Scribbled on my office white board with mathematical symbols was the equation: Chiropractic does not equal health. My patients were stunned. Surely this was a heretical chiropractic proclamation.

“How can you say that Dr. Lamar? Isn’t that the whole point of chiropractic?” went their puzzled queries.

“Nope,” was my response every time.

Breathing doesn’t equal health either. Just because you are sucking wind does not mean you are healthy. True, you need to breathe in order to have the opportunity to be healthy, but breathing — in and of itself — does not equal health.

Too often, we chiropractors paint ourselves into a corner when we teach the public that chiropractic equals health — like it will magically transform them. Perhaps somebody in marketing thought this would be a good idea. It’s not. The truth, is health takes work.

Most people initially seek chiropractic care in a state of crisis — overburdened with symptoms of ill health. Consequently, attaining any semblance of true health takes more than a “pop and a crack.”

For some, decades of neglect have so degenerated their spines that full recovery of their health is no longer an option. Thanks to the body’s amazing ability to adapt, though, improvement is often possible.

So what is chiropractic and what does it have to do — if anything — with health?

Chiropractic is about life. It’s about ensuring that the powerful life-energy of the body is able to flow unimpeded over the nervous system. This is accomplished by attending to the spine on a regular basis to establish proper movement and alignment. It’s when this uninterfered innate intelligence of the body — capable of self healing and self regulation — is able to communicate with every cell, tissue, and organ, that the foundational, functional constructs of body are set in place. Add to this the smart lifestyle choices of diet, exercise, rest, and positive thoughts, and now you have the equation for health.

And so, while chiropractic does not equal health, trying to achieve it without chiropractic does not equate.

— Dr. Thomas R. Lamar is a chiropractor at Anchor Chiropractic in the Health Services Center and hosts SpinalColumnRadio.com.  He can be reached at 360-297-8111.