Being Human is Not Covered by Insurance

In the Citizen: 

Chiropractic: When all eyes are on evidence, key stressors get ignored

Published in Tuesday's Citizen.  Enjoy.

In practice, I’ve watched people make a total turnaround with their health. But I’ve also seen others who seemed to stay stuck in a cycle of perpetual stress that undermines their overall well-being.

It’s very hard to watch the folks who can’t seem to catch a break. Their bodies are riddled with the ignored effects of stress. And for the ones who have been on and off the health care merry-go-round, they lose interest in trying anything new.

I also have a beef with the so-called science crowd that's pushing for evidence-based medicine in health care. Insurance companies love this because adjusters can deny folks left and right and not blink an eye.

Statistics may be neat and tidy, but they should not be used to dictate how a practitioner orchestrates care. This is where very sick people stay sick because no one completely studies the many variables that make up a person’s life. Studies are so controlled that no one I’ve met resembles the volunteers in randomized clinical trials.

Researchers pose interesting questions, but they don’t deal with someone who just buried a relative or someone who can’t simply leave work stress at the door. Many life problems creep in and complicate healing. Whether you pay out of pocket or hope insurance shares the cost, insurance language does not make people aware of the very useful integrative approaches available.

The biggest issues I deal with are not back pain and neck injuries. Rather, I am working with people who have put their health on the back burner for much too long while they put the health of others ahead of their own.

But there is no insurance code for being human. So we start where we are, and work through the crying and venting as best as we can. The next step is to come up with a plan.

With chiropractic, the goal is to manually restore joint motion so new reflex patterns can be established within the network of nerves. This is important to health because healing patterns are disrupted by multiple injuries, emotional stresses and chemical damage from diet and the environment.

The other half of the chiropractic equation is to establish healing behaviors. While getting adjusted, the body and mind are more accepting of new habits.

There is a difference between people who find success with their efforts compared to others who seem to stagnate. Folks who understand the extent of damage in their bodies approach the work ahead of them with more patience.

This is where education matters. Understanding that the body reacts to stress in a logical manner helps alleviate anxiety. Knowing that that the healing process includes more than pain relief helps people look more objectively at the multiple factors that are in play.

The final message here is to put your health at the top of the list. Let your chiropractor help you construct a health building plan because your loved ones not only count on you, they want to share life’s joys with you.