Prevention vs. Cure
The Choice is Yours!
Remember the old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Well it’s still true! However, unfortunately, it’s not how most people think and act. It’s rare that a patient comes to the office saying, “I feel great and I want to stay feeling great, that’s why I’m here!”
I often hear from patients who had been to other doctors about their back or knee or shoulder, and the doctor might say something like “there’s nothing we can do; wait until you need surgery, and in the meantime take ibuprofen as needed.”
So what about that ounce of prevention; that is, preventing the need for "the cure?” In the case of musculoskeletal pain and injury, the ounce of prevention would be a Chiropractor and/or Physical Therapist.
In my practice of over 30 years I have had fewer than a handful of patients who ended up needing surgery. Clearly surgery cannot always be avoided—there are times when it's absolutely necessary - but it's MUCH less likely to be the case if one makes use of preventive measures.
This holds true for most illnesses, most of the time. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, Alzheimer's; these are all diseases that, to a large extent, can be avoided. Studies show these to be linked to and often caused by chronic systemic inflammation resulting from unhealthy diet, stress, and lack of exercise.
See:
Preventing Diabetes (cdc.gov website)
Alzheimer's and Dementia Prevention (HelpGuide.org website)
Inflammation, a Key Event in Cancer Development (Molecular Cancer Research; April 2006)
In other words, there are certain lifestyles that lead to disease, and others that tend to steer away from disease. Yet most researchers are still mainly focused on looking for the cure!
Don't get me wrong; disease, accidents, genetic defects, etc. are a sad fact of our existence. People get sick, and it will probably always be so. And I am very grateful for and respectful of doctors like surgeons who can repair broken bones, ruptured appendices, etc., and doctors who can prescribe lifesaving medications and treatments.
What concerns me is that so many of our health problems are caused by poor dietary and life style choices. For starters, these choices adversely affect our gut bacteria. Much research has been done on the importance of gut bacteria and our immune systems. If there are too many bad bacteria, and not enough good bacteria, our immune systems will be thrown out of whack, causing a chronic inflammatory response, which can lead to the aforementioned diseases. Poor lifestyle choices can also potentiate an overactive immune response, as is the case with autoimmunity. Diseases such as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis and Psoriasis are all autoimmune diseases.
It is my strong belief that if as much money were spent on prevention research and education, as is spent on looking for cures, it's very likely we would all be a lot healthier and happier.
As a final aside, this all reminds me of another old but invariably true adage: “You are what you eat.” This old news is GREAT news because it’s something we can control! We decide what we put in our mouths and our stomachs. If you’re wondering where to begin making healthy choices, here's what I recommend: Eat REAL Foods: Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts and Legumes (organic whenever possible), Fish (wild or sustainably farmed) Lean, Grass-Fed Hormone and Antibiotic Free Meat, Hormone Free (pasture raised) Chicken and Eggs.
We have a great deal of control over our health because we decide what we eat, how we move, how we think, and what’s important to us!