My story

I wanted to share my story about chiropractic.  I used to be a pre-dental student.  I took all the classes as if I was going to be a dentist.  It meant many of my friends were doing into the health profession as well.  I remember in one of my chemistry classes we were talking about alternative healthcare and the professor had us watch a PBS program that "attacked" the alternative health field.  Chiropractors took the main brunt of it.  The program consisted of an ex-chiropractor chatting with the host (Hawkeye from the TV show MASH if memory serves correctly) about how alternative medicine, in particular chiropractic, is ineffective.  I was on board.  I felt chiropractors had their place but they weren't more then physical therapists.  I was one of chiropractic's biggest opponents.  We discovered medicine for a reason.  It didn't make sense to me how a little "bone crunching" in the back could help "cure" all disease.  It was a comfortable position, especially among fellow pre-med and pre-dental students, and the chiropractors among us were not held in high esteem.

Then a few summers ago my wife and I were working at JanSport when she injured her back.  It was a really bad injury.  It was a slipped disc in the lower spine.  She could hardly move.  All movements hurt her, even just lying in bed was painful.  We didn't have insurance so we weren't going to be able to afford medical attention but my mom sent us to a chiropractor and offered to pay for it.  We went though I was still skeptical he'd be able to help but because he took x-rays and did other test like that I figured he at least would be able to determine how much damage was done.  I drove my wife to the chiropractor's office and it was an ordeal for her to even walk to and from the car.  We sat in the waiting room and filled out all the information.  At this point I thought my wife had just slept in a funny position.  She thought it was much more serious.  The Doc took her into the exam room and I waited for her.  The Doc was really helpful and took care of my wife.  He took the X-rays and after studying them gave her an adjustment.

I would really love to say that it was one of those miracle adjustments where that was the end of it that my lovely wife was free from the injury that day and it hasn't bothered her since.  It wasn't that way but my Wife's condition had improved greatly.  It wasn't the same ordeal to get her to the car and home as it was to get her to the office.  I was shocked, especially after the Doc told us how bad the injury was.  Her condition would have warranted back surgery, and the Doc at that point was worried it still might.  After working with her over the summer my Wife was much improved.  We came back the following summer and the Doc still worked with us.  I'm not sure if he got paid in full by the insurance company or not but we have not seen a bill from the Doc for my wife at all.

It was the Doc's actions towards us, as well as being able to help keep my wife from surgery, that got me really interested in Chiropractic.  There were a few other events that got me away from dentistry but from my Wife's first adjustment on Chiropractics as a profession for me was now an option and was second to dentistry.  While chiropractors tend to get bad publicity (I recall an episode of friends where Ross refuses to go to Rachael's Chiropractor) in a lot of the media they really are helpful.  Chiropractic is still fairly young comparatively to your typical medical doctor.  Shoot in the early age of standard medicine they were letting blood to free the bad spirits causing disease.  I don't think chiropractic will replace standard medicine but we are doctors too and we do have our place.  I am really excited to be getting into this field and I look forward to practicing in my home state of Washington.

Chiropractic and living life to the fullest...

Chiropractic really appeals to me because it is about helping people live their lives to the fullest.  The body is governed by the nervous system.  Everything going on in your body is controlled by the brain.  Chiropractic care uses adjustments to make sure the nervous system is running without impingement to make sure the body is taken care of.  

With chiropractic the goal of the doctor is to maintain 100% life.  One of the doctors here was telling a story about one of his patients.  He starting seeing the man, whom I'll refer to as John, after John had been diagnosed with cancer.  While under chiropractic treatment John noticed an improvement in his living.  Before he was under care he felt disconnected from life, like a blob.  Under care he felt more vitality.  John eventually succumbed to the cancer.  A short while after John's death a young man came to the Doc's office.  He introduced himself to the Doc as John's son.  He thanked the Doc for giving his dad back to his family.  John's son said they had the chance to enjoy the final months with their father.

I want to be able to become that doctor.  The one that can restore vitality to his patients.  I look forward to working with patients and helping them in their lives. Also will make sure I objectively measure what is going on in the body so my patients get the care they need.

