I will be celebrating my 25 year reunion this year; graduating from Sherman College of Chiropractic in 1986. I am most grateful for my education in the all natural health care field of chiropractic. This education began my foundation- and deep respect for the incredible healing powers of our human bodies. Recently I have noticed an increase in young people searching for meaningful and productive lives – with a possible career in chiropractic. As many people have a “j o b” that leaves them feeling stuck and unfulfilled- chiropractic physicians have their own set of challenges to deal with. As with any profession, line of work or career their are pluses and minuses. However in the last 25 years in serving others through my hands and teaching people about their innate healing bodies- and witnessing many miracles- my passion continues to this day. This passion is also necessary when having to deal with the daily struggles of running a business and the politics we as a profession have to operate under. I used to think politics was just in chiropractic. Years of living has shown me that there is politics in everything- especially in politics. This is all the more reason to make sure you love what you do. Why not choose a profession or career that serves others; enhance the life of others through a drugless all natural approach. Chiropractic. Since 1895. For further information go to www.sherman.edu
A career as a surgeon is often viewed as an upper echelon position with regards to money and lifestyle. Many years of schooling and money -along with grueling hours and many sleepless nights eventually pay off for this hardworking part of our society. No doubt they serve an important aspect in our medical care system. At the same time no one seems exempt from the stresses of life- including this part of our health care cog. In a tiny little paragraph in the Arizona Republic newspaper – entitled “Suicidal thoughts found among nation’s surgeons” – a study that appeared in the January issue of Archives of Surgery suggests medical errors, job burnout and depression lead surgeons to contemplate suicide at higher rates than the general public. Of the 8000 surgeons participating in the survey, about 6 percent reported recent suicidal thoughts. That rate jumped to 16 percent if they had just made a recent major medical error. The big surprise here is that no one- no matter how much money they make, their status in society, nor their fancy lavish lifestyle- is exempt from dealing with stress and the effects of stress (including depression, high blood pressure, indigestion, loss of hair, adrenal burnout, lack of sleep, etc). Just look at all the Hollywood stars with drug and alcohol problems. Many people try and wash away their problems and stress, or try to run from it- even contemplating leaving this earthly existence- to escape. I can’t blame anyone for this thinking- but what looks like the easy way out may not be the best way. Trying to escape from our stress is not dealing with our stress. Two people may be exposed to the same problem and they may each respond differently. Why? Just like a couple of witnesses to an auto accident report different scenarios to the police officer- people see and respond differently to things. An often overlooked element to stress deals with the health of our nerve system. The key here is to make sure your nerve system is as elastic and flexible as possible. If our nerve system remains springy and elastic then we will tend to be more flexible and elastic. People get hopeless and make bad decisions (including suicide) for many reasons but from my experience- and having worked with these type of individuals- hope is something that springs forth through proper adjustments of their spinal column. When a person stresses out, their nervous system also shows signs of stress- becoming elongated, pulled and twisted. If this state goes uncorrected and more stress comes to the individual- a person can easily go into overwhelm. Then thoughts associated with overwhelm – like escaping from the situation or life may be expressed. So no matter where you find yourself on the totem pole of life- staying calm, peaceful and full of ease is the best prescription to extend the quality of your life. An enjoyable life filled with gratitude and an elastic flexible nerve system makes even the challenging moments easier to ride out. Let’s give thanks to all those fine men and women who serve others as surgeons; and may they find peace in their lives and ease in their spines!
When I asked one of my recent clients how he was doing- this forward thinking, open and outside the box thinking person responded, ” I just follow the process”. Great profoundness in his reply I thought. Many people may have respond with a good or bad depending on their symptomatology. However when considering this gentlemen’s response- it ultimately didn’t matter how he was doing as much as he followed and trusted in a system that if followed – would get him to his destination of well-being. To be successful, whether you are lifting weights, raising a family or growing a business- there is a process you follow. A process becomes more powerful- and beneficial when it is guided by principles. This “achieving”‘ and “respected” client was probably successful in life because he wasn’t easily fooled by what meets the physical eyes. Just like our symptoms, problems in life come and go; we can be easily fooled by the superficiality of things. Instead to be truly successful in life we must align ourselves with “the process”. If we want to be healthy their are principles to follow; to maintain our health- or to return ourselves to health- we must follow a process- a set of action steps. As mentioned earlier, certain action steps will lead us closer to health while other action steps/processes will lead us further from health. The comment “I just follow the process” is simple yet profound. It represents a surrendering to something bigger than us. Trying to fight the process is like trying to control nature. You can only control something for so long before realizing you are controlled by the very thing you seek to control. In the end- nature, our bodies and the healing force within operates through a priceless primordial process that we would all do well to study and apply into our spiritual, mental/emotional and physical aspects. “I just follow the process”; simple words with deep applications.
