Ehren Chiropractic Center

What is "Traditional" Chiropractic?

2012-01-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

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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!

2011-11-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

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....

2011-09-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Medications and Quality of Life

2011-06-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

Last week one of our practice members, handed me a recent newsletter from MetroHealth. There was an interesting article in there written by Catherine Fallick, MD about blood pressure, medications, and life extension. She states that high blood pressure (HBP) affects more than 60 million Americans. It is the silent killer because there are no symptoms of HBP, but in the long run having it can lead to heart disease, kidney damage, and stroke. This is all true of course. However, what she says about medication got under my holistic skin!

She states: "People don't understand that every day with high blood pressure is a day that they are aging faster than necessary. Treating your blood pressure with medication and diet allows you to feel good when you are 70 and 80. The rate of developing HPB sometime over your lifetime is near 90%. Part of that is because of the aging population. Only 10% of the population will never develop HPB. We need to get used to the fact that we all are eventually going to have to take medications for BP. If you are against taking medication, you may not have the life expectancy that we have come to expect in the United States. (Italics are mine)."

Oh really? I looked up a common medication for BP, Lopressor, to see what it does. It can cause: congestive heart failure (do I need to go on?), heart block, cardiogenic shock, severe slow heart beat, Raynaud's phenomenon, gangrene, hepatitis, hypersensitivity reactions, photosensitivity, Systemic Lupus, and a loss of your white bood cells ( you know, the ones that fight infections!)

There are many contraindications listed for its use, and one of them is to be cautious with elderly people!

So I would like the good doctor to explain to me how taking this drug when I am in my 70's and beyond, which is a high risk group, is going to make me "feel good" if I run the risk of congestive heart failure, liver disease, dead limbs, and possible autoimmune disease? I would rather take my chances with just HBP!

Dr Fallick says that taking medication is what is necessary for a long, healthy life. Is she aware that prescription medication is the leading cause of hospital admissions and death in the US today? Is she also aware of an article that appeared in the AARP magazine not too long ago that referred to a study that said that people who DO NOT take medications have a higher life expectancy and quality of life that those who do? Apparently not.

To her credit, she does refer to lifestyle changes. Losing weight, diet changes, and exercise have all been shown to help people drop their BP. There are also chiropractic studies ( I don't have the references handy at the moment) that show chiropractic care also lowers BP. None of these activities have adverse affects on one's health as the medications do.

There is no substitute for a healthy lifestyle. There is no substitute for regular chiropractic care. There is no reason to believe that medications make people healthier!

Do you "hold" your adjustments?

2011-06-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

The other day, someone asked me if anyone ever "holds" their adjustments. This is based upon the old chiropractic notion that a vertebra "out of place" is pinching a nerve and creating illness. By "resetting" the vertebra with a thrust the pressure is taken off the nerve and healing occurs. Therefore, the adjustment should "hold" or always stay in its proper place along the spine. Unfortunately, this just doesn't happen.

The notion that one can hold an adjustment is believe that the body is a machine - it is a collection of parts that work together like a watch or an automobile. Your car will hold its front end alignment. When the wheels go out of alignment, you have that adjusted and it should stay that way until you hit a curb. The medical people work from the premise that the body is a machine. They feel that when something breaks down they can replace it with another part, human or artificial. This is all based on the old Newtonian/ Descartes view that the Universe is just a collection of parts whirling around each other just like an old watch that you have to wind up.

This just isn't true. The body is not a machine. It is a living expression of consciousness. It is the expression of intelligence in matter. It is energy flowing. Your body is constantly taking in information from it's environment, beyond your immediate comprehension, and adapting to the constant flux of energy so as to stay alive. And, the environment goes beyond what you see around you, it is also your thoughts and feelings.

Your body is programmed to do only one thing - keep you alive! Everything it does is to meet that end. So by monitoring it's environment, the body will make changes and reposition itself to stay alive. In other words, it is in a constant changing dynamic with the world within, and without. When it senses danger, i.e. stress, it will go into a survival mode. It will curl up, so to speak, or tense up to protect itself. Stress is a learned response, so the body will respond to events not necessarily based upon immediate danger, but rather on what it learned as danger. So you may not be stressed at the moment, but your body may be reacting to something that on a subconscious level it understands to be stress. It will also react to all your thoughts and emotions.

Since your environment is constantly changing, your body's response to it is constantly changing. The nerve system, which reads and interprets the environment, will constantly change and react. The body is an expression of the nerve system. So if the nerve system constantly changes, the expression in the physical body will also. And that means the body is in constant flux.

To assume that an adjustment is "holding" is to assume that the body never changes. It is to assume that the body is a machine just standing still and never moving. This is impossible. It is impossible to assume that by "resetting" a vertebra, it will stay that way forever.

People need to be adjusted regularly because the effects of stress are cumulative. And only spinal adjustment can change that and keep a person in a more relaxed state. Instead of living in survival mode, the body can be relaxed and live in "living"mode. This in itself will keep the body healthier! And it doesn't matter if you have to adjust the same vertebra over and over and over.

Can Chiropractic Create World Peace?

2011-06-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! That's a heavy statement, don't you think? Quite presumptuous, too. But, is it really far fetched?

The other day one of my practice members, Mary, sat up after being cleared and said how wonderfully at peace she felt. Then she asked, "What it would be like if everyone were under chiropractic care?" I said, "There probably would be world peace!"

Stress is the number one cause of loss of health. We can't escape stress, it's part of living in a physical body in today's society. There are only three forms of stress: emotional, chemical, and physical. I list them in this order on purpose because about 95% of the stress I help people through is emotional. We have to deal with all elements of society: the economy, family issues, taxes, politics, the ever present war, traffic, our jobs, and so on. Stress puts our bodies into survival mode also known as 'fight or flight'. We either have to fight for our lives or run like hell, but the bottom line is that we constantly live on the edge. We are never at peace. If we, as individuals, are never at peace within ourselves, we are never at peace with each other, and nations will never be at peace. Society, as a whole, is in fight or flight. Then nations are in fight or flight, albeit mostly fight.

The chiropractic adjustment takes a person out of survival mode. It changes the tone and tension of the nerve system to "living" mode so that we can be at peace within ourselves. When we are at peace, we are centered, able to deal with life constructively. If more people lived this way, society would be centered, in "living" mode. Then nations would be centered and at peace. If everyone in the world could be cleared of living in survival mode, it is safe to say that there would be peace!

More thoughts on Vaccines

2011-06-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

I went with my daughter and granddaughter to visit her pediatrician for my granddaughter's first birthday check-up today. The pediatrician is very nice, very laid back, and very supportive of our decisions regarding natural health approaches. We told her way back before Maddi was born that we are choosing not to have her vaccinated. She has supported this decision, but has asked with the two visits I have attended in the past year if we still do not wish to have vaccinations, or were we waiting for Maddi to be a little older. Lindsay again told her that there will be no vaccinations, and the doctor noted this in Maddi's chart.

