Invincibility

To say I played rough when I was growing up would be an understatement.  Everything was a body contact sport, including board games.  If my friends and I were not throwing each other to the ground, we were slapping each other around.  There was often blood; often crying.  As we got older crying became tabu, but the physical nature of our play only intensified.  We were physically invincible.  As I moved on to high school and college I still gravitated to contact activities.

In my seeming invincibility, little did I realize that each tumble, each hit, each over-exertion was producing small injuries to my body.  In particular my spine was receiving repeated trauma.  Some injuries, like falls out of trees, were more significant than others.  For the most part they were pretty minor, but there were certainly a lot of them.  I don't think a day went by that I didn't do something to overstress or injure my body.

Everyone of these small injuries resulted in a slight weakening of the tissues.  That tissue was then more susceptible to injury by the next trauma.  Over time all these little injuries added up until the area was weakened to the point of becaming symptomatic.  This is the common scenario with spinal problems.  Repeated micro traumas weaken the spine to the point that the spinal joints lose their proper function and the spinal nerves become irritated.  This is how most vertebral subluxations come into being.  They are developing long before symptoms are ever present.  The good news is that as chiropractors, we are specifically trained to detect vertebral subluxations before they become symptomatic.  Even though the problems have been developing for years, with proper assistance, the amazing human body can still heal these injuries.

I don't think I was necessarily harder on my body than most young boys.  Though girls may not be as physically abusive as boys, they can be hard on their bodies in different ways.  We all suffer from accumulated spinal injuries.  I can tell you from personal experience that with regular chiropractic care vertebral subluxations can be corrected and spinal health restored.  My spine is in much better condition than it was 20 years ago.  I rarely have any spinal symptoms any more.  Given all the abuse I gave my back, that says a lot about chiropractic care.  I'm certainly not physically invincible any more (and I never really was).  Those times of rough housing were fun, but there is always a price to pay.  I'm thankful that because of the chiropractic care I've received I can still have vibrant health.