Chiropractic is Like Driving

My dad taught me how to drive when I was in high school. That took incredible resolve and patience. Raise your hand if you've had the job of teacher while your inexperienced child stepped on the gas pedal.
     My dad gave me his tips and tricks. I had to use the front corners of the hood as reference points so I knew where my front tires were located. Then he used a wiffle ball to practice driving. He made me drive up and down the street and stop the car placing a tire right in front of the wiffle ball. I don't remember how many times I repeated the exercise but it took up most of an afternoon. At one point I parked on top of the ball and it was squashed. I think we quit for the day after that.
      I don't know if my dad ever saw the Brady Bunch episode where Marcia and Greg had a battle of the sexes to see who was the better driver. However, I knew my dad wanted me to be very precise when driving. The human body works in a very precise manner in response to exposures from the environment. These responses are determined by the nervous system as impulses are sent throughout the body. 
       One thing my dad kept professing during our driving lessons was that I would be making numerous subtle corrections with my hands on the steering wheel as I continuously assessed road conditions. It was this vigilance and correction that kept the vehicle moving safely down the road. This is similar to the body's nervous system that is always on duty assessing the environment. 
        A healthy body will be able to respond appropriately in good and bad situations. While we don't notice most minor corrections in the body, taking them for granted leads us to poor health. Back when my dad was reminding me to make continuous corrections while steering, he was helping me keep the car on the road. It only takes a minor distraction picking up the cell phone or changing the radio station to cause an accident. 
       Think of all the near misses you have had on the road. Injuries, toxins, and emotional upset can steer the nervous system off course like a ship on the ocean. If the body veers off course too many times, getting back on course can become futile. This is why we can benefit from chiropractic care. 
         Chiropractic provides the minor corrections that allow the nervous system to stay on track. Too many near misses in the nervous system is eventually exhausting and the next stressor could be more damaging. Chiropractors concentrate on the spinal changes that can set the nervous system off a normal course of regulation and healing. 
    While the spine can act as a shock absorber as we go about our day, the strain alters how messages are delivered between the brain and the body. Life can't always be a leisurely Sunday drive. And we certainly don't want to crash. Stay safe on your travels by getting your spine checked regularly.

Put Chiropractic on the Top of Your Prevention List

There is not enough prevention in health care. Physicians, dentists, social workers, physical therapists, and chiropractors all say it. We know prevention is a good thing, but road blocks can get in the way.

Primary prevention consists of activities such as proper diet and exercise to help the body avoid disease. Since most illness is life style related, this makes sense.

Another type of prevention, called secondary prevention, is early detection of a disease process. An early stage of treatment is preferred because it is usually less complicated with a higher rate of success.

Even the Affordable Health Care Act brags about covering prevention visits, so this is a good sign that decision makers realize it saves money and enhances life. But all good ideas have their problems.

For one, prevention is very personal. Some people breeze through life breaking all the rules, yet they seem to suffer no repercussions. Blame George Burns on that one as he smoked and drank to age 100.

People decide for themselves what they think is best for their own health. No one wants to be told what to do unless they get a paycheck for it. Doctors' instructions can seem to be very hard to follow.

I see it in my own life. When I am told how much work my car needs I begin to whine. Today of all days, really? I don't have time to replace nine things on my car. What do I need in order to drive it out of here? I promise I will come back to get the rest of the work done.

People also believe they have plenty of time to get to it later. I had one practice member tell me he was going to get healthy when he retired. Which he did, so I am glad for him. However, I've read too many obituaries that didn't work out that way.

In researching this article I came across a personal story in the Atlantic titled Why I Had to Close My Preventive Health Care Clinic. The doctor had great statistics on positive health outcomes. Numerous patients lost weight, improved their lab numbers and no longer needed medications.

Stories like these truly brought back quality of life for the folks who made the commitment to change their habits. But the owner relied solely on insurance and the reimbursements barely covered one fourth of his operation. His colleagues would not make referrals and hospitals would not partner with him.

That does not mean prevention is a lost cause. We will always encourage our practice members to strive to be their best. We can offer a helping hand by making prevention services as convenient as possible.

Routine chiropractic adjustments have been shown to keep people active which translates into many health benefits from pain reduction to more energy, better mood, and less sickness. This provides a nice ripple effect making other preventive practices more successful as well.

If you want to make important health changes, be sure to learn how chiropractic plays a unique role in prevention care.

Chiropractic and Disability: Let's Work Together

In this week's Citizen...

I work with many folks who are disabled. The stigma of disability is very painful on the emotional front due to isolation and loss of employment which complicates the ability to heal the physical damage.

