I believe people confuse health care with sickness care. These two are not the same. The sickness care is the idea that if I feel fine, I must be fine. This may be true, but it may also be totally false. What about the guy who has never been sick a day in his life right up until the time he dies of a heart attack at the age of 40? Was he really healthy? Not even close! To make matters worse, let's consider the individual who knows he has poor health, but believes he is too busy to take the proper steps to correct it. Another sign of sickness care mentality is the masking of symptoms throughout our body with medication. The problem with this approach is it rarely looks to the actual cause of the problem. If the root cause is not removed, the problem will persist and continue to deteriorate your health even if you don't necessarily feel it.

This concept is absolutely true when it comes to spinal conditions. Most spinal problems begin early in life with minor injuries that were never properly treated. Treatment is usually neglected because the symptoms, or pain, disappears after a short period of time. Unfortunately pain is a poor indicator as to whether or not there is a problem in the spine. You do not know how many times people come to the office with intense pain somewhere in the spine. After questioning, it becomes clear that this is the first onset of the pain, but after reviewing the xray, I realize that it is nothing more than a neglected old injury. This is a sad case that is seen all too often, because again, we believe that if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't exist. It is a classic case of the sickness model.

At some point we must be pro-active when it comes to our health. We need to realize that our current state of health is a reflection of our past decisions, and actions. What this means is, when we fail to maintain our spine, we should not be surprised when our spine shows failure, and begins to break down.

With this thought in mind, we need to remember our children. I once saw a quote on a poster that said, "Go ahead and leave your children at home so they can enjoy the same problems as you for the rest of their lives."

Do not forget the children in this process of correcting, and maintaining spinal health. It is an investment that will pay dividends in the future.

Best of wishes from the doctors of Lee Chiropractic.

PS: After spinal correction is made, a maintenance treatment of one visit every three to four weeks is usually sufficient to detect and correct unseen problems before they arise.

Lee Chiropractic 196 Park Avenue Pocatello, Idaho 83202 (208) 233-0067 Email