How running saved me

Yesterday I went over my x-rays with the Chiropractor...I was shocked, utterly dumbfounded at what I saw. Starting at the bottom, my hips are uneven, and twisted. The spinal column in that area is bent in the wrong direction and twisted like my hips, the bend has resulted in some disk degeneration. Moving up the spine, in the middle of my back (right around the bra strap area) my spine is curved to the side (scoliosis). My neck is mostly straight (supposed to be bent) except at the very top it is bent in the wrong direction and there is disk degeneration through the lot of it.
With all of this, it is no wonder that I ache from top to bottom.
When I initially started writing this post I was still in shock...I am finishing it a day later and now feel grateful that there is a cause and potentially relief for the pain I have been feeling for so long. Over this last couple years I have felt my energy decreasing, myself getting sick more frequently (granted I don't get very sick, just feeling under the weather), and I have gone from zero migraines a month to 9 last month...None of this made sense to me because I am a very healthy person.
My chiro is confidant that with treatment and physical therapy I will find considerable relief from all of my ailments. There is a lot we can do to slow the degeneration of my disks and get them as healthy as they can be (although there is no way to reverse the degeneration).

BEST NEWS: I should be back to running in a month!!!
I am grateful that I started running and developed this IT band injury (and that it didn't get better with time off) because this is what got me into a chiropractic office.

Incidentally, I have gone to chiro a couple times in the past 10 years for hip problems and they have only dealt with the hips themselves. This doctor is the first to take the full x-rays and thus, the first to notice the spinal column's directional issues...