The Tribune

By SUSAN DONALD, DC

I BELIEVE people confuse healthcare with sickness care. These two are not the same.

The sickness care is the idea that if I feel fine, I must be fine. This may be true or not. What about the guy who has never been sick, but drops dead of a heart attack at the age of 40?

Was he really healthy? I don’t think so. To make matters worse, let’s consider the individual who knows he has poor health, but believes he is too busy to take the proper steps to correct it. Another sign of sickness care is the masking of symptoms with medication. The problem with this approach is it rarely looks to the actual cause of the problem. If the root cause is not removed, the problem will persist and continue to deteriorate your health even if you don’t feel it.

This concept is absolutely true when come to spinal conditions.

Most spinal problems begin early in life with minor injuries that were never properly treated. Treatment is usually neglected because the symptoms or pain disappears after a short period of time. Unfortunately pain is a poor indicator as to whether or not there is a problem in the spine.

You don’t feel a cavity in your tooth until it grows and completely destroys your tooth, then is becomes painful. But the majority of you see a dentist twice a year so that won’t happen.

That is what you should do with your spine. Get it checked a least twice a year. That is what healthcare is.

You don’t know haw many time people come to the office with intense pain somewhere in their spine. After questioning, it becomes clear that they have had similar pain, but not as intense or after reviewing the X-ray I realise that it is a neglected old injury.

This is seen all too often because most people believe that if it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t exist. It’s a classic case of sickness care.

At some point we must be proactive when it comes to our health. We need to realise that our current state of health is a reflection of our past decisions and actions.

When we fail to maintain our spine you should not be surprised when our spine shows failure and begins to break down. Your spine is an important part of your life, don’t take it for granted choose health care for it. It is the best decision for a flexible and pain free life.