We have all seen it before- a young child running around with their nose dripping with snot; too busy playing to be distracted with stopping and having to blow their nose. If they don’t suck the toxins back up into their head they will usually smear their snots into a freshly laundered shirt mommy had just earlier retrieved from the dryer. This is a good sign (not the ruination of a nice clean shirt but the running of their nose)- for a number of reasons. One, because at least their nose is running- a form of detoxification- a wondrous method the innate wisdom of the body utilizes to keep itself clean and pure; and two, young children have such a wonderful attitude- they don’t usually get negative when they have a cold or runny nose; instead they just keep on playing and having fun. As for the “runny nose” – as inconvenient as it may be- this is a much better scenario than the child or adult who has blockages and unable to to have an efficient toxin release. One reason deficient detoxification results I have learned over the years deals with a restriction in the lymphatic channels. The body has many ways of eliminating toxins from the head area. One way is the runny nose. Another way is through lymphatic pathways in the neck. Some of these pathways run through muscle. When a person gets stressed, their nerves get stressed. Next thing you know there are palpable swollen lymph nodes on the sides of our necks. This often results when we have spinal misalignments and stress that tweak our muscles and thereby obstruct our lymphatic detoxification pathways. All it takes is a little stress and one misalignment. If the toxins can’t get out through one way they will have to find another way out of the body. I have found tremendous benefit in making sure our spines are well adjusted so muscles can relax. With muscles relaxed, our lymphatic pathways of detoxification are more open and are able to flow more normally. So the next time your child gets a runny nose- knowing their little bodies are doing their best to eliminate impurities, (and provided their nerve-muscle-bone connections are appropriate) we can look with awe in one of the ways our body maintains itself in health. Happy laundering moms!
Often it occurs that a client will come in – lets call her Fran-with a concern about having an infection in their sinuses. Fran’s head may feel clogged, her sinuses are plugged up and she may have difficulty breathing through her nose. Many of us have had this and it is quite common. When it lingers on and on without any end in sight, our thoughts often turn to the possibility of an infection and the need for antibiotics. At times there is nothing better to kill “bad bugs” than antibiotics and of course they do serve an important function in medicine’s war chest on disease and infections. But let’s take a closer look below the surface. I will often use the analogy “you don’t get rats in a clean alley”. I don’t know how many people have alleys behind there homes anymore but when I grew up on the outskirts of Detroit- and visited my grandmother- behind her home was an alley. Garbage cans would be placed out back waiting for the garbage men (now I think they are called waste management engineers) to come by and empty the garbage into their big smelly trucks. Side note: the longer the garbage was there- and with the right conditions (ie summer heat)- the more flys, pests- including rodents would congregate. I remember countless times of finding a pile of maggots squirming about as we picked through the garbage. As a young child I often wondered how those gross looking maggots got there. Once the garbage was picked up and taken away by the wast management engineers- so went the maggots, flys and rodents. Like magic. Imagine that-you clean up the alley and the bugs disappear. If instead we had set up rat traps and for good measure called my buddy Marty Hochhaus with J & S to kill the pests… what do you suppose might happen? Dead pests of course; but then what? Might they come back again if the garbage remained? Would Marty take my money to come out again and kill off the new generation of flys, rats and other scavengers living off the decaying matter? Maybe – after he tells me I’m crazy and what would I expect for leaving the garbage out. So it goes in our very own bodies. Just below our skin is a world of microbiology teeming with bugs- both good and bad (viewed from the human perspective). Ultimately each organism serves a purpose. There are no accidents. There is no accidental formation of maggots in garbage and there is no accidental formation of bacteria in our bodies. If our bodies are toxic… if our bodies are congested…. if they are unable to detoxify efficiently, properly,timely… then our bodies gather garbage and they will attract pests (ie bacteria) that will live off of the garbage (ie toxins- mucus, phlegm,etc). The bacteria are not the problem! It is our overloaded bodies; our blocked energy; our pathways of detoxification and the systems that control and regulate them. This is where we need to focus our attention- what created our problem- not the effect. The bottom line is this- there is order in the body. The use of antibiotics should be wisely prescribed and utilized. Whether we treat bacteria or rats- if we don’t take care of the cause of the problem- we will sooner or later have bigger problems with greater complications to deal with. Keep it simple, ask questions and study nature- the answers are within! If you are having trouble finding answers or wondering what questions you should be asking -consult with a professional or give me a call; an outside perspective can often times be helpful.
