Built to last

Just like a well known American truck, your body is built to last. But if it's built to last, why do so many people have serious problems with their bodies? If a human body is built to last, why does it seem to break down so easily?

The drug industry earns billions of dollars per year, profiting from the tendency of so many people to suffer from debilitating diseases. For example, osteoporosis affects more than 10 million people in the United States, mostly women. The condition involves loss of bone mass and may lead to hip and spinal fractures. These are very serious consequences. There have been drugs around for many years that try to control the bone loss; however, the side effects are also very serious. The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that 55% of Americans over age 50 either have low bone mass or have lost sufficient bone mass to be diagnosed with Osteoporosis or Osteopenia. But if our bodies are built to last, why is the prevalence of osteoporosis so high? It doesn't seem to make sense that our internal systems are simply designed to fail.

The truth is that our bodies are designed to withstand a tremendous amount of wear and tear. Human bodies are self-healing, self-renewing and self-replicating machines. Our body will try it's best to correct anything it perceives as a problem. Sometime it is successful and sometimes it may need a little help. When women reach menopause there is a profound change in the hormonal balance in the body that affects the ability of the body to replace calcium in the bone after it has been taken out. At age 21, this was easy for the body to do. At age 65, it's not so easy.

Some of the hidden factors of this phenomenon are revealed only upon close analysis and understanding. Many of these factors relate to lifestyle, or in other words. What are we doing with our bodies?

If your driving style consists of flooring the gas pedal and then slamming on the brakes, you will soon burn out your brakes and ruin the tires on your fine built-to-last truck. If you rarely change the oil and filter, your truck's performance will seriously degrade. If you ignore traffic signals and highway signs you will eventually crash and demolish your built-to-last vehicle.

This extended metaphor is analogous as to how we live our lives. There is a lot of research that demonstrates that lifestyle is responsible for a large portion of all cases of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis. The main strategy to prevent and delay bone loss and osteoporosis is to engage in regular vigorous, and weight bearing exercises.

From a broader perspective, the main strategy for preventing disease in general is to eat a healthy, diverse diet, engage in regular exercise, get sufficient rest, and engage in rewarding, fulfilling activities with your family and friends. And above all keep your spine and nervous systems in as good a shape as possible by getting a chiropractic checkup on a regular basis. Our bodies are built to last. How long it lasts, to a large extent, is up to us. Come see me soon. Give me a call at (661) 823-8888.