But what if I already eat well, move my body regularly, get 8 hours of sleep, drink enough water, and do other bodywork like massage, acupuncture, craniosacral?
Do I still need to get adjusted?
Short answer, yes.
Long answer, yes, because the intent of the chiropractic adjustment is to address the areas in your spine where the communication pathway between your brain and body is being interfered with. This interference occurs in your spinal cord when your body becomes overwhelmed with stress and struggles to adapt to the influx of stress signals. Your diet, movement, sleep habits, and other bodywork do not specifically address these areas of tension.
They do, however, help decrease the overwhelm of stress on your body, and the likelihood that you get this interference decreases. But we are also human, and life throws us curveballs. Stress levels can still increase.
And because you are human, your body has been adapting to stress in your environment since the day you were born. As your body adapted over the years, there were likely times of overwhelm and your body had to compensate to try and manage the stress. Think of this as mini traffic jams that you have to reroute around. Not ideal, but you still get to where you are going. When you have rerouted a number of times, you start to get a little off course.
Getting adjusted, in addition to all other healthy habits, is like the GPS that keeps you moving on the right course of health.
For example, maybe as a baby you didn't crawl before you walked. Then in school you struggled with certain subjects. Then you were in a car accident. Maybe you had an infection and had to take antibiotics. Then you are 35 years old and starting to deal with low back from poor ergonomics at work. Every little instance of health rerouting will lead you down a different path.
You cannot out-eat, out-move, out-sleep, out-drink interference in your spine. Getting adjusted is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle!
Questions? Let me know :)