Hi friends,

Why do we treat our teeth better than the rest of our bodies?

It’s recommended that we get our teeth cleaned 1-2 times per year to check for cavities and prevent oral disease.

Dental hygiene is one of the few areas of healthcare that tries to prevent disease before it occurs. Most dental insurance companies cover these preventive visits because they know it's cheaper to prevent serious issues than to treat them after they arise.

But the rest of the medical field still has to catch up, including physical therapy.

If you go through your health insurance to see a physical therapist, the insurance company wants to see a medical diagnosis—a specific injury or ailment that the therapy is supposed to alleviate.

There is no diagnosis code for injury prevention in physical therapy. If you want your PT covered by insurance, you need to essentially have something wrong with your body that needs treating.

Dentists know it's much easier to keep teeth clean with regular checkups than to wait until there's a problem and then fix it.

We should think of the rest of the body the way dentists think about teeth.

Physical therapists are movement experts trained to identify poor movement habits that lead to pain and injury.

When someone bends down to pick up a pen and "throws their back out," it's not because bending over is a violent activity. It's because they've been moving poorly for years, and picking up the pen was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Yearly movement checkups with a physical therapist could save thousands, if not millions, of people from injuries and the psychological and financial burdens accompanying them.

We must start investing in our bodies before things go awry, rather than treating pains as they arise.

While the insurance-based PT model still lacks prevention methods, there are increasingly more cash-based physical therapists who can help you identify potential areas of injury.

Feel free to reply to this email if you have questions or want recommendations on where to start preventing injuries.

Until next week,

Kevin

✍️ Quote I’m reflecting upon

“We prefer the illusion of black-and-white thinking to the real-life complexities of the grey in between.”

— Derren Brown, Happy

❤️ Things I’m enjoying

1. Documentary - Full Swing on Netflix. It is fascinating to see the human side of professional athletes and this documentary follows some of the best golfers in the world and shows what their week-to-week life looks like.

2. Wine - R.a. Harrison Zosia Sauvignon Blanc. Meagan and I were lucky enough to spend a few days in Napa last week and this was one of our favorite wines that we tasted.

3. Airplane hack - I almost always bring a sweatshirt with me on airplanes for 2 reasons—1) obviously if you get cold you can put it on, but 2) it serves as a lumbar roll behind my lower back to help prevent back pain on long uncomfortable flights.