Since I last wrote a column we’ve moved closer to Brexit and as it stands it is still anyone’s guess as to when it will happen. As you read this article the chances are we’ll be out of the world cup (although there is a slim, a very slim chance we will win) long before we’re out of Europe. Results and the timing of events are often uncertain. Life after all is full of uncertainties. We plough through life never knowing what’s around the corner. The news has it that Robbie Williams has just had to leave a burning hotel. I’m sure he didn’t see that coming, although he probably had a good idea his last album was going to bomb.
We have long lived in a binary world full of polarised choices. Good and evil, right and wrong, short and tall, Cagey or Lacey, Ant or Dec. The problem of such black and white thinking is that it can inhibit or blinker our thought processes. It begs the question: Why do binaries rule in a relative world? Is someone totally evil and if so can anyone be totally good? And so it is with backs neither are they totally good or totally bad. Your spine (along with the rest of your body) is the result of everything that has happened to you throughout your life, good, bad and indifferent.
This intermingling of events leads to high levels of uncertainty and varied outcomes and as chiropractors we’re often trying to read between the lines. When a patient enters the room in pain you could say they they’re the end of the story or the closing credits to a movie. What we have to do is rewind the film to piece together the rest, the what happened before. To try to understand the root of the problem the causal factors, the hidden bit. We then have to frame that in the context of the individuals body and their own individual physiological quirks. Everyone’s similar but different. People can be stressed in many different ways and it’s the effect of those stressors on their body that creates disease. The body’s way of telling you this could be anything from raised blood pressure to back pain or headaches.
Just as a starting point try to reduce your intake of sugar; aim to eat nutrient dense foods (i.e. unprocessed); exercise; don’t smoke and reduce your alcohol consumption. Cutting down rid on the biggest environmental stressors on the body, you’ll be surprised how much better your body performs and feels.
Now a quick quiz question. Name 11 body parts only three letters long . Go!