Chiropractic care: Risky or not?

  Chiropractic is often accused of being harmful, that benefits out weigh the risk, and that we are sub-class doctors.  I'm going to address the harmful accusation, which in turn addresses the benefit/cost ratio.

We are all familiar with insurance.  Most of us have it.  When we sign up for insurance, regardless of the type, we have to pay a premium of some sort.  Most of us are aware that the premium is not the same for everyone.  The insurance company determines who are at a high risk, those people the insurance company will be paying lots of money for, and those who will be low risk, the people who won't be using much of the insurers money but will be putting money into the insurer's pockets.  Low risk individuals typically pay a lower rate than the high risk individuals.  The rates are a fairly good measure of risk assessment.

So I went looking for rates to compare.  Felt like a super sleuth, minus the trench coat and wide rimmed hat.  It was really hard finding a site that would give me quotes without being a doctor of some sort but I came across another blog of a chiropractor who did the math for me.  I looked at his malpractice rates and the rates of the other doctors compared to his on his blog and he was paying way less per year.  The post was from a little over two years ago but I was able to find some articles about the high rate of malpractice insurance as well as the average cost of insurance for the medical profession. For a chiropractor the average chiropractic malpractice insurance rates was around $1500 per year while for the medical doctor it was $10,000-$20,000 per year (This is influenced by where and what they practice).

Well like all criminal drama's say "follow the money."  Cheaper average rates means there are fewer malpractice cases files against chiropractors.  Which means the average chiropractor is in fact safer than the propaganda would have you believe.

Chiropractic and infant care

I know I used to think of chiropractic care involving some big guy applying lots of force on the back getting it to go snap, crackle and pop. When I heard of people taking their infants to chiropractors I still had that image only a smaller force was applied. I was wrong. Not only was I wrong about the forces applied during pediatric chiropractics but I also thought the wee ones didn't need care. They have young and fresh spine in their little bodies why how on earth could they need them.

I wasn't really thinking the whole thing through. Birth is a traumatic yet wonderful experience. I look forward to having children of my own someday and both my wife and I are excited about it. Delivery just isn't the kindest thing on the neck of a new born though. The skeleton of infants are not fully hardened at birth, add to that that muscle needs to be built up fully and you have a body that can be easily be thrown out of alignment. I have a friend who told me they were having troubles getting their child to sleep through the night. I believe the term colicky was used. They took their kid to a chiropractor and after a single adjustment the problem was solved.

The amazing thing about pediatric care from a chiropractor is the amount of force needed for an adjustment. In children not much is needed. The amount of pressure applied to an infant is the same amount of force you apply when gently poking your own hand with a finger. Not much at all but the bone just slides back into place. As a chiropractor I can specialize, just like medical students can, and I may choose to specialize in pediatrics. I can't think of a more rewarding area to be in.

The important thing to remember is that Chiropractic care maintains proper nervous system function which is essential for prober development, growth, and health. Children growth fast which probably makes them ideal candidates for chiropractic care.

A little hope...

A few posts ago I made mention about a woman who got the flu vaccine and experienced a tragic side effect. Her name is Desiree Jennings. I was reading through my e-mails and I catching up on some of the newsletters I signed up for. One news letter again pointed out the tragic events in Desiree's life. I decided I would see what was going on in her life and I googled her and found a story about her recovery process. I know I am a chiropractic student and I know that the recovery method was not chiropractic but I think we should rejoice in any person's recovery regardless of our school of thought. As you will read in that article Desiree is regaining much of her motor control and the prospects of a near complete/full recovery are good. All it will take is time which I'm sure she now feels she has plenty.

The thing that is important about health care is hope. We need it. No one wants to go to a doctor to find they have no hope. We don't want to live our lives on pills for the rest of our lives. We don't want to have to live with chronic symptoms. We live in a system that gives us just that here in the states. It is a system that has too many doctors holding the book cases as absolutes and remaining inflexible. and it isn't just medical doctors who lack the ability to innovate. We need to unite together in the health care field so we can better serve those looking for hope.

