About a month back I drove my aging VW Passat to the dealer for warranty repair. While I was there, the service department did a 28 point service check free of charge on the vehicle. Their verdict? The 2000 Passat needed $5400 worth of work. Mind you, Kelly Blue Book only valued the car at $5800, so I wasn’t happy. Instead of handing over a pile of money I took the Passat back to The Tire Shop in Leesburg where I always have the maintenance on my car performed. They informed me that all of the work that the dealer said was necessary had been done on previous visits. In fact, the car was good to go and required no repair.
So what’s the moral to this story and what does it have to do with health? First, it’s pretty obvious that the dealer’s crew is either incompetent or unscrupulous. What the dealer was recommending is the equivalent of surgery in the health care field. Many patients when confronted with a doctor’s recommendation to go under the knife, schedule the procedure and hope for the best. Conservative alternative procedures are usually never discussed. And if the surgical procedure isn’t necessary that’s just your hard luck. Here’s an excerpt from a 1989 New York Times article entitled Unnecessary Surgery,
“The surgery rate in the United States grew more than twice as fast as the population between 1979 and 1987. By most accounts, it’s the highest in the world. For example, studies cited by Lynn Payer in her recent book, ‘‘Medicine and Culture,’‘ show that American women are two to three times more likely to undergo a hysterectomy than women in England. Heart patients here are six times more likely to have a coronary bypass. Yet our more aggressive style of medicine doesn’t buy us longer lives: According to the World Health Organization, life expectancy is about the same in the United States as in Western Europe, and Americans are somewhat more likely to die of heart disease than people living in England.”
So the first lesson here is, when you are confronted with a major health related decision, think it through and consider all the alternatives.
The second health care parallel to my auto repair story is the importance of maintenance. I had taken this car to the folks at The Tire Shop for years and years. It was well maintained. Sure it cost money to do that, but the car has 100,000 miles on it and is still running like a champ. Without the maintenance, I wouldn’t be writing this article because that car would be in a junkyard.
What about you? What’s the maintenance plan for your body? Are you exercising regularly? Taking supplements including fish oil? Eating your share of fruits and veggies? Are you getting chiropractic care on a regular basis or are you just waiting until you can barely move before you make an appointment? Patients who receive regular chiropractic checkups and adjustments have a body that just plain works better.
Whether it’s a human body or a mechanical car, the principle is the same. Maintain it now or repair it later. There is one big difference between the two. Original Equipment Manufacturer parts are readily available for any make or model of automobile. For the human body they just don’t exist. Take care of your body today so that you can enjoy life for decades to come.
