For this weeks article we wanted to talk about spinal maintenance. Despite its importance to ensure we’re living our lives at an optimum level, we as a society are rarely educated on the topic of maintaining your spine.

I like to use the following analogy, especially for all of us that live in the Chicagoland area. We have all either seen/received that lovely yellow boot which gets put onto a cars wheel after having not moved when given a ticket. We can relate this scenario to our spine. Sometimes we experience back pain or other warning signs and blow it off to “take care of it later”…a couple weeks go by and we forget about the pain. Soon you have collected a large amount of unpaid tickets or tension build up in your body. You then wake up one morning and discover that your back is completely locked up, just like that yellow steel parking boot slapped on a cars wheel, rendering your whole body undriveable. It’s only at this time you wish that you’d paid attention to all the warning signs instead of letting them pile up like the tickets on your car.

If there’s one thing we do a good job of, it’s neglecting our spine. That little twinge in your back that you felt a few days ago or the persistent morning soreness that that has been happening on a more frequent basis. Think of these as the “parking tickets”, your warning signs to get into compliance with the laws of spinal maintenance or pay a heftier fine down the road.

You may be wondering why things get more severe over time. Things get more severe because our spine gets subluxated. When our bones are out of alignment (subluxated) we don’t necessarily feel pain right away. This, unfortunately, causes a disguise and will eventually build up to more symptoms in the body such as pain, digestive problems, etc. in the long run. For this reason it’s very important for us to maintain the spine and address these issues before things get worse.

One of the best ways to make sure your spine is maintained to its optimal level is chiropractic care. Chiropractors make sure that your nervous system is functioning at its best so you can fight the daily stresses and live without pain or discomfort. Don’t let your body become like the yellow parking boot, get checked out by a chiropractor near you!