The rise of the Germ Theory, and the work of Pasteur, firmly established that flies do not, in fact, come from garbage. The Germ Theory tells a new story about how very small flies, called bacteria and viruses, create sickness. They do this by their mere presence and activity. But the Germ Theory is not without problems as an explanation. Most notably, why the very same flies that are present in the sick person are also present in the healthy person. The story changed from Aristotle’s “garbage causes flies” to Pasteur’s “flies cause garbage”. And while that may be a slight oversimplification for comparison’s sake, I hope you get the point. It is just as accurate and logical to say that the more  diseased the host is, the more likely the flies are coming.  This is why “preventative” antibiotics are prescribed.

What this describes is that the state of the host, you and me, is not only a part of the equation, but a crucial and often the most important part. It’ s also the easiest   one to affect. In addition to all the things you already know to do (nutrition, exercise, rest) consider adding regular chiropractic care to your health strategy.  Without an actively pursued health strategy, most people survive from crisis to crisis until a dwindling grip on survival is all they have.  A person cannot give to another out of an abundance they don’t claim and sharing with others is one of the most beautiful parts of life. By removing stress from the nerve system and restoring healthy function, chiropractic adjustments can make the difference between a person being an attractive host or a harsh host for “flies”.  Once you do that, you take away all the fly’s magic, and discover just how far YOU can fly.

The answer has to do with how kids grow and develop. Kids have to learn everything from walking and reading to how to fight off an infection.  While they have the tools necessary to do all those things, they still have to grow in those abilities by using them.

If you choose to read to a child and never encourage that child to develop the ability to read, the result will be a weak reader.  By the same token, if we often intervene on behalf of the immune system, we end up with a weak immune system.   Except in extreme rare cases, like AIDS, micro-organisms do not hamper the immune system, they are the reason for it!

Immune system interventions commonly include antibiotics and fever management.  I often ask parents what a “dangerous” fever is and I usually get answers from 101 to 102.5.  The American Academy of Pediatric’s published statement allows that simple fevers up to 104 are safe.  Better than that, fevers are good.  It’s still natural to worry when it’s your child.

So why do so many people over-rate the danger of fevers?  There are many factors, among them myths and wivestales about seizures and brain damage passed on as gospel at playdates and social mixers. What’s more important is our ability as parents to understand the nature of the crisis at hand and to respond in a way that benefits our children.  Too often we respond to the comfort crisis and not to the actual (lack of) crisis.  By choosing comfort over function we may be stunting growth in an area that is critical to their development.

The reason that kids “outgrow” ear infections is because their body has been able to successfully adapt to the threat of that particular challenge. Those that haven’t yet will likely display the kinds of symptoms that we as parents recognize as typical of ear infections.  Those symptoms typically mean that the mechanisms of the body are hard at work, hopefully getting better at what they do. When that task is mastered AND the body is strong enough, the infection will likely be handled without any visible symptoms.

What this means is that immune function can be hampered from the outside by our actions.  Sugar, stress, lack of sleep and poor nutrition all play a part. It can also be hampered from the inside.  All of that immunity activity requires precise organization and communication.  All communication in the body is controlled by the nerve system. A small distortion of the spine can create a “choke point” in the nerve system that may slow down that learning process or even disturb the normal pattern of function.

The best strategy that I know of in any health decision is to limit interference from the outside and support the functions of life from the inside, allowing growth.  Chiropractic care that focuses on restoring normal, healthy nerve system function can facilitate healthy function and allow a child to grow and develop without inside interference. That takes 50% of the burden off the parent’s shoulders.

Kids, we’re coming for the sugar next… 8^)

Because you schedule can and often does change, now is a good time to begin thinking about how you can continue to recharge and revitalize yourself.  This is no time to slack off.  On the heels of back to school, there are Labor Day plans.  After that, there is the VERY IMPORTANT time to prepare for Hallowgivingmas.

The incidence of general symptomatic expression among people increases rapidly as we approach Halloween. Post-Halloween activities include arrangements and anticipation  for eating and family Thanksgiving gatherings and the usual : Who, What, When, Where, WHY!?

This is quickly bypassed in the after-Thanksgiving frenzy for gifts and bigger, better deals, travel plans, weather adventures, holiday traveling, finding the perfect tree, Aunt Sara’s billowing perfume, and a host of other holiday traditions. All of which wear us down, not in their individuality, but in their sheer volume.

Now is the time to  prepare, to strengthen and store reserves.  Now is a great time to plan for and pursue abiding health so you and your family can enjoy the promises of independence from frailty and infirmity that come with growing healthier and healthier.  Now is the time to focus on giving your body the building blocks (nutrition), and the energy (exercise), and the attitude (focus) and the time (rest)  to be healthier and healthier.

