What is wellness and why is it important?

The Difference Between Acute and Chronic

In medical terms, problems are categorised as acute or chronic. An acute problem is generally something that has just occurred, for example, a sporting injury or accident. The causes of acute problems can in most cases be treated quickly and need just a few sessions to resolve.

Patients with acute problems tend to come and go as injuries occur.

What is Chronic Disease

Chronic problems are different. They are long-term rather than recent and the underlying cause of the problem is not necessarily treatable. Moreover, after about three months, the pain gets hard-wired into the brain. Thus the symptoms of the problem have to be managed so that you can maximise the quality of your life.

These are the most common chronic musculoskeletal conditions:

• Osteoarthritis (OA)
• Spinal disc issues
• Nerve pain & sciatica (neuropathic)
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• Chronic tendon issues (tendinosis)
• Osteoporosis—fragile bones (OP)
• Chronic sports injuries
• Fibromyalgia—chronic fatigue (FM)
• Migraine

Your Belief System

Ok, from the above, you will have a rough idea of what a chronic condition is.  But that won’t make any difference if your belief systems are not aligned to those needed for you to get on the right road to Wellness.

What do we mean by this?

Well, let’s look at responsibility. All of us will have grown up with the knowledge of having a National Health Service, or NHS as we know it. Many will therefore think that it’s the NHS’s responsibility to look after their health.

The problem is that the World Health Organisation has realised that only 3% of health budgets are spent on preventative health and that an overwhelming 97% is spent of treating sickness and injury. This is not a criticism of our NHS, far from it, it’s just a statement of fact. At the same time health authorities recognise that while promoting good health would be highly beneficial in the long run, there is simply not enough budget to do this and treat sickness and injury at the same time. (In approximate terms it would double the necessary budget for many years)

It is very important, therefore, to recognise and accept that nearly all of our health budget goes towards stopping you from being sick and only a tiny fraction goes towards making you healthier.  This ‘stop me from being ill’ approach to health is fundamentally the opposite to a ‘make me healthy and well’ approach.

Accept this and you have to then accept that there is nobody but you who is responsible for your own good health - because nobody else is.  Again, it is emphasised this is not in any way a criticism of the NHS. It is more a reflection of budgetary reality.

Take your life in your hands, and what happens?

A terrible thing; no one to blame.    

Erica Jong

For many, this is understandably a crunch issue and it may well be for you because it’s turning upside down what you may have believed all your life. Many will struggle to accept this reality and not be able to take on board the need to take personal responsibility.

If on the other hand, you can accept that responsibility your actions will inevitably change to lead you, and those that you love, to a healthier, happier, and longer life.

Accepting The Benefits Of Maintenance

An analogy will help here. Most people fully understand the need to look after their car and the need for regular preventative maintenance. How fast your car gets to the junkyard and how many times it breaks down on the way, depends on how well you look after it. The difference can be both a lot of unnecessary expense and hassle, plus a much shorter life.

Your body is no different to a car, except that it’s the only one you have got and it’s a lot more complicated than any car. So it’s infinitely more precious and needs a lot more care. It stands to reason that the number of problems you will have also depends very much on how well you maintain your body.

So, ask yourself this. If you are completely comfortable with the idea of servicing your car being a lot more sensible than suffering a lot of breakdowns and potentially a much shorter life for your car, then surely you can see the same logic applies to your body, your health, your happiness, and your life expectancy.

Let’s look at a case study on this topic:

Case Study: Anona Chooses Maintenance

Anona first came to see Nicky 13 years ago for help with her low back pain, caused by many years of bending all day as a primary school teacher.

Nicky killed her pain and Anona did then what most patients do, which was to stop treatment and get on with her life. At the time she was newly retired and thought that a couple of treatments would get her fixed and that would be that.

Unfortunately, a 60-year-old spine will have suffered a lot of wear and tear, whatever her lifestyle had been. It was however more prone to damage from 40 years of constantly stooping.

Inevitably, the low back pain returned as a niggle, was ignored, and just got worse until the pain was bad enough to force more treatment.

Thus a pattern emerged of breaks in treatment, a slow build-up in pain until intolerable, interspersed with periods of intense treatment with David to get the pain removed again.

Eventually, after many years of this pattern, it dawned on Anona that it might be smarter to get regular maintenance to keep the problem at bay.

It occurred to her that she had no problem with going to the dentist every 6 months for a clean and check-up, because she knew this would most likely prevent any serious tooth decay and the pain and cost of dealing with that. And yet for some reason, she had ignored the rest of her body. Why on earth would she do that she pondered. Were her teeth somehow more important than anything else?