Why Is Time Important When It Comes to Our Health?

This week I wanted to share some thoughts with you about time and how it can help or hinder us with our health. I have recently read a principle about time which stated, ‘there is no process that does not require time’.

Albert Einstein also quoted “the only reason for time is so that everything does not happen at once”.

My question is, what does this mean in terms of your health? In this week’s blog I share more…

Why is time important?

In terms of our health, this principle helps us to consider how long someone has been unhealthy for, and also helps us to estimate how long it will take to get our health back on track. You may have heard us in the centre explaining that ‘healing takes time’, this is important to know when it comes to our health as it will help us to understand that there are no quick fixes, and helps us to be consistent with our health choices.

Did you know that our body is made up of over 32 trillion cells?! Our body is constantly making new cells and getting rid of old ones. These new cells help to repair and restore our organs, skin, blood and so much more. A prime example of this is when you cut your finger, your body responds by taking away the damaged cells and repairing the area by making new ones. This would typically take around a week to repair depending on the size of the cut. Now let’s think about an organ, our cells are constantly removing dead cells and replacing them with new ones to keep our organs healthy. How long do you think it would take for our cells to repair an organ?…18 months!! What we choose to do in that 18 months is so important for our growth and repair!

What is the relevance of time?

The relevance of time is clinically recognised by your chiropractor in various ways. For example, if you woke up one morning with severe back pain which you didn’t have the day before, you would instantly think, I must have slept in an awkward position or done something the day before.

Now let’s go back to the quote at the beginning from Albert Einstein, “the only reason for time is so that everything does not happen at once”.  This is a very good example for our health as realistically the severe pain experienced that morning would have developed over a long period of time. This is your body letting you know that something is going wrong and a change is needed. The important note here is to understand that the pain that you would feel is your body’s “alarm signal” letting you know there is something wrong, and that the signal should not be ignored. Over that long period of time our body will constantly strive to find ways to adapt and curb the gradual loss of health, however, these adaptations could end up hindering us to the point of the alarm signals. This should encourage us all to see what changes we could make to help ourselves moving forward.

Momentum

I think we all know that health is the responsibility of the individual. Imagine that our health is like a balance sheet. We can choose to add or subtract from this balance sheet by making positive or negative choices. Imagine over a few years we made more negative choices than good ones, what it would do to our health. What if everyday we choose to follow an unhealthy diet which causes us to have digestive problems, lacked energy or a lowered immune system, or didn’t exercise so our bones wouldn’t stay strong and healthy. We know our health would decline and try to adapt to its environment.

This type of health momentum would not be sustainable and would ultimately cause us to feel unwell and not function optimally. These types of health choices would impact how long it would take for our body to heal and hinder our body’s ability to adapt.

By reading this you have made that positive health decision to come to Epoch to have your spine checked. So, to help speed up the healing process during your time at Epoch, we would also encourage to continue making those positive health choices which would include:

1. Exercising regularly – 30 minutes a day (include resistance exercise to help keep your bones strong).

2. Eating a healthy diet – We recommend to stay away from wheat, dairy and sugar – all of which are pro inflammatory foods which inhibit our healing ability.

3. Water – We will always offer you a glass of water when attending the centre, this has many health benefits, including helping to keep your joints hydrated! Be sure to keep sipping away at home too!

4. Breathing techniques or meditation – We encourage the ‘box breathing’ technique, this really does help to settle the body and allow us to think more clearly and reduce stress. Simply put; breathe in for 4 seconds through your nose, hold for 4 seconds, exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds, and pause for 4 seconds. Repeat as many times as you need.

Keeping up with the momentum of positive health choices will really go a long way in helping recovery and keeping you at the top of your health. Don’t get me wrong we all enjoy a treat every now and again which I can definitely say is needed sometimes. Just be mindful of overindulging and be consistent with the more positive health choices.

With love,
Sam