I work with people who are hurting every day. They find themselves hurting for a wide variety of reasons, but for those who aren't dealing with pain for an obvious reason such as a sports injury or a car accident they always ask me one question. Sometimes they ask day one, sometimes it's a week into their treatment, but inevitably the question is posed, "What caused this to happen?" So we talk about posture, repetitive strains, inactivity, nutrition, the little things that go unnoticed that most likely accumulated to cause their particular type of pain. And then the dreaded response comes,
"I think I'm just getting old."
I've heard this said from patients from who are barely in their 30's, people who are clearly turning to age as an easy excuse for their pain. Aging should be the explanation we turn to once all other possibilities are eliminated. After all our bodies are amazing things, designed to endure and overcome. Pain is our body's way of telling us something is wrong, encouraging us to change our behavior or wrest something that is injured. Nevertheless many men and women find themselves with frequent muscle, nerve, and joint pain with no apparent cause by their 40's, why?
Chiropractors, physical t