This blog is intended to fuel thought, offer perspective and motivate. Not criticise behaviours and habits. There is a fine line between education and criticism. But unless you are aware of a problem how can you change it?
I was so lucky to have become a chiropractor in Peterborough. It turned out to be without a doubt the most perfect career choice I could ever have imagined.
I was a sceptic at first believing a common view that ‘good health’ is the absence of pain, symptoms and disease. That when it goes wrong the NHS ‘medical model’ of healthcare will swoop down from the sky above and sort out my ‘disease’ or ‘health’ problems and I’m good to go. I knew a little about healthy eating and exercise, well I thought I did, and nothing at all about chiropractic. Now I realise that I knew nothing at all. Not nearly what I should have known or what should have been taught to me at some point in my life before I even started my degree.
Our health and habits for the start come from our parents. They feed us and decide what goes into our bodies. Their bad habits and perception of what is right to eat comes down to us (maybe these days people are more health aware, however what I see some people buying in the supermarkets scares me as sadly they are unaware of what poison is actually in their trolley. That poison is headed for their children’s blood steam and developing their future food habits that once there are hard to break). Some conditions that we believe are ‘hereditary’, ARE THEY? Or are they a product of the habits and environment that we are brought up with and an ongoing process that leads to these problems? As it turns out having studied topics that consider disease at a molecular/cellular level such as general medicine, pathology, pharmacology, radiology, biochemistry; most diseases do not pop out the air and infiltrate out bodies. They develop over years and years. At what point is the man who has a heart attack sick? At the onset of symptoms when he grips his arm? 10 minutes before the pain or 10 years before when he tucks into that second bacon and sausage sarnie with brown sauce and ketchup? We all need cheat days, it’s fun a little indulgence every now and then can be good for the soul. But when abundance is combined with the modern sedentary life style then problems can begin to develop.
My parents were not health aware. I was given coke, Chinese, crisps, ketchup, sweets, extra custard (I love custard, that was a hard one to cut down on. I loved it so much I had custard on my cheese cake in a restaurant. The social norms of no custard with cheese cake were not coming between me and my custard). I cut out coke and started on Tropicana; healthy right? A tasty fruit juice, loaded with vitamin C, not from concentrate – can’t be bad. Or Innocent smooties :0/
My father was a gentleman of substance and had massive knowledge about history but none at all when it came to health, and it cost him years off his life. His weight caused the arthritis process to accelerate; it also meant that he couldn’t survive the aesthetic for a hip or knee replacement operation. For the last decade of his life I had to see my father daily in such pain that I can not even imagine it. Diabetes type 2, pills, pills pills and pain. One of my books from university suggests that once you get a diabetes diagnosis you can expect to loose between 7-19 years off your life span and with the average being 78 for a male in the UK this was true of my father. The likelihood of lots of disease conditions and cancers seem to be exacerbated as soon as diabetes is a factor. It was a BIG lesson but having seen my father’s fatal mistake I have an opportunity to save myself and my patients with chiropractic, education and motivation.
Diabetes is lifestyle related and with the growth of supermarkets, fast food, instant this and that, the rise of the binge drinking culture (people in the 1970s didn’t down 4 jager bombs every Saturday night like we do now. In addition to alcohol they are laced with sugar and red bull. We all have that one friend who insists). It’s getting to a point the NHS can no longer sustain and treat the diseases that have developed from this problem. People are saying that the NHS will be bankrupt in a decade due to lifestyle related disease?!?!? The people who have had access to abundance when it started in the 60s, 70s and beyond are now approaching the finishing line and we are seeing an epidemic result never before part of human history. Medicine, technology, societies generally cleaner set up have increased our life span from a 29 year average (when they started recording it in the mid 1800s) to 78-80 years. Will abundance, preservatives, chemicals AND the 3 white poisons (SUGAR, SALT and FLOUR) now reduce that number again?
So my mission is HEALTH. The prevention of disease through HEALTHY LIVING as a lifestyle, a process, a routine and a hobby. To pass on the knowledge that I have uncovered and the lifestyle that I now live and love with the high energy levels that I enjoy. So that my patients and their families can benefit together and live longer, happier, more mobile lives. By hopefully making some very small changes in just one or two areas, along with your chiropractic care we can expect to see excellent results. Having spoken to patients in the past it seems most people when they hit the more mature years of life fear mostly immobility. With a healthy chiropractic lifestyle your body potential is maximised so why would anyone accept anything less. DISEASE IS A PROCESS, LETS NOT GIVE IT A CHANCE. And when I say disease I mean heart disease, blocked blood vessels, under performing pancreas and insulin resistance (diabetes), degenerative joint disease (arthritis), especially in the spine which is the protective housing for your central nervous system. If that isn’t working at it’s best then your body isn’t working at its best.
Your Chiropractor looks after the nervous system and the bone structure so let’s start there.
Daniel O’Sullivan
Peterborough Chiropractor (Peterborough Chiropractic Health and Wellness Group)
