I Love Being a Chiropractor!

I DO love being a chiropractor. Just knowing that I have the ability to locate and remove an impediment to a person’s ability to express their health and their life as fully as possible is both awe-inspiring and humbling at the same time.

In these 15 years of practice, I’ve had the opportunity to work with folks with so many different challenges. It’s run the gamut from back pain and migraines to high blood pressure to constipation, seizures and ear infections. Of course, Chiropractic is not a treatment for any of those conditions or ANY medical condition, in fact. We know that the ONE thing that the chiropractor DOES do is to locate and correct vertebral subluxation. And when we DO what chiropractors were meant to do, people’s lives improve.

One of the things I appreciate most about Chiropractic is the awareness that everyone has the innate potential for better health and performance. Helping folks realize that their innate potential for expressing more life IS in my mind the greater part of my job as a chiropractor. AND realizing this fact helps my members make better life decisions only increases my value as their chiropractor.

One of the greatest benefits (to ME as a chiropractor) of adjusting a high school football and basketball team for five years was having kids get on the table EVERY week to get checked for subluxation whether they had symptoms or not. And having a teenager tell you that they not only feel better but PLAY better when they get adjusted is powerful confirmation that you’re on the right track.

Having practiced and studied Chiropractic for several years now, I understand that EVERYONE is better off without vertebral subluxation. Even more, I believe that EVERYONE deserves to have access to Chiropractic care regardless of age or condition, whether infant or geriatric and with or without symptoms. And, the only diagnosis needed is the presence of vertebral subluxation.

If you don’t have a chiropractor for yourself and your family, I urge you to find one.  Let me know if you need some help.  I know hundreds all over America.

The Inspired Chiropractic College

The inspired chiropractic college of the future will provide to its students, recruits and profession the following:

• Graduates that understand and embrace the history and philosophy of Chiropractic
• Graduates that understand WHAT a vertebral subluxation is and know WHERE it is, HOW, WHEN (and when NOT) to adjust it and WHY
• Graduates that are the very best adjusters in the profession
• Graduates that understand the subtleties of business and are ready to either start their own practice or step into another’s with minimum training required
• Graduates that fully understand the CURRENT state of the business environment they will encounter and are able to rationally decide to practice in one or several models, including all cash, third party reimbursement, Personal Injury/Worker’s Comp, etc.
• A quality education that reverses the tide of ever-increasing tuition costs for its students.
• Employ teaching and learning methods that ensure the greatest results for its students at the least cost.
• Strive for ZERO student loan defaults among its graduates
• Aggressively work to create a vibrant market for Chiropractic care (and it’s graduates) in both their local area and nationally.
• Provide mentoring to EVERY student throughout their entire Chiropractic program.
• Provide a special opportunity for military Veterans
• Aggressively pursue research on Principled Chiropractic care though its own clinics, alumni and in partnership with major research institutes.
• Be as concerned about the success of its graduates as it is in the success of its recruiting of new students.
• Set and achieve standards for post graduate success that make the entire profess better
• Inspire its recruits, graduates, profession and community through its pursuit of excellence and commitment to the profession and the Principles that brought it into existence.

This profession is starving for inspired leadership and inspired chiropractors.  The school that fills this void could literally change the course of the profession

Chiropractor speaks at National Youth Leadership Forum-Medicine

I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion at the National Youth Leadership Forum – Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta recently.  Every year, Emory hosts the NYLF-Medicine for high school seniors considering a career in Medicine/healthcare.

This is my 10th year of participating in the program.  In the past, each participating practitioner has spoken to separate breakout groups about their own specialty.  This year, the format changed somewhat so that the students could compare and contrast the various specialties.  It was really quite interesting.

The panel on which I participated included three MDs, an internist, a neurosurgeon, a family physician and a chiropractor.  Almost all of us had similar stories on how we ended up in healthcare, essentially that we all had a passion to serve and to help people.  yet, we all ended up in our own specialty for different reasons.

One of the things that struck me was how similar, yet how different we all practiced.  It was quite amazing at how my and the family physician’s practices paralleled.   Like me, he sees families from newborns to grandparents, even great grandparents just like me.  He serves as a team physician for a local high school athletic program, just as I have served as team chiropractor.  While the specialists focus on their specialties, the GP and I see folks with a variety of conditions sometimes BEFORE and sometimes AFTER having been diagnosed with a condition that would normally require a specialist’s intervention.

It was also very interesting how attuned to business considerations these future doctors were.  They seemed to understand the high cost of becoming a doctor and the changing economic environment facing health care providers in today’s market.