The united states is going through a so called "health care" reform. Don't let the wording fool you though it isn't really a reform of health care service but rather a reform in health care costs. We want the same service, we just want it cheaper. At least that is what we are saying. Change will come from the reform, but it may not be exactly what we all are hoping for.

I look at the tumult and thing to myself "why the heck did I jump into this field now? What is going to be left of it for me when I get done with school?" I don't know what the future holds but I know that what I am doing is valid and is helpful. I know chiropractic can help people. I've been under care now for a few weeks and I have noticed that I am sleeping better at nights. I assume so because I don't feel tired in the middle of the day and I haven't changed my sleep schedule. It works for me it can work for others and I am excited to see what other benefits I will reap from my care. All I know for sure is I have high hopes for what is to come.

GPA, Chiropractic School, and standardizing

Last week in school we had a discussion about standardizing the requirements for getting into school. I was surprised at how many people we against some standardization. The rational was that there are more slots available in chiropractic schools than there are applicants therefore until we have more applicants than slots we shouldn't standardize. I think that is a big mistake.

First off most of the medical community feels chiropractic is somewhat of a joke. In my undergrad work I rubbed elbows a lot with the pre-med students and the sentiment among them was something like this "If I don't make it into medical school I can always become a chiropractor." That is a scary thought. Chiropractic is seen as the bottom of the barrel. Chiropractic and Medicine need to play nice together in the school yard. We need to see that we complement each other and are not necessarily at odds with each other. We can't play nice until we respect each other and the med-students don't respect someone who can get into a health profession program with a GPA of 2.0 - 2.5.

There has been talk of bumping up the required GPA to get into school to a 3.0 and I whole heartily agree. It gives us more clout when we have a higher minimum among the med-students. One might ask what does it matter when the med-students are only students. It matters cause they will become the doctors we chiropractic students are going to have to work along side with. I have faith in chiropractic and what it can do for people but we still have to play with the doctors of the medical community. The standardization of school requirements is only the beginning of course. The chiropractic community needs to show our merit to the medical community and be able to share our message with the rest of the world not just other chiropractors.

A universal truth, midterms, and halloween

Well I'm half-way through my midterms. More studying to do but there is a bit of pressure off the system now. Also I've copies of my x-rays that my intern took. It is way cool, definitely halloween material. Here at Life Chiropractic College West Halloween is a big deal. There are pumpkin carving contests and costume contests and so on and so on.

I've meet with my intern three times and I feel really great. I had some lower and mid back pain as well as tension headaches. I have really bad posture (something my x-rays show in the neck) and I just attributed everything to that. Well after my first adjustment my dull aching lower and mid back ache was gone and my headaches are following suite. Three separate complaints and all are being taken care of in a natural holistic way.

I've been hearing the term "cold laser" being thrown around here on campus and I'm still not sure what it looks like. All I know is that the interns carry it around in a plastic box. Anyway my intern used it today. surprised me really. It was cold, as the name suggests, but it was really penetrating. He only had the cold laser on me for a little bit but I could feel it really deep. It was also a very focused cold and that may be why it felt so deep because I was aware of the depth and not the area.

Again today we spoke of the wonder of the human body. There is a universal truth among the health care fields. The truth is that the human body is a wonderful self healing organism. There is no dispute among the professions about the self healing nature of the body. Our body has the final say about whether or not the healing process is going to take. Chiropractor and Medical doctors just have different ways of aiding the process. Most of us know how the medical model works but few of us know how the chiropractic model works. The reason for the chiropractic method being unknown to the general public is because of the chiropractors. We tend to preach to ourselves about how cool chiropractic is, but we kind of miss everyone else.

Well I want to share a little about chiropractic here. Chiropractic helps allow the body to respond with the natural healing processes at its disposal. Our body's know what it needs. Like keeping a car properly tuned allows for the best performance of the vehicle chiropractic can help maintain the body in good health. Chiropractic is concerned with the functionality of the body. Instead of treating symptoms (IE pain) we treat the cause of the symptoms. There are a lot of interesting idea's in the philosophy of chiropractic but really the the core of it is the body takes care of its self and chiropractors try to aid in maximizing the process.