Can Bumps and Bruises Cause Long Term Illness?
by Jens A. Korgaard, D.C

Life can be tough on your body.

All of us seem to injure ourselves in minor ways throughout the course of each year. And in the course of a lifetime, we might bump our knees, stub our toes, step off a curb wrong or lift something too heavy many, many times. Usually, we just endure the minor discomfort these mishaps cause and wait for them to heal, or rather, wait for the symptoms to disappear or at least diminish.

The problem is, even minor injuries can have life long impact on our health, especially if they cause misalignments, or subluxations in the spine. Any accident, no matter how minor, can misalign the spine. Because your central nervous system, which is housed in the spine and controls every organ and system in the body, cannot communicate properly with the rest of your body, poor health can result. Symptoms that seem unrelated to the injury can appear years later as headaches, low energy, allergies, joint problems and other maladies.

This is why it is important to see a chiropractor soon after any accident, no matter how inconsequential it seems. Of course this does not mean that you should not see a medical doctor. In some cases, seeing a physician is critical to begin the healing process, such as in the case of a broken bone or serious cut. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the doctor does not heal you. You do.

Or rather, your body's own innate intelligence heals you. All too often, though, many people never see a chiropractor, even after a serious injury. This is one of the reasons that most people who have been in auto accidents never fully recover under traditional medical care. The basic structure of their body is ignored. There are now new medical terms that acknowledge and define these problems - Postconsussion Syndrome, Whiplash Syndrome and others - but they fail to address proper treatment.

For these reasons and others, it is critical that you see a chiropractor after any accident or injury. In order for your body to completely heal, it must function properly. And in order to function properly, it must have a healthy spine and nervous system.