Dr. Julie's Blog

I Didn't Know Chiropractic Could Do That!!

The word "doctor" comes from the latin docere, meaning "to teach."

I take this responsibility seriously, and there are days when I feel like I almost never quit talking in my quest to educate patients about their health.  I cover a lot of ground while a patient is in my adjusting room, but I find it increasingly difficult to convey the astonishing breadth of this work that I do in the time it takes to render an adjustment.

Why is the reach of chiropractic care so extensive?...Because it's all about balance.  Joint imbalances (whether in the spine or the peripheral joints) = neurological imbalance = somatic or body dysfunction.  Remove or reduce the joint imbalances = improved neurology = better somatic/body function.

Do you think you know all of the things that chiropractic can do?  I hope that there are some surprises in this list for you!

• Pregnancy ~ everything from the aches and pains of a typical pregnancy to positional problems with the baby respond beautifully to chiropractic adjustments.......and yes, I'm talking about a technique that turns breech babies!
• Labor & Delivery ~ many new moms report that their labors and deliveries are shorter and seem to require fewer medical interventions of all kinds when they've been under chiropractic care during their pregnancy.
• Colic ~ This is a frustrating and confusing diagnosis for any new family.  Many cases of "colic" turn out to be fairly straightforward imbalances of the baby's neck and head.  How does a shiny new baby end up with imbalances of her neck and head?  Think back to watching that birthing video or your own delivery.......I think we can all agree that even the most uncomplicated, normal vaginal delivery is pretty hard on a baby's neck and head, yes?  And if there has been any kind of medical intervention during labor or delivery the risk to baby's delicate head and neck structures is even higher (this especially includes c-section deliveries).  The neurological irritation caused by labor & delivery is often the source of baby's discomfort.  I do so much of this kind of work that I've written an article about it:  Dr. Julie Says:  "See Jane Nap."
• Ear Infections ~ Read:  "I Am Billy's Middle Ear" for my best explanation of this one.
• Frequent Colds/Getting Sick A Lot ~  Our immune system is hard-wired to our nervous system.  Therefore, anything that improves neurological function also improves immune system function.
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Plantar Fascitis and Other Foot Pain
• Heartburn/Reflux/Indigestion ~ Your stomach makes acid for a reason.  Acid production is almost its only reason for being, and that purple pill you're taking is turning off the acid pumps.  Does it reduce your acid reflux symptoms?...You bet it does, but it has GOT to be wreaking havoc with your digestion, don'tcha think?  Reduction of irritation of the nerves to the esophagus and stomach can often alleviate even the worst heartburn without short-circuiting the body's normal digestive activities. 
• Tennis Elbow/Tendonitis
• TMJ/Jaw Dysfunction ~ In addition to being affected by conditions of the teeth and mouth, our TMJ (temporomandibular joint) is almost always involved when there is whiplash injury due to vehicle crashes, slips, falls, etc.
• Rib Pain ~ That awful, searing, grabbing pain that knocks you to your knees when you try to take a deep breath sometimes...?  That's a rib that has become misaligned in some way.  These can be stubborn, requiring several adjustments as well as ice applications at home, but it's always worth the effort.

You may have noticed that none of the above items involve neck pain, back pain, headache, or any of the other symptoms for which chiropractic is most often sought as treatment.

If you or someone you know is sick & tired of being sick & tired all the time....... of just surviving every day only to fall into bed and then get up and do it all over again.......Maybe it's time to think outside the box about chiropractic.

Thanks, Rico

Rico highlights beautifully one of the things that I think is at the very crux of how our healthcare system got so far out of hand ~ the big PR ~ personal responsibility.  And while he's at it, he simultaneously overcomplicates AND oversimplifies what he thinks my opinions are.  Rico, I invite you to reread my last two posts carefully.  I think I was pretty clear about the fact that my argument with this film has nothing to do with Michael Moore's contention that the American healthcare system......uh...er, sucks.  It needs to be reworked from the ground up.  No aspect of it should escape the metaphorical bulldozer.  It is too expensive, too impersonal, too bloated to continue to exist as it is.  By the way, did you catch the part where I likened the U.S. healthcare system to a festering lesion whose scab needs to be picked off?