What makes me wonder is how can learned people who claim to be health care providers can still promote the use of vaccines on children. I just read three articles dealing with vaccines that describe how they don't work and even cause disease. One article talked about the dangers of the Hepatitis B vaccine in children. It is linked to the onset of Multiple Sclerosis, Systemic Lupus, sudden infant death, and auto-immune diseases. Hepatitis B isn't even a childhood disease - it is a disease of drug users and specific sexual habits!

Another article discussed how immunized children in Pakistan are developing polio. 70% of of the polio cases being seen in Pakistan are in children that were vaccinated. And yet another article talks about how the CDC admits that the flu vaccine doesn't work, it wears off, and that's one of the reasons you have to have a new one every year. Well the flu vaccine has aluminum and mercury compounds in them, detergents, dead diseased chicken cells, viruses, MSG ( I guess so it will at least taste good), and other toxic substances.

And that is just in the past week. Everyday articles appear, not in the main stream media of course, that discuss the dangers of vaccines. Hopefully one day enough people will wake up and vaccinations of our children will go the way of blood letting to cure disease.

A Vaccine for Shingles?

2011-05-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

Today I saw a sign in front of Walgreens that they are offering shingles vaccines. Now if there is anything that says how ridiculous this whole vaccine issue has become, this is it. The reason? Shingles is NOT an infectious disease that spreads from person to person like flu.

The virus that causes shingles is the same that causes chicken pox. Chicken pox is the primary manifestation of exposure to the Varicella virus. This virus is in the Herpes virus family. A characteristic of Herpes viruses is that once you have them, you always have them. You get a big infection, then the virus goes dormant in the the nerve roots of the spinal cord. It can be dormant forever without ever showing itself again. But every now and then it may manifest, like a cold sore which is a Herpes virus. As I said, Chicken pox is the primary manifestation of the Varicella virus. When you get over chicken pox, the virus did not go away, it went dormant in your nerve system. Then 50 or 60 years later, you get stressed out and the virus grows again and you have shingles! Shingles is adult chicken pox! You could also say it is a form of a "cold sore" that shows up on the trunk of the body. The thing is, and this is very important: YOU HAVE TO HAVE HAD CHICKEN POX TO GET SHINGLES LATER! If you never had chicken pox, then you can't get shingles until you get chicken pox. Therefore, getting a shingles vaccine is a waste of time, let alone dangerous as all vaccines are!

But, you may say, then why not make sure all kids get the chicken pox vaccine? Because the vaccine does not work and is very, very dangerous. From 1995 to 1999, there were 10,000 reports of adverse reactions to this vaccine, all involving nerve damage. These reactions include: encepahlits (brain inflammation), inflammation of the spinal cord, Guillian-Barre syndrome, Bell's Palsy, Cerebellar Ataxia (sudden loss of co-ordinated movement and speech), seizures, and Paresthesia. Is this a chance you would want to take with your kids? Or yourself?

Shingles is certainly not a condiiton to wish on anyone, but don't be fooled into thinking that there is a vaccine for it. There isn't.

Chiropractors are dangerous? Seriously?

2011-05-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

My daughter told me at dinner tonight that the husband of one of her employees is scheduled to have back surgery. Apparently he has been diagnosed with a herniated disc. So far he has gone through physical therapy and nerve bocks that have not done any good so the only option left is surgery. He has young children at home and he won't be able to lift them until September! My daughter asked if he had tried seeing a chiropractor, and the wife said that he did ask his physician and was told that that will only make it worse!

Now, chiropractic is NOT a back pain specialty, it is a total health approach for the body. However, many studies have been done to show the efficacy of chiropractic care for the treatment of low back pain, and it is, hands down, far superior than anything medicine has to offer. There are no "side effects" other than the person might just get well. And in 27 years of practice, not one person in my office has ever been crippled from our care.

So let's see. This poor man has been suffering for I don't know how long, he has had anesthesia injected directly into his vital nerve system - you know, the one that controls and coordinates the life of the body - and now he is going to have his back opened up with the possibility of paralysis and even death. He may become crippled from this surgery. This is rare but I have known it to happen. He may become addicted to pain drugs, as many do. And chances are very good that he will have additional surgery because the pain still didn't go away and the surgical area filled up with scar tissue that is choking off the nerves.

You decide. Who is going to make it worse?

4 Weeks

2011-03-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

As of yesterday it has been a month since my body revolted on me. I don't want to call it an injury, since I had done nothing to injure myself. But rather it was a more like a seizure. Just as a rabbit or a deer will seize in front of headlights, my body seized in response to an overload of stress.

Since then I have improved quite a bit. I started seeing a chiropractor who specializes in upper cervical adjusting. This is the approach we were initially taught at Palmer College. BJ Palmer, the founder of our school called it the "Hole in One Technique". By addressing the atlas, i.e. the first cervical vertebra, you will affect every process throughout the body. For decades this is all that was taught at the school. Adjust the atlas and let the Innate Intelligence of the body free up and do the healing. This is a very powerful concept, often forgotten by chiropractors because they feel that they have to "treat" the pain rather than free the body to do its own healing. However, the power that created the body heals the body. There is no other way, and when you consider that creating the body is nothing short of a miracle, then healing becomes a miracle too. We don't have to control it, just release the power and get out of the way!

I started running again. My leg still feels weak and the muscle aches at times, but I am able to run about two and a half miles with some walking thrown in. I'm able to adjust people longer without having to sit down. And the numb area has gotten a little smaller. Just a little. But it gives me hope that I will overcome this, and soon. It is very weird when you suddenly lose a function of your body. It changes you, and not in a good way. And you appreciate it so much more when you get it back! You just can't take health for granted because all it takes is a second to lose it!

Health - You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone!

2011-03-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

It's funny how we can take out bodies for granted. I try not to, full appreciating all it does for me. But when something suddenly changes, you begin to realize how important a fully functioning body is.

I recently hurt myself that resulted in intense back spasming and left leg weakness. The weakness came on so fast, it was incredible. I found it difficult to stand, let alone walk, and of course, running was out of the question. I love to run. I feel like my life depends on it. I run 4 days a week all year long and in all the weather typical to Cleveland. But not for the last 10 days.

I began to feel like an invalid. I could get up and walk, but after 30 seconds, I had to sit because my thigh would burn in pain as the muscles tried to hold me up. I couldn't do anything. I mean anything! I couldn't go to the store, I could barely get through my day at the office. All I would do is go to the office, sit while I adjust people, and come home. Then I would sit on the couch or the chair in front of the TV and veg. I began to wonder if I would ever have my life back.

