Last night, after my class on menopause, I had an interesting and disconcerting conversation with a woman. She was in her mid 40′s and told me she was considering having a bilateral mastectomy. I naturally thought this poor lady had been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. However, I was wrong. She was actually considering having both of her breasts removed for prevention. She had a family history of grandmother, mother and sisters having breast cancer. While up to now she had completely normal mammography studies and absolutely no lumps upon self examination, she was still seriously considering having this normal tissue removed. Her fear of cancer was just this strong.
No this is not a blog about my house, but my house makes for a pretty good analogy when I talk about chiropractic. Since 3 of us in the clinic are chiropractors I wanted to spend some time talking about how chiropractic fits in with everything we do at Team Health Care.
I love food. It is one of my favorite subjects. I love eating, shopping for and preparing it. But it has to be REAL food. Good, clean, natural, whole. Because Americans have become accustomed to a fast and processed food diet, I’d venture to say many people have never been exposed to a steady diet of pure, clean, unprocessed food.
Who is responsible for your health, you or your doctor? How you answer that question boils down to your philosophy of health. If you take an active role in educating yourself about wellness, lifestyle, and disease prevention, you will probably answer, “I am responsible for my own health.” If your philosophy is based on the “sick care” model, you may lean towards relying on your doctor. When illness or disease strikes, you go to your doctor for relief, oftentimes in the form of some prescription drug. You trust the doctor is making an educated judgment on how to “fix” the problem.
Anyone who has had to suffer (as I jokingly put it) through my classes knows I always ask this question. How we answer dictates how we take care of ourselves. Answering this question properly not only has an effect on our personal health, but on the whole health care industry. In other words, it could save us money AND save our lives.
Sally had been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. While chiropractic was helping to relieve her low back pain, she was still having strong muscular aches and fatigue. After attending a seminar on nutrition, I suspected she might be low on Vitamin D and decided to have her take some while I ordered a blood test to check her levels. She was actually feeling better by the time the results came in, and remarked that she hadn’t “felt this good in 10 years.” The pain was gone and her energy had notably improved.
