Chiropractic and our Military

I figured that this week would be the perfect opportunity to talk a little about the essentiality of chiropractic for our nation's servicemen and servicewomen because we are offering a new benefit to all active members of the military.  If you are currently an active member of any branch of the military, you can receive chiropractic treatments for only $10.  It's just a way to say thank you for your service.  Anyway, now that the plug is out of the way, it really is essential that affordable chiropractic care is available to the military.

First of all, if you think about it, most, if not all, people serving in the military are far more active and weighed down by their eveyday gear than your "regular joe".  I've heard in mutiple cases where the packs can weigh at least 1/4 of the person's weight.  That means if you weigh 200 pounds, add another 50+ pounds to your body and carry that around for multiple hours per day.  Now when you have all of that extra weight on you, it really weighs down on your spine.  And, unless you are perfectly aligned before hand and have perfect posture, you are bound to get misalignments in you spine which lead to pain, irritation, and swelling in the short term but also may lead to arthritis, chronic pain, and disability in the long term.

The added physical stress isn't the only strain put on your body if you serve in the military.  Everyday, someone who served or is serving in the military deals with an increase in emotional or mental stress as well.  The toll of seeing things in combat or being overseas for your first child's birth would take cause undue stress on even the strongest willed person.  And, if you remember, there's a whole field studying the relationship to mental thoughts and how your body feels (psychoneuroimmunology).  The more mental/emotional stress you have, the more pain, stiffness, aching, headaches, etc. you will feel and notice.

Just a few simple reasons why there are hundreds of advocates trying to get chiropractic care covered by programs like TriCare and trying to get chiropractors into VA hospitals.  These are some of the people who could benefit the most from and deserve regular chiropractic care.