The Masking of Symptoms

So what are we taught from a very young age that we should do when we feel sick or not well? We are taught to take any measure to get rid of that bad feeling! If you look on TV or the internet, almost every goal of the most common drugs out there is to get rid of the bad feeling.

So lets say your child has a fever.... what do you do? On no, you panic and frantically look for some motrin in the cupboard to reduce the fever because it is so bad. Studies show that over 80% of parents give there kid medicine at the first sign of fever, so we aren't talking about the very high 106, 107 fevers. So the kid takes the medicine, the fever goes down, he feels better and he goes out and plays! Everything is grand, right? Wait a minute, what about whatever caused him to have the fever in the first place? So because he is "feeling" better then everything is great? Do we not care why the body made the fever in the first place? Just so you know it isn't the bug that is causing the fever, it is the body causing the fever to fight the bug. So if the kid received no medicine, sure he wouldn't "feel" good, but the higher fever would be putting the bug in a place where is can't survive as well, and the kid wouldn't be running around which would allow the body to use all its energy on fighting the bug. So by being a "caring" parent and giving your child something to make them "feel" better, you have just made the job a whole lot harder for the "body" to take care of. You took away the body's defense of higher temperature, and then took away the feeling that would have kept the child from running around. But wait a minute, doesn't those tylenol workers put love into every bottle?

Fever is one example. The body has certain symptoms to help fight disease. Understand that almost everything that we label as symptoms of disease, are really symptoms that the body creates to fight disease.

Blood pressure is another example. So you go to the doctor and they decide that you are border line prehypertensive (another word for normal).
The doctor in all his goodness puts you on a sweet little pill that lowers your blood pressure, and every one is happy. Go home, sweet dreams, come back in a couple months to see if it has changed. Oh and if you feel like it, maybe eat better or exercise or something. Now, assuming that someone really did have high blood pressure, does anyone care at all what the underlying cause of the high blood pressure is? See, you can give someone a drug to lower it but someone has to ask why the "body" had the pressure high in the first place. There was a reason the body had it high, it is a defense mechanism.....but against what? Instead of giving a drug to the body and taking away its defense mechanism, why aren't we analyzing the person to find what is making this happen and correcting it. What does this have to do with Chiropractic? Everything. This is chiropractic philosophy. Sure the adjustment is a part of it, but this philosophy, (instead of taking the bodies natural defenses away from it, letting the body do its job while we help it) is the absolute basis of the profession.

If you agree with this you must realize that this is not the current medical model. The current medical model chases symptoms instead of finding causes. They look for smoke when there is a fire right in front of them. The doctor of the future doesn't treat symptoms, the doctor of the future interest his patients in the cause and prevention of disease. The CAUSE of disease, not the symptoms of disease. The mechanic of the future doesn't tell you to get an oil change only after your car has symptoms, the mechanic of the future tells you to have regular oil changes so that you never have the symptoms of not getting regular oil changes. The doctor of the future doesn't treat you after you get all the symptoms, the doctor of the future treats you by educating you about things so you can prevent such things. This is not what the current health care system pays for, it is backwards.

Preventative health care is the basis of chiropractic philosophy, it has been for the 100 years of its existence. It has been the cause of much ridicule from the medical profession through the years. But do you see whats happening? Study after study is showing that a preventative health care/ insurance system would actually be a whole lot cheaper then the current symptom one. Politicians, health care professionals, and even the medical profession itself is starting to use the buzz word preventative. When the country eventually goes to this type of healthcare system, do you think Chiropractors will be recognized as those that gave it to us? Probably not, but I can assure you who will be best suited to deliver such a system....we will, us chiropractors...the doctors of the future.