My point in "Oh yeah, and..." was to draw attention to the issue of the big PR, and what a glaring lack of it there was in the story of the guy with the table saw and the missing finger tip.  Certainly, accidents do happen ~ but, for me, there is a very important distinction between the accident that is a completely random event ~ the one that no amount of planning or foresight could have prevented, and the accident that follows as a fairly predictable result of inattention, ignorance, stupidity, laziness, arrogance, bravado, fatigue, impatience...etc.  Perhaps surprisingly, I think that victims of both the completely random accident and the (let's just call it) stupidity accident should receive medical treatment equally.  I'm just not sure how much the patient from the stupidity accident deserves to moan about the treatment that he receives.......its cost or any other aspect of it.

The fact that Michael Moore showcases this fool in an attempt to emotionally manipulate his audience must call into question virtually every example he employs as he makes his point.  The trickery was apparent to me, but I'm more than a little flabbergasted at the number of people who were really taken in by the guy with the missing fingertip, and his whining about his care.

It is extremely distressing to me that Michael Moore has such a big megaphone and no apparent compunction about the ramifications of his questionable representation of this huge problem.

Oh Yeah, and...

Try as I might to leave yesterday's post alone, I was bothered all night last night about the fact that I decided not to comment on one of Michael Moore's main characters in SiCKO.  So, in the name of personal responsibility ~ one of my mantras, especially in the area of wellness and healthcare, I find I must say something about the guy who cut off two of his fingertips on a table saw....... and then became a primary player in Moore's diatribe because he had to choose which fingertip to keep and which one to loose.

There are so many things wrong with this guy's story, that I scarcely know where to start...

First, I am married to a wood worker.  At times he has done it for a living and at times (like lately) it's more of a hobby.  He's taught students as young as 5th graders to safely use power tools.  In the middle of a particularly complex carpentry project, I've seen him execute decidely "off label" feats with a table saw ~ free-hand cuts, and solo cuts that would be worthy of medals, if such accomplishments came with medals.  I trust his word when it comes to what is and isn't a smart move when working at a table saw.  After seeing this movie, he was beside himself about the guy who had the table saw incident.  He tells me that one thing he's never ever done while working at a table saw is reach over and across the blade to try to pull a cut through from the wrong side (which is what the guy in the movie did).  The guy broke a cardinal rule of table saw operation ~ an amputation waiting to happen, according to my beloved.

Anyone who has ever purchased a power tool will recall the pages and pages and pages of instructions and cautions and warnings.  Ignore them at your own risk....... Loose your concentration at your own risk.......Hurry at your own risk...

OK ~ so there's that.

Next, it's not really clear to me whether the guy from the movie uses power tools as part of his job, or is just a casual user.  Either way ~ isn't a guy who steps up to a table saw, knowing that he doesn't have insurance coverage, and then pulls a completely boneheaded stunt, causing the amputation of two fingertips fully responsible for the results of his actions?

Yes, it's a terrible thing.  I am a healer down to my bones ~ it hurts me when another human hurts, but I have very little patience for people who make bad choices and do stupid things, and then expect someone else to bail them out.  The emergency personnel who treated him did their jobs when they made sure that he didn't die from his self-inflicted injuries.  What is not their job is making it possible for him to afford to have his fingertips reattached, especially when he wasn't forward-thinking enough to make plans for such matters before he checked his brain at the woodshop door.

Just a couple of final questions:

If this did happen on the job, where is his workers' compensation insurance coverage?

If this was hobby wookworking, why is this guy spending money on power tools and woodworking projects when he can't afford health insurance?  Hmmm.

All I'm saying is... use your brain, recognize the risks that you encounter in everyday life, and don't expect anyone else to take up the slack for your ignorance or stupidity.

Obviously, I haven't offered anything here that will fix our healthcare system, but neither will knee-jerk reactions to an emotionally manipulative movie which, I suspect, is chock-full of inaccuracies and bias and falsehoods.

SiCK OH!

