03/03/2026
Is Chasing Symptoms Ruining Your Life?
Last week was the 26th anniversary of my graduation from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Iowa. I think that officially makes me an OG! Over 25 years in practice allows you to observe trends in health, and health care.
One of the more obvious trends is how rarely people are satisfied with their personal level of health and that of their loved ones. They are not getting the results they want in the area of health. They can’t do all the things they want to do. They don’t have the energy they want. They have a hard time recovering from physical and mental/emotional stresses. They see their level of health and resilience decreasing over time and have resigned themselves to believing that it is normal aging.
They are frustrated and scared about what the future will bring.
Much of this is caused by a lifetime of chasing symptoms. Symptoms are secondary conditions such as pain, stiffness, stress, headaches, digestive issues and a myriad of organic issues.
For some reason, when it comes to ‘health care,’ our culture focuses on chasing symptoms with a short-term goal of relief and comfort, instead of focusing on incorporating systems to increase health, adaptability and resilience.
Another thing I have learned in 25 years of practice is that what people REALLY want is NOT just short-term relief. People WANT to be healthy. They want to be able to fully participate in all areas of life without worrying about falling apart. They want to engage in life with vitality and energy.
Chasing symptoms CANNOT and will NEVER produce that outcome. In fact, it moves you further from it each time you engage in short term symptom chasing. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Interestingly, we don’t treat the other areas of our lives this way. If your child were failing a class in school, how would you address it? The failing grade is a symptom, secondary to an underlying cause. It could be lack of studying, ineffective study habits, a learning disability or a host of other factors.
So, would you go to the teacher and demand they change your child’s grade to an ‘A’ in their computer system? That would provide relief from the symptom much like taking a pain killer when you have a headache. But it wouldn’t give you what you want.
Obviously, if that was your kid, you would dig deeper and assess the situation to find out the underlying cause. Then you would help your child develop a system to help them become a better student.
That new system is something they can then use for the rest of their lives. It will apply to other courses and likely other areas of their lives. Their self-confidence will improve. Their CAPACITY to succeed in school and life will be forever increased as a RESULT of responding to their initial pain! Isn’t that so much better than short term relief?
If you found yourself in the midst of a personal financial crisis, would you go into your financial advisor and ask them to pay off your debt? Of course, not – you would be laughed out of the room. Regardless of the cause of the crisis, you would assess the situation and come up with a system of new strategies to not only deal with the crisis but prevent the same issues from occurring in the future. These new strategies would likely make future wealth more probable.
Why do most people approach health differently. The answer is complex but a lot of it has to do with how we are marketed ‘health’ products and services. Relief sells. Relief is EASY. Easy for the seller and easy for the consumer. BUT the long-term cost is HUGE.
My invitation to you is to look at where you focus most of your time, energy and money when it comes to your health. How much of it is spent chasing symptoms and looking for short term relief and comfort? How much of it is spent applying systems to increase your level of health, capacity and resilience? These two paths lead to very different places.
My commitment is to provide people with an opportunity to approach their health in a way that produces greater adaptability, vitality and energy for a lifetime. It is why I write these articles and give public workshops when it would be far easier to sell relief and act like a hero.
The Neurospinal Optimization care we provide at Nexus Chiropractic is a SYSTEM to help you build strategies that build health and capacity for the life that you ultimately want. If you would like to learn more, we hold monthly presentations at our office to teach you how.
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