100 Miles

Two practice members of mine today asked a similar question about their progress. Essentially, the question was, "Why am I still experiencing a symptom now and then even after I am better and have started treatment with you?"

I came up with this analogy:

I told them that they should think of their spinal and nervous system problem as their body being a distance of 100 miles from Normal. "When I adjust you," I said, "you tend to think that I have moved the bone or improved your body situation by the complete 100 miles." In their minds, they have been restored to normal, or near normal, in one fell swoop!

But, really, the problems has only improved a distance of 8 miles. And then, after their visit, they go back to their lives and encounter more psychological, chemical and physical stresses that pile up on top of the junk that got them to see me in the first place. These new stresses push them 2 miles from the improved place I put them, 2 miles farther from Normal.

Now, they stand at milepost 6, not milepost 0.

When they come in again for the next treatment at milepost 6, I advance them 9 miles to milepost 15. Now, they are 15 miles closer to Normal, but they are still quite vulnerable to wear and tear stresses and new stresses. And as they go about their lives they still encounter stresses that knock them back farther away from Normal yet again.

It is a process! It may take us some patience, but at least we have a process and it is an extremely powerful and effective one at that.

And so, what is in our minds a linear progression toward improvement is, in fact, the serrated edge of a saw blade of ups and downs, or forwards and reversals, that in time add up to a significant improvement.

This improvement allows the body to organize itself better and better resist new problems and heal from both new and old problems faster and more competently.

If we want, we can even go beyond the level of health and well-being that we experienced before we "hurt" ourselves and sought chiropractic care.