I have been working on myself, and with the help of a chiropractor friend of mine, Dave Budney. Slowly the strength is coming back and today I finally felt strong enough to try a run. Actually, I didn't feel strong enough, but I could not take another day of sitting. Running withdrawl is horrible. So I put on my running gear and went or it. It was difficult at first, but I was able to get in about 2 and a half miles. When I got home, I felt absolutely great!

I know now that what has gripped me is slowly leaving and I can see the end of the tunnel. But the body you've been given is the only one you will ever get. A healthy body is defined by how well it works, not how well it feels. And in the matter of a moment something can change that suddenly changes how it works. And that is a horrible, horrible feeling. Thank goodness for chiropractic, because that is the only approach that can restore health, and keep us healthy (i.e functioning!). Because once it's gone, health may be gone for good!

How healthy is a health nut?

2011-02-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

Today one of my practice members mentioned that someone she knows lost his fiance to pneumonia. The lady who passed away was in her 40's and Diane described her as a "health nut". She exercised all the time, at the right foods, took her supplements - a true health nut. So how was it that someone would come down with an illness like pneumonia and die from it?

My question to Diane was "What is the missing variable?" She didn't know.

The missing variable is that the woman was not under chiropractic care. The most important aspect of health is maintaining the health of the operating system of the body - the nerve system - with regular chiropractic care. It doesn't matter how much exercise a person gets, or if they have the most expensive urine from all the vitamins they take. If the nerve system is not fully communicating in the body, the body will get sick.

The circulatory system distributes food and oxygen throughout the body. It also collects wastes to be eliminated from the body. The nerve system also circulates. But it circulates information, and most importantly, Life Force. If the nerve system is sick, the circulation of Life Force can be altered. If a part of the body is not getting proper Life Force, that area of the body may start to break down. The body is programed to self-destruct when Life Force leaves it. In a dead body, this is called decay. If it happens in a part of a living body, it is called and infection. But it is not an infection. It is the cells undergoing self-destruction by creating bacteria that digest the cells. If this happens on a grand scale, the whole body will die.

The chiropractic adjustment is the only way to make sure that the nerve system is operating properly and that Life Force is flowing. The important thing to remember is that healthy people do not suddenly die! Diet is important. Exercise is important. Proper sleep and hygiene are important. But without chiropractic care as part of the equation, one can never be truly healthy or truly well.

What do you believe?

2011-01-27T12:04:00.000-08:00

'Thoughts create things.''

" What you think about is so."

I hear this over and over again from various people talking about attracting things into our lives. This applies to things we want, and things we don't want. People all want better health, but how often do you here people say "oh that just makes me sick!" Or, "that person I work with is a pain in my neck!" Or, "It's winter, I always get sick in the winter". Then what happens? They get sick, develop a neck pain, or something else.

When we think of something, the body listens. Every thought creates a reaction, without exception! If you think thoughts of sickness, it will happen. The pain in your hip may not be arthritis, but if you continue to say it is because your Aunt Mildred had it, then you will get it too.

The secret to having good health and anything else in life is to alway feel good. Be happy - always! Instead of thinking about the things in life that make you ill, think about what makes you well - and be happy about it! Regardless of the circumstances.

So, think about what you say. Even if you are joking, thoughts become things!

I'm Back!

2011-01-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

I guess it has been over a year since I posted anything to my blog. It's funny how you plan things and then, slowly, life gets in the way and you forget about certain things that you had planned. But that's all behind now. It's a new year, with new energies, and now, new blogging!

This past year my granddaughter, Madison Lucy was born. She was born on May 30 to be precise. She came into this world healthy, and she has not been vaccinated. In her almost 8 months of life, she had one little cold that she got over in two days. She cut two teeth during the past month and had a little fever with each one. But she did not get a congested nose or ear infections.

Vaccinating newborns is such a ritual in this country. But health does not come from chemicals being shot into the blood stream of an infant. Health comes from proper nutrition, hygiene, exercise, and keeping the nerve system in its proper tone and tension with chiropractic care. Our little Maddi is already developing into a healthy child because she gets adjusted regularly!

Keeping the nerve system, the operating system of the body, healthy is the most important thing everyone can do for themselves - at any age!

The clouds and sun!

2009-10-20T13:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, N told me that she was getting discouraged. She had only been with me for a month, so I was little curious as to her comment. She said that her leg hurt, and she had bouts of dizziness and this past week wasn't too good for her.

I asked, "Didn't you tell me last week that you had felt better?" She said that she did, but it all came back.

She is also having bladder trouble, and mentioned that hse was feeling better there, too. "And didn't you tell me that you had more feeling in your bladder?" She said she did, but it didn't last.

"So tell me, N. How old are you?" She said that she is 83.

"And how long did it take for you to develop into who you are?" She said a few months.

"No", I said. "You are 83. Your body is a reflection of 83 years of your life. Although healing is possible, we are still working against 83 years. So whatever you are going through is not going to go away overnight.

"Also, don't dwell on your pain or other symptoms. You have had days where you were feeling better. If your discomforts are the clouds on a rainy day, the times you feel better are as if the sun were peaking through. The sun is there, behind the clouds, even if you can't see it. So dwell on the sun, and just like a rainy day, eventually the clouds go away. That's what healing is all about."

Until next time....

Is It Holistic?

2009-10-08T14:11:00.001-07:00

I received a call the other day from a gal who had been in a car accident. She wanted to see me because I am, as she termed it, "a holistic chiropractor". Since we are a cash only office, she wanted to find someone who took her car insurance, so she was going to continue trying to find a holistic DC.

But in reality, her search is not for someone who is holistic.

People tend to think my work is holistic just because I do not thrust into the spine as most chiropractors do, but this is far from the truth. Holistic vs. allopathic is not about the technique, it is about the INTENT.

An allopathic approach to the body is one that 'treats' a diagnosed condition. The intent is to make the condition go away. It does not consider the entire person. It is judgemental in that it considers that whatever the condition is, is wrong and must be dealt with.

The holistic intent is not concerned with a condition at all. This intent considers that any condition is an attempt by the body to heal something, but its ability to heal may be interefered with. The approach to healing is to strengthen the body, remove whatever blockages may be occuring, and allow the body to heal in whatever way supports its greater good. There is no judgement placed upon the condition. It is neither right nor wrong, good or bad. It just is.

In this case, this lady wanted to be treated for the car accident, but she wanted my gentle approach thinking that it is holistic. However, this is actually allopathic, because the conditions being treated are injuries from the accident.

As you can see, it's all about the intent.

Until next time...

Awareness

2009-10-01T12:49:00.001-07:00

The number one reason people go to a doctor is because they are in pain. And it isn't so much that they have pain, but it's more about what the pain is intefering with in their lives. What's it keeping them from doing?

M was telling me yesterday that someone suggested he have cortisone shots for the pain in his neck. His xrays showed that he has ostephytes around the joints of his neck vertebra, so therefore cortisone will make the pain go away.