Now is the right time to get all of those efforts coordinated into an awesome expression of  you.  Every bit of that happens through your nerve system.  Your nerve system lives in your spine.  Chiropractors help people stay connected by improving the flow of nerves between the brain and body. Visit your chiropractor, get connected, get corrected and grow!

When people begin eating better, they very often report specific improvements in their symptoms, and in their health, overall. Why?  Hint: It’s not the food.

What does eating better really mean?  For  most Americans, eating better could simply be eating less junk/fast food. That’s a step in the right direction and you may experience a difference in how you feel and how your body works, but it’s not the food.  Even if a person received their food from the highest quality sources with an eye on local, seasonal, organic, and fresh foods, the difference in how they feel and function is not the food.

When the food that you eat is in its natural state, you are giving your body exactly what it is expecting, what generations upon generations have eaten and what your biology is specifically geared for.  When there are fewer wastes, toxins and by-products in our food, the energy requirements are decreased. And still, it’s not the food.

That food still has to be eaten, processed, digested, distributed, separated, utilized, stored and the wastes eliminated.  All of that happens within our bodies, and  it happens without a thought from us. Have you ever wondered how your body knows exactly what to do with everything you eat? It even knows what to do with the stuff your two-year-old isn’t supposed to eat. How? Hint: It’s not the food.

Your body knows what to do because it’s smart.  An intelligent housekeeper is present in each individual and it uses the communication facility called the nerve system to coordinate all of it’s efforts.  When you supply it with quality materials, it can do a better job than when you supply it with junk, but it is still what does the work.

Because it relies on the nerve system to create harmony in the functions of the body, it can be affected by forces that decrease nerve function.  Less nerve function means less effective coordination and less harmony. One of the most common forms of interference is called a vertebral subluxation, which creates pressure on the delicate spinal nerves as they exit the spine.  Chiropractors are specifically trained to locate and correct the cause of spinal interference  restoring the normal function of the nerve system.

So eating well is important, because your body can and will benefit from proper nutrition.  It is also important to have a properly functioning nerve system to get the most out of what you eat, and how you live.

Performance <– Harmony <– Communication <– Power <– Intelligence

Instead of choosing to live our lives based on goals, ideals and principles that free us and move us forward in the direction we wish to go, we, instead, live from comfortable moment to comfortable moment. The next comfy moment is our immediate goal and anything that interferes with that is the enemy.

“Comfort arrives as a guest, lingers as a host, and stays to enslave” -unknown

Seeking comfort as a goal unto itself is a trap because it lures us in with the false promise that it can last, just like the warm bed whispers to us to just sleep in.  How easily we buy into the idea that we can feel good all the time and that not feeling good is somehow a thing to be avoided at all costs.  The fact is, feeling bad is even more important than feeling good.  Symptoms are our body’s last ditch effort at communication with us.  If we refuse to listen, how can we expect good health?

It’s normal and natural to be a little sick from time to time, to be a little depressed from time to time, to be in a little pain from time to time.  The challenge is to be ready to embrace challenge, to accept defeat and failure as part of the learning process, to be willing to face your fears and to realize that in order to increase your capacity to love, you must have your heart broken and remade.

Health happens through harmonious function.  Harmony happens through communication. Communication happens best through a clear nerve system.  Your chiropractor can check your nerve system, and if interference is present, remove it to restore harmony and health for your life.

In my experience, human relationships tend to follow three main phases: Honeymoon, Contempt and Acceptance.

The Honeymoon phase, or attraction phase, is the most fun. Energetically, it has the highest frequency. During this phase we tend to ignore what we don’t want to see. Flaws or idiosyncrasies are written off as flukes or labeled adorable. We tend to spend a lot of energy in this phase maintaining our self-imposed illusion. When our energy is no longer sufficient to maintain the illusion or when an event happens that we cannot reconcile with our illusion, our constructed reality crashes and we enter the next phase.

The old saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt” and that is exactly what can happen next. With the illusion we invested in destroyed, our resentment needs a place to live. It is easier to aim our contempt where our sites are already set. Now, instead of writing off their flaws, we assume that everything they do is aimed to annoy us. They can do no right, in our eyes, and at the very least, we meet their efforts with suspicion and skepticism. This also requires energy, because it is just as much a construction of reality as the honeymoon phase.

The last phase is acceptance. We allow the illusions to fall away and see things with more clarity. We learn that people and organizations have assets and flaws. You can’t get one without the other. These are inherent in the experience of people and everything they create. They are true of ourselves as well.

