Life is a journey, and full of choices for how we care for ourselves. One of the choices people make is to trust the medical system to help them with all of their health problems, a system we have known since birth. We have been taught to take medication for anything that hurts, do protocolized therapies for what hurts them, and to visit their medical doctor and follow their recommendations for antibiotics, colds, and other health concerns. These behaviors are ingrained in us. Many of those same folks are now, many years later, taking medication for blood pressure, having back problems that were improperly diagnosed years ago, and they likely have a specialist for everything. The problem is, overspecialization in the absence of the primary care we once knew is often expensive, ineffective, and exposes us to medical risk because the incentives are no longer about our health. The large corporations that now own healthcare have doubled down on the specialist model that is more about procedures, services, and profits above all for the hospitals, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers. We are now given choices of urgent care offering one-size-fits-all care for most conditions, emergency rooms run by hedge funds that keep us waiting for hours while charging us a fortune for the visit, and a difficult time scheduling to see your primary doctor, or any specialist for that matter. The visit is more about documentation than helping you solve a problem, and if the concerns you have cannot be addressed in 15 minutes or less, you are sent from specialist to specialist, often receiving different medications from each one. Some of these folks are friends of mine in their 60s with the pill box I used to associate with my aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Some of them tolerate the rigors of aging as back pain, knee pain, and foot pain, and live with it because their doctors have convinced them that aging is causing all of this and more. I am also aging along with them, but my choices as a chiropractor were to avoid the pills, eat better, reduce inflammation naturally using deflame packets to reduce systemic inflammation, the cause of most disease processes in the body, and take care of my aging body physically in ways most of them won’t. I see my chiropractor instead of letting my body hurt worse over time, because in order to serve my patients and my family effectively, I must also take care of myself. The problems in the musculoskeletal system and the other interconnected systems should be handled holistically, meaning as integrated systems. Our medical system is organized to look at the body as if everything is separate and unconnected, which makes little sense. This has devolved into conveyor belt medicine, which is when you have people looking at you on the surface, but not helping you simply find solutions to a healthier and more productive life. Taking medications for pain in the absence of understanding why you hurt makes little sense until you realize the medical system poorly understands why you hurt, but we have somebody to manage the pain with medications that not only blunt pain, but can even get you addicted, causing the opioid crisis. Meanwhile, the damage done to the joints in your back, hips, feet, and knees is managed but not improved with better care. Many of you will read this and will likely agree with what I have said, but will you change your habits? I often kid around with patients, suggesting that in a thousand years, during an archeological dig, they will find all sorts of titanium parts and wonder what they were for. Those were likely the hip and knee and other joint replacements that were done years ago, when we medicated instead of solving the most painful issues, because medical doctors have so little training in how to properly diagnose and treat musculoskeletal conditions, which often affect how we walk, feel, and function during our lives. Most of us have no idea that this is true, although a growing number of people are visiting chiropractors, functional medicine, and other types of providers after the current system has failed them. Perhaps, you can avoid most of that by visiting a chiropractor first. If you value your knees, hips, and other joints, chiropractic should be part of your healthcare If you value how your body works throughout your life, thinking chiropractic first, beyond back and neck pain, can help you avoid developing back, knees, hip,s and arthritic spines for most people because they understand the musculoskeletal system, and how the body moves holistically from the ground up. They are trained to think holistically, and sports chiropractors have even more training on how to manage most pain problems, including those that affect athletes. Chiropractors have specialties in pediatrics, sports medicine, orthopedics, neurology, radiology, and more. Chiropractors take a primary care approach to the musculoskeletal system and often will understand when to refer you to the medical system. Chiropractors keep it simple, explain things in plain English, and are less likely to test when a thorough evaluation helps them better diagnose and treat you for the conditions causing your problems. There is no substitute for a thorough evaluation and a full understanding of why you hurt when recommending treatment. One-size-fits-all protocols will not solve your problems like customizing treatment visit by visit will. Chiropractors have the same basic medical training and courses that all other doctors do, although their specialties in holistic care of the human frame, rehab, musculoskeletal diagnosis, and treatments such as manipulation are the gold standard for musculoskeletal care. Chiropractors are on the medical teams for all professional sports and are integrated into the VA medical system. Hospitals are beginning to hire chiropractors as they reduce costs and improve outcomes. I was on the medical team for Jersey Shore Wave women’s pro tackle football this year in NJ. While there are still people who may be skeptical, their skepticism is often misplaced when they realize how much their chiropractic sports physician knows and understands about why they hurt. Often, they find out that where they hurt is not why they hurt. For example, your shoulder problem is often associated with lower back or hip function, and your foot problems, knee problems, and back problems may be one problem requiring one chiropractor, no tests, possibly an X-ray, and maybe foot orthotics to level the hips. Using multiple specialists when a primary care approach is more appropriate is costly, inefficient, and often ineffective, and may expose you to medications, procedures, and other methods that often fail to resolve the condition. A gait-related issue may be affecting your pelvis, resulting in lower back pain. Your sciatic pain is often related to asymmetries in gait that years later may damage the discs in your back; the disc pain down your leg can be the symptom rather than the problem. As you can see, chiropractors think differently and they understand function and motion, and have been trained to look at how you move and function. Improving how you move reduces pain and improves how you age. Beginning chiropractic at a young age for your children may help them avoid many of the physical problems you experience, as they not only look like us but walk like us, too, due to genetics. Need help today? Think chiropractic first for hip, knee, back, neck, and even shoulder and elbow pain. Book online today.