Sick

It’s probably possible for you to feel healthier than you do. You might not even realize that you feel sick, but many (if not most) people aren’t taking care of themselves the way they should. Some know that they should cut back on the sugar or exercise more, but if you’re already eating healthy and staying active, you might think that there’s nothing else you can do.

Fortunately, that’s not true. If you want to feel healthier overall, here are two things you can do to increase your energy and get rid of those subtle, annoying aches and pains you’ve grown used to.

Check for Allergens

No, it’s not the flu. You don’t have chronic headaches. You aren’t just “sickly,” and if you always wanted to run cross-country in high school but never had the energy, you weren’t just “out of shape.”

You might have food intolerances. Not allergies—the two are often confused, but they’re not the same thing. Food allergies are brought on suddenly, and you feel symptoms every time the food enters your system; it only takes a small amount to trigger an allergic reaction, which can be life-threatening. Food intolerances, on the other hand, are not life-threatening, and you might only feel the effects if you eat a lot of the food. You might not feel the symptoms every time you eat the food.

Though they are different, both allergies and intolerances share several symptoms. Here is a brief breakdown:

  • Both can cause nausea or stomach cramps, and in severe cases, diarrhea or vomiting
  • Food allergies can cause hives, itchiness or rashes, chest pain, or in worst-case scenarios, anaphylactic shock
  • Food intolerances cause bloating, headaches, heartburn, and nervousness or irritability

Start paying attention to how you feel right after you eat. If you’re experiencing any of the above symptoms, consider getting tested for food intolerances. You might not have any allergies, but intolerances can be just as damaging to your body. The ALCAT (a test you can get from your family doctor, who will send it off to labs for testing) will give you a detailed list of the foods you’re allergic or intolerant to so that you can avoid those foods.

Prolonged Injury

After you’ve been injured, it can be easy to fix the immediate problem (put a cast on a broken leg, get stitches, etc.) and think that you’re on the road to returned health. You might have other problems, though, that you’ll need to address if you want to feel completely healthy after the injury itself is healed.

If you’ve been in a car accident, there’s a lot to think about. Medical bills, calls to insurance companies and injury lawyers, and car repair bills or even shopping for a new car can take up all of your energy. But after all that is said and done, step back and assess your overall physical and mental health. Chances are, whether you were injured in a car, sporting, or other accident, you may have sustained injuries other than the obvious.

If your accident threw your spine out of alignment (such as often the case with whiplash or sports injuries), the health of your entire body is affected. In these cases, you’re not ill with a disease a doctor can treat—what you need is a chiropractor or other practitioner that deals in holistic health.

The nerve clusters connected to your brain that send impulses through your body can get pinched or twisted when your spinal cord or other joints and ligaments are thrown out of place. These obstructions, called subluxations, can be removed by adjusting your bones back into their proper place and freeing the nerves to work at their optimum efficiency.

When your nervous system isn’t functioning properly, it affects your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. You might be feeling depressed, languid, anxious, nauseous, cramped, dizzy, or a host of other symptoms that general practitioners would only prescribe pills for. The root of the problem could well be that your injury caused unseen damage; however, it can be fixed with a few visits to a chiropractor.

Even if you haven’t been injured, consider getting a chiropractic adjustment anyway. Our bodies just need to be relaxed sometimes, and even the stress of sitting at a desk all day, sleeping poorly, or lifting heavy objects can pinch nerves and cause unwelcome problems.

So take a moment to evaluate your health. If you think there is a possibility that you could feel healthier in any way, take these two possible methods into consideration. You might just feel better than you ever have…without even knowing you felt poorly in the first place.