Seriously, What does the Adjustment do?

There always seems to be some confusion about what the chiropractic adjustment is all about.  We live in a highly medicalized society where we are constantly bombarded with drug ads and treatments.  We are led to believe that for every ill there is a pill, so that if we take a pill, the ill goes away.  And we think that the adjustment is a pill in a different form.  In other words, for every ill, there is an adjustment.  But it doesn't work that way.

When people I are in my office, I listen to the things they tell me about their discomforts, but it is never my intention to make the discomforts go away.  The body heals itself.  This is a very powerful statement.  The body heals itself! When we take medications, we are in the mindset that the body DOES NOT heal itself and so we have to do something to make up the difference, such as taking medications to lower high blood pressure.  But this is a fallacy because the body heals itself!!

The nerve system (NS) is the agent of healing in the body.  It's the NS that monitors all the activity of that is going on in and around your body and making corrections along the way.  It's just that when the NS goes awry, as it does with stress, then it can't be as effective in its function, and loss of health can set in.  And let's not forget that HEALTH does not mean feeling good, it means FUNCTIONING RIGHT.  "Function" and "Feelings" are not synonymous.  In fact, when that body is attempting to heal, it may not be comfortable at all.  But that is for another time.

So, when people share their discomforts with me, it is not my intention to "make them feel better", it is my intention to make sure that they are "functioning right".  I do that by clearing the NS system of interference by adjusting the spinal system, that is, I tune your spinal cord.  Then I look to see if anything is not doing what it is supposed to by testing the various muscles and organs that may be involved.  When I am satisfied that everything is in order, my work at the moment is done.  I then let a person go and allow the body to do what it does best - HEAL.  That doesn't mean that miraculously all your ills are gone.  A person may feel wonderful when they leave me, and they may not.  For me, either way is ok.  What I do want a person to feel is DIFFERENT.  By feeling different than when a person came in, then I know something has shifted, and the body can change rather than stay the same. 

 It is never my intention to control a person's experiences in life by always making them feel better.  It is simply to make sure that everything is functioning the way it should, so that you can have a higher quality of life free from infirmity.  That's what an adjustment does.

Emotional Stress and Physical Disease

Sometimes a story comes around that is just too amazing and I have to share it with everyone!

            L has been a long time patient of mine and has always had a slightly visible growth on her thyroid.  I say slightly visible because unless she points it out, you would never know it’s there.  She has had it checked over the years by an endocrinologist who labeled it as a goiter, but she has had no symptoms of any thyroid issues.  We have done remedies for her thyroid, yet the growth never went away.

            Last week L mentioned that she was going to see the endocrinologist to have the lump checked again.  It seems to have gotten bigger and she could feel it when she swallowed.  She also mentioned that it was getting hard for her to eat certain foods like carrots or dry meats like turkey breast because they just wouldn’t go past it, and, it was making her cough.

            I don’t remember how we segued into this, but she began telling me about how her abusive first husband would choke her and slam her head into the floor.  That was a long time ago.  When he choked her, his grip was where she had the lump.

            A light went off in my head! I asked her to lie on her back and we worked on some emotional release procedures that may be associated with the abuse issues.  As soon as we were finished, which only took a few minutes, she sat up and said that she could feel it starting to drain down her throat! That was on a Friday.  On the following Monday, she called after seeing the MD.  He was measuring the lump to compare to his previous records and said, “That’s interesting, it’s gone down in size.”  It shrunk by an entire centimeter!

            Here is a perfect example of how emotional issues become physical diseases. When people ask, “What caused this..”, the answer is always stress.  And 99% of the time it is emotional stress.  The energy of emotional stresses is imprinted and stored in the body until the nerve system develops the flexibility to revisit the offending event.  Until that time, it may fester creating physical disease.  Most of the time this may just be muscle spasms, but, as you can see, it may be something else entirely. 

