In the last article, we looked at the first Proactive approach in the hierarchy of health – Protection. Instead of reacting to problems as they arise, in protection we proactively take steps to prevent problems in the future. The benefit to this approach is that we have fewer costly and inconvenient health crises AND generally our overall health (and perhaps other problems) will improve at the same time.

The limitations of protection are that it is impossible to prevent any and all potential problems from arising (if you want to make God laugh, tell him/her your plans!) and protection does nothing to take you to the next level of health and well-being (it just keeps you where you are).

This leads us to the final rung on the hierarchy of health – Optimization. Optimization is where the healthiest and most vital people spend the majority of their time, focus and energy.

In Optimization, the focus is not on fixing problems (reactive), or even on preventing future problems (protection). The focus of optimization is on increasing our level of health and becoming more resourceful over time. Instead of focusing on what we DON’T want (problems), we shift towards seeking what we DO want (health, energy, vitality, resilience, performance, etc.).

Why does the approach of Optimization produce the healthiest people on the planet? It does so because it is the only approach that has actual health as the outcome!

If you take a pill and your headache goes away, it does not mean you are healthier – in fact you are probably now a bit less healthy. If you correct a structural abnormality and your back pain goes away you are probably somewhat healthier, but for how long? Regular self care to prevent a relapse of pain or disease likely improves overall health levels, but if you are only focused on whether the problem comes back or not, how do you know?

Optimization has the goal of moving forward and getting better. A maestro doesn’t ask ‘how little do I have to practice in order to stay as good as I already am?’ A maestro asks, ‘how can I refine things so that I am a little better today than I was yesterday?’ I have a friend who is a retired concert musician and he told me that even as his physical skills have diminished with age, his discernment and enjoyment of the same music continues to improve.

People who approach health from the perspective of Optimization are maestros of their health. Success is based on vitality, high energy levels, clear headedness, mental and emotional fulfillment, physical and mental performance, the ability to learn and carry out new things, and having the energy and ability to contribute to others.

It is not that these individuals never have health problems that need to be treated in a reactive way (although they tend to happen much less in these folks). What you do see is that they learn from these crises and often come out the other side better. Optimizers also tend to miraculously get better as they age.

Many of you know that I receive the care I deliver at Nexus Chiropractic on a regular basis from my personal chiropractors in Gatineau. Even though my back hurts sometimes, I don’t go there to get my back pain fixed. I also don’t go there to prevent any future problems. I take the time out of my crazy schedule to make the 5-hour return trip because I literally see each entrainment as an opportunity to improve the efficiency of my nervous system and thereby increasing my level of health. That is what our Optimization programs at Nexus are designed to produce.

The next article will be the final installment in this series. We will summarize the Hierarchy of Health and give you some practical ways to evaluate what outcomes you desire for your health and determine what changes you can make to get there.

In the last article we identified a hierarchy of approaches to health. Success leaves clues and if you observe the healthiest people in the world, you see that they approach ‘health care’ much differently from those who struggle.

We also looked at the first rung on the hierarchy ladder – Symptom Treatment. The value of symptom treatment is that it can buy us some time to get through a crisis so that we can heal and regain our health at a later, safer time. The challenges with symptom treatment are that it does not consider the underlying cause of the problem and very often actually harms our long-term health.

Moving beyond symptom treatment, we come to the next level on the Hierarchy of Health. That approach is Addressing the Cause. An individual with this approach to health may experience the same back pain or headache as someone who just pops a pain killer but will take significantly different actions.

A person who addresses the cause understands that a headache isn’t caused by an Advil deficiency. That a muscle doesn’t just ‘spasm’ for no reason. That high blood pressure is a sign of something deeper going on.

While addressing the cause seems like a great idea to virtually everyone, it is not employed by nearly as many people as you would think. The reason for this is that it takes more work than just treating a symptom. It requires you ask different questions and it typically requires more action over a longer period of time. It is more work to pull out the dandelions by their roots than just chopping off their heads with the lawn mower.

Our office sees many people who first come to us with back pain, neck pain, and headaches. Most of them have spent a significant amount of time merely treating symptoms. After examining their spine and nervous system we often see significant structural distortions and a hyper vigilant nervous system leading to muscle spasms and/or weakness, organic issues, and even shifts in mental/emotional well-being.

Does addressing the abnormalities in the spine and nervous system take more time and effort than treating the individual symptoms? You bet. Is it worth it? I think so.

The added bonus to addressing the underlying cause is that people will usually notice that other, more subtle problems that they may not have even been concerned with start to improve also.  In our office, while most people first come to us with some sort of pain concern they quickly report more energy, better sleep, better athletic performance, faster healing, enhanced digestion, better mood and other conditions resolving. Why? A healthier nervous system leads to a better functioning body.

Unlike symptom treatment, when we address the underlying cause our overall health improves at the same time.

