When one talks about a good lifestyle and a healthy life, we generally think about exercise and nutrition. A third section – rewarding and fulfilling relationships and interests – may be added as an afterthought. But a fourth section – spinal care – is in fact the key to enjoying the benefits from all the other lifestyle areas and activities.
Chiropractic care focuses on how our body is doing its job. This “job” is to simultaneously link all of the various separate physiological activities – to make sure all of our body’s systems are working well together. The responsibility for this unity belongs to the nerve system, the master system that ties together the functioning of our heart and lungs, our stomach and other digestive organs, our endocrine systems, and our immune systems. By identifying and correcting misalignments in the spinal column, chiropractic care helps to ensure that our nerve systems are functioning optimally. When our nerve system is doing its job, the rest of our body has the opportunity to produce the maximum health available. As a result, chiropractic care helps us get the most out of all our life activities and helps us gain and continue to have good health.
Payments Just Keep on Rising
Everyone is well aware of the extremely high prices of nearly all health care services. These prices and costs can be measured not only in cash outlays, but also in unnecessarily long time spent at a doctor’s office. Waiting times can often be an hour or more for a comprehensive physical examination at a family physician’s or internist’s office. If you have an issue that requires immediate attention, the waiting time at a local hospital emergency room is open-ended and can easily range into several hours or more.
Those fortunate enough to have health insurance are able to buffer some of the monetary expenses. But even with an individual or family health insurance policy, annual out-of-pocket costs continue to rise steeply as monthly premiums, co-payments, and deductibles increase substantially year-over-year. For example, during the past five years monthly premiums for many policies have increased 15% or more annually. This means that monthly payments in 2013 would be approximately double those paid in 2008. Twice the cost for the same coverage. Of course, the fees don’t stop at the monthly premium. Many policies have deductibles in the range of $5000 or more.
Therefore, if we want to experience good financial health as well as good physical health, we might bear in mind getting a “personal” health insurance policy. Such a “policy” requires more effort than that involved in writing a check. Your personal health insurance policy involves taking action in the two main lifestyle areas of diet/nutrition and exercise. A third lifestyle area, often ignored, involves personal well-being. This area includes building progressively positive family relationships and friendships and developing a greater set of interests beyond one’s favorite television channels and websites.
Identify Your Good Habits
It is now identified that lifestyle matters greatly to one’s long-term health and well-being. Numerous studies have concluded that one in three Americans have one or more chronic diseases – diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The personal and family costs, the financial costs, and the costs to society of chronic disease are too high. By identifying and taking part in habits of good nutrition, regular intense exercise, and positive relationships and activities, we help with preventing these major health problems. By participating in healthy lifestyles, we are taking action that will gain many rewards for ourselves and our families down the years.
The only requirement to initiate receiving the benefits of better health is the willingness to get started. Even if you haven’t performed any regular exercise for several years, or if you can’t recall the last time you ate a serving of cauliflower, fennel, or spinach, you can still start the quest to better health today. And if you begin, it’s very possible that you’ll look back after 12 months, 6 months, or even 3 months and be extremely glad you did.
For Your Health,
Dr. Wendy Lanser, DC