I asked, "Why do you want the pain to go away?"

He said so that he is more comfortable.

I said, "Maybe the pain is supposed to be there, have you considered that?"

Of course he said "no".

The body doesn't just give us pain to be mean. There is a reason for it. Any symptom means three things: Stop, Pay attention, and change something. Or,more simply, just BE AWARE.

When we have pain the Innate Intelligence of our body is telling us that something we are doing, or involved in, or experiencing is not working for us. If we ignore the pain by "doing something to make it go away", then we are not listening. It may go away for awhile, but it will come back and ususally feel much worse. This will often lead to more dramatic 'therapies' that end in degeneration and death of the area involved.

We ahve to listen to what the pain is telling us. When you are in pain, what do you differently? What emotions do you feel? How do you feel about how you feel? Do you breath diffently or hold yourself differently when you hurt?

By answering these questions we can be more in touch with our inner guidance which will do more to help one heal through it, than to fight it. There is no health in numbing oneself to pain. Remember, dead people feel no pain, living people do. It's what you do with it that makes the difference between healing and growing, or dying.

Until next time.....

Pre-emptive Surgery?

2009-09-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

I had a discussion with someone today who was telling me about a girl he knows who had her breasts removed because someone in her family had breast cancer. Was it her mother? I can't remember, but apparently she carries the 'gene' for breast cancer and just to be safe, she had hers removed.

I find it amazing that the medical profession, a profession sworn to "do no harm" can actually convince people that by mutilating their bodies like this, they can actually prevent a disease. I also wonder how many of the male surgeons would have their testicles removed if their fathers had had testicular cancer? Probably not a one, yet they have convinced women to do this with their breasts. They even convince them to have their ovaries and uteri removed if there is a familial history of cancer here to. Let's just castrate women to save their lives. Insanity.

The notion that we carry genes that cause cancers is ludicrous. Cell biologist Bruce Lipton has done extensive research on cellular genes and genetic expression, and has shown that genes do not rule our lives as the medics tend to believe. He has shown that if he takes undifferentiated stem cells growing in culture, and puts them in a specific environment, he can get them to become muscle cells. Change the environment and they become nerve cells, or liver cells, or cancer cells. In other words, we are not victims of the genes we inherit. But rather the genes will express certain ways based upon the environment of the cell - change the environment, change the cell.

Just because someone in the family had a form of cancer does not mean that everyone in the family will get the same one, or any at all. It's the environment and various stimuli that get the cells to become what they are. By adopting a healthy life style, one minimizes the risk that they will get cancer. But to pre-emptively remove a body part amounts to mutilation.

My mother had brain cancer. According to this thinking, maybe I should have mine removed just so I don't get it too.

Happy Birthday Chiropractic!

2009-09-18T19:32:00.001-07:00

On this date in 1895, in Davenport Iowa, a janitor named Harvey Lillard was working in D.D. Palmer's office. D.D. had been many things, but held a passion for anatomy, physiology, and looking at what made people sick. He had an office in downtown Davenport and was practicing as a magnetic healer. This was a form of laying on of hands, and may have been similar to what we know as Reiki today.

Harvey was hard of hearing and told Palmer that he had been that way for several years after he had lifted something heavy and felt a 'pop' in his back. Palmer had Lillard lie down on his table and felt along his spine. We don't know exactly what Palmer had found, but he described it as a "bone out of place". He thrust into that bone and "reset it". Within a couple of days, Lillard's hearing had returned, and a healing profession was born.

Palmer noted the relationship of the spine with the nerve system, (i.e. spinal cord) and said that Lillard's hearing returned because he removed the interference of the nerves to the ear that was caused by the bones of the spine. He called his new science 'chiropractic' which means "performed by hand" and began treating people with all sorts of conditions by adjusting the spine. People came from all over to be treated by Palmer and his new technique.

Actually there was nothing new about adjusting the spine as people had been doing it for centuries. But this was the first time that someone related the spine to the health of the nerve system.

Palmer wanted to keep the technique to himself, as was quite common for doctors at that time, but his son, B.J., felt that the world needed this healing modality. He founded the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport. And, the rest is history.

Today, there are thousands of chiropractors around the world treating thousands of people every day. Chiropractic is the largest natural healing profession in the world, and the second largest healing profession next to the MD's. And this is all because one man had his hearing restored on a hot afternoon in 1895.

Happy birthday chiropractic!

Relationships

2009-09-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

In the book "The 12 Stages of Healing", Donald Epstein, DC describes how we go through each of these stages on our healing path. The first stage is Suffering, and the second stage is Polarities. In the second stage we have gained enough flexibility to seek help in alleviating our suffering, but we also see ourselves as victims of what created the suffering in the first place. Many things may cause suffering such as viruses, being fired from a job, and relationships, to give a couple of examples. The problem with this is that the cause of the suffering always comes from the outside, it is never our fault, it is what happens to us.

Relationships can be a huge cause of suffering. One may get into a relationship that turns sour after a while, and hearts become broken. It is easy to blame the other person for causing the suffering: "He lied all the time", "She cheated on me!", "This person was abusive", and so on. We mend our hearts, and develop another relationship, and the scenario repeats itself. Many people go through this cycle time and again, then lament on why they can't find a decent guy/girl.

As one moves through the second stage, healing occurs when the sufferer stands back, takes a look at the choices that have been made, and realizes that maybe they are involved in how these relationships unfold. They may begin to see that there is a common thread in the people that have been chosen in the relationship and that they keep playing the same scenario over and over, just with different people. At this point, one becomes more whole. The healing comes with the realization that they are not the victim of a continuous stream of whack jobs, but rather they have been involves somehow in the person that they have dated. The same can be said for jobs that continue to fail too, but we will stick to relationships in today's column.

G is a young woman who did not have a healthy relationship with her mother while growing up, and related to me that at one point her mother tried to strangle her. Consequently G continues to hold a great deal of tension in her neck and shoulder area of the upper chest. The nerve system will take the stress of an event and store it in the tissues of the body when it senses that the stress is too much to deal with. The muscles contract and create a 'suit of armor' if you will, to protect us. G and I have made great strides in releasing this tension through her spinal entrainments..

At one point, G dropped out of care for a few months due to personal reasons, but had informed me of having started a relationship with someone at the just before taking a hiatus from care. Last week G returned, and presented with a great deal of neck tension again. G related that the relationship was toxic and had come to an end, and that the person had been a lot like her mother.

For some reason, we tend to gravitate towards the same type of person or situation that creates our suffering, over and over again. Because of this, when the situation turns bad, as it inevitably will, our nerve systems respond the same way as it always has to that circumstance. In this case it is neck stiffness and pain. It could just as easily have been low back pain, or asthma, or any other medical condition. We may see that the people appear to be different, but the nerve system sees them as all the same and responds the same way in its protective mode creating the same scenario in us.

