"Average" Does NOT Mean Normal

Being a chiropractor, whenever you socialize or are active in the community, people take it upon themselves to share what is going on for them (surprisingly, also when they tell me I cannot help them). Generally, I like this type of interaction. I make it my point to help people, and appreciate when they are open to discussing their health. On many different occasions, people will tell me "I have these symptoms, but that's normal". With a little exploration, many people experience headaches, regular sinus congestion, muscle spasms or weaknesses, and a variety of other symptoms on a regular basis. When someone tells me that they think this is NORMAL, what I really hear is that they don't want to put the time, energy and money required into fixing the cause of these symptoms. It takes some serious reflection, but NORMAL in a body really means feeling like nothing! Normal is easy, quiet and effortless. Normal for your body requires no additional calculations from you, the user of your body. Normal might also be soreness after a workout, or swelling after an injury, or fever in response to infection. Normal in all of these cases is a body responding exactly how it should in cases of stress. What is sad about most of these situations is that most people accept a higher level of symptoms as their average, without recognizing that this is their body shouting for help! Averaging multiple headaches per week, multiple illnesses per year, recurring pain in response to activity, stiffness from inactivity is NOT NORMAL. And don't bother comparing your set of symptoms with the "American" average, because in a room with the wealthiest nations represented, Americans wouldn't even be close to the healthiest. Our national average is horrendous given the amount of money we spend on "healthcare". Yes, it is true that as we age, our bodies do not heal and repair as quickly as they did when we were younger. This in no way means we are going to have arthritis, we are destined to be stiff and immobile, or that the NORMAL life means becoming incapable of doing anything other than the basic self-care activities into our late stages of life. Normal aging, as far as ANY research has shown, does NOT mean these things are NORMAL, even if they are the national average. Considering you are reading this article and you never have to speak to another person other than yourself about its contents, be absolutely honest with yourself right now. How many things in your life have you designated as "normal" that are not actually normal for your body? Here are some regions of thinking: weight, energy level, pain presentations, flexibility, physical ability, and sleep. You may not want to tackle each of these things at the same time, but it is worth considering what redirecting your efforts to creating a NORMAL internal environment could do to their concerns. In my 6 years of practice as a chiropractor, I have seen hundreds of people surprised at the improvements they have experienced with higher energy, better sleeping, improved ranges of motion, less symptoms and better digestion. What is shocking to me is that so many people forget what it is like for their body to perform optimally. Our goal with the chiropractic adjustment is to release interference to the transmission of information internally within your body, allowing it to control and coordinate itself with as much perfect as it possibly can. In short, we want you to be normal according to how YOUR brain and body determine normal. Who would want anything less?