What is Health?
What is health?
Is it just the absence of pain? Not being the hospital? Is it only physical? What about mental? Social? Emotional?
We hear it all the time, "I am not in pain, so I am fine." This is a frustrating comment to hear. Health is both simple and complex due to our cultural health views. What we know is true, is health is not just physical, and it is definitely NOT the absence of pain.
First, we must acknowledge how your mental health, physical health, emotional health, and overall social well being are all intertwined. If one section is lacking health, then all parts are affected.
So what is health?
Our body is showing us our health all the time. Here are 5 indicators of health.
Clear skin:
Clear, glowing skin is a sign of hydration and health. Your skin is the largest organ of the body. What we put in the body shows on the outside of the body. Dry itchy skin, rashes, acne, eczema, unusual hair growth, sun spots, moles, changes in skin texture, are all signs about what is going on INSIDE the body. If any of these things are occurring for you, it might be time to take a closer look at the cause of these symptoms, not just on how to cover up the symptoms. A good place to start with healing the skin, is to look at what foods we are putting in our body, testing for food allergies or environmental allergies, increasing hydration, or identifying hormone imbalances.
Regular, normal poop:
Your poop is the window to your gut health. Identifying a healthy bowel includes checking color, frequency, smell, and shape. It should be smooth, a brown color, and an S shape. Chronic diarrhea or constipation are signs that there is a need to attend to one’s health. Unhealthy poop can be caused by medications, food intolerances, not feeding the body the food it needs, dehydration, and an inactive lifestyle.
In addition, I hate to break it to you, but your poop should not be so smelly. That is a sign of unhealthy bacteria in the gut. Your gut is vital to good health! Much of your immune system lives in your gut, so when they say you are what you eat...they are not too far off. Tracking your bowel movements and what is coming out of you is a great way to look and see if there are gut issues that need to be addressed.
Not having regular anxiety:
This can be a more touchy subject, as anxiety and depression may be caused by imbalances in brain chemicals or trauma and life experiences. In also may be that you are not just an anxious, nervous person. Anxiety may be tied to nutrients and hormonal health. If you are missing magnesium or have a hormone imbalance it can lead to anxiety and depression. Your hormones are vital to your health. These hormones may be disrupted by hormonal birth control, environmental chemicals, or chemicals in our foods. This can be very prominent for women, especially. Until recently, hormone health was rarely discussed and hormones were talked about as if it is a curse put upon us. But really, healthy hormones can protect us from a myriad of diseases. This includes heart and bone health.
Consistent energy levels
Everyday at 3pm do you crave coffee? What if we told you that it is very common to have a drop in energy in the afternoon, but it is not healthy. This often happens due to dehydration and too many unhealthy foods! Changes in lifestyle can create changes in energy. Decreasing sugary, unhealthy carbohydrates, caffeine, and increasing enough movement, are all ways to combat this. Often it is caused by metabolic dysfunction. A healthy diet and regular movement can protect against many metabolic diseases.
Sometimes, the hardest part of health, is knowing what steps to take. At Dover Health Care Center Chiropractic, in Dover, Delaware, we are believe making small, incremental changes over time help new habits stick, and can revolutionize your health.
So much of health is identifying where we can be healthier and making those changes. With chiropractic, it is not focused on symptoms, but focused on getting to the root of the problems that leads to the symptoms.
We approach health with an individualized approach to what your specific needs are. What we admire so much about chiropractic, is that it is so focused on holistic care. To get to the root of the problem, we must first be able to define what is healthy. We recognize your pain is why you often walk into the office, but if you are looking for true health, we must look at the function of your body. When focusing on function, we then decrease the pain, naturally.
Maybe it is time we change the conversation from pain to health. Feel free to reach out to us in Delaware or seek out a chiropractor that focuses on family wellness care. Most importantly, surround yourself with a health team that focuses on your needs.