When we have the realization that G had, that they are involved in the choices that have been made, then we can break free of the grip we have placed upon ourselves and move on to healthier choices leaving our suffering behind.

Until next time....

Perceptions

2009-09-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

It's funny how people accept that whatever condition they have, they are stuck with it because someone of authority said so. Last friday, Sept 11, D was in for her regular visit. After I clear the nerve system, I like to check for weaknesses in areas of people's discomfort. D has been telling me that her shoulders hurt and feel weak, so I tested them by having her raise her arms away from her sides. Then I pressed down and asked her to resist. She said, "Oh I can't do that, I had surgery on the left and it hurts". She did have trouble resisting, that is, her arms were weak. I lowered her arms and then just put my hands on her shoulders, and imagined them being strong again. I said "Let's test that again". I raised her arms, she made a face as if to say, "Oh it's going to hurt!" I pressed on her arms and they were solidly strong! She looked up in amazement. She said "What did you do?" I told her that I just changed her perception of herself. She came in today and I retested her arms, and they were still strong. I lowered the left one to another angle and she tested weak. I did same thing, and again it was strong. Overall, her arms are stronger, and as she left she announced as she walked down the hall, "I feel so much better!"

D's perception was that since she had surgery, that her left arm was her bad arm and that she will have to live with the cards she was dealt. It's not necessarily so. That is just one perception, and perceptions can change just in the way we look at things. I changed her perception, and her body gave a healthier response.

If we can realize that our bodies are dynamic energy units in a constant state of flux, and not biological machines, then any change in health is possible. In a quantum world, the universe organizes itself based upon the observer. If we expect to "see" things one way, the Universe collapses itself into that reality. If we change our perception, the Universe will collapse into the new reality. Reality is only a hallucination based upon the way we look at things. Modern Medicine tells people that if it has no answers for people then they have to live with whatever it is they have, or die from it. That is just one perception. In a quantum world, no one has to live with anything because we can change that perception, and therefore our experience of ourselves. And that is what makes it all so cool!

Until next time....

A New Start

2009-09-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Pam and I went to see Julie and Julia. If you haven't seen it, it's about a girl in New York who creates a challenge for herself to make every recipe in Julia Child's book in one year. That's over 500 recipes. At the end of each day, she blogs her experiences and thoughts about what she had done. At first no one was reading her blogs but her mother, but eventually she developed a following. Her blogs became very popular, turned into a book, and eventually the movie we saw yesterday. I really enjoyed the movie, and it got me thinking...I have this blog but I haven't been very diligent about using it. I also thought that I could do what she did and share my thoughts about my working day. I deal with people's health, there is plenty of interest in that. I don't know if anyone will read this, but who knows....it worked for Julie! So, let's see where this goes....

Most people tend to think of chiropractic as a health discipline dealing with sprains and strains. Unfortunately so do most chiropractors because, essentially that is what they are teaching the students these days.

The original "Big Idea" is that chiropractic is a total health approach to the body. The purpose of adjusting the spine is not to free up stuck vertebra, but to restore health to a sick nerve system, specifically the spinal cord. The nerve system creates the body, a healthy nerve system creates a healthy body, a sick one creates a sick body. It's as simple as that. So when people come to my office because of real health issues, not just a back pain or headache, it gets me really excited!

I had a consultation today with T (I will never use people's names in this column to protect their privacy) today because he has stage 4 lung cancer. He knows the body can heal itself, but he needs direction. He doesn't want chemotherapy, which is the only method traditional medicine has to offer, because he knows that it just will make him sicker. He came to me. (Please note, that I did not and will not advise him to quit chemotherapy or interfere with his medical care. But we will work on detoxing his system with my methods and clearing his nerve system of interference to give his body the best chance to heal). We'll start in two days, and there will be more about T in future posts.

One mother brought her son in because he was up all night coughing. Another young girl, 15 came in because she hasn't had her period in two months (no, she isn't!).

This is what health care is about. It's not about being someones walking aspirin, but more like being their facilitator and coach. It's about helping them overcome health issues by utilizing their own body's wisdom - seeing where they are stuck and guiding them through it, then allowing them to heal in what ever way that is. Just how cool is that!

Until next time...

Thoughts on the Health Care "Crisis" and Obama's push for payment reform.

2009-07-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows the President is pushing for a comprehensive program to overhaul how health care is paid for and to make sure everyone is adequately covered. Unfortunately, the solutions that he is advocating are going to cause an increase in spending by upwards of $2 trillion. This is only going to fuel inflation, further hurt our weak economy, and actually make it harder for people to get the care they desire.
Part of the problem is that health insurance has changed over the years. Insurance is meant to help people pay for catastrophes that may occur. That’s what your car insurance is for. You only use it if you are in an accident. Health insurance should be used only for catastrophes, such as accidents and hospitalizations. But it has developed into a service to pay for all aspects of health – the doctor visits. This would be the same as using your car insurance to pay for gas and oil changes. We think car insurance is expensive now, can you imagine what it would be like if it paid for the everyday things too? Well that’s what has happened to health insurance. People expect it to pay for everything, and now the government agrees. And it is going to cost.
That being said, since we are in the model of insurance paying for everything, let’s look at some of the costs. The cost of health care, from hospital to doctor bills, drugs, medical equipment, insurance, nursing homes, and home health care, doubled from 1994 to 2004. In 2004, the country spent $140 billion dollars more on health care than we did the year before. Overall, the tab for health care spending in this country is $1.8 trillion a year, which is four times the amount spent on national defense. 15% of America’s Gross Domestic Product is spent on medical care which amounts to $6289 per person every year! Is it any wonder that they are calling for some kind of change?
But let’s understand something. This is not money spent on “health care”. This is money spent on Disease Care. The cost of keeping people healthy is negligible, because healthy people do not need hospitals, prescriptions, medical equipment, nursing homes, or home health care. Sick people do, and it is the cost of treating illnesses that is skyrocketing the bill. So far, in all the discussions on Capitol Hill, not one mention has been made about lifestyle. It is all about how to pay for treating all the ill people. If people took more responsibility for their health, wouldn’t that make the costs go down?
Some illnesses are inevitable. But there is a lot the people can do to help themselves to avoid illness, because the two leading causes of illness in this country are smoking and obesity.
It is no secret that smoking tobacco causes heart disease; lung disease and cancer; cancer of the mouth and throat; cancer of the pancreas; and cancer of the intestinal tract. Yes, some people can live a full life of smoking without getting these illnesses, but they are the exception, not the rule. If you smoke, you will get ill. Cardiac disease costs the US more than $400 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity, and is responsible for almost six million hospitalizations each year! If the cost of treating cardiac disease is added into all the goods and services that we spend our money on, it is costing each family of four, $460 a month!
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US today. In 2004, more than half a million people died of cancer, which amounts to about 1500 people every day! It is estimated that tobacco use is responsible for more than 170,000 cancer deaths alone. In 2004, cancer cost this country $60.9 billion in direct medical costs and $135 billion in indirect costs due to illness for a total of almost $200 billion! How much is this costing you? Every person in this country has to contribute $719 each year, or $240 a month for a family of four. So far our little family of four is spending $700 a month to treat cancer and heart disease. That could pay most mortgages.
Obesity has also become a major problem in this country. Obesity rates have increased by more than 60% among adults in the last 10 years and will soon overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death. Since 1980, obesity rates have doubled among young children, and tripled among adolescents. Obesity is a contributor to many chronic diseases including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, breast cancer, colon cancer, gallbladder disease, and arthritis. The yearly bill for treating these conditions is $98 billion for Type 2 diabetes, $8.8 billion for heart disease, $5.3 billion for arthritis, $3.2 billion for gallbladder disease, $1.3 billion for colon cancer, and $1.1 billion for breast cancer. Overall, the total health bill for treating these diseases and others related to obesity not mentioned here is about $137 billion. This costs a family of four $1027 a year, or another $86 a month.
If we add up the costs of treating the health effects of smoking and obesity, our tab comes to more than $700 billion a year! Is it any wonder that it is becoming more and more difficult to pay for illness care?
The problem is that smoking is a choice. And most of the time, not always, obesity is too. If people want to have affordable health care, they have to stop doing things that make themselves sick and then expect the Doctor to fix them. If more people were to adopt healthy lifestyles, the need for this expensive system would go down, as would the costs. As I mentioned before, healthy people do not need hospitals, prescriptions, medical equipment, nursing homes, or home health care.
The government can’t fix this. Anything they get their hands on costs more. Before Medicare and Medicaid, everyone could afford their health care, no one went without. But now those programs, as well as the corporate take-over of health care in the form of PPO’s and HMO’s have served to drive up costs. Combine that with the unhealthy choices people make, and here we are. What we can do is adopt healthy choices. I know I am preaching to the choir here, but share this information with everyone you know. There is something we can do as individuals – opt out of the system, be healthy!

