Don’t make the mistake of substituting sugar with salt.
If you happen to be making chocolate chip cookies, don’t substitute sugar with salt. They look very similar, they are both white, they both enhance food, they both taste good when used properly. But knowing the that they are both great ingredients doesn’t mean you can use one in the place of the other. The outcome will be undesirable. It won’t work.
There are many tools people use to be healthy, just like they use sugar and salt in cooking. And just like these two ingredients are not interchangeable, massage doesn’t replace acupuncture, Acupuncture doesn’t replace exercise, massage guns don’t replace chiropractic adjustments, colonoscopies don’t replace the need to eat healthy foods, taking supplements doesn’t replace the need to take care of your joints.
They are not interchangeable.
Here’s the dilemma that most people face. The differences are not explained to them. Without understanding the difference between salt and sugar, you may decide that you can sub one out for the other.
Use your massage gun at home. Stretch at home. Get massage. Do cranial work with your osteopath. Take supplements for inflammation management. Exercise and work with a trainer. All of those are great, and should definitely be done on your own time if you have the resources and ability. Do everything you can to get from “point A to point B”, but be conscious of the fact that putting on socks to go for a walk to the store, is not the same as actually walking to the store. The socks don’t replace the walk.
This message is not redundant enough.
Do you think eating bananas replace your need for polio vaccines? How about replacing brushing your teeth? Do they replace the chiropractic adjustment? The obvious answer is no. They are DIFFERENT resources that produce different outcomes. Together they all complement one another, but they don’t change the need for the others.
Dr. Lou dedicates extra time to helping provide patients with the information to make calculated decisions about their spinal and neurological health that will impact their financial stability, family life, future plans related to retirement and their bucket list. Some people don’t pay attention to the message, and they often struggle with recrudescence of injuries and aches, pains and more importantly impaired function and diminished independence. Those who understand that you can’t use salt in place of sugar, and can’t us a heating pad to replace an adjustment, live happier and healthier lives because their decisions are based in an understanding of the purposes of specific tools for specific solutions to problems.
If you feel you have been confused by what should be used for what, it may be time to reconnect with Dr. Lou. Taking a few minutes to understand is an investment in saving a lot of time in the future, by potentially avoiding more complicated, more deeply seeded problems that affect you health, viability and independence.
Tools matter in all areas of our lives. The right tool for the right job leads to the right outcomes. Period. Until you know, you don’t know. You can’t expect sugar to be a substitute for salt, water to be a substitute for oil, ibuprofen to be a substitute for Chiropractic adjustments. They have their own specific roles and they their jobs, not others.
PT is awesome, but it doesn’t replace an adustment any more than the adjustment is an equivalent to PT. Acupuncture? Same deal. Massage? Same deal. Stretching at home? Same deal. Massage gun at home? Same deal. They are all great, but they don’t do the same things, so they aren’t replacements for one another. Failure to recognize this would be a more meaningful, life altering mistake than telling yourself that salt and sugar are also interchangeable.
Your future depends on great decisions now.