So, if you are not getting the results you desire when it comes to your health, perhaps there are some areas where you can look at addressing the cause, as opposed to – or in addition to – just treating symptoms? How might your health be different if in the past, when faced with a challenge you had taken care of the cause right then and there?

How much better would your lawn look today, had you pulled the dandelions by there roots 5 years ago?

In the next article we will take the next step in the hierarchy of health and look at Prevention.

Thorin Gault, D.C.

Health is something that we all want and as a society we are pretty obsessed with getting it. Turn on the television, open a magazine or even scroll through social media and you will be bombarded with information and products regarding the pursuit of health.

Unfortunately, this obsession has not been successful in giving us what we want. Very few people achieve the glowing health they seek. However you define health, the fact is that most people are frustrated and dissatisfied with their health and well-being.

In working with thousands of people in a health care setting over the past 18 years, I have observed that much of this frustration comes from a mismatch between expectation and approach. What that means is that people often WANT one thing but take an APPROACH that cannot deliver on that desire.

The reason for this mismatch is most often a result of just not being aware. It isn’t laziness or a lack of intelligence – people have never been taught and therefore just don’t know what it takes to get what they desire.

In this article we will be looking at the hierarchy of health goals (from least to most healthy), so that you can determine YOUR goals and then tailor your approach to make sure you achieve them.

The first goal on the hierarchy of health is Symptom Treatment. The goal of symptom treatment is to get rid of symptoms as they arise. So, if you have a headache, you take a pain killer to get rid of it. If you have heart disease, you take drugs or have surgery to treat it.

Symptom treatment is successful when you are comfortable again. The goal is not better function or structure, just feeling better in the moment.

The reality is that this is how most people really define health in their own lives. They figure that if they don’t have pain and symptoms, they are good and for that reason they mostly seek out treatments that are designed to eliminate symptoms.

In the short term, this approach can be very beneficial. In a life-threatening crisis, it can save our life. It can get us through some sticky times so that we can live another day and heal.

Where this approach becomes problematic is that it is purely superficial. Most symptoms are secondary conditions being caused by something more fundamental. Headaches and back pain aren’t just PAIN, there is something else going on that your body is trying to tell you about. While taking a pill or getting one chiropractic adjustment is easy, it likely isn’t going to solve the underlying condition any more that chopping the heads off of dandelions will give you a putting green lawn.

In addition, covering up symptoms can actually decrease your overall, long term health in a couple of ways. The first way is that it allows you to be comfortable while you ignore a health problem. If you shoot the messenger screaming about the upcoming attack, guess what? You are in ever bigger trouble.

The second way it can decrease your health is that the symptom treatments may be harmful. Even something seemingly as mild as an over the counter pain killer taken over the years can have detrimental effects, not to mention the well know problems with opioids other stronger drugs. Even simple routine surgeries can have long lasting deleterious health effects.

So, it is important to know what you want and how to get it. If you want glowing, long term health but only evaluate your ‘treatments’ based on short term symptom relief, you are unlikely to achieve your goal.

When you do choose to treat symptoms (I do), is it in the larger context of buying you some time so that you can address the more fundamental issues in the near future? Do you follow up on those issues, or wait until the next crisis to pay attention?

The magic of the Hierarchy of Health is to become clear on what you REALLY want and noticing if you are getting it. From there you can tweak your approach to a point that success if inevitable.

In the next article we will continue along the Hierarchy of Health. You may even decide to upgrade your goals and expectations to produce results you never thought possible.

Thorin Gault, D.C.

Over the next several articles we will be exploring – in detail – the 4 Ways of Healthcare. Each Way has a different approach to how we treat our health, different outcomes or objectives, and different ways to measure success. Above all else, which Way we focus on will certainly determine how healthy we are – or are not.

We all spend at least some time using several of the Ways of healthcare, yet most of us do so unconsciously – unaware of exactly what we are doing and why. The unfortunate, yet all too common, impact of this lack of understanding and awareness is desiring one health related outcome and acting in a way that cannot produce it. This is not due to a lack of discipline or will power – it is due to an ineffective approach.

It is my experience and belief that the major cause of frustration with our own personal health, as well as the ‘healthcare system’ is this lack of understanding. We spend too much time, effort and resources on approaches that cannot create the result we desire.

The purpose of this series of articles is to help you to define PRECISELY what you want in regards to you and your family’s health and then to CONSCIOUSLY choose a Way to get there. Included in this will be some suggested practices and interventions in each of these ways.

Something very important to understand is that each of the  4 Ways are good and appropriate at specific times. Each is effective at producing its own result. I have seen some health ‘gurus’ promote one Way as the only way and I believe this to be folly.

Each has a time, each has a place. The key to great results is to apply the appropriate approach at the appropriate time. The only way to do this is to understand what you want and how to get it.

So without further delay, the 4 Ways of Healthcare are:

Symptom Treatment – This approach seeks relief from pain, symptoms, or crisis. I prefer the term secondary condition over pain or symptom because it more accurately reflects what is actually going on. Pain and symptoms don’t typically exist on their own – they are secondary to something more primary underlying the problem.