One of the most interesting questions for the panel was “What are the pros and cons of what you do?”  Not too surprisingly, every respondent had virtually the same answer, “I love what I do.  I get to help people.  What I do is very rewarding.  ?But, the downside is that you need to know that if you’re going to be successful, you’re going to need to work your butt off AND learn how to be successful business owner at the same time.”

I’ll write more later.  But suffice to say, that I always enjoy my time with the NYLF and am always gratified at the number of young people interested in Chiropractic as a career path.

Workers Compensation, Your Company & Unlimited Chiropractic Care

I have NEVER liked Workers Compensation as a chiropractor or a business owner.  However, I do realize that workplace injuries do happen and there should be some form of compensation for medical bills and income lost due to injuries caused simply by the nature of the job.  Anything that sets up an adversarial relationship between employee and employer can never be a good thing.

As a chiropractor, the concept of being a Workers Compensation provider has become extremely repugnant.  Granted, lots of folks do hurt their backs while at work and chiropractic care CAN help them recover and get back to work.  However, as has become the case with most forms of third party reimbursement, Workers Compensation has become a source of easy money for many in my profession.  It’s also created an environment that has brought some ill-repute to chiropractic.  Even though the cost of chiropractic care is well below the cost of back surgery and extensive physical therapy and rehab, it has gotten to the point where many states are making it difficult for chiropractors to even participate in Workers Compensation programs.

While chiropractors on one end of the spectrum have milked the third party cow just about dry, there is another group of chiropractors that companies ought to consider as part of its benefits and risk management team.  These chiropractors offer what has become known as chiropractic membership practices.  A chiropractic membership practice provides unlimited chiropractic care at a fixed fee usually over a specific period of time, typically for a year.  The program is designed for lifetime wellness care, though.

The membership practitioner works from a performance perspective.  Their objective is simply to take stress off the nervous system so folks can move toward their greatest potential at work, at home and at life in general.  When this happens, people are more rested, alert and less stressed.  What this means at work less time missed from work due to illness, injury or family trips to the medical doctor.  What this means to the employer is fewer Workers Com claims, fewer health insurance claims, improved morale and more productivity.  And, we all know that fewer Workers Comp and health insurance claims means lower premiums and eventually a better bottom line.

In my next blog, I’ll show you ways your company can use a chiropractic membership practice for your company and employees.

Why taxpayers should be PISSED OFF about Chiropractic education.

I try not to use coarse language in my writings.  And, there are just some words I won’t use.  Period.  But, as a taxpayer and chiropractor who loves what I do and why I do it, I’m simply pissed off at chiropractic education.  And, you should be, too!

Most Americans perception of chiropractors as drugless, non-surgical providers of relief from back pain.  And while chiropractic is definitely MUCH more than a non-Medical alternative to dealing with neuromuscular problems, we’ll just work with what the general public thinks we are, for now.  The one thing the virtually everyone even slightly familiar with the term “chiropractic” is that it deals with the spine…and is drugless and non-surgical.

Another thing the American public is generally aware of is that chiropractors (as a group) have a terrible self-image and often claim that “we’re REAL doctors, too!”   And, this Napoleon Complex permeates almost every aspect of my profession.  Worst of all, in the education of new chiropractors.

What the American public is probably NOT aware of is that the average chiropractic student graduates with over $200,000 in student loan debt AND that chiropractors default on student loans more than ALL other health professions COMBINED.  One of the reasons for this incredible default rate is that  the AVERAGE has an annual income of less than $100,000.  That just means that the American taxpayer is typically on the hook for  over a hundred grand for every chiropractic student that enters practice.

One of the reasons for all this is that chiropractic education is ruled by ONE accrediting agency who (in the absence of competition) requires that every chiropractic student learn more about Medicine than chiropractic.  As a result, new chiropractors can barely adjust, much less know what to adjust and not adjust and why!  And, the Medical education they receive they can’t legally use in most states in which they could practice.

As I stated in the beginning of this article, as an American taxpayer I’m really pissed off that my tax dollars are being wasted on teaching Medicine to chiropractic students.  I would every taxpayer who is also bothered by this to contact their Congressman and Senators and demand that the Department of Education pull in the reins on the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) and take a serious look at how we are funding chiropractic education.  The only folks benefiting from the fiasco known as chiropractic education are those institutions who benefit from heavy student loan subsidies and those practitioners billing for services that could be done better by other professionals.

It’s time to slow down the train wreck also known as chiropractic education.

Are you an acorn or an oak tree?