            Your body is a record of a lifetime of all your emotional stresses.  This is why chiropractic care should always be a part of your lifestyle.  It is not meant to cure a disease and send you on your way, but rather to address the past stresses and the new ones so that serious illness does not become a physical manifestation as you go through life’s journey!

Jury Duty, Stress, and Overall Health

                 As we have talked about in the past, there are three forms of stress that disrupt the nerve system – emotional, physical, and chemical.  Emotional stress is how we are feeling or dealing with events in our lives; physical stress is blows to the body like falls, accidents, sports stuff; and chemical stress is caused by anything going into the body that is not a natural occurring food.  The primary stress of all of these is Emotional.  Emotions are constant.  We are always dealing with life events by processing our thoughts, usually subconsciously.  And negative emotions such as worry, anxiety, fear, to name a few, put us into a guarded or protect physiology.  With this in mind, I wish to share my experience this week while serving just my day and a half of jury duty.

                  When I received the summons that I had to serve, I had extreme anxiety.  I was being called away from the office for I don’t know how long, to sit and decide someone’s fate.  I don’t mind serving for a few days as most trials, I understand, are over in a couple of days.  But you have no way of knowing what it will be.  My daughter was on a case a couple of years ago that went for 10 days! That would be half of my working month, which would be financially devastating for me!

                  So Monday morning when I went down to the Justice Center, I could just feel my heart beating.  I was shallow breathing.  My palms were sweaty.  I was in total protect/fear mode as my body’s innate self-defense system was protecting me from what it perceives, on a primitive level, as certain death.  I wanted to run from there, which we are programmed to do (fighting would have landed me in jail), so the energy to protect myself kept building and building as it had no outlet to either fight or run.

                  As I sat all morning waiting to be called, I could feel my muscles in various places tightening up.  And I thought of last year when a slight cough put me into complete spasm that lasted 6 weeks.  There were knots forming between my shoulder blades, and I could feel twitching in my left thigh where I had problems last year.  When my name was called that afternoon, my heart gave a loud “Thump” and my reactions were increasing!

                  I was juror number 15, so as we sat in the courtroom, I was praying that they would be satisfied with the first 12 or so. Then we adjourned until Tuesday morning.  I immediately felt a sense of relief, but I did not feel my heart relax as much as it should have.  Then the next morning, when I was faced with going down there again, it all started up once more.  And I was called into the juror’s box.

                  When the judge greeted me, I could barely speak at first as my throat chakra was closed.  But I was able to relax somewhat and answer her questions as well as the questions of both attorneys.  During the procedure I was a total wreck.  Because of the nature of the case, I was certain that it would go into next week.  Finally, the defense attorney dismissed me.  He is now my best friend!

                  I was at ease for a little bit as the immediate danger was passed, but I still had to go back into the pool and wait to see if I might be put on another case, so my ease was short lived.  However, the jury bailiff said that she had too many jurors and she excused me to go home!!

                  The reason I am sharing this with you, is that I wish for you to sense all the physiological changes that I was going through.  My adrenaline was flowing, my blood pressure was up.  My whole body was in total stress mode, and when the danger had passed, it only came down a little.  Fortunately, when I came home I immediately lied down on my table and adjusted myself.  I also did some emotional release work to interrupt the stress process my body was in.  And, I have been doing this each day to continue the release.

                  I, as well as you guys, am fortunate that we are able to do this together because stress is cumulative.  Each stressful event raises the bar each time.  We relax a little, the body can reset – but not completely. Then the next stress, then the next, until the body can’t adapt anymore and we hit the tipping point.  When this happens, we can have breakdown in the form of a heart attack, a stroke, or the development of chronic degenerative diseases. 

                  Look around you.  Look at all the sick people out there.  Look how people’s bodies are breaking down.  This is all due to stress.  Then how do they treat it? By inducing chemical stress in the form of drugs, which makes them worse!

                  What I went through is what everyone goes through on a daily basis – until they die before they need to.