I went to see Michael Moore's latest film, SiCKO, mostly because I thought I ought to.......I ought to at least be able to have a conversation about it, I reasoned, as I forked over my $9.75.

I've steered clear of Moore's films in the past because I don't understand or appreciate his way of muck-raking a problem without offering any real suggestion of a solution.  It seems immature and unproductive to bring attention to a problem the way Moore does, without any noticeable attention given to a fix ~ sort of like picking the scab off of a festering lesion without having a bandaid, or at least a tissue handy to help clean up the ensuing mess so that some real healing might take place.  Even if the scab needed to come off (which, in the case of our "healthcare system," it plainly does), I think that the one who picked it should shoulder at least a little of the responsibility of being ready with a few answers, or suggestions, or ideas about the mess they've exposed.

Moore clearly spent a lot of time and energy getting his version of ironic comedy and his sing-song sarcastic narration just right in SiCKO, but it all wraps up without any redeeming "what-ifs" to balance out the snideness of it all.  He can't really be proposing that we adopt the real, everyday Cuban way of practicing medicine, can he?...Or that we start handing over upwards of 50% of our income to the government so that it can provide us with "free" births, and "free" nannies, and "free" extra time off to recover from illness?...Can he?  Do some research, follow the money, don't be naive.

My #1 fear about any form of universal healthcare coming to this country is that "the powers that be" will almost surely take the path of least resistance and adopt a wider version of the system that already exists here.......that's right ~ Medicaid & Medicare (M&M).  Any healthcare system that begins with M&M as its model is unacceptable as far as I'm concerned.  Just imagine a government monopoly on decisions about your health.  It's a recipe for disaster.

The one bright spot that has stayed with me over the week or so since I saw SiCKO is the image of a young doctor who revealed that everytime he helps a patient stop smoking his government gives him a raise.  Talk about walking the talk of preventative wellness care!!  I am entranced by this concept.  Whether or not it is actually happening somewhere at this moment ~ shouldn't it be?  What if the government actually gave your doctors a bonus for helping you change your lifestyle for the better?  What if your doctor's more attractive choice was to interest you in an exercise schedule or better quality food rather than a cholesterol-lowering drug... what if the rewards that she received from the government for practicing true wellness care were greater than the rewards she's currently getting from her pharmaceutical rep for getting you hooked on another medication?  Wow.

I think that the most effective way to cause real change in our current medical model is to stop participating in it as much as possible, thereby rendering it better able to do what it does best ~ caring for the true traumas and the true emergencies and the truly needy.

What if:

You spend more time at the offices of the practitioners who help you/coach you/guide you to safeguard and support your own, inborn health, rather than the ones who cash in on you when you're sick.  It's a lot more fun and cost-effective to stay well than it is to get well.  But go ahead and get well anyway!  Spending time, money, and energy with your preventative and wellness practitioners will pay big, BIG dividends throughout your life.  Be aware, though:  Getting well and being well is a process, not an event.......and it is up to you ~ not your doctor, or your massage therapist, or your acupuncturist, or your spouse.  Your body, your habits, your lifestyle, your health.

Obviously, this idea won't go over very well with your insurance company, which would rather pay $20,000.00 for a spinal surgery once you're crippled with pain than approve $5,000.00 worth of chiropractic adjustments to help you keep your spine (and therefore your nervous system, and therefore your entire being...) healthy.  Nevermind that the spinal surgery is most likely just the beginning of a lifetime of dependence on orthopedic specialists and pain medications, as well as a marked decline in your ability to be active and proactive in your own health.  Welcome to the Medical Merry-Go-Round.

Oh yeah, and it's OK for a healthy person to get sick now and then.......good and darned sick!  Running a fever, vomiting, getting congested, aching & fatigue ~ all of these (and others) are signs of a healthy immune system fighting a foreign invader.  No formal medical intervention is needed in most cases.  Watching & waiting, resting & recouperating have become a lost art.

