Health & Fitness
February 2020
The Newsletter About Achieving and Maintaining Optimal Well-Being
UNDERVALUING THE MOST personal asset one has year after year tends to create a backlog of problems. Compensation is the common response to a musculoskeletal problem, and thismay keep usmoving but now the stage is set for more complexity. Complexity eventuallymeansmore cost, time, specialists and no guarantees it can feel like new again in the future. WITH THIS LITTLE story inmind, I would invite each of you to do a little inventory of your body and just ask yourself “why am I undervaluing myself in relation to other expenses that are part of living?” When looking at your future what is it you are imagining? For many, it is getting out and enjoying life, retirement and playingmore golf, tennis, travel, hobbies and on and on. All those activities require a body that works, that can meet the demands. THE IDEA OR goal for most is not to limp into Medicare age and then wonder why these years are not so golden. Respecting and acknowledging your body for the amazing amount of work it does and realizing when it gives you pain that these are indicators that something is amiss, is a step in the right direction. When you hear a “thumping” under your car you don’t just turn the radio louder so you don’t hear the problem. Yet, we often use pain relievers with this logic. IT IS IMPORTANT to keep in mind that pain is not all of an inflammatory origin. Pain that goes on formonths to years is often being perpetuated by amechanical basis which causes pressure from dull to sharp. Pain medication just treats the perception of pain or if an anti-inflammatory - any associated inflammation. The mechanical issue which is the real perpetuator of the problem does not get handled with medication. It gets handled with solutions which correct the mechanical basis of the problem. Only makes sense, right? You would not expect Tylenol or Ibuprofen to fix a fractured bone (a mechanical breakdown), so why do we expect it to fix a long-term mechanical shoulder or back pain disorder. It can hide the pain but we know what happens when we stop taking it or when we put more demand on our shoulder.
SOMETIMES IT JUST surprises me what people value over themselves. I had a consultation recently and the person was having long standing hip and back pain which was getting worse and required Norco opioid medication at least once per day to get through her work day. THE CONSULTANT IDENTIFIED several areas that were highly correctable and if she worked at it, she couldminimize her cost and obtain personal control over the problem. I tried to communicate that her rehab prognosiswas highly positive, her quality of life with work and socially would improve and no more Norco. THEONEHITCHwas she had a deductible (under $500), small bymost standards, but this was too much for her. This surprised me since her life did not sound enjoyable and opioid medication is hard to get on a long-term basis and not to mention its side effects. Certainly, one could, if money was that tight, cut expenses on some other area to make it work. I thought she would jump at the chance to improve her condition since it was highly correctable. IF SHE HAD a car in need of $500 worth of repairs, would she say – “sorry, that is just toomuch, I will just risk it not breaking down.” Probably not – why?” Well, cars are not too forgiving when they break down, they can leave you stranded on the side of a road at the worst of times and delaying the repair can lead to more expensive repairs later. People may not be happy about it but will see it as a necessity, pull out the credit card and find a way to pay it back. OUR BODIES, HOWEVER, do not always get the same priority. It is not seen as a necessity. Bodies have this way of handling neglect for a while and pushing forward one more time with the cost often being a few more debits on one’s quality of life credit card. Some people are alright sacrificing personal health when it requires personal expense. I can understand, we all tend to delay getting help with a body problem, there is always this hope it will go away and sometimes it does. Our bodies are amazing healing systems but whenmonths of waiting add to years of disappointment, the writing is on the wall.
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