Energy and Health

Many times when people start care they will often tell me, "Wow, I feel like I have more energy!"  And, many times I hear people tell me, "After I get adjusted, I feel so relaxed, i could go to sleep!"  Even though they are describing opposite sensations, the reason for both experiences is the same!

Stress causes tension to increase in the spinal cord.  And, of course, we all deal with stress everyday.  The tension that builds in the spinal cord is translated into increased tension in the muscles of the body.  Muscles only do what they are told.  If they are told to contract, they contract, and when they are told to relax, they do so.  So if they keep getting signals from the nerve system that says "Tension!", they contract and stay that way.

Also, this increase in muscle tension is part of the fight-or-flight response of the body.  When we are stressed the body goes into a protect mode that prepares us to either fight for our lives, or run for our lives.  So tension builds in the muscles to prepare us for both.

When muscles contract, they consume more energy.  When muscles remain contracted, they consume a lot of energy.  If we spend our days with contracted muscles, even if we are just sitting at a desk or watching TV, we are using up a lot of energy that can be used for other activities.  So when they are suddenly released of their burdens, you get to have this energy for other things, and you feel more energetic.

By the same token, when we are "all bound up" from the stress of life, and we suddenly release all that, our high tension state can come crashing down as we suddenly relax.  This can be felt as wanting to go to sleep.

A few years ago, I was at a seminar and saw pictures of an MRI taken of brain activity. The subject was asked to wiggle his ankle while in the MRI machine.  As he did so, several areas of his brain lit up.  These  areas were all being used to perform the simple task of wiggling his ankle.  He was taken out of the MRI, then received a Network Spinal Entrainment, and put back in the MRI, and asked to wiggle his ankle.  This time only a couple of spots lit up in the brain.  The conclusion to this is that when the spinal cord is at its proper tone and tension, the body works much more efficiently requiring less energy to perform simple tasks.

I always tell everyone that health is defined by the way our bodies work, not necessarily how we feel.  When we are working more efficiently, we are healthier - healthier than when so much of our energy is going into just holding us in one place!

Passive vs. Active Health Care

Yesterday, someone was telling me about her cousin who has decided to have bariatric surgery to lose weight.  Her cousin is diabetic, has high blood pressure, of course doesn't eat right, gets winded when he goes to get the mail, and is on all kinds of medications.  The man is very sick and yet thinks that by removing a section of his stomach, that somehow this will allow him to lose weight and fix all his problems.  I asked her if he would consider coming to see me first.  She said he came in with her one time, I honestly do not remember, and he thought chiropractic care was rubbish (my words, but that's the gist of it).  And this is the fundamental difference between medical and chiropractic care.

Medical care is passive.  It's not much different than taking your suit to the cleaners.  You drop it off and in a week, you pick it up all nice and clean and pressed.  That's passive.  You didn't have to clean it, or iron it, it was all done for you.  In medicine, one goes to the Dr, gets examined, receives a diagnosis, and then a prescription.  In most cases, what is ailing Mr. or Mrs. Patient is due to lifestyle - stress, smoking, poor eating habits, and lack of exercise.  The prescription, whether it is drugs or surgery, is used to nullify the effects of the choices this person has made.  In many cases Dr. Medical would advise the person to quit smoking, or get some exercise, which falls on deaf ears.  It is much easier to take the drugs.  This is passive.  Our person in question is not taking responsibility for his/her own health and well-being.  Just take the drugs.

Chiropractic care is active.  Generally people who come to see me want more out of life.  They realize that there is no alternative to being healthy and that it doesn't come from a drug store.  I can't give someone a bottle of adjustments to take and then check them in a week or two.  The commitment has to be made that they are going to take the time out to come to the office twice a week to have the interference in their nerve systems reduced.  Most of these people have made choices to eat better and to get more exercise.  They realize that they are responsible for the choices they make and the consequences of their actions.  This is active care because these people are involved in what happens to their bodies and in their lives!