It is quite a blow to self esteem when someone's pain keeps them from performing adequately at his or her job. Someone with multiple absences and a much lower level of productivity faces the difficult decision of leaving a job that was once fulfilling. For jobs that are physically demanding, it becomes unsafe to remain employed.

Insurance companies often put limitations on treatment. Because no one fits a textbook example, care is usually prematurely stopped even though published studies have shown a less intensive care plan leaves people in a state of chronic pain one year after a traumatic injury. Fair or unfair, patients need to do the best they can to remain consistent with strategies to assist their healing.

I have worked with people who have dealt with debilitating headaches, fibromyalgia, depression, post-concussion syndrome, herniated discs, severe fractures, arthritis and multiple sclerosis, just to name a few.

The most common goal is to help people have more energy so they can take part in family activities. For many of them, getting their pain to a tolerable level so they are not always in bed is a monumental improvement.

From a long term standpoint, disability accelerates aging. As much as I hate the word aging, I need to use it in order to help folks get the help they need. Disabling conditions have one thing in common, the body's reserves were so low at the time of injury or illness that healing became greatly impaired.

The chiropractic adjustment helps spinal joints release mechanical tension that disrupts messaging to and from the brain. This can have an effect on organ function and how well the immune system protects the body from pathogens.

When the spine is not moving, health deteriorates. Getting people to move as much as they can without causing a severe flare up is an important aspect of maintaining health. This takes quite a bit of trial and error to find the happy medium for each person's needs. Chiropractic certainly helps with the ups and downs.

Probably the most compelling aspect of care is looking back at the ways the body was already in a weakened state prior to the injury or illness. There may have been a destructive pattern going on for years. Recognizing this and reversing the behavior patterns can be an important stress reducer.

Another benefit of chiropractic care is mood enhancement because of the brain and body connection at the spine. The spinal cord contains limbic system cells just like the brain does and a greater feeling of well being can be achieved with spinal adjustments. Anger and grief from past events can be managed more effectively.

Dealing with a disability or similar crisis can be a disheartening experience. Adding a chiropractor to your support team can be of great help.

Buyer Beware?

This is what Health Insurance buys you.

This is the door way to actual health.

You're never too old to learn more about 

your body's greatness.

I am still learning and in awe. 

Coming Soon: Believe It Health Seminars.

What does retirement mean to you?

(In last week's Citizen)  In this month's article I want to discuss retirement. I get to work with a lot of retired people, and I must admit that I am jealous. I shouldn't it hold it against them. After all they put in many years of work ahead of me. For now, I get to share in the their adventures as their chiropractor.


I had one practice member, God rest his soul, who entered retirement about the time I started preschool. Statistics show the average number of years in retirement is about eighteen, so this gentlemen far exceeded that.


Many folks are not ready to leave the work force so they are doing some type of consulting in their field or they are trying out a brand new vocation. The others are busy with sports, hobbies and volunteering. One thing they have in common is they value their time now that they have more flexibility with the activities they choose.


There are also many people of retirement age who aren't living the life of leisure. Sixty-five percent of Americans don't have enough money saved for retirement. The average cost for a married couple's medical care is $215,000. And by the time someone turns sixty-five, about 29% of that person's friends will already be dead.


I had one practice member tell me he had to retire to get healthy. That sounds unusual, but it was very true for his situation and I don't doubt he is alone. It can be a full time endeavor to regain health.
For all of us, younger or older, this should make us think about the ways we spend our time now. Will the things we do today make us better people in the future, or will we have regrets?


The best part of my job is that that no one needs to be turned away from chiropractic. There is always room for improvement. Whether someone has great heath or poor health, we can always work together to to achieve a better quality of life.


If you have concerns about mental or physical well being, I will help you understand why an organized nervous system is necessary for the body. Health breaks down because the nervous system becomes overwhelmed. Over time the overwhelmed nervous system can't send healing messages, and the messages become destructive to the body.


Chiropractic addresses the delivery of healing messages that are impacted by spinal stress. While you can change the stress in your life, you still need chiropractic to undo the negative patterns that were already memorized by the nervous system.


The type of chiropractic approaches and techniques used always differ from person person. This is because we all have varying levels of stress and damage. For the retired people I work with, they won't settle for less. They have big plans and want good health in order to meet their goals.



If you're not retired yet, get ready now with your chiropractor. Today should be the day you plan your long term health strategy in the similar way you are saving and investing with you financial planner.

