows how to heal this kind of wound. It also knows what to do when you get a cold, hurt your back, get a headache or have an allergic reaction.
The purpose of health care should be to allow the body's wisdom to do the healing without interfering with this process. When you use chemicals or surgical procedures at the outset, you interfere with your body's intelligenceand interfere with the healing functions before you know if your body's wisdom is adequate to correct the problem.
Chiropractic philosophy begins with the premise that there is an order to the universe. Nothing is random or meaningless in our world. There is a reason for everything. Granted, we may not always recognize that reason, let alone understand it, but we can be certain that nothing occurs by chance or "just happens."
We know that there is an intelligent order to the universe. A guiding force exists in all living matter, and most definitely in human beings. It's only because of this intelligence that we can continue to exist and operate in this world. Without it, our planet would be a shapeless pile of rocks and debris. Plants wouldn't know how to grow. The animals wouldn't know how to breed and replenish their species. Birds wouldn't know how to fly or fish how to swim.
Now, this premise isn't a matter of blind faith or religious faith on the part of scientists, philosophers and chiropractors. It's based on physical evidence seen in the real world.
Look around you! Can everything in the universe be the result of random selection or luck? Why is a bird's wing perfectly designed for flight, right down to the tiniest pinfeather? Does it just happen that a plant's roots travel downward into the ground and its leaves grow upward? If the universe were really random, at least some plants would send their roots straight up and bury their leaves in the soil. The sun would only come up on random days and it would be difficult to be certain of anything occurring again.
To think the universe is operating without any intelligent plan is like thinking that the Great Sphinx of Egypt was the result of an accidental rock slide!
This inborn intelligence or ability of the body to heal itself is the foundation of what chiropractic does. Doctors of chiropractic detect and help the body correct interference with the transmission of this inborn intelligence that is transmitted through the nerves. Without normal expression of the body's ability to keep itself healthy, wellness is not possible.
Chiropractic is not an alternative therapy. Rather, chiropractic represents a separate, distinct, and necessary element in everyone's quest for health.
We do not diagnose disease or treat your ailments. Our purpose is not to suppress your symptoms or cure your illnesses. However, we are going to give you the most important help possible -- a subluxation-free spine. Without interference, your body will be free to do the rest!
Each living organism is created with the knowledge of what it must do to survive and thrive. And because of that fact, we can say the best "physicians" in the universe are the patients themselves -- the human body has an innate intelligence which keeps it constantly striving to achieve better health. Allowed to work without interference, it will reach and maintain its highest possible level of function.
Your health depends on a good nerve supply -- and our job is to eliminate interference to that supply.
Adapted from "Chiropractic: Compassion and Expectation" by T.A. Rondberg, D.C. & T.J. Feuling, 1998, The Chiropractic Journal, http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org
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