Passive care keeps people sick or makes them sicker.  Drugs have effects.  Not side-effects like they like to call it, but effects!  They effect the body in more ways than they help, and most of them are not good.  Bariatric surgery is not a cure and there is no health in having a part of the body removed especially if it's healthy (even if it's not, how did it get that way?)  People who are passive about their health are never, ever healthy.  It's just an easy choice because it takes little effort.

Active care makes people healthier!  They are responsible for their health and they know it.  There are no adverse affects to getting adjusted, only becoming healthier.  Active health care is not easy, it takes effort and commitment, but the rewards are immeasurable!

Can You make me Straight?

This morning one of my clients mentioned that she feels "crooked" and even notices that she has more calluses on one foot than the other from walking off balance.  So she wanted to know if I could "make her straight".  That's a fair question because we see pictures of xrays of the spine that show, from the front, a nice straight spine.  These pictures show level hips, level shoulders, and a head sitting squarely on the shoulders. But can I "make" her straight?  The answer is no.

Actually I can't make anyone into anything.  We have to always remember the basic chiropractic philosophy, that all living things are an expression of an Inborn, Innate Intelligence.  This Intelligence knows exactly what each individual needs to stay alive and is unique to each person. Innate resides in the nerve system, which is why we adjust the nerve system - to keep Innate flowing and the body healthy.  We can't question Innate.  The power that makes the body, the power that expresses Life, is far greater than our limited intelligence.

The only purpose of the adjustment is to restore the nerve system to its proper tone and tension so that the nerve system is free to coordinate body functions, that is, express Innate.  In a healthy body, we don't question or judge what a person is going through because the body always has a higher purpose, i.e staying alive.  If we question or judge the expression of the body, then we are saying that we "know better".  And when we try to control what the body is doing, we again are saying "We know better".  Well, I don't know about you, but I didn't design the body.  I can't say that what a person is going through is right or not.  All I do when I work with everyone is remove any blockages a person may have to the expression of Life Force.
 
This brings us back to the original question from this morning.  I can't make a person "straight".  If a person is supposed to have a curvature of the spine to keep them alive (I'm not talking about the pathological kind where the body actually folds up upon itself), then who am I to say this is wrong? And who is to say having a straight spine is the way it is supposed to be?  I took xrays of people for the first 10 years of my practice.  I saw curved spines in people who were quite healthy.  I saw straight spines in people who were quite sick.  I adjusted people, retook the xray, and saw that their curves actually increased!  Is this wrong? Nope! It's what that person needed!

If I try to control a person's experience, then I am making the care about me.  It's not about me, it's about YOU!  It's about clearing your nerve system of any interference to the expression of Innate, or Life Force, so that your body is free to be as healthy as it possibly can be.  That is the essence of true health care!

Recently I applied to get a quote on a life insurance policy I saw advertised on one web page I had visited.  They promised lower rates.  I have a policy already that costs about $80 a month, and thought I might be able to get one a little cheaper.  After filing out the info in the ad, one of their reps called me and said that i could get a policy for about $60 a month for the same coverage.  Well, anything to save money, so I went ahead with the application.

He asked me the usual questions, and then wanted "medical" info.  You know, like, who is my MD, when did I have a physical last, can they get copies of my medical files.  I told him, "I have no MD, there are no medical records, and I have never had a physical!"  I told him I'm a chiropractor and that I adhere to the chiropractic philosophy of health and that I have no need for MD's. I also told him that I run 4 days a week and lift weights. I told him that I have a 32 inch waste, just as I had in high school over 40 years ago. He was actually cool with that, and said that he will still have to send someone to the house to do the usual blood and pee tests, and get some vitals.  That was ok.

The nurse came here two weeks ago, and asked me the same questions: who is my MD, etc.  I told her the same answer.  Then last week, I received a call from a woman saying she was the underwriter and had a couple of questions.  She asked, "Who is your MD, when was the last time you had a physical, and can we get copies of your medical records?'  I gave her the same answers.

