The hardest part of being a “corrective” Chiropractor is the fact that so much of the actual corrective effort is out of our hands. Often do we get into consults and find that patients did well with home care for a while but then fell off. Easy to do when you “feel better”. So let’s review why this isn’t something you should take lightly.
We are “visual” creatures. What we see we pay attention to. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” really means “If I can’t see it/feel it, it ain’t a problem”. That means for most people “pain motivates”, but once that goes away the motive goes with it. The spinal curves are your bodies “suspension” as discussed in the last email, the primary mechanism behind shock absorption under gravity. Without the ability to absorb shock, every step you take is an impact. Steps, running, jumping, etc compound by months…years…decades. Is it any surprise the spine deteriorates when suspension is gone? You honestly think that has much at all to do with genetics? Physics wins..end of debate.
So what is “normal” anyways? I’ve had an Orthopedic doctor say in court that the spinal curves aren’t that big a deal and have genetic variance. I made him look like a fool, had the jury chuckling at the expense of the seasoned Orthopedic doctor as I used child logic to describe the importance and dismiss his ignorance in the subject. In short, the spine is a mathematical marvel based on 30/60/90 degree triangles in order to allow upright posture with the least impact possible. Yet between heavy backpacks, sitting in school desks for 18 years, staring at devices, laptops, sleeping on pillows, cars with bucket seats, the list goes on and on, we have trained our spines into distortion. That distortion is definitely not normal no matter how “common” it is. If you had a lake full of fish with rotting fins you wouldn’t figure oh it’s normal…you’d look for the pollutant!
The lesson here is you can’t be satisfied with abnormal. Abnormal means your spine is more likely than not (if not mathematically certain) to deteriorate faster than it’s designed to. Now if you didn’t know about it, you didn’t know how to fix it, that would be one thing. But as our patients are in one of the estimated 3% of Chiropractic clinics in the world who do “corrective” care, not only that but one who has pioneered this area like very few others creating and educating doctors on the various means and tools of correction like the patented Posture Guardian, it leaves little reason not to do what works.
I realize I laid that all down pretty hard, but as you know that’s what it takes. When you feel better and life is good, motivation doesn’t come easy. I tell someone in acute pain what they need to do, it doesn’t typically take much convincing. But we’re playing the long game here for your spine and therefore your life. I want you all functional in your later years…Wellness for Life. Our moto is “Protect LIFE…Maximize POTENTIAL”, how else can we do that if we don’t play the long game? So let’s get back on it, get focused, and make home care a commitment until “normal” once again….if it’s not already too late.
For those of you that are not patients, let me give you the starting point. Here are the two absolute easiest things you can start today to dramatically improve your posture and reduce the load on your spine.
- The Posture Guardian: Most of the posture correction braces on the market simply don’t work. Amazon is full of cheap devices we call “angel wings”, which are various flavors of a figure 8 or infinity sign of elastic straps. These pull back the shoulder but do nothing for the real problem, the neck, so simply pulling the shoulders back has the net effect of making your head jut further forward. The Posture Guardian is the complete solution; gently pulling forward on the lower neck to improve the curve, gently pulling the shoulders back to align with the ears, then crossing over in the upper lumbar spine to improve extension there as well. Wearing this device for hours every day can make huge changes in your posture in little time. Coupled with Chiropractic adjustments to keep the spine mobilized is really so simple that every Chiropractor should be prescribing it to most of their patients.
- The C-orrect Memory Foam Neck Roll: Pillows are not your friend, they’re making your problems worse. Pillows have made most people side sleepers where we should be sleeping on our backs evenly distributing our weight over the largest surface area possible. The C-orrect neck roll makes that not just possible, but comfortable. Ditch the pillow and start sleeping on this every night, you’ll never go back once you adjust to it.
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