A collective awakening commeth.

As I sit here at my desk, there is a burning acid fear of uncertainty rumbling inside my guts. My last blog was only a few days back and was about a local health department encountering the prospect that Chiropractors were being viewed as a patients primary care provider,  40% of the population of the county in fact.  This sent shock waves through the system, so much so that the medical providers want to meet with chiropractors and discuss 'what' this is all about.  I am rather dubious about their intentions and I, like many chiropractors have good reason to be.

 For the past 120 years, chiropractic has been under the collective gun of medicine.  At every turn the medical profession did it's level best to erase chiropractors from the health care system, time and time again we were attacked, arrested, maligned, burned out and boycotted until finally someone within the AMA found their conduct morally repugnant and sent records to a chiropractic attorney indicating that the AMA was engaged in an illegal boycott against the Chiropractic profession.  Long story short they got sued, we won...and nothing changed. 

In spite of  paying damages and having a permanent injunction against them the AMA kept on doing what they had been before...it merely changed hands.  There are legions of people who 'hate' the chiropractor.  When you look at them, see them and talk to them these skeptics of Chiropractic are not, brilliant, impressive or even mildly intellectual.  Yet, it is from these decidedly unimpressive, intellectually dull people, that perpetuate the negative image this grand profession suffers from.  That is what frightens me...to be held hostage by a horde of narrow minded thugs who, if PT Barnum were alive today would have loved to put them in his freak show. 

What confuses me, is how do they get away with it?  Today, we have what is in effect a war of information, or rather propaganda that is being shoved down the throats of the American public. Any study that surfaces and raises an alarm about the safety of vaccines for instance is met with a violent back lash. Forgive me, but this, in a way, reminds me of the arrival of Jesus and his teachings.The motivations are eerily similar to that of King Herod, who upon hearing that the King of the Jews had been born, killed all the infant males in Bethlehem to prevent the King of Kings from threatening his rule.  Now, I am not saying that anyone who questions a vaccine is the Messiah, no.  What I am saying is that the motivation is the same, the threat of losing power and control which is to say, money and influence. 

 It is sad that the arrival of enlightenment is met with hate, prejudice and violence.  It seems the more enlightened we become the more violent those in power become and that is what makes me nervous about the coming 'awakening'.  As we march forward, we have no choice but to 'evolve', which is to say grow intellectually, learn from our mistakes and move forward.On the other hand there are those who have been working to stem that forward movement and it is very disconcerting if not down right frightening...to me anyway. 

 In 2004 the CDC conducted a study into autism to see if Dr. Andrew Wakefield was indeed correct.  They discovered that he was correct.  Only they did not applaud his study or make their findings public.  Instead they destroyed all of their records, save for one man who kept them all in his office, hidden from the rest of the CDC executives, because he was concerned about the legality of their actions.  That and he was I'm sure seeking to cover his assets.  The CDC then proceeded to destroy Dr. Andrew Wakefield's reputation, career and future prospects in research.  He lost his license to practice in Britain and has been pursued by every thug the pharmaceutical industry could bring to bear.

It is the beginning of the end of Big Pharm and somewhere in the deepest recesses of their soul, they know it.  That knowledge, that fear makes them dangerous and it makes me wonder how many people will pay the ultimate price before they finally are put in their place? 

Enlightenment should be embraced not quashed. 

Health Department is astonished!!!

Just yesterday my father sent me a text announcing that in St. Clair county health department discovered that 40% of the residences of St. Clair County view their Chiropractor as their primary physician.   Apparently this revelation sent shock waves through the medical community and have many medical doctors shaking their heads in bemused dismay and no doubt for some, anger.

Yes, I said anger.  Why would some feel anger at this?  I believe I have the answer, albeit a biased answer, it is non-the-less accurate...in my opinion. You see for many years now, over a century in fact, medicine has been controlled by the pharmaceutical industry and remains so today.  The catalyst for this was the passing of the Harrison Act in 1910.  This act made Cocaine, Opium and Morphine prescription only drugs, whereas before 1910 you could buy them over the counter at any general store.

 Before 1910 the pharmaceutical industry was making money hand over fist with an unregulated market.  Billion dollar corporations are considered heavy hitters today, but in 1900 most pharmaceutical companies were billion dollar companies, when wages were less than ten dollars a week.  The trouble for them was that there weren't enough doctors in practice to maintain the profit margins they were enjoying before the 'regulation' of their free market. This created a problem. So, while they scrambled to fix their 'marketing' issues, many printing presses were bought up, and medical diplomas issued to those who would fork over the cash to buy their own medical degree sans the tedium of actually attending classes.

This created a whole new class of 'physician' who had only to produce diploma from a defunct medical school, whose records had conveniently burned when a fire destroyed the administration buildings so that there was no way to actually verify the educational credentials of the newly minted MD from a defunct medical school.  Convenient yes?

