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Hello everyone, it's Dr. Aaron Seaton with The Chiropractic Place. Today's video is about symptoms versus health and function, and I bring this up because a lot of the time, we get patients in the door, and this is going on. They're having neck pain. They're having headaches, and they're having back pain, low back pain, whatever it is, but they're here, and that's what's motivating them to come to see the chiropractor. I put these numbers up here, and I'll talk about those later because first, I want to explain why I'm bringing this video up because there are a lot of times that we have health issues that have no symptoms at all. I listed a couple of them here, like plaque buildup in our arteries, often with no symptoms. The first sign of serious plaque in the arteries sometimes is a heart attack and death. You have no symptoms prior to that, and then all of a sudden, somebody has a heart attack and possibly drops dead, but they had no symptoms. Arthritis, I see this time and time again in my office. I'll take x-rays of a patient, and I'll see wear and tear that looks like it's 10 to 15 years old, and then I'll ask them, "Well, Mary, how long has your neck been hurting?" "Oh, about the last few months." okay, so the pain has only been going on, the symptom has only been going on for a few months, but the problem has been festering and building up for 10 to 15 years without any symptoms.

Cavities can be the same way. We can have cavities start in our mouth that has no symptoms. Our dentists typically want to see us at least every six months for check-ups because they know that these can start without any warning. And just like a dentist doesn't want to treat bad cavities, chiropractors don't want to wait for their patients to have really bad arthritis, a lot of wear and tear in their spine that affects their ability to function. We want to catch it before it gets here, just like your dentist wants to make sure your teeth don't develop cavities. So I bring this up and show it to patients because I think it's important, and I understand that a lot of patients come in, they have symptoms, they want some relief, I totally get it, and I'll be happy to provide that. But we still need to have this conversation about how you are making your health decisions. Because if you're only making your health decisions based on symptoms, this is an important fact, only 2% of what goes on in your nerve system, which is the master control system of your body, controls everything your body does, only 2% of what happens in your nerve system is symptoms, the other 98% of what takes place in the master control system in your body has to do with health and function, not symptoms.

So you always get to decide in my office how you want to utilize chiropractic care. I let my patients make their decisions about their health. I want to make decisions about my health. However, if you come in here, at least be open to the idea that once the symptoms are gone, maybe we need to start taking care of you more regularly to prevent bad things like this from happening because it's sad when we see it. However, sometimes patients let it go to the point where their spine is almost completely worn out. We do everything we can to help those patients, but the earlier we see you, the better. With your kids, the same thing, the earlier we see children, the better. Just like the earlier, your dentist sees your kids, the better. Your dentist wants to see your children at a very early age. Your chiropractor is no different because we're thinking about this, how do we keep their spine healthy and functioning throughout their whole life, not just how do we alleviate symptoms. Hopefully, that makes sense. If you guys have any questions about chiropractic care, give our office a call.

Call our office today to schedule an appointment to kickstart your healthy life: 530-221-8443