“Everybody Out of the Pool!"

Weekly blog post by Dr. Michael Cerami

2 weeks ago I had an interesting experience at the pool that got me thinking.

After I finished my first set I heard the lifeguard whistle blaring and them yelling “Everybody out of the pool!” I came to find out that the pool had been contaminated with ummm... let’s not go there. This was weird to me because this event took place at 5:45am; there are no children in the pool at that hour. From the night before??? Who knows?

This “contamination” event reminded me of many things about illness, disease and immunity that I have experienced and learned and seen over my 27 years of practice. The first thought I had was more a reactionary human defense mechanism. Was I going to get “sick?” The next thought was: Have I been taking care of myself?  Yes, I have. Then my brain wandered to the perceptions of the other swimmers and what they thought would happen. Did they think they would get symptoms?

Let’s talk a little more about contamination and resistance to disease. I firmly believe that your immunity is variable depending on how you take care of yourself. Your health (or sickness) is not predetermined. Yes, you have “tendencies” that you inherit from your parents in your genes. These however do not dictate your future. For example; I lost my mom to cancer in 1981 so I have some tendency toward getting cancer myself. The cancer genes may or may not “turn on” in my body based on the science called Epigenetics. What I can do is to keep healthy and well and limit the expression of those cancer cells is live a healthy life which includes eating right, reducing stress and getting adjusted regularly to improve my immune system function.

Watch this blog for my upcoming post on how Chiropractic and Osteopathy helped save thousands of lives in the 1918 Flu epidemic when all other medical methods failed.

Back to the pool. What dictates whether or not you’ll get symptoms or disease is how well your body responds to the bacteria or virus. Illness is NOT determined by whether or not you get the bug. If I put 30 people in a small closed space for 20 minutes and brought in a person with the flu, a week later not everyone would have symptoms even though they were ALL infected. More than likely the results would be a bell curve with some people more sick, some moderate symptoms and some no symptoms at all. Think about this when the commercials start telling you “FLU SEASON is upon us and you need to avoid the bug. How ridiculous.

This season I recommend you manage your stress, eat better that you did last year, exercise and get in for your regular adjustments at least once per month (more if you feel challenged).

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Michael Cerami is a local Utah sports chiropractor who has been treating patients for over 25 years. He writes a weekly patient blog and monthly athlete article for community education on a wide variety of topics including treating sports injuries, nutrition, exercise, motivation and wellness.