Stress Time Bomb / Chiropractic Can be Your Deavtivator

(My article in the Oct. 1, 2013 Citizen)

I was in the car the other day when I heard an interesting news story on the radio about Oprah Winfrey. She publicly disclosed she had acute stress disorder last year. A psychologist commented that it is a serious disorder made worse by our hyper-stimulated society.

It is more likely seen in someone with a severe trauma such as a physical attack or after experiencing a natural disaster, but she blamed it on an exhausting work schedule.

Stress is the invisible monster that most of us tend to ignore until some type of health warning startles us. Stress is not an obvious disease like a heart attack, ulcer, or flu. It is only a priority if you make it a priority.

Things can happen to us unexpectedly. We can experience stress that we have no control over such as bad weather, although we can plan for it. We also tend to put up with a great deal of self made stress because it's not inconvenient enough to change.

That's one thing I have no control over. I can't compete with other people's stress as I try to help them discover vibrant health. As it gradually chips away at health, stress is not recognized as a problem that needs intervention. It is this gray area of possible disease but not real enough to need treatment where chiropractic is the unsung hero.

Chiropractic deals with stress management by looking at the spine as a barometer or sort of measuring stick. The spine absorbs stress. Stress comes in three forms: physical or mechanical, chemical including diet, and emotional. Over time, the spine eventually becomes the stress. This in turn leads the nervous system to backfire and rewire.

A backfiring nervous system creates pain syndromes and places a strain on the rest of the body. Once rewired, the body's resistance becomes weakened and recurrent illnesses are more difficult to shake off. These complaints fall into the realm of the gray area of unspecific sickness. We tolerate these complaints and give them permission to fester.

With chiropractic care, adjustments to the spine release tension so healthier patterns can resume. Chiropractors also help people identify people's sources of stress so they can implement positive change.

There are complicating factors each one of us has to become honest about and that brings us back to Oprah Winfrey's personal story. How much stress will each of us ignore? In what areas of our lives are we going to let ourselves be run into the ground?

What we call stress today may be a minor annoyance, but it becomes physically imprinted on the spine in a way that cannot be reversed if it eventually breaks down bone, causing discs to leak and the brain to shrink.

I've heard too many people voice regret that they didn't understand this broader view of chiropractic's influence on health. You can now start looking at your spine as a health barometer and pick up on important clues that will help you get to the chiropractor early.

Chiropractic is the Gift of Giving Up Negativity

[Don't forget next week's health challenge!]
(In today's Citizen)

When people express an interest in chiropractic, I ask them if they plan to focus on the problem or the gift. When they raise an eyebrow, I offer a reason to shift gears in their thinking.

The only way to have a change in health is to shift gears by incorporating some type of behavior change. Health education during appointments is needed for successful change.

We tend to go to a health care professional with a problem when it doesn’t seem to go away on its own. I guess it is human nature, but while we wait for a problem to go away, we help new problems fester.

I understand problems must be dealt with appropriately, but we can also recognize we have a gift. We are the gift. The very same human body that has you feeling down and anxious because of some kind of disruptive symptom or disease pattern is actually responding correctly to a stress.

The body has many built-in mechanisms that protect and heal you from mishaps and unpleasant exposures. While the problem is annoying or even life-threatening, the body is working hard at keeping you alive.

In the chiropractic world, the gift is the body’s communication system made up of the brain, spinal cord and nerves that deliver the lifesaving messages of healing through the tunnel of bones we call the spine.

Maybe I have a word obsession, but if you focus on problems, you will never attain health. I don’t even like the term health screenings, because it is focusing on a problem you might have or might never have.

No one likes going in for mammograms or colonoscopies. The anxiety they produce ramps up cortisol levels and probably kills off a few DNA strands just waiting for the test results.

But don’t yell at me assuming I think health screenings are not necessary. However, I do want more people to shift gears. I want you to enhance your gift of healing, and chiropractic gives you a very unique way to do it.

The gift of our healing system still needs help. Just like everything else, your spine and nervous system need to be finely tuned and polished.

Routine chiropractic adjustments are the fine tunings. When spinal fixations are released, neurological patterns can be restored to a state of more efficient healing. Health education is offered by your chiropractor to explain what makes the body less efficient, and how the adjustment perks it up.

Chiropractors also use health education to help you add the polish. You can learn how to lower stress levels so the spine and nervous system stay strong. You can learn how to recognize the subtle signs of spine and nerve dysfunction.

Let’s focus on the gift as a way to resolve our problems. Take the time to understand how chiropractic enhances the healing process. This is a great way to shift gears and make powerful changes in your health.