 So back to the 'anger' I mentioned earlier.  It was from this batch of 'paper mill' medical doctors that modern medicine got its start. Morris Fishbein, (I have deliberately 'not' used the label Doctor, because he never finished his studies at Rush Medical school to receive a diploma) was the primary catalyst for the mentality of toxic arrogance that permeated the whole of the AMA.  It was his deliberate and aggressive attacks on natural health care practitioners that fomented the attitudes that even to this day simmer beneath the surface for some medical practitioners, especially with regard to chiropractic.  

 For decades and decades the medical practitioner was told that chiropractors were dangerous and were little more than 'rabid dogs', cute but dangerous.  If you think I'm being cute, I'm not, those were the terms used to describe chiropractors to new medical students.  It was that terminology that was drilled into their heads while they were in turn being told that they were the unquestioned authority of all things health and to have anyone question their knowledge...was heresy.  In effect they were being indoctrinated by a new religion and they were the high priests of that 'religion'.   Let's be honest here, who does not want to be told that they are the equivalent of earth bound gods?

 It was the paper mill doctors, like Morris Fishbein who fomented this 'deity' idea and created legions of 'doctors' who literally  hated anyone who did not do, say, think, eat and drink health care in exactly the same manner as they were taught to administer it...by the pharmaceutical industry who was directing Morris Fishbein to do exactly what he did to elevate their market share so that nobody dared question the use of medications for every-bloody-thing one could imagine.

This is a turning point for the entire health care industry, most especially for medicine.  How do they move away from the 'deity' mindset to a more humble, patient oriented practitioner?  To do so will create within medicine a seismic shift that will dislodge the foundation upon which they have practiced for well over a century now.  Anger?  Fear?  Shame?  These are likely each a component of their current reality.  All the effort to dislodge and discredit chiropractors only to have a great many patients view them as their primary care physician, must really cause them a great deal of anxiety.

Humility can be healthy so long as you accept responsibility for your past actions and learn from mistakes made...one can only hope that this revelation on the part of the St. Clair health department is a growth versus a catalyst for more profound hate and anger.

Let us hope.

Fix me now!!

As a chiropractor one of the most pressing challenges we face is the 'Fix me now' patient.  Invariably these individuals come in expecting 'instant gratification' from the issues they've been dealing with for years and years.   As much as I would love to be able to 'fix it now', that is not how chiropractic works.  That is not how the body works.  It would be great if we could heal as quickly as we screw ourselves up. Sadly mother nature has other ideas.

 For over a century now, we have been exposed to pharmaceutical based care.  It has dominated the health care landscape from 1913 to present with no let up. In fact it has increased its hold on the health care industry to the point that all other options have been pretty much squelched so that nobody gets to hear anything but drugs, surgery, drugs to counter the side effects of other drugs, or to piggy back one drug over another to 'increase' your chances of recovery, survival...or to somehow be happier in a drug induced euphoria full of butter flies, puppies...an ideal husband, wife, children.. all because you took this new improved..life enhancing drug....that might cause you to have a truly life altering episode of suicidal tendencies, cancer or instantaneous death.

 It is hard to imagine that such drugs could ever have been approved for sale much less remain on the market long enough to make the manufacturer an insanely handsome profit.  The reason that these pharmaceutical companies get away with such heinous behavior is because we as a nation
have fallen victim to the 'fix me now' mentality.  More accurately it is a 'keep me from feeling my pain' mentality rather than a true fix.

 In essence we want instant relief from pain, all pain physical and mental and we are willing to take anything and everything that promises instant gratification, in spite of side effects or risks involved. This has led to the pharmaceutical industry making so much money they could buy politicians, press and media outlets and control legislation, public commentary and even drive public opinion through the manipulation of media and news outlets.  Woe be it to those who dare to question their authority or political influence and heaven forbid question the efficacy of their drugs and don't you 'dare' question vaccines!!!!

 The violent responses to questions of a drug or vaccines efficacy should be enough to raise questions by itself. If their only response to questions is to dismiss or to destroy the life of the person asking questions instead of having a rational discussion about the concerns raised, we should all be a bit concerned about the unquestioned status of our pharmaceutical industry, media and political elite.

 That being said, we need to look into the mirror at ourselves collectively for allowing it to get this far.  We are the market that feeds the monster we are just now, as a nation, coming to grips with.  Most of us, those of us not addled by psychotropic drugs or laying comatose on a hospital bed with tubes wires and God knows what else jabbed into our bodies to hopefully keep us alive, need to take a hard uncomfortable look at what we have done to contribute to this state of affairs.

