Today we're talking about a common mis-perception when it comes to health, and that's that having symptoms means that we're sick, and that having no symptoms means that we are well.
The truth is many people die every single year who are symptom free. We've all known people who felt good one day and were diagnosed with a serious illness the next. So using our symptoms as the criteria for whether we are healthy or sick can be not only a pitfall, but it can be dangerous.
So let's talk about what symptoms are.
Symptoms fall within three categories, and they are really all part of the same process, and that's the body reaching an outer limit of what it can handle, an outer limit of what it's able to adapt to, and those symptoms fall within those three categories I mentioned.
The first one is adaptability. So if our immune system is suppressed and our body needs to counteract that or bring it back into balance, one of the mechanisms it elicits is a fever. So a fever is not the problem. It's actually the cure. It's the body's way and attempt to heal itself, to bring it back into a state of homeostasis.
The second one, or the second symptom, is a sign of change. So if you're out in the sun for too long, your skin begins to burn and that sensation, that symptom is a message to you to move out of the sun.
The third symptom is a sign of crisis, and the problem and the challenge is that some of the symptoms fall within the same category. So fever could be a sign of adaptation, but it could also be a sign of a serious illness or a serious crisis that's happening in the body.
The challenge is this, if we use our symptoms to tell us when we need to have care, when we need to take care of ourselves, we're going to put ourselves in a precarious position.
So the real solution is simple. It's to take care of ourselves.
It's to maximize our health. It's to fuel our body properly. It's to move properly. It's to make sure that the brain communicates with the body, that you see your chiropractor to make sure your nervous system is healthy.
The whole point and the purpose of your chiropractic care specifically is to increase your body's adaptability, to increase your body's ability to
handle stress so that the body doesn't reach those outer limits at the same rate, or at the same time, as it would if the nervous system didn't work as well.
So the point is this, trust your body, understand that your body is smart and knows what it's doing; work towards helping your body, optimizing your body, and, of course, the role of medical care is to intervene when there is a crisis, and that's a wonderful time for medical care.
Until next time, remember, you have to live it to lead it.