I expected this, of course.  It is just amazing that there is no room for another way of thinking about one's health.  It has to be medical or nothing at all.  Well, tonight was the icing on the cake.  I received a call from the original fellow I talked with and said that he had the policy ready.  It was going to cost me about $100 a month because my lipid levels were a little high, and since I had no MD to help "get them down to normal levels" I was considered a higher health risk.

To be fair, he said he went to bat for me and told them that I lead a different lifestyle.  I'm not their typical 61 year old and that I am very healthy.  But it did no good.  I told him that I find it amazing that I am not on any medications, have no history of health problems, that I lead a lifestyle that promotes health. And yet  if I were to start on Statin drugs that artificially lower cholesterol, i.e. drugs that are known to cause liver disease and actually PROMOTE heart disease, then I would be a BETTER risk, and they would be able to insure me for the lower premium.  How screwed up is that????

My friends, we live in an insane world.  When I was a little boy, I started to write a book called "The World of Opposite".  It was a story about a man who travels to another planet to find that everything there is the opposite of what it is here.  Sometimes I feel like I am now living in that world.  Sickness and things that make us sick are promoted as the way to live our lives, and wellness and things that we do to promote wellness are looked down upon and shunned.  God help us.

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....?

Misconceptions of Health

Something that I continue to find amazing is how people claim they are healthy when they are really incredibly sick. I really believe that most people do not have a concept of what being healthy is.

I had a consultation with a lady today that came to see me because her right shoulder and right hip were in pain. Granted, most people think chiropractic is some kind of physical therapy treatment, but readers of my column and those who know me know that chiropractic as a whole body approach to health. Medical people have their ideas about health and how to treat illness, and chiropractors have a different philosophy.

Since we do have a different philosophy, I take the time with all my new people to get them to understand a different viewpoint. I want them to know that health is not about the presence or absence of symptoms but rather how the body functions. Symptoms are not necessarily s sign of illness but more often a communication from the body that says something needs to be changed. They are warning signs that need to be heeded, not treated. Health is defined by how the body functions and if loss of function is occurring, then there is a loss of health. And function can change without the presence of symptoms.

The lady in my office today had a history of a hip replacement and two episodes of breast cancer. I had performed my exam on her two days ago and we were going over the results. The exam is to find functional changes in the body. Based on what I found I told her that it was going to take at least 2 years to rehabilitate her to a state of higher health. She was shocked. She just wanted me to "fix her spine and shoulder" which should only take a few visits. Once again I explained to her that "fixing" parts of the body is not what this is about. The changes in her shoulder and spine were do to a lifetime of having sick nerve system tha affected every aspect of her being. She then said, "I just don't see why i need to have all that treatment I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN VERY HEATHY (emphasis mine)." I told her that anyone who has ever had cancer cannot sit here and tell me that they are healthy. Healthy people do not get cancer.

Which brings me to my point. She is not alone in that thinking. I hear it over and over again how people tell me that they are missing organs from surgeries, they are on medications, they have a history of cancer. But they are healthy. Really? Do you claim health because you are not dead? At what point do people think they are sick?

It is a sad state of affairs when people think that living like that is being health, when they can have so much more in life. It's even worse when I try to show them that they can get more out of their bodies, that they do not have to live substandardly, and they walk away because they are happy this way or just don't want to do the work that it takes to get better.

An essay about Chiropractic

The following is a response I gave to a friend of my wife's who is studying to get her Bachelor's degree in nursing.  She is taking a course in complimentary/ alternative health and asked me some questions about "chiropractic medicine".  The following is my response to her.

Hi Marji,

Thanks for taking the time to ask me these questions.  My answers may be kind of long, but I like to have a clear understanding of my work and what chiropractic really is.  There is so much mis-understanding about chiropractic, and a lot of it comes from the practitioners, that the public doesn't understand how chiropractic can be of great importance in their lives. 

So, first off, let's drop the term "chiropractic medicine".  That is an oxymoron.  It is strictly chiropractic.  It sounds weird because the word should be an adjective, you feel like something should follow it.  It took me a while to get used to it way back when, but you do after a while.

