Sunset Chiropractic Clinic

Back Issues

MEDICINE vs. ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE

The real difference between traditional medicine and alternative health-care methods such as chiropractic is not so much in the techniques as in the philosophy behind the care. There are two main philosophies of health care--the vitalistic view and the mechanistic view. The vitalists believe that there is an innate intelligence, an inner wisdom that knows what's best for the body and heals it from the inside-out. The mechanists believe that the body is basically a machine that tends to break down and needs a lot of tinkering to keep it running smoothly. This view of health has the philosophy that healing comes more from the outside-in.

Drugs and surgery are mechanistic ways of trying to get the body to heal from the outside-in. While there is no arguing that there can be a crisis where the body is too over-whelmed to heal itself (i.e. your eyeball is hanging out of the socket), the majority of mechanistic treatments often over-ride the body's natural healing instincts. Let's say that your body is running a fever. A mechanist would say that the body-machine is over-heating and would want to give you a drug to stop the fever. A vitalist would say that the body is trying to kill off germs by cooking them and that if you try to suppress the fever to make the patient more comfortable, the body has more trouble killing the germs. This can make the patient sick for longer than if you had just let the body do it's thing.

Exercise, nutrition, positive mental attitude, naturopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture, and chiropractic care are all vitalistic in approach. By strengthening the body, giving it the right nutrition, thinking positively, and keeping the brain-to-body nerve channels free of interference from a misaligned spine, we can enhance the body's abilities to heal itself from the inside-out. If you cut yourself, don't you heal from the inside-out? You don't even have to think about it! That's an example of your innate intelligence at work!

Your body and mind are vitally interested in your survival and will go to great lengths to optimize your adaptation to the world and to heal from the inside-out. Who's more invested in your survival? A prescription drug or your body's inner wisdom? My job as your chiropractor is to help open the nerve channels so that your brain can tell your own body how best to heal itself. Remember, no one cares more about your health than your own brain and innate intelligence!!