In fact, I think a pretty compelling argument can be made that the current epidemic of chronic and autoimmune diseases we are experiencing as a society (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, some forms of cancer, and on and on and on), is due in large part to the meddling of medical doctors, clinics, and hospitals with too much technology and pharmaceutical companies with too much political influence who would rather send us home with a new handful of pills than try to encourage us to modify our lifestyle or habits.  Heck, the pharmaceutical geniuses have even started selling their drugs directly to us, haven't they?  Their television and magazine ads tell us what we need, then we go in and badger our medical doctors until they finally relent and give us a diagnosis, followed shortly by a page ripped from their prescription pad.  I remember reading an article several years ago in which 45% of medical doctors interviewed anonymously admitted to writing prescriptions for patients simply to get them to stop complaining and leave the office.  Amazing.

While he fairly adeptly obscures it with 2 hours of shenanigans, I have to say that I have no argument with Michael Moore's fundamental point that healthcare in this country is truly astonishing in its ghastliness.  More than ever, I think that if you're not outraged about the status quo of healthcare here, it's only because neither you nor anyone you care about has ever been caught in the system ~ needing and expecting help, but receiving only BS and COA from their doctors and hospitals (that's "bullshit" and "cover our ass" for those of you are more delicate than me).

While Mr. Moore stops rolling tape just at the time when he could become a true activist for change, I'll step up and say that I happen to think the solution is up to us, you & me, as individuals.  There is not a satisfactory government fix out there.  I think we should stop waiting for it.

What Is This Wellness That Everyone Talks About?

I notice that the "thrust" of my practice is changing ever so subtly in recent months...I'm having more and more discussions with patients about their nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle choices ~ their wellness care....... while I see fewer and fewer patients in acute pain.  I like this trend ~ it's exactly the direction that the healthcare practice of the future should be taking in my opinion.  I have, however, been challenged in knowing how best to talk about wellness care.

What is this wellness that everyone talks about?

It's not an easy topic ~ much too abstract for most people.

As a practitioner, I've found it easiest to discuss wellness by creating a metaphor for it in more concrete terms.  It's an imperfect plan.  I can usually make my point, but an awful lot is lost in the translation.

I most often compare a patient's wellness/health to some machine or other.  What makes this an attractive metaphor is that we're all surrounded by machines.......we can't live without our machines, and we know all too well what happens when they break down due to inattention or poor care.

The broken-machine approach understandably works best when I'm talking with my male patients.  They completely get it when I ask them how in the world they'd expect their car/motorcycle/boat/jet ski/bicycle to continue to serve them 10 or 20 or 30 years from now if they never did any upkeep on it.  Why then should their bodies be above needing some upkeep?

My discussions with female patients generally take on a somewhat more personal flavor......."You wash your face or brush your teeth regularly no matter how they look or feel, because you know that they need it.  These are parts of the overall care of your body.  The care of your spine, your nutrition, and your exercise should be equally as important...and equally as second-nature if you're interested in real wellness."

Like I said.......imperfect.

A friend of mine who has spent more than 20 years as a chiropractic advocate and coach recently introduced me to a new metaphor.

Try this one on:

Think of your health as a checking account.  If you are either uneducated about or wreckless with your health you can experience all kinds of painful lessons, which are like overdraft charges.   Think of managing your health in much the same way as you manage your money.  Miscalculations, short-sightedness, and short cuts will ultimately lead to big losses.

Those headaches, that heart burn, your plantar fascitis, a weak immune system, the crushing fatigue ~ they're all overdraft charges that your body is sending you.

You'll have some work to do to clear up the months or years of abuse of this account before you'll "get out of the hole."  This is Relief Care.

What follows is Corrective Care.  During this phase of care you'll discover, with the help of your wellness coaches, how best to balance your health checkbook, and keep yourself out of the red in the future.

Next, you'll most likely want to set up some kind of overdraft protection.  The most effective protection for your future health is Maintenance Care.  This is the care that you get even when you're feeling fine, because you know that you need it.

Staying well is so much more fun and inexpensive than getting well, and won't it be great not to get those annoying and uncomfortable overdraft notices from your body?

Make an investment in yourself today!

My thanks to Bill Esteb for his tireless support of the profession that I love so much.