The human mind has difficulty seeing the whole picture. It's much easier for us to look at parts of the whole. When science teaches us about the human body, we learn about all the parts. We learn their structure (anatomy) and their function (physiology).

There's a skeletal system, a nervous system, a circulatory system, a muscular system, a lymphatic system, a digestive system, an endocrine system, an eliminatory system, a genito-urinary system, an immune system, and a respiratory system. I probably left out a couple, but you get the idea. It's easier for our minds to study these systems as "parts" of the human body.

In the last 100 years or so, medicine has scrutinized all the parts to such a degree that there is no way a doctor can excel in knowing the whole body. Hence, specialization. We've got eye doctors, skin doctors, heart doctors, rectum doctors, lung doctors, kidney doctors, etc., etc., etc.

The point of this article lies in our understanding and attitudes regarding problems in "one" of these parts or systems. My contention is that when most people experience something going "wrong" in their body or mind, they have an attitude of, "It's my stomach", or "It's just my knee", or "my breathing", "my blood pressure", "my allergies", or "my headaches".

Through the years, I've heard so many people talk of how healthy they are, even with their asthma and
colitis!

I imagine we humans have always had individuals in our societies who have tried to ease the pains and ills of their fellow man. Of course, when very early man knew little or nothing of the anatomy and physiology of the body, he probably just rubbed the area that hurt and hoped for the best. Much later on, he learned the value of certain plants to promote healing or ease pain. But people died anyway.

They still do!

The more we know about the body (electron microscopy, CT scan and magnetic imaging, blood and tissue analysis), the more we find wrong. Or at least what we think is wrong.

I'm not suggesting we stop learning about the body and mind. I'm just saying we should admit how little we really know. There is a definite arrogance in purporting to know what's best for every named ailment.

Breakthrough

Every day in our newspapers and TV news we read or hear the word breakthrough. "Recent studies show a new and exciting drug for cancer victims!" "Breakthrough in AIDS research!" "Geneticists hope to cure such-and-such disease with new gene-splicing technique!"

Today's breakthrough is tomorrow's lawsuit. Last year, more than 1400 drugs (prescription and non-prescription) were taken off the market. Some were only around for a year or two. Why were they taken off the market? Because they were found to be dangerous, ineffective, or most likely, BOTH. Thousands or tens of thousands of people got sick or died from these drugs, and they didn't really do what they were supposed to anyway.

But the media hype and propaganda that go into these drugs? And the financial/political collaboration? If we knew what's really going on (the big picture) with these dangerous drugs, we wouldn't have anything to do with them.

"But I need to take my blood pressure medication, don't I?"

"I have arthritis and my hands would stiffen up completely without my pills."

Comfort

When we are in a state of dis-ease, discomfort, or pain, it is human nature to want to become more comfortable. But taking drugs to suppress symptoms, numb the body's messages, or simply take the quick and easy road to comfortville, we miss the big picture. We miss the body's message, and more importantly, life’s message. I'm not saying every ache or pain is a divine message, but life continually gives us opportunities to wake up and change.

Chiropractic never meant to address parts of the body. It never meant to be for back pain or neck pain. The spine and nervous system are simply the vehicles through which we address the whole person. Our assumptions are very simple. We state that the nervous system coordinates the entire body and mind, allowing them to work harmoniously, as one whole system. Interference in the nervous system disrupts the harmony, resulting is discordant function (disease?). Removing the interference gives the person the opportunity to return to harmony and full function.

It's not complex. Once we realize that LIFE knows more about healing and restoring ease to damaged or diseased parts than science and medicine could ever possibly know, we see a bigger picture. And it's quite a beautiful one, too.