The idiom is as old as time. But here’s an analogy possibly overlooked. You might picture yourself balling snow up when you were young and attempting to peg someone or something in the distance. You also remember forming the first snowball with no issues. The second snowball starting to afflict your fingertips with a chilling sensation. The third and fourth snowballs formed started to really frost your hands over. Eventually, you might even have felt your hands go numb after hitting a sibling with over 20 snowballs. I meant hitting a stop sign… That day you threw over 50 snowballs at various targets. The next day, your shoulder might have been tender and you may have experienced sore muscles because of the activity.

So to draw the correct comparison. Let’s imagine that first snowball as the first injury to your back. Maybe you didn’t feel much. You may have fallen and gotten right back up no problem. You’re about 12 years old at this point. Fast forward to when you’re around 25. Those following snowballs really have got you warmed up! Maybe you endured a car crash or slipped on some ice. You know you’re hurt but it’s not that bad so you shake it off. Let’s move onward again. You’re 45 and your kid wants to go skiing. You fall on the mountain and one or both of your skis go flying. This time, getting up is a bit tricky. The next day you’re sore. But still, it doesn’t hinder your day so you shrug it off once again. This period of time relates to those next 20 snowballs where you were so used to the discomfort, tightness, and stiffness that you were numb to injury. At this point, you’re 65 and you’ve just finished with the most intense game of pickle ball in your life. You had to make the game-saving dive. All regard for your back went out the window in those few short moments. You wake up the next day to realize that you can’t get up. This is where you’ve thrown over 50 snowballs.

Over time, every injury after a certain point strikes a devastating blow to your well-being. You used to be able to take hits and falls with no downtime. Now that you’re 75, it’s different. One wrong fall and you could seriously hurt yourself. Instead of risking the chance of falling again, you seek out some help for your back. Maybe you choose some physical therapy, acupuncture, surgery, chiropractic, or even some massage! However, the snowball has become insurmountable. Whatever you choose doesn’t really seem to help completely. You become discouraged, depressed, and miserable due to the constant chronic back pain.

As time passes, your body becomes less and less able to heal on its own like it once had the ability to when you were younger. So, when that snowball is still controllable, that’s when you should seek help should you injure yourself in some way. Nobody likes when the snowball is out of control. Prevention is the key to a long life of movement and happiness. You don’t mold snowballs without gloves for very long. Just as you shouldn’t injure yourself without receiving treatment for that injury. You wear the gloves to prevent your hands from getting numb. You seek treatment for that injury before you reach a point of no return. Please do yourself and your loved ones a favor and invest in your health from an early age. Nothing breaks our hearts more than seeing someone who has never tried alternative care in their life and now they’re 70 years old and in really bad shape. The sooner you get help, the more quickly you can be set on the right path towards optimal health again. Every insult to your body sets the snowball in motion. Every time you seek care for yourself, you can stop that snowball in its tracks!