– by Dr. Mark Smith, Progressive Chiropractic –
My appointment schedule this week is pretty typical of most chiropractic offices. Most of the clientele are women, and many of these women are scheduled for wellness, or maintenance care. The men make up the rest and many have no intention of returning after they’re feeling well enough to get back to their usual routine. After several years in practice it’s clear that men often wait until they get hit with the proverbial “sledgehammer” before they seek my help.
As young boys it’s ingrained into our psyche: you “grin and bear it,” you “gut it out,” you “suck it up” and you certainly don’t cry. The ability to push through injury and nagging health issues is a trait that has long been glorified and revered in our culture; heroes are made of athletes who do exactly this. So when a man ignores a health issue, he is simply living up to a social standard he’s become accustomed to, and for a lot of men there’s no changing this.
A “Disease” can be found in a medical textbook with a neat symptomatic explanation and picture beside it along with a recommended drug or procedure to treat it. This is the sort of issue most people are taught as children to seek help with. However, most of the human suffering I see and help people with can’t be defined and put into a neat little box this way, but can be described as “Dis-Ease,” or a lack of smooth, normal body function. It’s this sort of thing that gives people headaches for no apparent reason, causes aches and pains, unexplained digestive problems, occasional chest pains, or numbness in the fingers. It’s this sort of thing that most people – especially men – struggle seeking help with.
They might think differently though if they stopped to consider how their health is affecting those around them. They would probably tune in and listen to that wee little voice, that “alarm bell,” that nagging health issue, sooner if they stepped back and considered what affect their health was potentially having on their families, coworkers and friends.
Maybe that nagging issue causes just enough pain and discomfort that your temper with your spouse or children is shorter. Maybe you’re less efficient at work, and others to have to pick up the slack because of it. Maybe the pain is putting just enough stress on your body that it’s raising your heart rate, releasing stress hormones and slowly causing your health to deteriorate.
When you throw a stone into a pond, it creates ripples; the same thing happens when your health is suffering. Your loved ones are affected whether you intend for them to be or not. As important as your health is to your own quality of life, it’s important to the lives of those around you – the ones you love who are depending on you to be the true version of yourself that you are when you’re healthy.
Sometimes men do tune into the fact that they need to take better care of themselves, but they do it far too late. Maybe they’re 80 years old, entering my office using a walker and relying heavily on a loved one for care, 30 or 40 years late for their first appointment. No one wants this reality, so regardless of your gender, consider scrapping the silly notion of your indestructibility and listen to that little inner voice telling you that you know better. Otherwise, be prepared, because sooner or later the sledgehammer tends to make people listen.
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