What is "Traditional" Chiropractic?

Recently someone in the office mentioned seeing a "traditional" chiropractor.  The meaning behind the phrase was in reference to the method of adjusting.  I adjust using Network Spinal Analysis which utilizes a light touch, as opposed to the other form of chiropractic which is often the hard thrust.  Since NSA is newer in the chiropractic scheme of things, the structural adjustment must be traditional.

Actually, referring to a chiropractor as traditional vs. something else, like 'modern' I suppose, should not refer to the method of adjusting.  I refer to myself as a traditional chiropractor, not because of what I do, but why.

From its inception as a profession in 1895, chiropractic is a holistic approach to the total health of an individual.  The philosophy states that the nerve system coordinates all the functions of the body and the ability to function in life.  A healthy nerve system creates a healthy body, a sick nerve system creates a sick body.  Stress in life makes the nerve system sick within the spinal cord, and it has been proven that the chiropractic adjustment restores integrity to the NS, restoring health to the body.  It is as simple as that.

Over the years many methods of adjusting the spine/ spinal cord have been developed.  Some of them are hard and some of them are gentle.  But the idea behind the adjustment, traditionally, has been to help the sick heal by restoring integrity to the NS.

For most of the 20th century, chiropractic was not respected or recognized as a "real" profession.  The reasons for this would require another essay.  But because of this thinking, chiropractic was not included in insurance coverage.  But in the '80's insurances began to cover chiropractic since so many people were starting to utilize it.  But they wanted to know what chiropractors did. Insurance companies cover "Treatments" and our philosophy is different.  So to get coverage, chiros had to treat something and they said "We're good at back pain, neck pain, and headaches".  And the shift to becoming a physical therapy approach was born.  Now, most DC's have physical therapy and rehab clinics, and most people think of chiropractic as such.

But there are still those of us who cling to the original philosophy of total health chiropractic, as I do.  This is especially important in today's world of drugs, drugs, and more drugs.  Chiropractic is the only profession that offers another approach to health that doesn't deal with drugs.  It is the only one that can help people get well, and stay well, using the body's own natural healing abilities.  This is the "Traditional" approach.  The modern approach of physical therapy and rehab has thrown the original philosophy out the window.

So any chiropractor who adjusts the spinal system to restore health to the NS, and, therefore, the body regardless of the technique, is "Traditional".  If he/she is adjusting to treat a sprain, then they are just modern physical therapists.

Flu Virus and Dandelions

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow in the office last Friday.  The weather has been very mild for January. When he came in he mentioned how everyone in his office is getting sick.  He said it's because of the constant change in temperature - it gets warm, it gets cold, it gets warm again - and this causes the viruses to spread.  He reasons that if it stays cold, people won't get sick.

Now it has been mild here, and I have noticed that the irises in front of my office are coming up and I have noticed some grass growing in my backyard.  So, when he made this comment I smiled and said, "The viruses don't come out of the ground like dandelions, you know."

He said, "Well, of course not, but I have noticed that people get sick when the weather fluctuates like this."

Of course this is not true, as I went on to explain.  The viruses don't become more active just because the weather changes, in fact, weather has nothing to do with it at all.  I remember reading a study published in Time magazine way back when I was in college in the '70's where they took a group of people and made them walk around in the London weather without any extra coats, and no shoes.  It was cold and rainy. They didn't come down with a cold anymore than anyone else did.

But, people do tend to come down with more colds and flu when fall comes around.  Why? Because they get less sunshine!  During the summer, people are on vacation and outside doing yard work or whatever and they get a lot of sun.  This keeps the Vitamin D levels up. Once school starts, everyone goes back indoors, the days get shorter, they get less sunshine, and therefore less Vitamin D3.  Vitamin D is one of the most important supports to the immune system, and when it goes down, our immune systems get weaker.  Then we see more colds and the news people call it The Flu Season.  Kind of like declaring Duck Hunting Season.

