With tongue in cheek, I can answer this question with another question: Why do you get sick while under medical care?
Because no healthcare service, whether it is medicine, chiropractic, homeopathy, etc., is a cure-all.
Chiropractic does not claim to be a panacea. A morbid but factual point: Sickness, disease, and death come to us all. It is the nature of our reality. This does not mean we are doomed to live a life of constant sorrow.
While we can’t eradicate sickness and disease completely, we can try our best to enhance the expression of life in the form of health and wellness. Dr. Fred Barge, DC gave one of the most concise statements to the questions surrounding the cause and cure of disease and the role of any doctor in that process.
"There is but one cause in disease; the body's inability to comprehend itself and/or its environment. There is but one cure in disease; the body's ability to heal itself. And there is only one thing that any doctor can do for a patient. And that is to remove an obstruction to healing thus facilitating it."
Removing obstructions to the healing process is the purpose of Chiropractic. The fact that there is a healing process means there are situations and times that require our body to heal.
Health is the set point, but it does not live in a vacuum. Health is on a continuum. Both external and internal factors tip the scale towards and away from health on a daily basis.
Chiropractic aims to shift the momentum away from disease and towards health. Chiropractic does this by helping improve the functions of homeostasis and adaptability. This, in turn, assists the body in healing, no matter what sickness or disease is present.
Chiropractic does not treat sickness and disease. Chiropractic addresses incoordination and DIS-EASE. This does not mean Chiropractors are callous toward patients who have sickness and disease. Chiropractic is mindful of sickness and disease. Chiropractors though try to be more cognizant of the individual person who is dealing with the sickness or disease.
We also have to ask ourselves a question: What do we mean by “getting sick”? Very often, what we consider as “getting sick” is an aspect of health expression. Quoting Dr. Stephen Cummings, MD:
“Symptoms represent the body’s best effort to heal itself. By treating symptoms, you are suppressing the body’s natural response and inhibiting the healing process. Instead of treating symptoms, doctors should stimulate the body’s defenses to allow for completion of the healing process.”
The expression of health does not prevent symptoms. Symptoms are the body’s attempt to try and maintain homeostasis. The best example of the connection between symptoms and the healing process is a fever.
A fever is a normal, healthy immune response to invading pathogens. The body will raise its temperature in order to kill off germs, viruses and bacteria and other germs that are attempting to disrupt normal function. Quoting the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP):
“Fever is not an illness, rather, it is a symptom of sickness and is usually a positive sign that the body is fighting infection.”
Putting this quote through a Chiropractic lens, we can also say that a fever is not merely a “symptom of sickness” but also an “expression of health.” Remember, a fever is a normal, healthy response of our immune system to an invading pathogen. How can a healthy response just be a “symptom of sickness”?
So, does this mean you won’t get sick while under Chiropractic care? Of course not. Many different factors cause the body to misunderstand itself or its environment to the point of sickness. There is no shortage of stumbling blocks.
But removing as many obstructions as possible is a proactive approach to health and should be the goal of any doctor. Quoting Dr. Herman S. Schwartz, DC:
“The greatest aid the doctor can offer any patient is to adjust him physically, advise him nutritionally and help him to understand himself emotionally, so that he can cope with all the organismic and environmental influences, and also learn to take hereditary influences in his stride. The organism then “cures” itself, for to be “normal” is the inevitable goal of all its energies.”
Even if sickness, disease and death are inevitable, we can still strive for wellness, health and life at a greater potential. This is Chiropractic’s aim.
- 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.
