“Don’t Fix It If It’s Not Broken”: A Proactive Approach to Chiropractic Care

For most of us, we live by the motto that if it’s not broken—don’t try to fix it. This analogy works great for material things such as planes, trains, and automobiles. But does that motto work for our human body, which has more immaterial aspects to its physiology and harmony than we often give credit for?

The Correlation Between Feeling and Functioning

Can we really look at our health or well-being and believe for even a minute that how our body feels is 100% correlated to how well it’s functioning?

We just discussed in the previous article that healing is a state of demand and supply taking place on the horizontal axis, and how the restoration from 50% to 100% cannot be easily monitored like the percentage of battery left on your phone.

Demand and supply within your body are measured through the occurrence of forces and energy, and your well-being battery requires recharging or restoration on a daily basis due to the demands you put on it through use and stress.

Pain as the Gauge

Unfortunately, our physiology does not come equipped with an energy percentage gauge for you to know how much supply is left in the tank of health. For most, pain is the gauge people use to monitor how much demand can be placed on the body before the motto “don’t fix it if it’s not broken” comes into play.

So if pain is a poor yardstick to measure the currency of how much health is left in the bucket of well-being, then we can understand from a logical perspective why so many people visit the chiropractor on a regular basis, even though they don’t have neck or back pain that’s affecting their daily activities.

The Proactive Approach to Chiropractic Care

People who choose to see the chiropractor consistently are applying the principles of a proactive approach to their quality of life. They see that stress and demands placed on their health and well-being diminish the supply of healing and restoration from within.

They don’t wait till they experience pain—such as back pain, neck pain, or headaches—to tell them that they’ve reached their outer limits of adaptation to stress. Instead, they take a proactive approach to their quality of life by consistently keeping their internal energy high and free of physical interference—no different than charging their phone daily due to the demands of use placed on it.

Pain vs. Time as an Indicator

To be physiologically correct, pain is a great indicator that outer limits of adaptation to stress are being met. If you are in pain from the lack of adaptation, then listen to your inner signs that something needs to change. To be philosophically correct, pain is a poor indicator of dysfunction. Over time, that deviation away from function can turn into bigger problems that require more fixing from the outside-in.

Applying the physiological facts with philosophical principles can turn your well-being into a well-oiled machine that’s adapting to the day-to-day demands.

The Role of Time in Chiropractic Care

Time is always a factor in all aspects of life. Time affects planes, trains, and automobiles—and it also affects our physiology.

Rather than waiting to use pain as an indicator that dysfunction has occurred, try using time as an indicator that deviation away from wholeness has transpired from the demands you’ve placed on yourself. Time can be a great metric for determining which way the pendulum is swinging regarding your momentum toward wholeness and restoration.

Regular Chiropractic Care: A Proactive Model

People who visit the chiropractor consistently are using time as their primary indicator for restoration, compared to using symptoms such as headaches, neck pain, or back pain as indicators for when to visit the chiropractor. That doesn’t mean those individuals who are using time as the key indicator for when to visit their chiropractor are symptom-free 100% of the time. It just means they understand the process of demand from stress and supply from restoration having a breaking point where a chiropractic adjustment can facilitate the correction of dysfunction within the spine, regardless of the presence or absence of symptoms. They understand that if they want to see results from momentum, they need to focus on consistent action over time.

Consistent Chiropractic Care for a Higher Quality of Life

Focusing on time and momentum swinging the pendulum towards health and wholeness, based on the consistent action needed to take place, is a proactive approach to well-being. Regular chiropractic care in an asymptomatic model of care is proactive. It’s proactive due to the fact that dysfunction can and does occur without pain being relevant in the consumer’s awareness.

About the Author

Trent Scheidecker, DC | ChiroWay® of Woodbury | Owner & Chiropractor

Trent Scheidecker, DC, frequently visited his chiropractor when he was in high school and knew the benefits he experienced were worth the time and investment to become a chiropractor. He wanted to help his community experience a higher quality of life through regular chiropractic care. In 2010, Trent founded ChiroWay® in Woodbury and has served over 3,000 clients. He has been named “Best of Woodbury” in Woodbury Magazine seven times. Trent has also mentored colleagues in practice and franchised ChiroWay® in 2012. Today, there are 8 ChiroWay® locations throughout Minnesota.