Did you brush your teeth this morning? 

Why did you do that?  Did they hurt?

Usually the answer is going to be no.  But yet day in and day out we brush our teeth after breakfast and after dinner before we go to bed right?  Why is this?

From a young age, we are taught how to look after our teeth.  Not to eat too many sweet things and to brush them morning and night to prevent getting plaque build up and tooth decay and so hopefully we don’t get fillings, and with a long term goal of having our real teeth for as long as possible later on in life.  But no one ever teaches us how to look after our spine.

As an expert in the spine and having studied it full time for over 5 years and being involved with Chiropractic for around 10 years now, I get my spine examined or checked on a regular basis, and will continue to do so till the day I die.  I also think that if people knew what I knew about the spine, they would consider looking into doing the same.  Just the same as I didn’t brush my teeth this morning because they hurt, I don’t get my spine checked because it hurts either, but I want to make sure it has healthy alignment and that it is properly protecting all the nerves in my body that carry vital messages from my brain to every other part of my body.

Most people associate Chiropractic care with having a sore back, sore neck, or headaches/migraines.  Don’t get me wrong, if you have these problems we can and should be the first port of call to get you back on track to a proper functioning body, but the truth is there is a lot more benefits associated with having a healthy functioning spine than just relief of aches and pains, and not just now but later on in life as well.

When indicated we take x-rays of the spine and these can identify potential underlying issues, which gives us the opportunity to address them before they even are allowed to become problems later on.  Prevention’s better than cure, you’ve probably heard that before?!  It makes sense to get on top of it before hand while it’s still easily manageable, as oppose to later on when things can be quite difficult to change because they’ve had years and years of compounding stress built up.  In the same way I guess that it makes sense to brush your teeth regularly now, as oppose to waiting till you teeth get decay and holes in them!

As a way of thanking Etch magazine for allowing me to write this article, there is a special offer for Etch readers if they have found any of this information useful and would like to be proactive about their spine, so do get in contact for more details about that as well.