As you may have guessed, these are phases we create for our own experience. What is also important to understand is that other people are viewing us through these same phases. Our job is not to try and manipulate our image through these phases for people, but instead to be ourselves.

Chiropractors like to be liked. Trying to preserve our image through these phases with individuals is both impossible and impractical. We serve our purpose and our patients better when we hold steadfast to our course, remain clear in our communication, and remember that, if we chuoose to, we can see each person we encounter through the eyes of a mother, with that extra little bit of love. Because moms break the rules. Moms love with acceptance coated with a little honeymoon. That is why a mother’s love is one of the truly special things in the universe.

There are two competing perspectives in the healthcare landscape today.  The reigning champion, modern medicine with its focus on interventions intended to treat the effects of declining health and the next largest discipline, chiropractic, with its traditional focus on allowing the normal and natural processes of the body to be expressed without interference.  It’s a simple case of intervention (outside-in) vs. facilitation (inside-out).

Doctors on both sides genuinely want to maximize quality of life in their patients within the scope of their methods.  So even though their approaches are diametrically opposed, the goal is the same: to kindly and professionally help people.  There are characteristics of each approach that define their effectiveness.  In the end, it comes down to individuals making the decision to utilize each of these approaches when they will confer the most benefit with the least risk.  It’s a big job, and to do it well will require an understanding of your priorities and where you put your trust.

In the middle of the last century, the definitive medical prescription for urgent, but non-emergency care was, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” It was a wait and see approach with a little bit of “doing” to help make the waiting seem less like waiting.  The aspirin was included almost as a placebo because it was cheap, commonly found in medicine cabinets, and seemed relatively harmless compared to other options.  Thus, people would take the “magic” aspirin, and a large portion of them would be feeling much better by dawn.  Was it the aspirin?  Or was the doctor relying on something much more powerful, giving it the time and the peace it needed to work?

Now, we have a pill for every ill.  Prime time TV ads seem limited to cars and medicine and an occasional furniture offering.  You can browse your local drug store for the cold medicine tailored for your symptoms and just your symptoms.  How very me-centered.  Every condition or flavor of inconvenience, seemingly, has a medicine to resolve it.   Ask your doctor if self-medicating is right for you. Perhaps he or she will remind you that a fearful or reactionary act is likely to result in an over-response.  This would be reflected in the fact that 5% of the world population living in the US consumes more than 50% of the world’s drugs and ranks below nearly 40 other countries in health measures.

Through the same time, the guiding principles of chiropractic have urged people to rely on their innate ability to heal.  The purpose and focus of chiropractic methods have always been to facilitate the natural healing potential of the body, to address the cause of disharmony and simply put, to re-establish integrity within the body.

Far from “doing nothing”, this approach demands a more solid understanding of the nature of the body.  Reactionary or fearful responses to symptoms must fall away leaving rational, measured responses.  In order to truly facilitate healing in the body, we must learn to understand the language of our body.

Each of us is unique.  I submit to you that no one truly feels everything the same as you do.  We all feel love and jealousy, heart-break and triumph. But we assimilate these through a unique nuance of structure and the filters of emotion and perspective.  If individuals have differing tolerances to pain or to tickling, is it so illogical to assume that each of us has a unique sensory experience of and through our own bodies? We benefit when we listen to and learn to heed those en vivo whispers, avoiding their towering surge into the roar of debilitation we so commonly call sickness.

Fearful responses to symptoms commonly include premature and indiscriminate toxic intervention, something, anything to “make it go away”.  If you need to pass through a doorway each day, and each day you bump your head because the door is too short, does it make more sense to address the pain of the bump or the cause of the collision?  Yet, you know people, perhaps yourself, who have a similar decision to make and instead choose to dull the pain.  Or better yet, they address the pain through a prophylactic or therapeutic approach so it doesn’t hurt when they bump their head.

Chiropractic is not anti-drug so much as we understand that drugs are toxic, and that toxins do not facilitate healing.  Instead they very often hamper the healing process.  In rare, emergency situations, they can be instrumental in maintaining the vital life functions, providing precious time to our healing processes, but it is our own innate healing ability which must eventually take over.

When we come to the point of having to choose an approach without preparation, the decision has already been made. Reacting will win over responding almost every time.  Even if people blindly follow my good advice and get exactly the result they want, it’s still a reaction, not a measured response.  Only by diligently investigating the options and educating yourself will you be able to make a choice based on your short-term and long-term priorities.  It is only by purposeful preparation that you can change your perspective.

