Whoever you are, whatever you do for a living, there are events in everyday life that remind you of your profession. For me it was a night out to dinner with Jessi and her family. We had just got done enjoying our meal when the plates where cleared and there was a little mess of sauces dribbled on the table in front of Jessi. She really didn’t notice them at first and I didn’t want her to stick her elbow in it. On that note, I let her know that there was sauce on the table so she wouldn’t use her elbow as a carrot stick and dip it in the “ranch dressing.” Of course, she acknowledged me and she just moved her elbow out of the way, leaving the sauce there to sit dangerously. As we sat there chatting at the table it so happened that she got some sauce on her elbow, I let her know so she wouldn’t get it on her clothes. She cleaned it off with a napkin…still leaving the sauce on the table. It happened again the same exact way except this time after wiping her elbow off she placed the napkin over the sauce to cover it up. Sure enough it happened a third time that she got sauce on her elbow. Finally, after laughing at her, and telling her I was going to write a blog about this, she wiped the sauce off of the table.
I thought to myself, doesn’t matter who we are, we do the same thing with our health every day. In this restaurant example, the sauce is the cause and the sauce on her elbow is the symptom. Maybe that symptom is low back pain, neck pain, sciatica, ear infection, headaches, allergies, digestive problems, etc. I’m not saying symptoms are always bad. They do act as a warning signal telling us to step up our health game. Symptoms also let us know that our body is working correctly, as when it heats up (fever) when trying to kill off an infection.
Even when someone makes you aware of the sauce on your elbow for the first time (as I did for Jessi), your first instinct is to just wipe off the symptoms and ignore the cause. Your second instinct is to cover up the cause with a pill, lotion, or potion. This is exactly what Jessi tried to do by placing the napkin over the sauce. When resorting to doing things in this matter, is the problem still there? Is the symptoms likely getting better or worse? Well, of course it is still there and obviously it is getting worse. Your health is dynamic, you are either moving towards health or disease.
It is not your fault that you address your health in this reactive manner. This is how you were likely taught to deal with health problems. What I mean by this is that if you ever watch TV shows or commercials, listen to radio advertisements, or read (most of) the news this is what you were taught. You finally get to a point where that symptom is driving you crazy enough that you take the pill for that symptom, only to get a side-effect symptom for which there is another pill, until you are taking so many drugs there is no way you are healthy. That’s right, symptom-free but on drugs does not mean you are healthy! The crazy thing is that this may be the worst way to take care of your health.
Health should really be a proactive stance that we work on every day. Health is our most important asset, our health gives us the opportunity to fulfill our goals and live the life we want. Once the sauce fell on the table, Jessi could have wiped up the sauce off. This is the equivalent of taking care of the cause before the symptom presented itself. That is being proactive with your health. Even if it got to the point where she was experiencing a symptom, that is just her body letting her know something is going wrong she can then still clean up to the sauce on the table so the symptoms doesn’t have to appear again. Even more, what if she was so proactive about her health that she never let the sauce fall on the table in the first place? Of course that would make the most sense. She wouldn’t have had an underlying cause and symptoms may have never shown up.
It is important to become aware of your health so you can be proactive about every day. Ryno Family Chiropractic looks forward to starting a health journey with you, taking a proactive stance on your health, and not letting the sauce drip on your table.
