My practice is based on Triad of Health. That means that although each side of health, Chemical, Structural, and Emotional, can stand completely on their own, they are also connected to each other and are affected by each other. Let’s take a moment and explore what each of the sides represent and then a couple of examples of how they interact.
The Chemical side of your health represents your blood chemistry, allergies, inflammation, any supplements or medicines you take. The Structural side represents your bones, spine, ligaments, muscles, tendons, nerves, and fascia. The Emotional side is your mood, thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions.
Let’s talk about headaches, which is something we all experience from time to time. Headaches can be brought on by chemical reactions or allergic responses in the system. Headaches can show up anytime your neck is out of place or you sleep with your head in the wrong position. Headaches can also be brought on by stress, which falls in the emotional response area. Headaches can be brought on by a singular event or a combination of events. For example, say you didn’t sleep well and your neck is stiff in the morning, you don’t drink your coffee when you normally do and you head straight to work and face emails that have to be handled immediately. My guess is your headache would show up by at least 10:00 AM, or at least it would if it was me! My neck is stiff, I haven’t had the chemical assist of caffeine and now I’m stressed, voila…headache.
If you were to come to my office and say, I have headaches all the time and I don’t know why, I would begin to ask questions about what you eat, how much do you sleep, how is your stress level? What do you do for fun or enjoyment? Because, while it’s a headache, it can stem from a myriad of places. We are complex human beings and we can treat headaches or other physical/mental/chemical ailments with medicine, or we can look for a root cause, and see if we can lessen them or eliminate them all together.
Comments