The Symptom Treatment Way of healthcare is considered successful if the immediate secondary condition is relieved – by any means possible. If a person with back pain or headache takes a narcotic and feels better, the treatment is deemed successful and we move on our way.

There are many treatments and practitioners who are very good at Symptom Treatment. This is NOT our focus at Nexus Chiropractic.

An easy to understand analogy is that of a lawn covered in dandelions (I kind of like dandelions but my neighbours do NOT). Using the first Way of healthcare we would simply chop the heads of the flowers off with a lawnmower and call it a day. Quick, easy, effective…..until?

The second Way of Healthcare goes a bit deeper than symptom treatment and Addresses the Primary Condition that may have led to the symptom. This is the baseline type of care we provide at Nexus and where most people start with us.

This Way of healthcare may monitor symptoms in the background but does not primarily use symptom relief as a measure of success.

Obviously this second Way of healthcare requires a bit more work than the first and absolutely requires baseline objective indicators (an examination beyond symptoms), a reasonable plan of correction (beyond symptom relief), and an objective follow up to determine whether the primary condition was handled.

To go back to our dandelion analogy, in this Way of healthcare, we have to get down on our hands and knees with a tool and start pulling weeds out by their roots. More work? Yes. More time? Yes. More sustainable and long lasting results? Absolutely.

The third Way of healthcare is Prevention/Adaptability. The focus here shifts away from fixing anything to preventing problems in the future. This includes tuning things up before they get turn into pain or disability as well as helping the body to be more adaptable to future stress and trauma.

At Nexus, people using this third Way of healthcare are what we call our protection patients. We have already done the work to normalize the primary condition and now do regular tune ups to keep things in tip top shape.

Going back to the dandelion story. Prevention may include pulling a few weeds from time to time or feeding the lawn special nutrients twice a year to prevent future dandelion overgrowth.

The fourth and final Way of healthcare is Optimization. Optimization goes beyond correction and prevention and focuses on making things better and more efficient over time. This Way is extremely rare in healthcare today.

The folks who use this Way of healthcare at Nexus are our optimization practice members – different from patients looking to treat or prevent something bad. These people desire continued improvement in spine and nervous system efficiency and evolving levels of health.

In our lawn analogy, the focus now turns on the health and beauty of not only the grass, but the entire grounds. Planning, time, and effort go into making the yard more functional and brilliant every season.

In the upcoming articles we will be digging deeper into each Way of Healthcare, the results they produce, and how you can choose which one is appropriate for you at any given time.

In the final article of this series we will shift the focus away from being DOOMED to a lifetime of frustrating secondary conditions and worsening health and onto the HOW of going deeper to get better. While many of you found the last article rather negative, I disagree. Once we are AWARE of what is not working, we now have a choice to do something different in order to obtain a better result. What could be more positive than that?

The first key in Going Deeper to Get Better is to begin changing the questions we ask of ourselves and our doctors when faced with a challenge. This definitely takes some practice as our habitual questions are usually so ingrained that we aren’t even aware of them.

Let’s say you wake up one morning with a nasty headache or backache. What questions do you start asking? Most people would say, “What is wrong with my ___? What is wrong with me? How do I get rid of this pain?” Or some combination of those.

Now, what is the best possible outcome from these questions? The best outcome would be some kind of treatment that would successfully get rid of the pain for the time being. Seems great except….we now know that this will eventually lead us to….DOOM.

What are some different questions we could ask that will start the process of going deeper? The possibilities are endless, but some examples are: “What is going on here? Why is this pain showing up now? What could this condition be related to? What have I been doing that may have contributed to this?”

These questions move us away from ‘fixing’ the secondary condition and towards seeing what is behind it. This is the EXACT purpose of pain and symptoms – to get us to pay attention, look deeper and then make a change!

These questions may lead us to make some lifestyle changes that will not only help the pain, but make us healthier and happier. They may help us to discover and then address a primary condition behind the secondary that will have a profound impact on our well-being. Perhaps we will become aware of a pattern of behaviour or thought that has been having a negative impact on our quality of life.

Can you see that a lifetime of asking these questions will lead to better awareness, better choices and better outcomes?

Naturally, this approach can be used in other area of your life. If your child (or spouse!) are screaming, you can turn up the TV volume or dig deeper to see what is going on. If a student is getting bad grades they can cheat on the next test or develop some new strategies. If you can’t make your rent you can try to find the $ you need, or make whatever changes are necessary to be sure to have it next month and the months after that.

Make going deeper a new habit. Ask better questions and you will get better answers. I promise that it will change your life.

At Nexus Chiropractic we focus on looking deeper and we help our patients to learn how to do so as well. An excellent resource is our complimentary workshop that we present every month at the office. The next one is Sept. 17^th at 7pm. Just phone our office to reserve a seat.