MIchael Jackson's Death

2009-06-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

There is an article on Yahoo today, Sunday, June 28, that says that Michael Jackson's death is bringing a spotlight onto sudden cardiac arrest. The article quotes a cardiologist from the Cleveland Clinic who says that this malady claims anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 lives a year. This is sad because what Jackson's death should bring attention to is drug abuse. Michael Jackson was on several prescribed drugs including Paxil, Zoloft, Soma, and Demerol. Demerol is a morphine like substance that in itself causes cardiac arrest, and he had had a shot of demerol less than one hour before he died. Soma is a "muscle relaxant" whose use is contra-indicated with opiates, of which demerol is one. On top of this, he was underweight and malnourished. Michael Jackson was a ticking time bomb that exploded on June 25.

Prescription drugs are one of the leading causes of death in the US today, and the leading cause of hospitalization. When will the medical profession wake up to the fact that their procedures kill people? The article on Yahoo which came from Healthday Reporter never mention the drugs he was on. Like smoke being the result of fire, in this case sudden cardiac arrest is the smoke from the fire of Jackson's drug abuse - prescribed by physicians! Instead of drawing attention to the smoke, let's look at the fire - drug abuse. It killed Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, countless others, and now Micheal Jackson. Let's tell the truth, Michael Jackson's death is criminal, not an accident of something inherently wrong with his heart.

What Can You Afford?

2009-06-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Economic times are tough, there is no denying that. I have been hearing from some people lately that they need to cut back on their care or, worse yet, stop coming, because they can’t “afford” it right now. But what this really means is that they are going to rely on the traditional medical system for their “health care” because that is what they pay insurance premiums for and what insurance will cover. This is a Fool’s Paradise.
The American Medical System is not designed to keep people healthy; it is only designed to keep you not sick. There is a difference between the two. Health is a state of Wholeness and Well-being. It is a state where all your systems, and you, are functioning 100% of the time all of the time. A state of Health is defined by a high quality of life, not the presence or absence of symptoms. There is nothing that the medical world can offer that will provide that.
Medicine developed a model of disease. All its treatments are based upon a negative model. They are all “anti”: antidepressants, antipsychotics, antibiotics, antihistamines, and so on. Their language is one of warfare: The war on cancer, the war on drugs, we have to fight this or that illness, we will give you a “battery” of drugs. The body has become a battle ground, and you are the casualty.
They only offer three things: Drugs that poison you, surgery that rapes you of your organs, and radiation that burns your body and rips apart your DNA. Modern medicine is the leading cause of preventable death in the US today killing the same amount of people who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, EVERY WEEK!!! Tell me; where is the health in this and why do you pay for it?
The key to health is not to avoid disease, but to maintain the integrity of your body. This is the Chiropractic approach. Most people know that good nutrition and exercise are important. But what good is all that if the controlling system of the body is sick? The sole purpose of the chiropractic adjustment is to maintain the health and integrity of your nerve system – the system that controls your body and very life.
Your nerve system coordinates body movement, unless it is sick. Your nerve system coordinates your heart beat and breath, unless it is sick. Your nerve system regulates the thousands of reactions that your cells undergo, unless it is sick. Your nerve system IS your immune system and protects you from infection, unless it is sick. Your nerve system coordinates all the healing and repair of your body, unless it is sick. When your nerve system becomes sick, you become sick.
And what makes the nerve system sick? Stress! And everyone has some level of stress in their lives. Stress distorts the spinal cord, the connecting link between the brain and the rest of you. Only, and I mean only, the chiropractic adjustment can tune your nerve system to improve mind-body communication, to keep you healthy. Vitamins won’t do it. Prayer won’t do it. Reiki won’t do it. Drugs won’t do it. Exercise won’t do it. The spine has to be adjusted!
For this reason, what we do here is not about treating your diseases, but raising the level of your body’s health so that it does not slowly break down and take you on the road of illness and despair. For the only thing you will find at the end of that road is a Disease care system that will hasten your death. If you are healthy, you don’t need Medicine. Chiropractic care is not a luxury, but a necessity. This is your insurance policy! You are investing in yourself and your future. For people to say they can’t afford it and go with the program that their insurance pays for is ludicrous. If you value your health, you will stay off that road! And, as Forest Gump said, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Innate Intelligence with Deepak Chopra, MD

2009-05-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

This is a short video with Deepak Chopra. The concept of Innate Intelligence has been central to chiropractic philosophy since its inception in 1895. In this video, Dr. Chopra explains Innate beautifully. The nerve system is the heart of Innate, a clear nerve system always produces a healthy body!

The Swine Flu, Fact or Fiction?

