Connecticut Family Chiropractic - The CFC Scoop

Volume 2 Issue 8 August 2004

Why is chiropractic so popular?

Based on a combination of ancient wisdom and modern scientific awareness chiropractic is only a little more than a century old, and yet it has become the most popular drug-free, natural healing art in the world today.
Chiropractors respect your body's healing ability and remove obstructions - vertebral subluxations - that block your natural energies and body wisdom from reaching and healing all your parts.

Everyone, from infancy to old age needs a body free of subluxations and chiropractors specialize in locating and correcting this spinal distortion. The result is a more connected you. Read the special article: The Connections of Health at http://www.mercola.com/2004/aug/18/health_connections.htm

Chiropractic Questions and Answers

Who goes to the chiropractor?
With more patients going to holistic, non-medical healthcare providers than ever before (with chiropractors among the most popular) the question arises: what kind of person is leading this healthcare revolution?

Researchers find that those who go to chiropractors and other non-medical healthcare practitioners tend to be better educated, better informed and usually economically better off. (1)

We'd like to add that in our opinion our patients are better looking, tell funnier jokes and sing great too!

Your low back (lumbar spine)

Between your hips and your ribs is your lumbar spine. These spinal bones (lumbar vertebrae) are your largest, thickest and strongest of all. They better be - they have to support everything above them.

Between the vertebrae sit your discs. They function like shock absorbers between your vertebrae, separate them, connect them and give your lower back curve and height. They swell up when you sleep and thin a bit during the day. That's why you're tallest after you wake up and the shortest just before bedtime.

If the lumbar vertebrae are misaligned it can cause disc, nerve and joint pressure - and the result can be lack of energy, and hip, knee, leg and other pains. But more than pain may be involved - the nerves in your lower back can affect the function of your internal organs: intestines, sexual organs and organs of elimination and others. A healthy spine ensures they function properly.

A good way to keep your spine aligned is to see your chiropractor. An extra good way to keep discs healthy is making sure you drink enough water. Lack of water causes the discs to dry up a bit and form little fissures (cracks). If the fissures become severe then the inside of the disc can bulge (protrude) and put pressure on your spinal nerves or spinal cord - a very painful condition. Anyone with a disc problem should see a chiropractor; spinal adjustments may result in a disc "bulge" lessening or disappearing. Clearly chiropractic should be investigated before back surgery is ever considered. (2)

Chiropractic and ear infections

More and more parents are bringing their children with ear infections to chiropractors. Studies such as this one show they are doing the right thing: 21 children (9 months to 9 years of age) with acute otitis media, red and bulging eardrums and a temperature of 100º F had a short course of chiropractic care.

The children were re-examined and 95% of the eardrums had returned to normal along with a decrease in average temperature to 98.6ºF. Before receiving the adjustments, the severity of the symptoms in the children was rated at an average of 7.524 on a 0-10 point scale. After receiving the adjustments, the severity of the symptoms had subsided to a mere 0.470 on the same 0-10 point scale. (3)

Did you know...

Your brain uses 20% of your body's energy generating 25 watts of power during waking hours but accounts for only 2% of body weight. Amazingly, it uses so much energy and yet there are no muscles there! In addition, the messages within your brain travel at speeds of up to 250 mph!

U.S. Hospital Medical Errors Kill 195,000 Annually

Another reason people are turning to non-medical healthcare is that medical care is dangerous and hospital mistakes can kill. HealthDayNews reported (July 27, 2004) that an estimated 195,000 people in the United States die each year due to potentially preventable medical errors in hospitals, according to a new study. That's almost twice the number reported by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its landmark 1999 report, which cited 98,000 preventable deaths each year. The study found that one in every four Medicare patients who were hospitalized from 2000 to 2002 experienced a patient-safety incident died. (4)

How was chiropractic discovered?

In America in 1895, Dr. D.D. Palmer, a non-medical healer, in Davenport, Iowa was trying to help his deaf janitor Harvey Lillard, regain his hearing. Lillard had been involved in a small accident 18 years earlier where he felt something "give" in his back. Shortly after the accident his hearing nearly totally disappeared. Dr. Palmer examined the man's spine and found a misaligned vertebra. He placed the man on a bench, put his hands over the spine and gave a short, quick push. Shortly thereafter, after 18 years of deafness, Lillard could hear again!!

A Cure For Deafness?

Palmer was convinced he had discovered a cure for deafness. The next day, however, he gavea "hand treatment" (as he originally called his spinal adjustments) to a patient with heart trouble and the condition was relieved.
People with all kinds of health problems started visiting Dr. Palmer. The treatments (spinal adjustments) seemed to affect all kinds of conditions! People reported being cured of stomach troubles, asthma, skin conditions, headaches, sciatica . . . D.D. Palmer became known far and wide as the discoverer of a powerful new drugless way of curing people. In time he founded a school - the world's first Chiropractic College.

45 Vaccines by Six Months of Age?

By the time children are 6 months old they are to be injected with 45 vaccines; at 18 months 64, and at 4-6 years at least 74!! (MMR is counted as 3, DTP as 3 etc.)

More and more parents and professionals are questioning the safety of injecting our children with bacterial and viral toxins and mercury (Yes, it's still in vaccines), formaldehyde (it's carcinogenic and crosses the blood-brain barrier into the brain), monkey, chicken and human fetal cells and many other bizarre chemicals. (5)

Autism, learning disorders, allergies, asthma, dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, vision and hearing disorders, cancer and other diseases of the immune and neurological system are at record levels. More evidence is showing that childhood immunizations are causing this epidemic of once rare conditions.
No shots, no school? No way!!! To find exemptions in your state go to http://www.vaclib.org/pdf/exemption.htm or http://www.909shot.com/Issues/state%20exemptions.htm

Holistic Pediatric Association

The Holistic Pediatric Association, a new organization of chiropractors, medical doctors, naturopaths and other holistically-minded healers, would like to hear feedback from parents. Specifically, what aspects of well-child care are most important to you, especially your concerns that have not been addressed at well-baby visits by your practitioners in the past. Please go to http://www.hpakids.org, click on the Parent Forums button and then the community bulletin boards in the upper left corner. Enter your suggestions in the Preventive Care section. Your responses will help shape HPA policies.

References
1. Eisenberg D, Davis RB, Ettner SL et al. Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States, 1990-1997. Results of a follow-up national survey. JAMA. Nov 11, 1998.
2. Ressel OJ. Disc regeneration: reversibility is possible in spinal osteoarthritis. ICA Review. March/April 1989;39-61.
3. Zhang JQ, Snyder BJ. Effect of the Toftness chiropractic adjustments for children with acute otitis media. JVSR. March 29, 2004;1-4.
4. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5536730/
5. Vaccination Schedule at http://www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/child-schedule.PDF