 We all want an instant fix. I would love it if I could take a drug that made me muscular, tall and gave me the super sexy body I used to have...decades ago.  Reality, Mother Nature and my genetics have all conspired against me.  Health, however it is you measure it, comes with hard work, active participation and the active use of your brain.  GASP!!!  NO!!!  Not that!!!  Anything but that!!!

Sorry...but you and I have to work at being healthy.  It won't come in a bottle or in a vaccine.  It comes from being proactive and knowing what to put into your body and what not to put into your body.  It means taking charge of your self and being an active member or your own health regimen, it would be a good idea to include me in that as well your health expert...rather your chiropractor.

 Nuff Said.

Migraines 101

                                                                       Migraine 101

                                                                 

According to Mosby’s medical dictionary Migraines are idiopathic meaning that the general cause of a migraine is ‘unknown’.  That is to say that there is no identifiable pathological cause. The effects are obvious but the physiology behind them is a mystery, according to standard medical understanding. What if we look at it from a non-medical, non-pathological perspective and examine the physiological cause of migraines? 

When we look at a migraine from a purely physiological context it becomes easy to understand.  Once you understand what is causing the migraine it then follows that you can address it and make it stop. This is where I will begin to lose some of you because ‘you’ have had every prescription medication under the sun including possibly a marijuana card, which might take the edge off, if it, works at all.  The trouble is that migraines are not generally caused by a lack of medication. 

At this point you might be asking “Ok then, Dr. Smarty pants, if it isn’t a pathological disease why does my head feel like it is about to explode and why has my doctor not figured this out if it is so ‘easy’ to understand?”  The answer to this question is that your doctor was never trained to do more than medicate a migraine because there was no known cause of a migraine in terms of medico pathophysiology.  So the only recourse left to them was to ply ‘you’ with what medications were recommended in their pharmacopeia handbook and hope for the best. I like to equate this to playing a game of blindfolded darts. 

 What is a migraine?  The short answer is ‘A hyper-active’ nervous system’.  This means that the nervous system is ready to react to whatever trigger you might have.  An example of this concept would be a pistol. In order for the pistol to be fired the hammer must be pulled back so that when you pull the trigger it will fire. If the hammer is not pulled back you can pull the trigger until Christmas and nothing will happen.  The concept behind the migraine would be to ‘un-cock’ the nervous system so that your triggers are less likely to set off the migraine. 

What is a trigger? It is exactly what the word suggests a ‘trigger’. It could be as innocuous as a blast of ‘El Cheapo No. 6’ perfume, a sip of red wine or even an emotional trigger like a pending visit of your favorite mother in law.  A trigger is as numerous and varied as there are people on this earth; the one common denominator being a hyper active nervous system and that is where I come in, your chiropractor.

Yes, seeing your chiropractor is your best chance of getting rid of or at least controlling your migraine headaches.  Nervous system malfunction is what a chiropractor addresses by focusing on your spine. It just so happens to be the brain stem, where 99.99% of migraine headaches are centered, and is the junction where the skull and spine meet. This region is where your chiropractor will focus his/her attention when they address your migraines. 

How is that the cause of a migraine?  Mechanically the basilar occiput or the base plate of the skull can be pulled off its articulation and become fixated.  Chiropractors call this a subluxation.  This causes the brainstem to rotate ever so slightly, causing the dense nerve bundles within to become irritated. Being the most dense nerve bundle in your body (every nerve that connects your brain to every cell in your body passes through this point) it is a prime facilitator of your migraine headache.  In short the brainstem is twisted, think of wringing a towel, and imagine how your nerves might react to being twisted like that. 

The occiput also happens to be a muscle attachment point for the trapezius muscle, sternocleidomastoid or SCM muscle which turns the head one way or the other.  If we are under any sort of emotional stress, physical stress, trauma that might cause the occiput to pull off its articulation and lock into position you might find your brainstem under strain which then primes you for a migraine. 

The adjustment is simple and quick, and exceptionally safe. Generally when a person presents with a migraine they can expect one of three possible outcomes

1.) Instant relief of the migraine.

2.) Migraine headache gets worse, then eases off. 

3.) Migraine fades out slowly

Most often you will experience one of these three possible reactions to your first adjustment.  The protocol will take several months to stabilize and see permanent reduction of your migraines.  Most often we see a reduction in frequency before we see a reduction in severity.  And yes, you will likely have to keep seeing me regularly as a means of keeping your migraines under control. 

Ahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!  It’s just one of those queeropractor gimmicks to get me to keep coming in forever! 

Okay, you got me my whole thing is to make sure that you are pain free for the rest of your life, sorry.  If you want to live with your migraines because you do not want to live under the tyrannical wellness regimen of a chiropractor who has conspired against your being sick, that is your choice. 

Yours in Heath and wellness.