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| Dr. Bob Cummins, left, works with all who want their best life AND lifestyle. |
The small window sticker in our car tells us it’s time to bring our car in for a quick and relatively inexpensive oil change and tune-up. If we ignore the sticker and the progressively louder sounds coming from the engine, we could be in a very expensive and time-consuming situation in time. Everyone knows to take routine care of their car, but where is our health sticker? Where do you take your health for your lifestyle tune-ups?
Lifestyle Care for our health comes from seeing health care providers before we reach a crisis stage. Some examples of Lifestyle Care are a monthly massage, seeing your dentist for teeth cleaning, or being on a wellness chiropractic plan.
The benefits of Lifestyle Care are many and well documented. From improving athletic performance, increasing brain function and increasing bone density to strengthening the immune system and preventing deterioration, Lifestyle Chiropractic Care results can be dramatic and if you prevent it, you don’t have to treat it.
Chiropractic Lifestyle Care is about keeping your spine and nervous system aligned, balanced and functioning to its full potential throughout your lifetime. This allows your brain and your body to communicate efficiently, without interference, so that they can function at their highest level and you can enjoy life to the fullest.
People will frequently ask, “This makes a lot of sense. How often should I come and get my spine and nervous system checked?”
The answer is quite simple and depends a lot on you. The intensity of your Lifestyle Care will depend on the intensity of your lifestyle as well as the underlying condition of your spine and nervous system. People who live stress free lives and have no underlying deterioration in their spine or nervous system require much less Lifestyle Care.
On the other hand, people with moderate amounts of stress and deterioration require more frequent visits and people who are under severe stress or have a lot of severe deterioration in their spine and nervous system require much more frequent visits to keep their body functioning at high levels of health. You and your chiropractor will determine together the frequency that is best for you based on your personal health condition and goals.
As the intensity of your lifestyle changes from month to month or from year to year you may find that the intensity of your Lifestyle Care also needs to change.
For example, if you have found that an adjustment every two weeks has been ideal for you and you change to a more stressful job with a lot of sitting or a long commute you and your chiropractor may find that one adjustment a week works better.
If you are a casual exerciser and decide to start participating in triathlons, the increased intensity of your training might require you to increase the intensity of your visits to multiple times per week. On the other hand, if your life becomes less stressful, you begin meditating three times a day and your underlying spinal conditions have already been corrected, you may find that your Lifestyle Care frequency may decrease in its intensity.
The most important thing for you to understand is that Lifestyle Care is not based on symptoms. Your frequency is not determined by how you feel but instead is determined by whether or not you have a subluxation, a spinal imbalance with nerve pressure, that needs to be adjusted. Since additional research has revealed that nerve compression can exist without pain, waiting until you have symptoms to get checked is not a good idea. Only your chiropractor can determine whether you need an adjustment or not through a chiropractic check-up.
Ask around and you will find that there are millions of people who have been under chiropractic care for decades not just because they have had a problem, but because they have experienced the benefits of Lifestyle Care. These people may be some of the healthiest people you meet. Too many people in our society are suffering because they are crisis oriented when it comes to their health. Don’t let this happen to you. It is easier, less expensive and more fun to stay well than it is to have to get well after you become sick or injured. Make Lifestyle Care your top priority.
How often do we wait for something to break before we fix it? If health is part of our greatest wealth, let’s get each get a sticker for our health and keep it as a priority!
Self Care: Eat well, think well, move well – Enjoy one of the amazing local Farmers Markets and see how many vegetables you can eat in a day, take quiet time to enjoy a summer sunset and reflect on three positives from your day, take a long walk after dinner and talk with your best friend.
Lifestyle Care: Schedule your chiropractic, massage, and other lifestyle care appointments to keep at top form and truly prevent crisis health care.
Crisis Care: Head for immediate help as soon as possible, following all recommendations by your physician including eating well, thinking well, and moving well when in-between emergency care visits.
Anyone wishing more information may contact Dr. Cummins, whose office is located at 4122 Factoria Blvd. SE, Suite 202, Bellevue, WA (telephone 425-590-9158).
