Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: A Chiropractor’s Perspective (Part 1)
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it. Psalm 139:14
Imagine if you had at your disposal, a health care delivery system that didn’t drug you and your family; didn’t minimize or ignore God’s principals for health and healing; and that was a scientific approach to helping babies, kids, and adults get healthy - and stay healthy - by making sure the central processing of their body is in alignment and free of interference, just the way God made you.
Imagine this health care system where doctors sought to honor and work with the intelligence that is from God who created the body, and then this system had a way -by hand – to adjust away areas of interference to this intelligence (usually not felt by the person) to maximize the potential for that individual.
What I am talking about does exist. You may not be aware of this approach to healthcare, but it is utilized by millions of Americans each year and happens to be the third largest primary healthcare profession. What I am talking about is Chiropractic care. You are likely somewhat familiar with this profession, but I find that most people I speak with have a very limited understanding of Chiropractic and its philosophy on health. This topic is very relevant to the Created Woman because of our foundational belief in the God Almighty and his work of art that is YOU! Keep reading and I will explain more, but I want to start by speaking to the crisis that we face in healthcare as Americans.
Repeated studies on global health continuously put the U.S. in last or second-to-last place when ranked according to several health indicators compared to other industrialized countries. One recent study put together by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, to better understand Americans’ comparative health, found a “strikingly consistent and pervasive” pattern of poorer health at all stages of life, from infancy to childhood to adolescence to young adulthood to middle and old age. As many as five out of six Americans die of heart disease or cancer. We live in a time where diseases are now becoming plagues. Asthma and allergies, as well as obesity, have tripled. We are even now seeing the dawn of a new era of diseases – Autoimmune disease. 4.5 million in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s- a number that has DOUBLED in the last two decades. 118 million antidepressants are prescribed each year for an estimated 57 million American citizens who have been told they have a mental disorder.
But what about our children? How is their health? It has been stated that this current generation of children will have shorter lifespans than their parents. That should answer the previous question pretty well. If you are an adult, how much do you remember hearing about autism when you were a child? How many people in your school were autistic? The statistics have changed drastically from 1 in 10,000 when I was born to now 1 in 65 (a new article published by the CDC stated as high as 1 in 38!).
So, enough about how unhealthy we are as a country, which is probably not new news to you. However, does the ever-increasing poorer health and increase in diseases that are considered preventable sound like the plan that God would have for our lives? I don’t think so. The real problem is two fold: first, our poor health; and second, how we are dealing with it. It’s our current health care system that I see as our biggest problem and it’s that same current system that prevents our population from getting truly well. Here is how:
· When you have symptoms you, are told to go to your doctor.
· That doctor will then treat your symptoms with one of two most common options: medications or surgery.
How much medication are we taking? To give you an idea, 4.2 Billion prescriptions were written in the U.S. in the year 2011. The Mayo Clinic says that 7 out of 10 Americans take at least one prescription drug - 70%!
Did you know there are 70 potential reactions in the average prescription drug and that there are 10 times more deaths per year from adverse drug reactions to properly prescribed and administered drugs than from illegal drugs?
Are you aware that last year the BMJ published an analysis that confirmed what has been said for over 15 years, which is that “medical errors” in hospitals and other healthcare facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States?
Have you seen the study that came out from the Journal of American Medical Association, after analyzing the benefits and dangers of our current medical system of healthcare, that stated, “On balance, the data remain imprecise, and the benefits that US healthcare currently delivers may not outweigh the aggregate health harm it imparts.”?
So where do you put your faith when it comes to your family’s health? Of course we should all be grateful for lifesaving medical care in emergencies. There is an obvious need for medical care, but I am not speaking about those situations. The danger I see is the philosophy that says you should medicate away your symptoms rather than aggressively pursuing the causes of those symptoms. It’s the mindset that there is a pill to cure just about anything that ails you, and that somehow more drugs will equate to more health. It’s the faith in a pill or a spoonful of medicine over the Power that animates the living world.
Next month, I will discuss this “power” more in-depth and expain further how Chiropractic care can help your body use its innate ability to heal itself. Until then, stay healthy!
Kelsie Keen
SUMMER SHAKE UP SERIES
GATHER HER || 07.13.17
FAITH + FASHION + FRIENDS + FREE
TOPIC: PURUSING YOUR DREAMS IN EVERY SEASON OF LIFE!
Enjoy an evening with women just like you who want to explore their faith and love all things fashion!
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Panel: Elaine Mingues, Jan Goss-Gibson, Rachel Davis
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