Trust is another facet.  We think of ourselves as surrounded by technology.  We trust our cars to function and not leave us stranded.  We trust our cell-phones to reconnect us in the rare instance our car should fail. We trust our banks to track, transition and turn over our money as we direct, all with nearly impeccable reliability.  But cars and cellphones and banks, on occasion, do fail to work as intended.  We go back to trusting them because their track record is so reliable.

If we used the same criteria with regards to the animated vehicle we call our body, how much trust would it earn?  We expect 85,000 heartbeats every day, a constant, yet responsive body temperature, a formidable immune system, a digestive system that will handle any and every random offering, high-definition sensory access in real-time and the benefit of all of it being operated and maintained automatically. Can you put your trust in that? After all, the failure rate for the animating force of our body is precise and predictable. Only one failure ever.

But these trials have a huge achilles heel. They use an underlying assumption regarding the subjects: one size fits all.  They assume the subjects are all the same, or that differences can be controlled for or marginalized.  This is done in order to get consistency and reproducibility among results, to be able to rate an intervention as having or not having the desired effect.

Allopatic ( modern western) medicine makes the same assumption.  Interventions should be universally applicable whenever feasible.  Combining pathology, mechanism, and pharmacology, modern medicine is tasked with creating a new and different functional process within the body in order to get the desired results.  It is a brute force approach.  An approach that works, achieving the desired results, with obvious side effects which are acceptable to the subjects, most of the time. Modern medicine and double blind controlled clinical trials are made for each other.

But what if an approach, instead, operated from the notion that we are all unique?  Science tells us that we are all biochemically unique.  We are all adapting and attempting to adapt to our environment all of the time. We are changing, reconfiguring, healing and generally seeking out an energy efficient configuration each moment of our day.  Not consciously, as all of this happens on the metabolic and physiologic level, beneath our awareness or notice. What if an approach was able to capitalize on these subtle and transitory differences, instead of ignoring them?  Would that approach pass a double blind controlled clinical trial? No.  Not because the approach failed, but because no two people, not even identical twins are reproductions of each other.  You won’t even be the same you tomorrow as today.

How can we live in an age where we understand that people are so genetically unique we utilize it for legal identification and not understand that this approach is just as valid in the healing arts?  Whenever you visit an allopathic healthcare provider, don’t they always take your vitals? Why?  Because vitals change, because they, and by extension, you are uniquely different from your previous visit, even if it was only days prior!

Let’s get back to the tools. Just because a tool is a good tool, doesn’t mean it is always the right tool. Would you pick up soap with a hammer? Hell NO!  Just because brute force works doesn’t mean it is the best approach.  Try using brute force on a first date and see where that gets you.  The right tool will have the properties of getting the job done, doing it with minimal disruption in the workspace, making as small a mess as possible in the process, and utilizing elements already present to get results.  Minimal impact.

Protocols that are unable to adapt to the subtle changes of your unique circumstances cannot be said to be working with you.  They are overriding, short-circuiting, and making a general mess of the delicate order of life within the body.  When we get to actually see and experience the results of that, we call it side effects.  A more ideal solution would be both elegant and effective.

Chiropractic is just such a solution.  Historically, it has been shown to be a good tool.  It is licensed in all 50 states and in many other countries around the world.  It is recognized by the Federal government through the Armed services and medicare.  60,000 chiropractors are licensed in the US today.  Most importantly, the principles and practice of chiropractic have been getting generations of  Americans results for more than 100 years.

It works because it utilizes what is already present in your body, the processes of life, to make changes.  Adjustments do not force specific function upon the body.  Instead, chiropractic adjustments work to free and restore the normal processes of the body when they are impaired.  This is accomplished through the nerve system and the surrounding protective bones, most often in the spine.

People watching an adjustment for the first time will often assume that the short, lightning-fast flicking motions are rough and the typical accompanying sound, painful. This is not the case.  People, instead, most often report a pleasant sensation like tension leaving them, a unique and refreshing experience.  Kids regularly want to be adjusted more than once, and are disappointed by the answer! (How many kids have ever asked for another shot in the arm or bottom?)  Inexperienced people often assume that the speed with which an adjustment happens is somehow dangerous, but this is not the case either.  The speed, depth, distance, direction and contact point(s) are all precisely directed and delivered according to that patient’s unique needs.

Chiropractic is appropriate as a first line healing art.  It makes sense to try something natural, non-invasive, safe and accessible before submitting to a long wait to see someone so they can prescribe a toxin in the name of health.  Can we really expect to restore our health by doing things things contrary to good health? By utilizing approaches like chiropractic first, we could further improve quality of life, reduce our physical and psychological dependence on medications, effectively address the high rates of both iatrogenic (doctor-caused) and nosocomial (hospital-caused) treatment complications and get the costs of quality healthcare back to sane levels.

