Don't Shoot the Messenger

When a person first goes to any doctor, he or she goes there because they are experiencing a problem of some sort and are seeking help to relieve that problem. The medical doctor will start by treating the symptoms attempting to also find what causes those symptoms. The primary focus here is trying to relieve the symptoms and hoping that will take care of the cause.

Chiropractic will also try to relieve the problem that brought the patient to the clinic, but chiropractors look to find where the spine may be out of place (subluxation) as the cause of the symptoms and relieve that cause. Sometimes it may take several visits to make sure of the cause and its relief.

Pain is generally the method our bodies use to bring us a message that something is wrong within our bodies. Sometimes we can understand where the pain is coming from and treat the cause that the pain was warning us about. But sometimes, and it seems more and more likely with chronic illnesses, the pain is not specific enough to let us know what the cause is. In that case, medical doctors will treat the pain and call it good if the pain goes away.

But too often, relieving the pain leaves the original cause to continue to grow under the surface making the situation worse in the long run. We cannot afford to remove the pain if the underlying cause hasn't been completely treated. This is shooting the messenger before we understand the message.

With chiropractic, the primary purpose is focusing on the cause and removing the underlying problem. It continues to work at finding the cause if it is not immediately apparent with the goal of achieving wellness, not just relieving symptoms.