I find that people always maintain what's important to them — whatever they value most. This holds true for material things: cars, phones, houses, clothing. It also holds true for relationships, faith, and belief systems. And most importantly, for health.
Material things can be replaced if maintained. Health can be restored if attended to early enough. Just like relationships and material possessions, health restoration takes time — and in some cases, once a certain amount of damage has occurred, that damage becomes permanent and irreparable.
Maintenance Matters
Do you remember when your auto insurer paid for oil changes and tire rotations? Or when your health insurer paid for you to shop at Whole Foods and covered the cost of installing a water filtration system? Neither do I — and there's a reason for that.
Insurance companies are not in the maintenance business. They are in the emergency business. An accident or a heart attack is their responsibility. Maintaining your car — or your health — is yours. If you want either to function properly for the long term, maintenance is your responsibility.
Where Does Health Maintenance Start?
Health maintenance starts with spinal maintenance. Everyone knows you don't put a retainer on before braces. Braces correct; the retainer maintains. Both address dental alignment, but one does so aggressively to correct, the other gently to preserve the work already done.
When a spine is maintained in good alignment, it lasts. The discs last. The bones last. The nerve system maintains its proper connections, ensuring the body works the way it was designed to work.
When a spine is allowed to degenerate from lack of maintenance, discs wear out prematurely — bulging, herniating. Bones degenerate faster than normal (spondylosis). When these two conditions occur over a lifetime, the nerve system loses its ability to carry out coordination and control functions, leading to dis-ease — a lack of harmony — producing functional loss and disease. This is preventable. But "maintaining what's important" has to be important to you.
Why Are There Three X-Rays?
This is a 39-year-old male who sought care for low back problems. His lumbar dysfunction was so severe, he couldn't work out, could barely drive due to pain, and was beginning to lose quality of life.
As we routinely do, we X-rayed his spine. We found greater evidence of spondylosis and degeneration in his neck than in his low back — meaning the non-symptomatic alignment problems in his neck had been present far longer than the symptomatic presentation in his low back. We recommended a care plan and proceeded to adjust when necessary, where necessary, to correct subluxations and ensure strong brain–body connections.
He was an international patient, so he only had 3 months to receive care before returning to his country of origin.
Initial X-Ray
After 3 Months
After 1 Year Without Maintenance
The results of his first round of care were outstanding. He returned to his level of exercise, and his overall quality of life improved significantly. We corrected his curvature from a +1 degree curve (102% loss of normal curve) to a -8.8 degree curve (a 70% loss) — an almost 30% improvement. Normal is -42 degrees.
When he returned almost a year later, his curve had begun to worsen. He had lost 8.1 degrees of curvature — and his symptoms had begun to return as well. The third X-ray tells the story of what happens without maintenance.
It Is Far Easier to Maintain Than to Treat
Correction of the spine is a difficult, time-intensive process. That's why we recommend going through a focused period of correction, followed by graduation to maintenance. In maintenance, the innate intelligence of the body continues to correct spinal subluxations — it just does so with less intervention from me, the chiropractor.
Your health is your greatest asset. It allows you to enjoy life in better condition for longer, work longer, and provide longer. Doesn't it make sense to care for it more deliberately than your material possessions? Your spine is what's important. Maintain what's important.