Don’t be the person who let unfounded fears or lack of information prevent you from enjoying the life you deserve. Next time you think you need help, see a chiropractor.  Or go see one today!  You’ll be glad you did!

In our house, birthdays happen every other year.  I’m not exactly sure why, but it worked out while having two kids. The oldest, my 5-year-old, was just starting to get the gist of what that meant when she decided to blow it up.

Now some kids might pitch a fit, or throw a tantrum to try to get what they want. Neither tactic has a snowball’s chance in Hell of working in my house. But Ruthie came to us one day a few weeks ago and asked if she could have a party if it would help someone else.  Oh, and she loves spaghetti. (Five year-olds live in RandomLand) We were intrigued and listened to her idea.

A little background: Every year for the last two or three years, my wife and daughter have participated in a faith-based program called Operation Christmas Child.  The idea is to fill a shoebox up with personal toiletries, maybe a few fun things, a compact new testament bible and a short note letting them know that they are loved.  These boxes are shipped all over the world by missionaries and delivered to kids who may not have ever had anything of their own in their lives. My girls love doing it.

I’m sure that experience touched her because she keeps calling this idea Operation Food Child. She wanted to have a spaghetti dinner party where people could bring spaghetti to feed to other people.  Did I mention she loves spaghetti above all other meals? It wandered from there in a no-boundaries, 5-year-old sort of way, but we had the basic idea. We even told her that it would mean not getting presents, at all, because all the presents would be for the people she wanted to help. She nodded her assent.

My wife took over from there and did the organizing, invitations, explanations, planning and whatnot.  Ruthie, in true visionary style, kept tabs on the progress while she managed her other interests.  Not more than one day has gone by when the topic has not been addressed by her to us.

Tomorrow, we will meet in the fellowship hall of our church and host  roughly 40 people in a spaghetti ball put in motion by a 5  year-old who wanted a party and found a way to get it.  Spaghetti cake, pinatas and placemat crafts will comprise the activities for her guests.  We already have in hand enough spaghetti kits, the “gift” requested of those attending, to feed roughly 20-30 people.

Her mother has posted her thoughts here. This is the note that will accompany each spaghetti kit as it is delivered to the food kitchen:

This meal was provided by the ambition of a 5-year-old. She wanted to make sure everyone had food to eat so badly, she was willing to sacrifice her birthday gifts to make it happen. As you are nourished by this meal, know that you are loved, without judgment or expectation, by one little 5-year-old girl who paid for your meal with beads and barbies and other things she loves, but will never see. No matter who you are or where you’ve been, your dreams are still out there waiting for you. If one five year old can feed her favorite meal to 200 people by force of will, sacrifice and persistence, what can you do? P.S. She believes in you, too.

So I ask you, the same question I am asking myself, “What did you do today with all your gifts, resources, education, contacts, talent and will that stands up to what one crafty five year-old who wanted a birthday party could do with hers?”  Me? I know I just got schooled by a kid. As the gravity of the fruition of her will hits me, I am humbled as a man and grateful as a dad. Proud doesn’t even touch it.

Update: We held the party and were overwhelmed at the response. Many, many kind people joined us and helped surpass the original goal of collecting enough spaghetti kits to feed 100 people. We were barely able to fit everything in the car!

The Marquee

Yummy!

Friends, Fellow Crusaders and Party Animals. The brown paper bags are the spaghetti kits everyone put together.

So we’ve taken the next step and now we are testing vaccines against a bacteria we have created, honed, refined and  trained.  I have a better idea.  Instead of continual escalation, instead of compounding bad decisions with even more bad decisions, let’s stop waging war.  We are waging a war with ourselves, between our ego and our cleverness, and the bacteria, gaining in strength, are the only winners.

Maybe it is time we take a look at our objectives.  Are we here to marvel at how many ways we can kill ourselves, or are we here to find out just how far we can go, how much of our human potential we can fulfill?

The principles of Chiropractic, that have guided skilled practitioners for nearly 115 years, are just as valid today as they were when they were laid down.  Principles forged to liberate human potential. Chiropractic is still around because it works, not because some people hope it works, or because we need to have “our own thing”. It is still around and still strong, because the results, the safety, the simplicity and the sense of chiropractic principles and practice create its validity and its relevance.

What are your thoughts about chiropractic? Are you skeptical? Suspicious? Afraid? Good!  The only way to resolve those feelings is with information.  The first thing you have to understand is this: Chiropractic does not work as a new way to do the same old thing. It is an old way to help you do new things. Go talk to your chiropractor and get checked.  Then take your family in and get them checked. Then, let’s talk again about this human potential thing.