You’ve probably seen Rachel’s smiling face at our front desk a lot this year! After joining us from the energetic world of early childhood teaching, she’s spent a lot of time getting to know our patients and what makes (and breaks) their bodies. Here is one of her favourite ways to explain why you shouldn’t wait for pain before coming to see us.

When you hear a fire alarm (hopefully not often!) in your home, you know that your first priority needs to be finding and eliminating that fire. Everything else gets dropped so you can deal with what’s setting that alarm off. But it’s not over after the alarm stops screeching. You need to ensure that whatever set it off, doesn’t happen again.

Pain is your body’s fire alarm.

When pain is triggered, it means your brain and body drop everything to identify and eliminate that pain signal. But just like fire alarms, when the screeching stops there’s still more work to do.

Before the pain alarm went off, there was something smouldering to create the smoke and flames. It might be a muscle weakness, or digestive issues, or menstruation, or even a big dose of stress. When you expose the kindling (e.g. inadequate nutrition), and then some oxygen enters the pile (e.g. high stress), and then some paper is left on top of it (e.g. sitting all day), and then a candle is lit nearby (e.g. not enough sleep)…well it’s easy to see how different components come together to start that fire.

Then pain happens. Your fire alarm goes off. Call the chiropractor! And after a few visits your fire alarm is gone! Hooray! But those first few sessions are to help you blow out the candle. The kindling and the paper and the oxygen are still factors.

Your chiropractor wants to help you put away the kindling and the paper, and block that draft of oxygen, and move any matches away from that candle. But your body needs more than a few sporadic sessions to make those changes. Chiropractic care is a valuable investment in your body’s ability to keep those fires from being an ongoing issue. First, we need to turn off that pain alarm and get some brief respite from its noise. Then we can start cleaning up the smouldering pile of kindling and reduce your risk of fire being an issue for your body.

When did you last see us? If it’s been more than four weeks you’re probably due for a fire inspection. Book online now or call us on 07 5780875. And let Rachel know what you think of her favourite analogy!