To describe what I do requires an understanding of what chiropractic health care really is.  Chiropractic is a philosophically based approach to restoring and maintaining health in the body.  It is based upon the premise that the body is a self-healing, self-creating entity.  All living things, whether plant or animal have an Innate, or Inborn Intelligence that creates the body and sustains life.  Think about it.  We all came from a single cell that divided into literally trillions of cells that became a baby.  At first the cells were undifferentiated, but at the right time they became nerve cells, liver cells, muscle cells, and so on. The cells formed organs and systems all working in harmony to sustain life in the newborn.  This is all accomplished without outside interference!  The developing body knows what it needs to do and when.  This power to create and sustain life does not end with the cutting of the umbilical cord, it continues for the lifetime of the individual as the body grows and evolves for the next 60 to 100 years. 

In the developing baby, the first recognizable system to be formed is the Nerve System (NS).  The NS guides the formation of the developing body.  After birth, the NS continues to do this as well as co-ordinate all the functions of the body.  When I ask people what does the NS do, they usually tell me it helps them feel stuff, usually pain.  But sensation is only 6% of NS function.  The NS is operating system of the body.  You have anywhere from 50 to 80 trillion cells in your body and each cell has 3 to 9 nerve endings attached to them.  The brain is in constant communication with every cell in your body, monitoring and guiding everything they do.  Not only does the NS do this, but it is constantly taking in information from your environment to guide you safely through life to minimize risk to your body.  The NS heals, animates, motivates, and co-ordinates your body and life! To have a healthy body, you have to have a healthy NS.  And everything in your life is an expression of your nerve system.  

As we go through life, we are subjected to stress.  Stress always sounds like a bad thing, but it serves to protect us.  If we didn't have stress, we wouldn't know when to protect ourselves from danger.  There are only three forms of stress: emotional, chemical, and physical.  And I list them in that order on purpose.  Emotional stress is a constant.  People don't realize it so much, but we deal with emotional stress all the time.  From the moment of conception and on we have emotional stresses.  As we develop we pick up the emotional stress that Mom may be going through.  Birth is emotional. Then we have to deal with family issues, school, friends, jobs, the news, traffic, bills, and on and on.  Chemical stress is anything that goes in the body that doesn't belong there such as vaccinations, food additives, fumes from gasoline, or the new carpet you put in, insecticides, etc.  And physical stress is what it is - falls, sports, accidents etc.  Most people think physical is the biggie, but it's small compared to the other two.  Even when there is a physical stress, there is an emotional component playing behind it.

The effects of stress are cumulative. And what stress does is that it creates tension in the spinal cord.  This alters the TONE and TENSION of the spinal cord altering the flow of communication between the brain and the body.  If you compare the body to a violin, the spinal cord represents the strings and stress makes them go out of tune.  This leads to changes in body function and therefore health.  If the brain and body cannot communicate properly, the body loses its ability to regulate itself leading to disease and ill health.  

The definition of health is when all the systems of the body are functioning 100% of the time when they are supposed to be functioning.  It is also a state of emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.  And health exists when people are able to realize their uniqueness and potential as a human being.  Health IS NOT defined by the presence of absence of symptoms.  Symptoms serve to let people know that the body needs help or to warn that something the person is doing is not working for them and they need to change something!  Being pain free is comfortable but not a sign of health.  If that were the case, dead people would be the healthiest - they don't feel pain!  Being healthy is being in tune with the body and knowing what its needs are and making choices that serve the body.  Not being healthy is to ignore its signals and shutting them off when the signals interfere with what we feel we need to do each day.  But I'm digressing. 

What chiropractic care is, as I said before, is an approach to helping to restore and maintain health to the body by ADJUSTING the NS through the spinal column.  By restoring the proper TONE and TENSION to the spinal cord, the brain and the body can communicate better and the NS can once again regulate and heal the body.  Remember, the body is an expression of where the NS is.  A sick NS creates a sick body, a healthy NS creates a healthy body.  There is no other way.  

