This saying if it’s not broke don’t fix it may be a humorous one but there is a good deal of insightful truth behind it. We all laugh at the antics of Tim, “the Tool Man” Taylor on the television sitcom, Home Improvement. He is always trying to improve upon some appliance that is already working perfectly. His disastrous results should be a lesson to us of the danger of trying to make something that is already working just fine, work better. Fortunately for us, we rarely think we have the expertise to fool around with a complicated piece of machinery. We would be afraid to try to improve upon the inner workings of an electric dishwasher. Yet that very situation happens all the time relative to the human body.
Our body has a built-in mechanism to heal itself, factory installed, if you will. The human body is more complex, more intricately and more perfectly designed than anything built by Hoover, Panasonic or General Electric. Despite knowing that, we are constantly trying to improve upon it. We believe that a drug can make it work better, heal faster or function properly. The chiropractic idea is to simply to remove interference to the body. The sad part is that we are often able to make the body work faster or perform functions better by the use of drugs, but we also suffer the consequences of that approach just as the Tool Man causes vacuum cleaners and food processors to explode by trying to give them “more power.” Sadder and closer to home, we have all seen and read of the damage that the “bigger, faster, better” drugs can have on people, sometimes even death. For example, athletes take steroids to build muscles faster and bigger to increase their performance. But many suffer complications with their hearts because it too is a muscle. Our bodies build muscle at their own pace. We are all different, some have the natural ability to build muscle faster and some slower. If we try to exceed that ability, harmful effects will be the result.
There is another aspect to this “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” philosophy. Often people will use this as an excuse for not being adjusted on a regular basis. This is another way of saying, “There is nothing wrong with me, I feel fine.” The fact is that if there is a subluxated vertebra in your spine interfering with the proper function of the nerve system, you are not fine. There is something “broke.” In fact, the most important system in the body, the nerve system, is “broken.” The inborn wisdom of your body, which controls and coordinates the function of every cell in the body, is not free to do its job. Your body is simply not working as it should. The results of that will eventually be disastrous. Just because it is not noticeable at first does not mean that dysfunction is not occurring or that the damage is not accumulating within the body. When your car just begins to burn or leak oil, you do not notice it. Further, if the warning system is not working properly, you may continue driving the car, completely unaware, until your car is permanently damaged. That is why it is smart to have the oil level in your car checked regularly. For that same reason, it is in the best interest of your health and life to have your spine checked regularly for subluxations even if it does not appear to be broke. If you wish to schedule a consultation to see if you have a subluxation click here.