Newsletter: July 2003

Not long ago a gentleman came into our office so bent over that he was holding his ankles. "Hurry up and fix me", he said. "I'm leaving on holidays in the morning".

Although there are occasions where someone crawls or is carried into a chiropractor's office, and walks out under his/her own power, those are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if a chiropractor could undo the results of injuries, or a lifetime of neglect and/or poor lifestyle choices with a simple click of the spine?

However, many factors are involved in the healing process. The gentleman above was overweight, smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and was 'too busy' to exercise. He had a stressful job which required many hours of travelling and he just looked 'unhealthy'. His expectation was that I could magically 'snap him back in place'. But, he was not keen on any lifestyle changes I tried to recommend, nor did he wish to have to pay for more than one treatment.

Why does it sometimes seem to take so long to correct a condition which may appear, on the surface, to be such a simple problem?

In chiropractic, each adjustment builds upon all the previous ones, like a mason putting bricks in a wall. Chiropractic helps give your body the chance to heal itself by restoring the full nerve supply needed for the job. Remember, we're dealing with the underlying cause of your problem, not just masking your symptoms. While it may be much easier to take pills, or just submit to surgery to get rid of symptoms than to correct the underlying cause of your problem, your condition developed as a result of an injury, or poor health and posture habits over a long time. Think of the miracle that is happening with chiropractic: your body is healing itself without drugs or surgery!

Consider this: When you go to the dentist, he/she checks your teeth for cavities. A cavity can be very painful, but it does not appear overnight. It takes time. After the cavity is filled, the pain is gone but we are encouraged to brush and floss daily to prevent further cavities. Prevention is the key.

Another metaphor is the automobile. We do NOT say to our mechanic, "Thanks for the tune-up...I'll be back as soon as there is smoke pouring out from under the hood!" Car care is expensive. However, it is more expensive in the long run NOT to take care of it! Most of us wouldn't really wait to do routine maintenance until there was smoke pouring out from under the hood, so why do so many people wait until they have symptoms of poor health before they do any corrective maintenance to their bodies?

If you don't do your exercise, don't follow your doctor's recommendations, don't come in for adjustments as recommended, and don't get better...who are you going to blame? Your doctor, right? It goes like this: "I went to a chiropractor ONCE...and it didn't help!"

A chiropractor can put your "bones back into place", but without the muscle tone and flexibility to help your adjustments hold, and unless you can avoid lifestyle habits which add stress and toxins to your body, you're not going to get the maximum benefit from the time you put in.

So whether you are leaving on holidays or you are just tired of being in pain, we want you to know that we understand and care. But we really can't say often enough ... " PREVENTION IS THE KEY! "

Dr. Larry, as most of you know, practices what he preaches. He is very fitness motivated. He is a marathon and triathlon participant; he volunteers time with local sports groups; and gives cost-free talks throughout the community promoting preventative health care. He can often be seen in "training mode" in the community. The weekend of June 21st he participated in the New Balance Half Ironman Triathlon at Elk Lake in Victoria. This was a two kilometre swim; 90 k bike and 20 k run. He finished it in 6 hours and 11 minutes...which was 23 minutes faster than last year. He was very pleased to see so many people from our community there. Participating in the event were several 'local' MDs; Physiotherapists; Massage Therapists; other Chiropractors as well as several educators. Well done to them all! These people are all 'walking their talk'.

Dr. Larry urges everyone to get outside and walk, run or wheel, hop, skip, jump, swim, golf, stretch and PLAY. The weather has been great for getting outside and moving. Remember the quote about tree planting: "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago...the second best time is NOW!" It is never too late to commit to get fit.

Dr. Larry regularly gives talks in the community on this very subject of preventative health care. He last spoke at the Parksville Lion's Club dinner/meeting on June 3rd. The feedback we've gotten from this presentation states how "informative and helpful" his talk was. Several people commented on how the humour he injects into his presentations was particularly well received. If you belong to a group or know someone who would be interested in having Dr. Larry speak to their group, please contact us at our office (info below).

Once again, I wish to inform all of our readers that Dr. Larry has added the Activator Method to his practice. For more information on this low impact style of adjustments, please see last month's newsletter online, or come in for a copy. You can also visit www.activator.com for more info.

SPECIAL NOTICE TO PATIENTS:

After surveying our patients, we have decided to change our Thursday hours. We will be open from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. on Thursday evenings instead of our current morning only session. We will begin opening for Thursday evenings on July 24th. We sincerely hope that this change will be beneficial for our working patients who have difficulty making appointments that fit their hours.

TRAVEL ADVISORY

With vacation time being upon us, we would like to pass on this little alert about travelling since national security has increased everywhere. At Kennedy Airport last week, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a compass, a protractor and a graphical calculator. Authorities believe he is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He is being charged with carrying 'weapons of math instruction'!

Be careful out there.

We invite you to sign up for Dr. Larry's newsletter, which is sent out periodically with interesting new health information. When you click below an email will be generated, and then you simply press "send" on your email software.

Contact the office:
Dr. Larry Smith D.C., B.P.E.
Chiropractor

P.O. Box 307
255 Island Highway
Parksville, British Columbia
Canada V9P 2G5