Tired of living in Pain - what are my options?

Daily in my practice I hear, " I just want to get rid of the pain", and yes this is a very strong motivator, and something that obviously needs to be addressed. But my contention is that pain in and of itself is a very poor indicator of someone's health status. Pain generally is the last thing to show up, but the first thing to go. Think of the cancer patient. Did their cancer just show up because they now have pain? Generally this just isn't the case. And once the pain is gone, are they cancer free? Consider a broken bone - once it has been splinted and the pain goes away - has the bone healed? Pain is used by the body as a signal to indicate or bring to our attention that something is wrong, much like the engine light on a car dashboard warns us that something is wrong with the inner workings of our car. We would be foolish to simply remove the fuse to the light and switch off this warning sign and continue driving, assuming that all is well. Well, this is generally what we do when we reach for the bottle of Tylenol. Sure it will get rid of the pain, but won't necessarily address the cause of the pain. In our fast paced society we are driven to find a quick and immediate fix, and just don't have the patience to allow the body to heal itself. However, when we mask the pain or simply treat the symptom, what we may essentially be doing is setting ourselves up for disaster. Consider the scenario of chest pain which may be a sign of an imminent heart attack. Wouldn't it make more sense then to look for the cause of the pain, and rather deal with this. Sure, it may take longer for the results to show up but they will be much more deeper and longer lasting. Chiropractic was founded on the principle of looking to the cause of the disease, and acknowledging the healing and restorative power of the body. Under the control of the nervous sytem the body recognizes right from wrong and has the ability to heal itself. Pain in this sense reflects that the system is working correctly. It is revealing that something is wrong - and as such shouldn't be negated. Imagine if the body never registered pain! If we were to suffer interference into this system - the nervous system, then this could ultimately be the consequence. Chiropractic looks to determining whether their is indeed interference and removing this so that messages may be sent and interpreted by the brain and that the body should function as it should. If you would like to find out more about how Chiropractic can go beyond just treating pain please send me your comments. I would be delighted to respond.