Now, before I get into what I do, you asked about straights and mixers.  Straight chiropractors are also known as  principled or philosophically based chiropractors.  This what I am.  We do not try to emulate MD's by diagnosing conditions and then trying to treat them with chiropractic methods. Whatever a person is going through is, in our terms, a product of a sick NS.  Restore health to the NS, and the body will heal itself.  The power that created the body, heals the body.  To me it doesn't matter what a person has, it's all an expression of a sick nerve system and a body that has lost it's ability to adapt.  Now you may think " Wow, that could be dangerous! What if a person has something really serious?"  Well, most people have already been to their MD's and diagnosed out the wazoo! And if I suspect something weird, I always tell the person to have it checked out.  That's very rare though.  People come to me with all sorts of issues.  I have worked with people who have hormonal issues, cancer, digestive issues, blood pressure, as well as headaches and stuff.  Many people consider me their primary care physician.

The mixers are chiros that have become more like glorified physical therapists.  They do diagnose, often work with MD's, and "treat" conditions with chiropractic methods such as adjusting everything that is stuck.  They concern themselves with injuries - worker's comp, car accidents, and sports. They use a lot of physical therapy equipment along with their adjusting, if they adjust at all.  They do stick to just a physical approach to the body. 

So what do I do? As you know there are many ways of adjusting the spine.  You probably experienced the high velocity thrust that results in a cracking sound.  I practice Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) which is a light touch approach.  The idea is not to move bones, but to tune the NS to its proper tone and tension.  When I perform my analysis on people, they are lying face down on the table and I check them for spinal cord tension. This shows up as leg length differences, ankle tension, muscle stress in the legs, and so on (without getting too detailed).  The pattern of stress that shows corresponds to spinal areas like in the neck or pelvis.  When I find the pattern, I go to that vertebral level, find the "sweet spot" and touch it very lightly and let go.  The person experiences a release of tension, their breath often gets deep and moves through the body in a wave. Often they will sigh. Sometimes they start to move on the table as the body "unwinds", and sometimes (not often) they may have an emotional release.  The visit is often about 10 minutes long.  Afterwards most people feel relaxed, more at peace, lighter, more centered.  A study performed at the University of California Medical School in Irving (or Irvine? I forget) with almost 3000 people under NSA care found that after 3 months of care people reported feeling better able to deal with stress more constructively, they felt happier and enjoyed life more, they had less concerns with aches and pains, they had less colds and flu, they reduced or eliminated medications (with the help of their MD's), they were able to make healthier decisions, and adapted healthier life styles.  You asked about negative reactions - there are none with this approach.

As far as labeling chiropractic care as complimentary or alternative - it is neither.  Chiropractic, if the practitioner is 'straight', is a stand alone profession independent of medicine.  The philosophy of medicine is that the body is incomplete, nature didn't get it right, and it is system in failure that has to supported with drugs.  When the drugs don't work, then remove the parts that are no longer needed or have died.  This is a mechanistic, Newtonian approach to the body that looks at the body the way a mechanic looks at an automobile.  Chiropractic is holistic.  Life is the expression of Intelligence through Matter.  The body is perfect and knows what it needs to do to maintain life.  Interferences develop to the expression of life in the body, and all we have to do is remove that interference and allow the body to do what it does best.  Chiropractic does not "compliment" medicine in any way.  Nor is it an alternative.  One should not think in terms of "should I take an aspirin for my headache or get my neck cracked?"  Alternative is either/or.  I educate my practice members to realize that their bodies are self-healing, self-regulating organisms, and that keeping them tuned gives them the best opportunities in life.  The healthier a person is, the less they need medicine (which is the leading cause of preventable death in the US today by the way).  

So there you have it.  I know I gave you a lot.  If you have any other questions (I'm sure you do now!) don't hesitate to contact me again.