6 Things Your Doctor Should Know (But Probably Doesn’t)
Most people hold medical doctors in high esteem, with good reason. Subjected to years of rigorous training, doctors have access to information, knowledge about the body and the availability of certain treatments that are beyond the reach of most people. Doctors tend to be kind-hearted, smart, compassionate and caring people who are motivated by a genuine desire to help others. It’s easy to admire and believe in someone to whom we turn with matters that pertain to our life and health, and even our possible death. Even so, most people realize there are some things, particularly pertaining to what contributes to vital, natural health, that are beyond the scope of a doctor’s training.
Here are 6 things your doctor should know, but probably doesn’t:
1. Humans, like all other species, have a very particular bio-mechanical design that is a crucial factor in supporting overall good health. This human design relates to how we inhabit our bodies in everything we do, whether sitting, standing, bending, walking—even sleeping. When humans live in conformance with this design, they tend to enjoy improved health, easy flexibility and fewer aches and pains. While many doctors would agree with this statement, few of them, if questioned, would have an understanding of what this natural design actually is.
2. “Good posture”, as conceived and taught by our society, is thoroughly mistaken! The unquestioned belief that good posture requires that we “tuck the butt, suck in the belly, lift the chest and pull the shoulders back,” creates a stance that compresses the spine, causes a high-level of tension in the body, and contributes to many “unexplained” pain problems experienced by millions of people. When our bones are naturally aligned, the muscles that attach to those bones are able to relax and be elastic. Many conditions such as herniated discs, spinal stenosis, “degenerative” disc disease and other spinal problems improve when people learn how to to find the genuine support of an aligned skeleton. Seemingly intractable joint problems also often improve when people learn how to bend, walk and otherwise inhabit their bodies in more natural ways.
3. Healthy toddlers everywhere, as well as people who age into their 70s, 80s and beyond with elongated spines and flexible joints, hold the key to healthy living and comfortable aging. It is rare to find people in our part of the world who have aged with their bones still aligned along the vertical axis. One must travel to less technologically-advanced places to find examples of people who have aged without losing the alignment that all healthy babies discover when learning how to stand and walk. This is particularly true in locations where it is not unusal for women to successfully carry heavy loads on their heads with ease, sometimes day in and day out for decades.
4. An aligned skeleton is the framework of support for the healthy functioning of all the body’s systems, including circulation, digestion, respiration and nervous system functions. The body is like a 3-D puzzle, with a place for everything and everything in its place. In order to provide the proper support for efficient functioning of all the organs, blood vessels, nerves, tubes and valves that make up the body’s systems, the skeleton must align along the vertical axis of gravity. This is the same “plumb line” that carpenters refer to when constructing a house. In the same way, structural alignment of the human skeleton is crucial to providing a framework of structural support for the complex relationship of these many interrelated parts.
5. Helping people to heal often means giving them the tools they need to heal themselves. Patients who previously felt helpless in the face of their “affliction” often become empowered when encouraged to depend on themselves for what they need to be healthy. While some patients will always require interventionist care, many other patients improve the most when, rather than being “fixed” by someone else, learn to cultivate resources within. Doctors who guide their patients away from medication and surgery and toward finding, both literally and figuratively, the support they need within themselves, will do the most good for the most number of patients.
6. Doctors who inhabit their own bodies in an integrated and wholly natural way, serve as models of genuine good health for their patients. Many doctors have come under much criticism in recent years for not being open enough to “alternative” (read, natural) approaches to health and healing. It’s a common refrain that doctors are sometimes little more than messengers of mistaken information and middle-men/women for pharmaceutical companies. Obviously, in most cases, these claims are unfair, as well as untrue. Nevertheless, the more doctors embody good health and encourage the same for their patients, the more genuinely effective they will be in serving the real needs of those patients.
