What Role Does Exercise, Nutrition, and Rest Play in Health and Wellness?
Exercise, nutrition and rest play an essential role in health and wellness. Phrases such as “you are what you eat” are very true. That being said, these habits and practices don’t give the complete picture of health. You can’t just hang your hat on exercising, eating right and adequate rest.
Generally speaking, there are two sides to the health coin. One side is the realm of potential health and the other is the realm of kinetic health. You can’t have one without the other.
Potential health involves things such as rest. Rest is designed to recharge our health capabilities. Kinetic health is habits such as exercise and nutrition. Kinetic health is about putting your health to work.
I use the terms ‘potential’ and ‘kinetic’ because we have to think of health in terms of energy. And like energy, we have two forms. There is potential energy and there is kinetic energy.
The definition of potential energy states that it is “the energy that a piece of matter has because of its position or nature or because of the arrangement of parts.” Kinetic energy is defined as “energy associated with motion”
The quantity and quality of kinetic energy that a “piece of matter” has is predicated on the quantity and quality of its potential energy. We as human beings are more than just ‘pieces of matter’, but for all intents and purposes, this refers to us as well. The more potential energy something or someone has, the more kinetic energy there is to be expressed.
This is why Chiropractic is all about improving the potential of health. If we think about the definition of potential energy, we see that it fits very well with the objective of chiropractic.
Chiropractic wants to improve the arrangement of certain parts of the human body, specifically the Spine and the Nerve System. Nerves control all the movements we make, sense everything we feel, regulate our body organs and relate us to the outside world. One main job of the Spine is to protect the Nerves and allow them to perform their functions.
When the Spine and Nerves are not in the best arrangement, it lowers our potential for health. The best example of a Spine/Nerve disarrangement is a vertebral subluxation.
A vertebral subluxation distorts the structure of the spine and disrupts the function of the Nerves. Our potential for health is lowered.
A chiropractic adjustment aims to put the Spine in a better position in relation to the Nerves. The better the position the Spine and Nerves are in, the better potential we have for health.
When your health potential is optimized, your kinetic health benefits as well.
- Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP
Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP is a pediatric, family wellness and upper cervical specific Chiropractor. He is an active member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA). Dr. Jarek has postgraduate certification in Pediatric Chiropractic through the ICPA. Dr. Jarek also has postgraduate certification in the HIO Specific Brain Stem technique through The TIC Institute. Dr. Jarek is happily married to his wife Regina. They live in Youngstown, Ohio with their daughter Ruby.
