Understanding Pain and Symptoms. Getting To The Root Of The Problem.

Our bodies are amazingly complex.

If they are working properly then we will function properly – at 100%. This optimal function means we won’t have any symptoms.

Unfortunately for most of us, we’re almost never at 100% optimal.

If we have a problem, some dysfunctional part, then most often we don’t know about it until the problem grows to the proverbial point where the camel’s back or our own can no longer work well enough… and it let’s us know.

Chiropractors look for these dysfunctions in order to improve them as early as possible in the process.

Ideally before developing chronic problems.

Many people don’t realize the problems are worsening over time though leading to progressively more dysfunction and damage.

This is the case for many of the chronic problems that so many people experience on a daily basis.

These problems slowly built over a period of time until they became big enough that our bodies began telling us about them.

Of course, we can have a major trauma and suddenly have injury and symptoms.

Things like a motor vehicle collision, a fall, or a sports injury can cause major injuries and a lot of pain for people.

In either case though, with a sudden trauma or a slowly building chronic problem, symptoms like pain aren’t actually the real problem.

The way our bodies let us know that something is wrong is through symptoms.

The symptom is designed to get our attention just like the check engine light on our car or the fire alarm in our house.

We understand that the problem isn’t the fire alarm going off in our house.

The real problem is that there is a fire that is putting us, our family, and our home in danger.

We often fail to recognize this when we think about our bodies warning signals.

These warning signals in our bodies are often stiffness, muscle ‘spasms,’ aching, pain, headaches, and many other things.

The strategy most people use is to simply ignore the warning our bodies are giving us or take a medication to cover up the warning without improving the underlying cause of that signal.

This is similar to putting a piece of masking tape over the check engine light or pulling the battery out of the fire alarm in order to eliminate the warning they are trying to give us.

The reason we usually do this is because we have essentially been told through the marketing of so many different medications over the counter and prescription that they will solve your symptom quickly by taking a pill.

This might even be true.

Taking something like ibuprofen or tylenol might help your pain for a few hours.. and undoubtedly you’ve heard about problems with the opiod pain relievers.

These will not fix the cause of that pain though.

The other issue that is alluded to in the video is that the cause of the pain or symptom can be much, much bigger than we realize and leading to many other potentially very serious problems.

The least of the problems might be that something causing back pain may put you at much greater risk of serious injury and really limit your daily activities, sleep, or sports performance.

There is much more to it though and you can find evidence for this through out this Texarkana Health Blog with posts ranging from functional neurology to back pain, neck pain, whiplash, migraines, vertigo, diet, sleep, and a lot more.

Our job as chiropractors is to move you toward this improved function and health as much as possible using conservative care with different types of physical treatment, therapy, rehabilitation, ergonomic and lifestyle recommendations.

These can have a massive, positive impact on not just relieving your pain and symptoms… but improving your health and wellness.