Back Pain and the 5 Pillars Of Health

When you think of a healthy person, what do you think of?  Do you think of fit, muscly people that play sports and go on runs three times a week? People that have a balanced diet for every meal? Do you think of people that have all their shit together, that balance their social life and work life really well? Or do you think of people that take every vitamin they need, daily, who get a perfect eight hours of sleep every night and are always smiling? Do you think of people that float around in a pain free bliss and who can fold themselves into any position they want if they need to with no stress or worry? All of these are great examples (but not all examples) of ‘good health’ and ultimately you don't need to have/do all of these things to be healthy… but doing some are all of these will certainly make you healthiER.

Now have a think for a minute. Which of the above describes you? 

Those of you that say all of them, I’m calling bullshit. If you’re sure about it then come and show me because we need to study you….please. 

If you say a good few of them then, genuinely, well done. Most people reading this though will not be able to say that. The issue is we know what it takes to get there, we just rarely end up putting it in to practice.

Now, I’m an Osteopath working in a chiropractic clinic. When most people think about coming to see me, or when I mention what I do to someone outside of work, the topic is always ‘aches and pains’ in nature. It’s the same for most others in my profession too. People get in to pain, or have pain when doing certain tasks, come to someone in my profession and they relieve it. That’s great and all, having less aches and pains is certainly a good thing, but is that really where we want our healthcare to stop? I mean, look at the list above, that’s just a small part of a small list of what makes people ‘healthy’.

In our practice we look at this type of health, which we call structural health, as one of our five key components of health. We call these the five pillars. 

Structural health is all about the ability for our body to perform the actions we require it to. Can these joints move, are they supported by the correct mechanisms, are the muscles controlling them properly, are they doing so efficiently, and are we asking/communicating the right intent to our bodies? If yes to all then we shouldn’t be in any lasting discomfort short of injuries, overuse or something scary going on in the background. 

But that’s now where health stops for us. For those of you that are good at maths, yes, there are 4 more to look at. These are your emotional health, chemical health, ability to recover and your neurological health

Emotional health is how we process and react to things either in our past or present and how we let those things affect us now and in the future. We can and do provide simple coaching and advice in this regard but often this needs to be done by a professional who specialises in the field. Identifying and referring/recommending this is still something we strongly believe in and partake in ourselves as it will have a huge impact on our health. Your ability to be happy, present and motivated will greatly affect you and those around you.

Chemical health looks at the balance of chemicals in our bodies. Are we producing/intaking enough of ‘X’ or too much of ‘Y’? There are hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions going on in our bodies every single day and for these to work properly we need the right ingredients. We can and do look for imbalances in this system and recommend the best course of action for it. Simple things like supplements or avoidance can be addressed quickly and with great effect. The better the ingredients, the more desirable the result. 

Recovery is as it sounds. Are you giving your body enough time to recover from the demands put on it and is your body able to use this time well? This can start with things as simple as getting an appropriate amount of sleep, eating the right things and not stressing your body too much in the same way over and over.

Your neurological health ties everything of the above together. Without your nervous system firing on all cylinders the ceiling for everything else gets lower and lower. It both affects and is affected by the other pillars simultaneously. Neither can survive without the other. In essence it is all about how your brain receives, processes and distributes information to allow your body to function properly and efficiently. 

 

So look at all that. There's so much more than aches or pains when you get in to it. And as discussed above they can all have an impact on how your aches and pains are managed.