Defining Health
How do you define health? Does not having a cold mean you are healthy? Are you healthy because you feel good? Maybe, just maybe, health is something more. Within the chiropractic healthcare field, health is defined as something much more than not being sick and more than just feeling good. It is more than being pain free, it is a higher quality of life. Health is more than being symptom free. True health is defined by having your body work right and at its fullest potential, getting a good nights sleep, having energy and strength, and of course, having proper spinal alignment.

There are a number of different definitions out there trying to define “health.” Here are two of those quotes that seem to approach the fullness of what chiropractic has been speaking about for so long.

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" World Health Organization - Definition of Health

"Health is a dynamic tension towards physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony, and not only the absence of illness, which gives man the ability to fulfill the mission which has been entrusted to him, according to the state of life in which he finds himself." The Vatican - Pope John Paul, Definition of Health

If simply being symptom free were true health, then all of the medicines, the aspirin and the vast array of drugs, would make a person healthy and all those individuals utilizing such products would be the healthiest. But this isn’t always the case, is it? If a sick person takes medicine to get healthy, why, if a healthy person were to take the same medicine, would they become sick?

Chiropractic care serves to correct the causes of disease, not merely treat the symptoms, mask them, and hide them from everyday view. The human body is a miracle of a machine. It has the ability, the innate intelligence, to heal itself from many of the diseases that present themselves. The human body uses symptoms as a warning system, similar to the check engine light your car dashboard shows when there is an internal problem with the machinery of the engine. The fever, the headaches and the fatigue are all part of the body attempting to warn us of the underlying problems that are beginning to manifest. Drugs act to treat just the warning signs, therefore leaving the underlying cause ignored and forgotten about. This isn’t health and healing, this is about containment and control.