Picture someone treading water in a swimming pool while wearing a backpack full of rocks.
Every rock makes staying afloat harder. Poor nutrition. Lack of exercise. Chronic stress. Physical misalignment. Emotional trauma.
The rocks keep accumulating. The person keeps sinking.
After nearly two decades as a doctor of chiropractic, I see this exact scenario play out in my clinic every single day. Half the time when patients with chronic issues walk through my door, they have no idea how heavy their backpack has become.
They’ll come in complaining about low back pain that started “two or three weeks ago.” But when I examine them, their entire movement pattern is compromised. Muscle mass decreased. Flexibility gone. Then we dig deeper.
“How’s your blood pressure?”
“Oh, that’s great. Been on medication for three years.”
This is where our healthcare system fails catastrophically.
We’ve become so comfortable with chronic disease that medicated diabetes feels like health. Managed hypertension becomes a success story. Controlled pain equals problem solved.
Don’t misunderstand me. Medication is absolutely necessary to keep people from drowning. Blood pressure needs to be controlled. Diabetes requires management. These interventions are life-saving.
But medication doesn’t remove rocks from the backpack. It just helps you tread water while the load keeps getting heavier.
As doctors of chiropractic, we don’t treat diabetes or high blood pressure. We focus on the lifestyle factors that can support overall health and help lighten that backpack.
The Heaviest Backpacks I’ve Ever Seen
The patients struggling most are usually in their 40s. They’re managing children and aging parents simultaneously. Working jobs that drain their souls. Grabbing processed meals because there’s no time to cook.
Then they rake leaves on a Saturday morning and their back “goes out.”
What they don’t realize is that raking leaves didn’t cause their problem. It was simply the final rock that made staying afloat impossible.
The real crisis started years earlier. Job dissatisfaction. Relationship stress. Sedentary lifestyle. Poor nutrition. Structural imbalances that never got addressed.
Each stressor added another rock to the backpack.
Our medical system treats each rock separately. Antidepressants for mood. Blood pressure medication for hypertension. Pain pills for the back. Physical therapy for movement.
But nobody asks the fundamental question: Why is the backpack so heavy?
The Gap Between Ideal and Reality
I wish I could practice ideal healthcare from day one. Start with eliminating processed foods. Add omega-3 supplementation and vitamin D. Implement stretching and walking routines. Build toward three gym sessions per week within a month.
But there’s a gap between ideal and reality.
That 40-something with the strained back still has to work tomorrow. Still needs to care for kids and parents. Still has to manage the house.
So we compromise. First, get the pain under control so they can function. Add basic supplements to reduce inflammation. Start with simple stretches and 15-minute walks.
We know this approach works because the evidence is overwhelming.
Research shows that44% of adults have at least one chronic condition, yet most share common modifiable risk factors. Meanwhile,90% of healthcare spending goes toward managing chronic conditions rather than addressing root causes.
My Own Heavy Backpack
I don’t need to tell you about a patient’s transformation. I can tell you about my own.
Early in practice, I weighed 210 pounds. Terrible energy levels. Working nights at a grocery store while building my clinic. Grabbing burgers whenever I could find time to eat.
I was burning out after just two years in practice. Looking at 38 more years of feeling that way seemed impossible.
Then I saw a picture of myself. I looked puffy. Felt worse. Something had to change.
The first rocks I threw out of my backpack were simple. Started getting adjusted regularly by another chiropractor. During those two years of burnout, I’d been getting adjusted infrequently and needed to return to my every-two-weeks schedule. Switched to a paleo diet with my wife’s help.
The transformation was remarkable. Better energy. Improved sleep. Mental clarity I hadn’t experienced in years. More engagement with my family when I got home.
I know this approach works because I lived it.
The Healthcare Provider Paradox
Here’s what strikes me most about our broken system: healthcare providers often carry the heaviest backpacks of all.
Drive by any hospital and you’ll see doctors and nurses smoking outside. Many are clearly struggling with their own health challenges. They know what works, but they’re not doing it themselves.
This happens across every healthcare profession. We’re so focused on managing other people’s symptoms that we ignore our own accumulating stressors.
The system rewards quick fixes over lasting solutions.
Government-funded healthcare covers medications but not nutrition counseling. Pays for surgery but not lifestyle coaching. Reimburses symptom management while root cause analysis gets ignored.
Removing Rocks Instead of Managing Symptoms
Real healthcare means helping people identify and remove the rocks weighing them down.
Sometimes that’s structural. Spinal adjustments to restore proper movement patterns. Sometimes it’s nutritional. Eliminating inflammatory foods and adding targeted supplements.
Often it’s lifestyle. Regular exercise. Stress management techniques. Better sleep habits. Stronger relationships.
The goal isn’t to help people tread water more efficiently. It’s to lighten the load so they can swim freely.
This requires a fundamental shift in how we think about health.
Health isn’t the absence of symptoms. It’s the presence of vitality. It’s having the energy to engage fully with your life. It’s resilience when stressors inevitably come.
Most importantly, health is a process, not an event. You don’t achieve it once and move on. You maintain it through consistent daily choices.
The Path Forward
The swimming pool metaphor reveals our healthcare crisis clearly. We’re spending trillions keeping people barely afloat while their backpacks get heavier.
Real transformation happens when we start removing rocks instead of just managing their weight.
This means addressing root causes. Looking at the whole person, not just isolated symptoms. Understanding that physical, nutritional, emotional, and structural health are interconnected.
It means recognizing that your body has an incredible capacity to heal when given the right conditions.
The evidence supports this approach. My clinical experience confirms it. My personal transformation proves it.
The question isn’t whether this works. The question is whether you’re ready to start throwing rocks out of your backpack.
Because staying afloat isn’t the same as thriving. And you deserve better than just treading water.