Every three months, I attend a gathering of several hundred of my chiropractic friends to help us stay focused on our mission to help improve the lives of as many people as we possibly can.  Since I’ve been doing this for over twenty years, you can imagine that it’s both enjoyable and inspiring.  The world can wear you down and drag you down if you let it.  Knowing that what we do as “DE chiropractors” can have profound effects on people’s lives way beyond back pain should be enough to keep you going.  But, it can be tough.

Anyway, at a recent DE meeting a friend from Canada used a metaphor that has so many implications that I simply had to share the message.  In a meeting with a new client, my friend held up an acorn and asked “What do you see?”  Obviously, the answer was “An acorn, of course.  Why?”  My friend’s response was “I see an oak tree, a forest of oak trees, a home and furniture and tools all built from the wood of the oak tree.  I see endless possibilities.”  Wow!  What a concept!

My first thoughts were from my perspective as a chiropractor that a person’s health could be fantastic without interference in how their body is designed to work.  Even further, that just as their health could improve, so could their vision of their own life, world and opportunities.

How do you see yourself?  Is it as a single little acorn amongst billions of other seemingly meaningless other acorns or as a potential mighty oak tree providing shade, comfort and opportunities for yourself and countless others.  You were Designed for greatness but delivered as a tiny seed.  You really need just a few things to reach the potential of your Design.  You need to SEE your own potential.  You need to be firmly planted in rich soil.  You need no interference in pursuing that potential.  And finally, you need to actively pursue that potential not necessarily knowing how great you can be but always moving toward your greatness.

Think of the lowly little squirrel.  We all know the squirrel scurries around burying acorns throughout the forest.  ?Does he do this just to be hoarding food for the winter?  Or is he investing in his (and others’) by spreading his own vision of oak trees and forests?

 

In all you do, whether it’s losing weight, exercising more, finding a good DE chiropractor, reading more, investing more wisely or creating meaningful relationships pursue your potential.  See your bigger picture.  Plant forests.  Most of all, do it daily in every aspect of your life.

Clear Thinking and Chiropractic

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I know what you’re thinking.  “What the heck is this guy talking about?  Clear thinking and chiropractic?  You must be kidding!  I thought chiropractors were about back pain and stuff like that.”  And, there are lots of folks (including many chiropractors) that think the same thing.

Truth is that if you see a chiropractor just for your back pain, you’re really missing the boat and your chiropractor is cheating you out of the greatest benefit of what he/she has to offer you.  And chances are they’re simply giving you what your insurance company is paying for, symptom relief.  Sadly, many chiropractors (all kinds of doctors, actually) sell you lots of stuff you don’t need simply because your insurance company is paying for it.  Sorry chiropractors.  It’s just true.

Let me explain.  Most chiropractors are trained to locate and correct a misalignment in the bones of the spine (vertebra) that is putting stress on a spinal nerve or the entire nervous system.    Because the nervous system is the first system developed in your body and the one that runs everything else, if you have stress on it, your body AND your life is simply not going to work as well as it could.  When that stress is reduced things work better.

Okay, I’ll get to my point.  If you have stress on your nervous system, your body chemistry might be just a little off, your perception of the world around you and your interpretation of things you see and hear might be slightly different than reality.   Have you ever noticed that when you’re stressed, you react differently than when you’re relaxed?  It’s the same concept.

When you’re stressed, you’re in “fight or flight” mode.  When you’re relaxed, you’re in fulfillment mode. When you get adjusted (especially at the top of the neck) your body relaxes and moves toward that fulfillment mode.  That’s when you think more clearly and can focus on things much bigger than your physical symptoms, like your life goals and reason for being.

When you’re finally able to think bigger thoughts, you begin to see the world as it is instead of merely how you are.  The cleaner your filter on the World becomes, the clearer your thinking becomes.  When that happens, another new world of possibilities opens to you.

If you’re not under chiropractic care or if you’re chiropractor is more focused on your symptoms than your life, let me know.  I’ll help you find one that will help you begin to open yourself to a whole new way of thinking and living.  Clear.

I had a patient die this week

I had a client die this week.  I know the tile said a “patient”.  But, I titled the post that way so more people might read what I needed to say.

I was really bummed out until I started thinking about our relationship.  Linda had been referred to me by her husband whom I had met at the Chamber of Commerce.  He heard me talk about chiropractic and HBP and heart problems.  Linda had had a congenital heart defect.  At best, Linda was a 95 lb (probably 85 lb) weakling.  Her wrists and ankles were no bigger around than a corn stalk.

When she started, she complained of fibromyalgia and had a hard time walking any distance without tiring out.  She could not go to her Mary Kay conventions without a wheelchair and someone to help her.  Eventually, she shed the wheelchair but kept the meetings.  Her fibromyalgia mysteriously disappeared.  She was a sweet, cheerful little room that added light to my life and those around her.