2009-04-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Many people have been asking me my opinion on the recent emergence of the Swine Flu. Here is a great article that explains it all and should put your mind at rest. It is not the end of the world!
http://articles.mercola.com/redirect/view.aspx?Email=drehren@yahoo.com&ReturnURL=http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

2009-04-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is a nice slide show that explains Chiropractic Philosophy so anyone can understand it. Please watch and share with your friends and family!

2009-04-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

This video is an advertisement for Mercola.com, but presents great statistics about the dangers modern medicine poses to your health. Medicine is NOT health care, it is disease care. People who make regular chiropractic care a part of their life enjoy greater health and well-being, without the need for dangerous drugs!

My new Facebook page

2009-03-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Are you on Facebook? I set up a page for The Ehren Chiropractic and Wellness Center! If you are a Facebook member, you can become a fan and get all the info that I share and join a community of like minded people. Check it out!

Stress Management

2009-03-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

Let’s try a little experiment. How much do you think a glass of water weighs? A few ounces at most? Hold it in one hand with your arm fully extended, and see how long you can hold it. A few minutes probably won’t matter, but after an hour I am sure that your arm is going to get achy and start to shake. How about after several hours, or a day? You will be screaming in pain! Now think about the stress you or others carry in the body.

We have talked about this from the moment you all started care – stress: emotional, physical, and chemical stress causes tension in the spinal cord, your nerve system. The tension in the spinal cord is translated into, among other things, tension in the muscles of the body. They contract and hold to protect you from perceived danger. As time goes on and stress accumulates, the muscles become more tense, never resting, never relaxing. They ache, hurt, and spasm. They “give out” for no apparent reason. They eat up more of your daily energy causing you to feel fatigued. Why? Because like your arm holding the glass of water, they never get a chance to release the tension.

Let’s take this further. Those same tension signals from your nerve system go to your internal organs, down to the individual cells altering the way they function and affecting your overall health.

This is what makes regular care so important, and why everyone should be under chiropractic care. When we are able to get your nerve system to relax by adjusting it, then the muscles can release and relax. This why so many of you have such a great sense of well-being after a session – your body relaxed! It’s like putting down the glass of water we talked about earlier. Without your energy being eaten up by muscles desperately holding you in one place, you have more energy to meet daily routines and challenges. And the same can be said for what goes on inside of you. Your internal organs start to regain their proper function with the proper flow of information to them as well.

True health and well-being begin with a healthy nerve system. And remember; only a properly applied adjustment to the body can tune your nerve system!

Should you get a Flu shot?

2008-10-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

It's flu season. Or so it's been declared. Kind of like duck season. But the ads are appearing on TV, in the news, and in the local stores telling everyone to get their flu shots. It is so matter-or -fact that most everyone thinks it's safe and don't think twice about it. But is it?

What's in a Flu shot?

Did you know that when you buy a bag of cheese doodles, everything that goes into making them is listed on the package, but you are not told what is in the flu shot that they are injecting into your arm? Well, here is a list of the ingredients:

Mercury (Thimerosal) One of the most toxic substances known. It causes nerve damage and has been linked to autism and senility.

Formaldehyde. A major component of embalming fluid, and very poisonous. It is a probable carcinogen that is linked to leukemia, and cancers of the brain, colon, and lymphatic system.

Gentamicin sulfate and Polymixin b (Antibiotics). These can cause allergic reactions from mild to life threatening.

Chicken Enbryos. The flu virus is grown in fertilized chicken eggs. Having these proteins injected into your blood stream can cause you to become allergic to chicken and eggs, or if you are allergic, it may cause a sever reaction.

Sodiun phosphate . This can cause vomiting, lethargy, diarrhea, heart problems, and central nerve system problems.

Gelatin. Can cause allergic reactions.

Polysorbate 80. Known to cause cancer in animals.

Neomycin sulfate (antibiotic). This interferes with Vitamin B6 absorption. And can cause allergic reactions. It should also be noted that unnecessary exposure to antibiotics causes the formation of antibiotic resistance bacteria which is becoming more of a problem and can lead to life threatening infections.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). MSG is also a food additive that has been shown to destroy nerve cells in the brain and may be linked to certain forms of brain cancer.

Sodium Deoxycholate. Promotes tumors and damages DNA.

Octoxynol-10, polyethylene glycol-p-isooctylphenyl ether, and octyphenoxypolyethoxyethanol. Spermacide (kills sperm). Can cause chills, confusion, dizzyness, fever, lightheadedness, muscle aches, peeling of the skin. Causes severe eye irritation. Harmful of swallowed, inhaled or in contact with the skin. Toxicology not fully investigated. May contain traces of ethylene oxide or dioxane, which are probable human carcinogens. Manufacturer's website http://www.calbiochem.com/ states: FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY. NOT FOR HUMAN OR DRUG USE.

Beta propriolactone. Known to cause cancer. Suspected respiratory gastrointestinal, liver, and skin poison.

Does this sound like something you want in your body?

Is the flu shot effective?

Multiple studies published in leading medical journals have documented that the flu shot is ineffective in all ages.*

But do people die from the flu?

The ads tell us that over 30,000 people die every year from the flu. This is simply not true. Government stats lump flu and pneumonia deaths together, but flu deaths are only a small part of that. In 2002 when the deaths were reported to be over 60,000, there were really only 753 flu deaths. In 2001, the number of deaths were 267*. This does not justify giving a poorly tested and highly dangerous drug to millions of people.

No one knows the long term effects of getting this shot every year, however repeated exposure to the contents of the vaccine can have cumulative detrimental effects on the health of the recipients. This vaccine, as well as all the others, have never really been tested to see what they do to people, yet there are reports every year of people having severe reactions to this and other shots. It is much easier on the body to suffer for three days with fever, chills, coughing, and or vomiting. As uncomfortable as this may be, it is the body's way of cleansing and purifying itself.

There are steps you can take to help minimize the chances of getting the flu, and lessen its severity. These include:

Taking a good Vitamin D (D3) supplement. Flu is more common in the winter months than in the summer because of lack of Vitamin D from sunlight.

Take a good Vitamin C supplement. Vitamin C supports the immune system.

Get plenty of exercise. Exercise helps to eliminate toxins by increasing the core temperature of the body and sweating.

See your chiropractor! Keeping your nerve system free of interference through regular chiropractic care helps keep your body healthier. Your nerve system is your immune system, and a healthy nerve system is your best ally! During the 1918 flu pandemic, those people who were under chiropractic care did not get the flu and chiropractors at the time were called "Flu doctors". Even today, most of the people who are under my care tell me every year that they don't get the flu each year as they used to, even when everyone around them is sick.

So, should you get the flu shot? You be the judge!

*References available.

What is True Health?

2008-10-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Most people have a warped sense of what it means to be healthy. If I give a lecture to a group of people. I like to start out by asking "How do you know you are healthy?" The most frequent answer is, "I feel good!", which generally means they have no pain at the moment. Most people judge their health basically by the presence or absence of pain. But here is the kicker: If health is a state of no pain, then the healthiest people on earth are dead! Dead people feel no pain. But living people do.

