As far as health is concerned, where will you be a year from now? Will you be more healthy, less healthy, or the same?

That is a question I pose to guests at the beginning of our in-office health workshops.

The answer is definitely not the same. 

Why? Because our bodies are constantly changing. Every day, old cells die and are replaced by new cells. Simplified, this process of cell breakdown (catabolism) and cell build up (anabolism) is known as metabolism.

It is how well the body performs metabolism or functions that determines one's health.

But doesn't how one feels determine one's health? 

No, not really.

Although how one feels is important, I am sure we all know someone who felt great and then, all of a sudden, died of a heart attack.

Or, we know of the person that feels great and has no complaints. But suddenly, one day, finds a lump on the body that turns out to be malignant.

In either situation, was that person healthy? No.

Why not?

Because the definition of health is not "feeling good".

Merriam-Webster's Deluxe Dictionary defines health as, " an optimal state of well-being, one hundred percent function, not merely the absence of disease."

So, when one is told that he or she is healthy except for the cancerous tumor, one is actually hearing an oxymoron. If the body was functioning properly, metabolism would be proper and cancer would not occur.  

Health is all about function. Sometimes, when one feels really sick, the body is actually functioning perfectly, but one feels terrible because the body is ridding itself of toxins.

If the body is functioning perfectly, then health is present. If function is less than perfect, then ideally, health is not present. Yes, health is an ideal situation.

It is the responsibility of every individual to keep oneself as healthy as one can be. Everyone is somewhere between zero and one hundred percent function. Due to genetic make up, some people will never function at one hundred percent. But one can still function as best as one can.

What is the chiropractic connection?

Chiropractors work with the nervous system.

Gray's Anatomy, the standard anatomy text in all medical schools states the the nervous system controls every function of the body.

One hundred percent function, or health, cannot occur if there is any interference on the nervous system.

The chiropractic adjustment to the spine alleviates interference or pressure that will keep the nervous system and thus the body from functioning properly.

The nervous system- function- metabolism connection has been known for years. John Tilden,M.D., in his book, Toxemia,  written in the early part of the twentieth century, emphasized the importance of a properly functioning nervous system in order to have proper function and metabolism.

Where will you be a year from now?

Make the decision to be more healthy or closer to one hundred percent function. Everything that we do in our office, present on this website, or communicate to you in mailings is geared toward giving you the necessary tools and treatment so that you can function at your very best.

Mark Fleming, D.C.

Works Cited

Palmer, David, ed.MerrimamWebster's Deluxe Dictionary. Pleasantville: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. 1998.

Tilden, M.D. John. Toxemia The Basic Cause of Disease. Chicago: Natural Hygiene Press, 1974.

Wassung, Keith W. "Nerve Interference." If I Were a Chiropractor. 26July2011. Wordpress. 10Oct2010<http://purposeconsultant.wordpress.com/2010/10/>