Oh.  Linda had been under another chiropractor’s care in the past.  She wondered why I would adjust only one or two bones while her previous DC seemed to “click” every extremity joint and articulation of her spine.  Should loved our Principles and the beauty and simplicity of what we do.

While I’m sad at the loss of my friend and client, I know where the “other side” is for her AND that her life was improved for the few years we shared because of chiropractic.

Simply put, chiropractic works.  I never doubt it.

Holy Crap! So that’s what $69 a month can do!

I’m a chiropractor.  I’m “cheap”.  I charge $69 a month for “unlimited care”.  Some of my chiropractor friends think I’m crazy.  And, some of my chiropractic non-friends accuse me of cheapening my profession and even breaking the law.  Consumers sometime wonder “what’s the catch?”  But, the folks that like how they feel from getting adjusted on a regular basis LOVE me.  Some think I’m a “marketing genius”.  I like to think they’re pretty bright, too.

Let’s take a look and see who is right, me or my detractors.  I know I’m right.  I just feel the need to give my detractors a crack at being right.

When I first started getting adjusted 22 years ago, I had health insurance and gladly used it to pay for my care.  But, it wasn’t long after that that I became self-employed and no longer had a third party paying for my adjustments.  So, I did what any intelligent, red-blooded American man would do, I married my chiropractor and have not had to pay for my adjustments since!

After seeing and experiencing the wondrous benefits of getting checked by a chiropractor on a regular basis (and seeing it work on my own kids) I decided to become a chiropractor.  The joy and miracles I’ve experienced as a result of that decision are sometimes difficult for me to express in words.  My kids are healthy, happy and strong and have never worried about sickness or disease.  Neither have had a single vaccination (well, until my son entered the Army) nor dealt with chronic or infectious disease as a result.  And, I’ve not even taken an aspirin for the problem that led me to get adjusted in the first place.

Early in my own chiropractic career, I decided that I wanted to make this thing afforded and accessible to virtually everyone.  You see, I’m what’s called a DE chiropractor.  We understand that the world would be a better place if EVERY family could realize the benefits from chiropractic that my family has.  Some of my early mentors, including Drs Bob Sottile, Jim Sigafoose, Sid Williams and Richard Santo always posed the challenge “Make your care affordable and see lots of people”.  That was a formula that I could understand and embrace.

So, that’s what I did.  Like I said earlier, we charge a low monthly membership fee of $69.  It’s a little more for a couple and a family.  My thinking was not necessarily to make it “cheap” but to have a fee that someone would be willing to pay every month for the rest of their life.  In my case, if I had been paying just $69 a month, I would have paid over $18,ooo!  EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!  What if I had a hundred clients doing that or two hundred, three or five?  Do the math!

I wonder how we could transform the chiropractic profession from a bunch of insurance chasing back crackers to an army of folks helping families live fuller, happier drug-free lives?  What a wonderful place America (and the World) would be if we could help get millions fo families off drugs and on life!  I’m thinking $69 a month just might change the World!

How Can a Roller Coaster Affect Your Health?

A new client came in yesterday complaining of dizziness and nausea since her recent trip to Six Flags.  Apparently, her kids convinced her to ride the roller coaster, Batman the Ride.  If you’ve ever ridden Batman, you know how fun, but jarring, it can be. You might not have known how dangerous it could be, though.

As much as I love roller coasters, the first time I rode Batman was the last.  I remember thinking while on the ride “Man.  This ride is rough!  I wonder how many people need an adjustment after getting off this thing?”  Apparently, more than I imagined.

My new client only experienced dizziness and nausea.  there have been a couple of reports of people dying of heart attacks after getting off the ride.  Truth is, that is entirely possible.  Not because the ride scared them to death, but because the neck trauma can damage the spinal cord at the level of the brain stem which affects all of your body’s vital functions, including heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.  That’s the part of the nervous system that was damaged when Christopher Reeve (Superman) fell off his horse and Dale Earnhardt hit the wall.

Oddly enough, it only took a simple, gentle adjustment at the top of the neck and my clients dizziness and nausea went away.  For most people, that very same adjustment can help their blood pressure, asthma, vertigo, acid reflux, ADD/ADHD, migraines, even hemorrhoids.  I know it seems strange that something that simple can be so powerful.  But, it is.  You just have to find the RIGHT chiropractor.

So, the next time you leave the amusement park with a sore neck or back, don’t ignore it.  Visit your chiropractor or get in touch with me to find you one.