A true state of Health cannot be judged solely on our feelings. A healthy body is programed to express pain when necessary. Pain is a body mind communication that generally means the body is experiencing something to which it cannot adapt, and if one continues on the path that they are on, they may experience sever damage to the body. But most people see pain as an announce. It keeps you up at night, it keeps you from enjoying something, it's a nuisance. So they reach for the bottle of aspirin, or some other pain reliever to eliminate the pain. Then they can go about their business doing what they have been doing that brought the pain on in the first place. But now they are unaware of what the body was warning them about. They disconnected the mind/body communication, and now the body will start to get sick as it breaks down unable to adapt to life's situations.

Health is a state of honoring the body's signals. If you have pain, listen to what the message is instead of shutting it off. Follow your instincts instead of viewing your body's processes as an annoyance. If you cannot figure out what your body is telling you, find a practitioner that will help you understand your body, rather than aide in a war against it with pills and therapies.True health comes from making the proper choices. Sometimes it takes work. Sometimes it means being uncomfortable. But the results are always rewarding because they make you stronger....and healthier!

Welcome!

2008-10-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Ehren Chiropractic and Wellness Center Blog spot. I have set this blog up to be able to publish views and news related to your health. Please feel free to check it often! Today I would like to start by publishing my latest newsletter for the month of October. Enjoy and see you soon!

25 Years and Counting!!
On October 10, I will be celebrating 25 years in practice. I officially opened my practice on that date in 1983 and had four patients scheduled. I remember two of them, one was a friend of my Dad’s and the other was a lady I had already been seeing
They told us in chiropractic school that our first patient was going to crawl in the door. We all laughed when we heard that, but…it was true! During the month of September I was busy getting my office in Northland Plaza set up. Furniture was being delivered, my x-ray machine was in crates, and I was painting the walls when I could. I did have a telephone with call forwarding to the house. One day I was working out at home when the phone rang. I was all out of breath when I answered and there was a lady on asking for Dr. Ehren. I was shocked! She asked if she could make an appointment, she had gotten my name from my wife whom she worked with at Lakewood Hospital. I told her that I wasn’t open yet, so she asked if I could refer her to someone else. Well, I ain’t stupid and I was not about to let my potential first patient get away, so I told her that my office was still being put together and if she wouldn’t mind the confusion, I would be happy to see her.
I was waiting in the office at the appointed time when I saw her walking, barely, to the front door. She was all bent over in pain and every step was agonizing. I don’t recall, but I am certain that I gave her paper work to fill out, then I took her into my adjusting room and performed a most beautiful orthopedic and neurological exam that would have given me an A on any final in school! The exam told me that she had disc herniation in her low back with sciatica. I was so proud of myself! And then I thought, “So what do I do?” I had no clue. Obviously my thought processes were different then than now, but at the time I really didn’t know what to do for her. So I did some adjusting of God knows what and had her come back a day or two later. Then I called my best friend Mike who was practicing in Silver Springs, Maryland and asked him. He laughed and said “Toggle the SOB (meaning the disc in question)!” Toggling is a rapid thrust into a joint that they teach us in school. So, on her next visit, that’s exactly what I did! She screamed and her legs and arms went flying up, and I thought “Oh my God, what happened!?!” Then she relaxed, and told me she felt much better. She was with me for several months before we had the issue completely resolved.
In those days my office was open five days a week with one day having evening hours. I worked half a day on Wednesdays and half on Saturday. I didn’t have any staff, it was just me answering the phone, doing what paper work there was and mostly staring out the window visualizing new people coming in. I would walk up and down the hallway admiring my little office and wondering what it would look like with dozens of people coming and going all day. The only adjusting table I had was a “Hi-lo”. That’s a mechanical table that raises up to allow people to walk on, then it slowly lowers them down for their adjustments. I used to spend a lot of time riding up and down on it. I would lie face down and ride it, and also face up. Once I fell asleep on my back and my snoring woke me up!
I didn’t work Saturdays very long. It was hard only having one full day off on Sunday. At first I thought I had to be there all the time, but slowly grew to hate that. The only person who came in on Saturday was a vitamin salesman who wanted me to sell his stuff. He was a nice enough guy and he would show up just before noon when I was getting ready to leave. Then he would talk my ear off for two hours. It used to really make me mad, but I thought I had to be nice since I was new. It totally killed my Saturdays. That finally ended when I stopped working Saturdays after a couple of months.
I worked the office by myself for about 4 months when I got my wife, Pam, to come and work. She was a nurse at Lakewood Hospital, and I talked her into working a couple of days when she had off. There was one lady, Grace, who wanted to work for me. She was a patient who I had only come for a short time, and never paid me because she essentially very poor. I always felt that she was a little off balance in the brain department, so, of course, I didn’t hire her. Sometimes when I was in the back with someone, I would find her sitting at the front desk answering the phone. I distinctly told her not to do that. One day she came in while Pam was at the desk. Grace had to wait to see me, and was sitting in a chair directly across from Pam staring knives at her. Pam looked up and Grace said, “So, how did you get this job?” in a very sneering way. Without missing a beat, Pam said, “I sleep with the Doctor.” I never saw Grace again!
The practice grew slowly at first. I was fortunate that I never had a day without appointments. I have a friend in Mentor who opened his practice in Pittsburgh after his graduation, and sat in his office for four months without one single appointment! But it really took off when I took out an ad in one of those coupon mailers. It was like Valpak, but another company. I sent a coupon out to the western half of Lakewood in early 1984, and had 57 new patients! The salesman was astounded! Never, anywhere in this country did they ever get a response like that. We were so excited that I sent another out to eastern Lakewood. That time I got about 4 new patients. The more we sent the coupons out, the less response we got. That was national average. But that first one was the catalyst that got things going for me, and then it started to grow. I went from seeing about 10 people a day to 30 in just a matter of a couple of months , and it kept on growing until I was averaging about 60 a day working three and a half days a week. I still have one person who still comes in who answered that initial coupon, and has been with me for 24 years! Thank you Donna!
In 25 years, the practice has taken many turns. I have gone from a highly physical therapy type practice to a traditional, holistic one. I would like to think that it is always evolving as I look for more ways to help people on more levels. It has always been interesting, and even if I were to win the lottery, I would not stop practicing. I may take a long vacation though.
But it is not me that makes the practice. It is you. It is you who put your faith and trust in me to help you, and that is something that I am forever appreciative of. I may not say it much, but I am thankful for every one of you who continue to come and put your health and well-being in my hands. For without you, I would still be riding that table, all by myself and falling asleep counting the holes in the tiles in the ceiling. Thank you for a great 25 years! And here is to the next 25….oh dear God, I will be 82 then!!!