So the fluctuations in temperature have nothing to do with whether we get sick or not, but the amount of sunshine does.  This can be changed by taking vitamin D3 supplements (35 IU's per pound of body weight), and, of course, getting adjusted regularly as well.  Keeping the nerve system as free from the effects of stress as possible also helps to support our immunity.

Meanwhile, my irises are coming up!

Stress is a Habit!

A few weeks ago, one of my clients said that while he was on vacation he slept great.  It wasn't the most comfortable of beds that he was sleeping in, but he slept great which was unusual for him.  But, when he came home, he was uncomfortable again.

Today, a girl was in who went in to work today.  She said that she felt nice and relaxed in her neck, where she carries her stress, all week until today.  She mentioned that even though it was relaxed at work because the boss wasn't in, she still tensed up.

Both wanted to know why this happens.

Whenever we learn new skills, we are forging new pathways in our nerve systems.  Think about when you learned to tie your shoes.  Each movement was difficult.  You worked delicately and with a great deal of thought to maneuver the laces into place to get a good knot.  But you don' have to do that today.  You just reach down and tie them while you are probably thinking of the trip to the store that is coming up, or whatever.

Think about when you learned how to drive.  You were so cautious: steering the car, placing your feet, watching traffic.  You probably didn't have the radio on so you could concentrate.  Not now!  I once saw a girl driving down Madison Avenue talking on the phone while she put on her eye makeup.  Please don't think I advocate that, but the point is that once we learn a new skill, the neural pathways are established that we can perform the task with very little thought process.

And so it is with stress.  Having stress is a learned response.  Our bodies react to stress, not initially as a bad thing, but as a survival mechanism.  If we are in danger, we have a stress response that is meant to get us out of danger.  Stress is supposed to help us survive in a dangerous world. But what is stressful for one person is not for another.  I get very stressed standing on top of a ladder, when others love it.  So stress is a learned response.  And, like all things learned, neural pathways are created that cause our bodies to respond to stress without us giving it much thought.

So when we go on vacation, we are away from our daily stress creators.  But when we come back, we get back into our routines and the nerve system says, "Oh this is what causes us stress" and it responds accordingly.  Same thing can be said about going into the work place even if the main cause of stress may be absent.  It's just a habit pattern!

One of the benefits of Network care coupled with the Emotional Release work we do is to change the way the nerve system perceives the world.  We can create new pathways so that you don't automatically respond to stress as you used to.  This keeps you more centered and better able deal with life and its stresses more constructively.  This, then, enables you live, work, and play with greater health!

Wedding Receptions and Oh, You're a Chiropractor!

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'My wife and I went to a wedding reception last night. I don't usually enjoy these because I rarely know anyone, it seems to take forever to get something to eat, the music gets too loud when the DJ revs up the amps, you just can't leave after you eat; and, invariably, the conversation at the table always comes to "So, Dennis, what do you do?"

Last night wasn't too bad. We did know a couple of people, there was plenty to eat before dinner was even served, and the music didn't get ear splitting loud until late. But I was asked about what it is I do. I was talking with one fellow that I have met before and he asked "how is the chiropractic business these days?" I said it was great. And then he said "Plenty of bad backs, huh?"

A wedding reception is just not the place to try and educate people. It's just not the setting. This was before dinner, so there was no music to talk over, but it was a big hall with lots of people talking and you still have to raise your voice to be heard.

I said, "You know, it's not about 'bad backs'. I'm a total health doctor, people come to me for all sorts of conditions that they want help with in a natural setting."

I may as well have been speaking Swahili because he just didn't get this idea. We discussed it further, for a while, but, as I said, it's just not the place to do this sort of thing.

What makes me sad is that the idea of chiropractic being treatment for "bad backs" is what everyone things we are all about. The fault of this lies with the profession, because that is how the profession is markets itself. And the reason it is marketed this way is because this is what insurance pays for, and this is what MD's have begrudgingly accepted as what chiropractors are good for. The chiropractic profession has sold its soul to the medical devil to be "accepted".

