If You Could Bottle Attitude...

Every once in a while, you see someone who has taken complete and total responsibility for his or her own health and it just makes your day.  I have seen a few of those people lately.  Very refreshing in a world where it seems like everyone wants to eat whatever they want and not exercise and still feel good.  Isn't there a pill for that?  

I have a patient who has been making changes over the past six months with the goal of getting off all medication.  He is a family man with a very high stress job.  He was gaining weight steadily and was taking blood pressure and diabetes medication.  He drives 2 hours a day for his commute.  He was experiencing increasing neck and back pain, as well.  

He started working out and making smarter choices with his food.  He still has to drive and has a high stress job and small children at home, but he works on the things he can control.  Over the past 6 months, he has lost over 40 pounds.  His diabetes and hypertension is under control and he expects to be off all medication after the next check-up in three months.  His energy is up and his pain and stress are coming down.  

The best part is that the credit belongs to him.  It is rewarding to set a goal for yourself and to achieve it,  to stop feeling like health conditions are "happening to you" and to start seeing that you can change things.  You don't have to accept that you are diabetic (unless you are type I).  You can make changes, while taking your medicine and gradually get away from it.  You don't have to always have hypertension because you currently have it.  Things can change if you change.  

My job as a chiropractor has become increasingly difficult in the past 15 years and I expect that to continue. The reason is the declining health of the general population and, more importantly, the unwillingness of most people to make any significant changes in their unhealthy habits.  

Back and neck pain is affected by the following: 

*Weight

*Smoking

*Diabetes

*Inactivity

*Poor Diet

*Poor posture

ALL of those things can be controlled or affected by the patient!  

There are no pills to make arthritis go away.  There are no pain-killers that have no side effects.  There aren't going to be any time soon.  The things we can control in this world are our own habits.  Good habits do not guarantee that you will not have pain or that you will not get sick, but they will help you get better faster.  It's a fact.  It is also easier than you think once you make the decision to do it.  Habits can be broken.  New habits can be formed.  Take control of your own health.  It is an awesome feeling to see that kind of change and to know that no one made it happen but you!