Understanding Prevenative Health Care

Understanding Preventative Healthcare
Dr. Corey J. Sondrup, DC,

Whether you are new to holistic/natural healthcare or rooted in traditional medicine, the concept of preventative healthcare should not be ignored. For most of the population, optimal health ranks low on the priority list. Sure, we all want it, but most people are not willing to do what it takes to achieve it.

All other facets of life get attention. Most people take cars in on a regular basis for oil/filter changes or tune-ups. We take out the garbage every week, mow the grass, weed the flower beds, dust and vacuum the house, and put in overtime at work. When it comes to our bodies, we wait until we are sick or when we are in terrible pain before we seek the care of a physician. Like our bodies if we put off cleaning the house, grooming the yard, taking car of the cars and miss work, things tend to fall apart faster. It takes longer to clean up the mess, more money to pay for repairs, less money in our bank accounts and more and more stress.

The body works the same way. The longer we neglect it the longer it takes to recover when an emergency arises. That is where preventive healthcare comes to play. Why are we told to get a yearly physical? Because, if we do come down with a serious illness, early detection can mean the difference between life and death. The earlier the detection, the shorter the recovery/healing time. The same thing applies with natural/holistic healthcare. As a chiropractor, nutritionist, kinesiolgist, I see this every day. My patients that take care of themselves by, eating right, exercising, drinking plenty of water, avoiding drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and receiving periodic chiropractic-bioenergetics treatment. Recover three times faster then patients that don’t regularly take care of themselves. Think of your body as a bank. Every time we exercise, eat well, avoid garbage, take vitamins and minerals, and get regular treatments, it’s like making lots of daily health deposits in your body bank. Now let’s say you get in a fender bender and suffer from whiplash, or you injure your shoulder or knee during recreation. If your account is full your recovery time is faster with less pain and discomfort. If you have not been making daily deposits, your recovery time is much slower with increased pain and discomfort. Not to mention your financial bank account will be much lower not only form time off of work, but for the extra office visits while a physician like myself attempts to put you back together. My job is three times easier if your body bank account is full.

Remember there are two types of healthcare, emergency and preventative. Emergency healthcare is for accidents, injuries, and life threatening situations. Preventative healthcare is such that if you are unfortunate enough to suffer with a condition that needs emergency healthcare your recovery/healing time will be much faster. What about cancer, heart disease and diabetes? Unfortunately, emergency healthcare is not equipped to handle chronic debilitating diseases. The diseases are the direct result (except for a tiny percentage attributed to genetics) of our body bank accounts being in the red. If we had kept our bank accounts in the black, the chances of getting these diseases would be greatly reduced or eliminated.

Unfortunately, when a patient with a chronic disease seeks out holistic/natural treatments, their bank accounts are usually empty. This makes our jobs as physicians much more difficult.

Preventative healthcare is the key to optimal health and longevity. Adherence to the principles of preventative health can and will reduce and or eliminate the prevalence of chronic diseases as well as infectious diseases like colds and flu.