Chiropractic has never been about bad backs. It's just that the back is our mode of entry into the body to reach the nerve system. The adjustment is not about moving sprained bones, but rather restoring integrity to the nerve system that has become distorted due to the stress of life. The body is an expression of the nerve system, and a sick nerve system creates a sick body - a healthy NS creates a healthy one. It's as simple as that. Traditionally chiropractors have not tried to emulate what MD's do by using the adjustment as a form of a pill to treat disease. We use the adjustment to allow the body to free itself of whatever is keeping it from expressing true health. That's it. And miracles happen when you allow the body to do this without trying to control it.

This is so important now at a time when the use of medical drugs continues to grow and the quality of health continues to decline in this country. Chiropractic is the only health care profession in this country that has the power to stand up to the medicals and offer something that has no side effects and empowers people to be healthy. And the profession markets bad backs.

I'm all better, Why Do I have to keep going!

Those of you who know me know that I work out four days a week.  I get up every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings and run a couple miles.  Then, except for Sunday, I come home and lift weights.  If someone is home with me, I like to joke, "Well, 10 more pushups and I will be totally buff!" as if the goal was to reach a certain chest size and be done.

People who exercise routinely know that there is no end to it.  One may set certain goals such as reaching an ideal weight, or building the biceps up to a certain size, or running a marathon in a certain amount of time.  But just because we reach that goal doesn't mean that it ends there.  If one were to stop exercising because the goal was reached, it would all fall apart.  Eventually the weight comes back, the muscles will get smaller and flabby, and stamina will be lost.  If you exercise, you do it for ever to keep in shape.  It takes work and dedication.

Just like chiropractic care!  People come to me for help with specific health problems.  The goal is to attain better health.  But when that goal is met, we want to make sure the body stays healthy with continued care.

Unlike medical care that treats conditions, chiropractic care recognizes that the onset of "conditions" is due to a body that can no longer adapt to life's stresses.  It doesn't matter what the condition may be, the onset of a condition is a signal that this body is starting to lose the battle against stress.  It is becoming weaker.  When I work with people, my intention is not to treat the disease, but rather find where the interferences to the expression of health are coming from, and remove them so the body can heal itself.

But just because that crisis has past doesn't mean that we are done.  Stress continues and if we were to stop clearing the body of interference, eventually the stress will begin to overwhelm the system and conditions come back, or new ones develop.

The purpose of chiropractic care is to keep the body in a healthier state than it would be without the care.  Or, in other words, assist people in having a higher quality of life.  So just as I will not suddenly be buff and have to stop working out because I hit the magic pushup number, true health will not be attained by the last magic adjustment. You just keep doing it to be the best you can be!

28 Years and Counting!

Next Monday, October 10, will mark the 28th anniversary of my official opening of my practice.  I say 'official' because I had already been seeing someone for a couple of weeks who had called me in utter desperation.  When I told her that I wasn't open yet, she asked if I could refer her to someone else.  Well, I wasn't going to let her go, so I told her that if she didn't mind putting up with my office in total disarray then I would be happy to see her.  We made an appointment to meet the next day.

When I was in school I heard that "Your first patient will come crawling in the door!"  That would have been true, because if she could have, she would have.  I watched her walk in which was extremely difficult for her.  She was extremely antalgic which meant that she was bent and twisted to one side.  I had her fill out the initial form and took her into my exam/adjusting room to examine her on my brand new chiropractic adjusting table!

I performed a flawless exam.  One that my teachers back at the Palmer College of Chiropractic would have been proud of.  I did all the right orthopedic and neurological tests that told me she had a herniated disc at the level of the fifth lumbar vertebra in her lower back.  Yep! I was so proud of myself!  Then it hit me, I didn't know what to do about it! In school they taught us how to perform exams, and how to adjust, but it never occurred to me that they didn't teach us how to put it together.

