Creative Wellness Newsletter

Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2007

In This Issue

• Team Approach to Performance & Optimal Health
• Printable newsletter (PDF format)
• Class schedule & registration form (PDF format)

Other Newsletter Issues

• Current Newsletter
• Fall 2007 Newsletter

Team Approach to Performance & Optimal Health

By Dr. Mark Poletti

Quite often, when I ask my patients how they are doing, they respond, "I wouldn't be here if I felt okay." The inherent message is negative: you must be in a weakened state to visit your doctor. I believe it would benefit patients if this mindset changed, and it appears to be changing first with our elite athletes.

While practicing in Boulder, Colorado, a training paradise and proving ground for many elite runners and triathletes, I noticed that many athletes there received Chiropractic, Ayurveda, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine treatments, along with massage therapy. Were they seeking treatment because they were sick? Sometimes yes, but more often, they sought out these time-tested treatment modalities because they were tuned into their bodies to the point that they could detect when they were not "in the groove" or "in the flow", and these treatments helped them restore and maintain an optimal state of health.

Most of us are not elite athletes, but many of us would like to return to a more youthful state on some dimension of our health. The mind often has great conviction that the body can pull off some amazing feat it once did, and people tend to schedule their physical challenges accordingly. I see lots of patients with this thought process prevailing, whipping their poor bodies, and they can't keep up. To these individuals, I suggest using the pit stop approach. Like a car race, I recommend establishing a crew of skilled healers to keep us competitive and ahead in the race.

We can't wait until the obvious lack of ease in our bodies manifests into dis-ease. Often, my patients with back pain report, "All I did was bend over to brush my teeth..." or "I was just vacuuming the house...", but like a heart attack isn't caused by a single visit to Burger Doodle, their disc condition wasn't caused by a simple daily activity. These individuals have been working towards an unhealthy state over a long period of time.

Wouldn't it make sense to form a team of professionals to help you maintain peak performance all the time? A team trained to determine subtle changes and gently steer you back on course? Subtle practices of medicine such as Chiropractic, Ayurveda, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can often see disease coming before it is diagnosed. I was struck when I learned that approximately 50% of all heart attack patients showed none of the symptoms or "red flags" we are trained to watch for in Western Medicine.

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that "45% of the U.S. population -- over 100 million people -- suffer from at least one chronic disease. Despite a vast array of advanced medical technologies and medications, modern medicine has no cure for these chronic diseases, only palliation." (Journal of the American Medical Association 1996; 276: 1473-1479.) However, research also indicates that subtle medical treatments make sense... dollars and sense. Oakland University has shown that patients who incorporate chiropractic treatments into their health care programs have lower total medical costs than patients who don't.

So where do we start? First, listen to your body. Symptoms often tell us something may be wrong. Be proactive and seek treatment to maintain health, as most disease processes take years to manifest. Create your own personal health team. Remember to cover all the bases, and try to include the best of Western medicine and complementary treatments.

Perhaps we can learn from these proactive, elite athletes. After all, they are the leading researchers on human performance. And make no mistake... they incorporate Chiropractic, Ayurveda, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine treatments, and massage therapy into their health maintenance programs. These athletes can't afford to let their competition get an edge. Can you?

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