One of the most common things I hear from my patients is “I don’t have pain anymore, I think I’m good now”. Unfortunately, this type of logic is one of the main reasons that patients end up not fully recovering, or worse, returning later with new, sometimes more serious issues.
While it is true that pain is a very strong indicator that there is a problem in your body, its absence does not always mean that everything is ok. The reason for this is that the body has an amazing ability to compensate for dysfunction. You can have a part or region of your body that is not functioning properly, but your body is compensating for this dysfunction by limiting movement in that area, using alternate movement patterns, recruitment of secondary muscles, or by some other similar “workaround”. Your body can operate in this manner for a very long time—years in many cases—with little to no actual pain. Meanwhile, the dysfunction is still present, and potentially decreasing performance or accelerating degeneration. Pain is your body’s way of telling you it can no longer handle this extra stress. In other words, pain is not the beginning of a new problem, but the body’s cry for help after a long and losing battle.
So now we see, the best time to get adjusted is when you feel great. If you wait for pain to show up, then you risk irreversible degeneration, more serious injury, compensation-related problems, and many other consequences that potentially make treatment more difficult. Look at it this way: You wouldn’t wait for your car’s engine to blow up before changing the oil, wait till you have a toothache before you go to the dentist, or wait till you have chest pain to go for a checkup with your medical doctor. Take care of your spine proactively. Your future health will thank you!
If you are looking for a chiropractor in Birmingham, AL to work with in maintaining your health in a better way, please schedule an appointment with Archetype by clicking here.