I don't remember if I attempted to adjust her that day or not.  I'm sure I must have tried something then told her to come back the next day.  Then I called my best friend Mike Zeigler who was practicing in Silver Springs, Maryland.  Mike and I had gone to Bowling Green together, and he was the one who told me that I should become a chiropractor when I was finishing my master's degree and didn't know what to do with my life.  Well four years later, a marriage and a baby on the way convinced me that I did need to do something more in my life than work in the lab at the Cleveland Clinic.

So I called Mike and said "What do I do?"  He laughed and said "Toggle the SOB!"  Toggling is a chiropractic technique of setting up on a vertebra and delivering a fast, high impulse thrust into it and releasing right away.  The SOB in question was the fifth lumber vertebra.  The next day when she came in, that's exactly what I did.  She screamed! I tried not to show that I got scared that I hurt her, but she was actually a little better.  And in about 3 months of constant care she really was better.

On October 10, I had four patients scheduled - our friend that I mentioned and three others.  And my practice took off from there.   In those early days, when I met someone who had been in practice for 10 years I marveled at them! Now I have 28 years under my belt. Back then I was "the new kid", now I have the oldest practice on the west side as far as I know.  Literally thousands of people have been through my doors, and today there are a couple of people who are still with me from close to when I started.  That's what amazes me and am so grateful for that!

These days I get asked if I ever plan on retiring.  Usually they ask with a little fear in their voices because they are afraid that I will have a date in mind.  I don't ever plan on retiring, it's still too much fun! So here's to the next 28 years!

What if....

Last evening my wife and I attended a function hosted by a local restaurant.  This was a high profile event with a couple hundred guests.  She introduced me to a friend of hers who, sadly lost her adult daughter to liver failure a couple of months ago.  I'm not certain what caused it, but my wife thinks it may have been acetaminophen toxicity. The mother said that suggested to her daughter that she see me, but her daughter, unfortunately, wanted to stay with the medical approach.

There was another fellow there that had been a practice member of mine almost 20 years ago.  He was a personal injury case, as my practice was much different then.  We talked a bit and he told me that he has had two bouts of cancer, both different kinds.  He's doing ok, but still something going on as he has some kind of cancerous lumps on his hands.

In the spring we like to go to the Lenten fish fries the local churches have.  This past spring I had seen a lady that had also been a member of my practice about 10 years ago.  When she started with me she had told me that she had a lung disease.  I can't remember what it was, but I do remember it was some sort of autoimmune disorder.  During the course of her care, she came in one evening and said that she had been to her MD and the lung disease was gone!  And, she was feeling very well.  When I had seen her at the fish fry earlier this year, she was using a portable oxygen tank.

Sometimes, no matter how much I write or talk about chiropractic, people still think all I do is make pain go away.  And when the pain is gone, so are they.  This always makes me sad because Chiropractic is so much more than that.  In fact, pain doesn't even enter the equation as to what I do.  Pain is a mind/body signal that simply says "Change!".  Change what you are doing, or thinking, but whatever it is, it is not working for us so change!

Health is a matter of function - when the body is doing what it is supposed to be doing when it is supposed to be doing it, it is healthy.  Chiropractic addresses the nerve system, which is the operating system of the body.  Stress makes the nerve system sick resulting in a sick body.  Get the nerve system healthy again, and health can be expressed in a healthy body.

I have seen liver disease clear up.  I have seen cancer disappear.  I have seen lung issues go away.  Do I treat these conditions? No.  I just clear the body of interference so it can HEAL.  If the young lady had come here, she may be alive now, we'll never now.  If the fellow would have stayed under care, would he have come down with cancer? We'll never know.  If the lady with the oxygen would have stayed under care, would she be carrying an oxygen tank around? Probably not, she already had told me she got better.

What if....?