AJCC 2003

October 2003

Dynamic vs. Static Health

by Mark Radermacher, D.C.

President of Total Practice Management Int’l, LLC

Health is dynamic and never static. Patients have a plethora of misconceptions related to attempting to understand health; one that is devastating is the misconception that health might be static and not dynamic. This misconception seems to be a combination of misunderstanding combined with wishful thinking. The end result is a patient who needs additional care who unfortunately quits care far too prematurely. The extent of damage that ensues surpasses the unfortunate patient and encompasses the doctor as well. The damage to the doctor is in the form of frustration and depleted confidence. Frustrated and less than confident doctors are of little help to anyone. To understand that health is dynamic is, by itself, insufficient. To successfully communicate the point is the essence of the solution to the problem.

New patients begin care with hope, excitement and anticipation. The hope is that they’ve made the right choice for care, the excitement is that they’ve finally made a choice for care, and the anticipation is that they might get better. Due to pathetically poor health education standards, the lay patient’s definition of “better” is to simply be symptom-free. To learned individuals in chiropractic, this definition is far from accurate. This disparity in definitions actually helps to provide the impetus for the misconception that health is static. If becoming symptom-free equals health, then why shouldn’t a patient expect to stay that way? The answer is because symptom-free doesn’t necessarily equal health and because health is dynamic and not static.

A doctor must educate a patient about static versus dynamic health, but must first educate a patient about what health is. Scientific research has proven that a structurally unhealthy spine will not allow a patient to be healthy. Most chiropractors are privy to this knowledge, yet fail to successfully use it to educate the patient. To educate a patient isn’t a daunting task but is an ongoing task. With the doctor using simple words, explanations and meaningful questions repeated in a variety of instances, a reasonable patient often learns the real definition of health. This is only the first step. Pain is a great motivator and will often overpower reason. Once pain has been diminished or eliminated, reason can also disappear. On a practical level, doctors witness the disintegration of reason in regard to dynamic versus static health on a regular basis. Patients will often say “Doc, my low back feels pretty good now. I think we’ll give care a rest for a while and see how it goes.” Or, “My neck pain doesn’t bother me anymore, why don’t we put this on hold now.” Sometimes the doctor will hear, “You’ve done a great job healing me up, doc. If it ever hurts again, I’ll give you a call.” These, and similar quotes, are classic examples of a patient’s misconception pertaining to health being static instead of dynamic. A patient actually believes some type of static holding pattern exists, whereby they can quit care and when convenient, at some later date, start care where they had left off. Nothing is further from the truth.

The majority of patients hope and wish health would be static. Patients feel good and knock-on-wood saying things like, “I hope that pain never comes back.” Science has proven otherwise. Take the hope, the wish and the anecdotal nonsense out, and you’re left with science. Toss a bowling ball straight up and, unless you move out of the way, the bowling ball will crush your skull. No hope, no wish, no anecdotal nonsense will prevent laws of science from occurring. Many patients don’t like this fact, but facts aren’t about liking... facts are just facts.

The fact is, health is not static, it is dynamic. A patient can’t get healthy and expect to stay healthy while ignoring what helped them gain health in the first place. Getting healthy or healthier requires constant attention and effort. A patient is either moving toward health or is moving away from health. There exists no neutral or static position to hold in this ever-moving swing of the pendulum. It can be argued that many different components contribute toward acquiring health. Some components include exercise, nutrition, sleep, mental well-being, quality air and quality water. The one component that allows a body to use all the rest of the components to their fullest is a healthy spine that isn’t causing nerve interference. Gravity is relentless and, along with frequent, sometimes daily stresses, gravity constantly pummels the human spine. This constant pummeling is dynamic impact and must be compensated for. Chiropractic care can provide the opportunity a patient needs in order to continue to move toward health. Science has proven that once chiropractic care ends, a patient’s spine begins to deteriorate. The rate and extent of the deterioration isn’t near as important as the fact that the spine will deteriorate. As the spine deteriorates, so will health deteriorate; as the spine is fixed or moved toward as near normal as possible, health may be restored. Doctors need to teach patients that although continuing care is a gamble, because no one can guarantee results, quitting care is a guarantee for the spine and for health to worsen. Appropriate chiropractic care is the only health care that can provide the opportunity to fix or move toward as near normal as possible the human spine.

The doctor of chiropractic must teach the patient in order to be allowed to provide the opportunity to adjust the patient. To teach the patient the definition of health is insufficient, the doctor must also teach about the fact that health is dynamic and never static. This is challenging but very rewarding to the patient. The more proficient a doctor becomes in teaching, the more opportunity the patient has to move toward health. Persistent and successful teaching can eradicate the patient’s misconception that the absence of pain must equal health and that health somehow has the potential to become static. Through successful teaching, the doctor can lessen personal frustration and actually build confidence while simultaneously delivering the necessary care the patient deserves.