Spine Whisperer

I have made fire

2010-07-09T10:21:00.003-05:00

It's nice to get a break from fixing humans to hang out with my boys. Well, Jack doesn't do much "hanging" yet, but James does. This past weekend we made a 8 foot by 8 foot sandbox that required a cubic yard of sand to fill.

48-6 inch nails, 12 landscaping timbers, 50 feet of weed blocker, and some shoveling. Best part about it was the 100 degree temperature and near triple digit humidity. I lost a lot of sweat and lot of pride.

But, for the first time ever, I managed to not injure myself during the construction process. Anyone in my family will tell you that I go to the ER, a lot. Stabs, punctures, lacerations, crushing injuries, breaks. I've done 'em all.

But not this time!

This time my son and I had a great weekend, made 5 trips to Home Depot, each of which required a stop at the candy store, and started/completed a project.

In your face Holmes!

on your shoulders.

2010-06-24T16:35:00.002-05:00

Habit #8 --Teach your child how important they are to you.

One of the best habits you can develop in your child is to teach them that they matter. That what they say matters, what they do matters, and that they matter very much to you. You may think, “Of course they know they matter. I’m their parent, I do everything for them. The deal is, they don’t see that. They have no concept of what life was like before they came along, so they don’t know how they have impacted your life. Consequently, we may act under the assumption that they realize that we spend all our time and money on them, rather than on us. Focus on taking the time to listen especially. When you take the time to listen to your child, instead of brushing her off, you are building connections. When you respond in a manner that validates her feelings instead of invalidating them, you are teaching her to be caring. When you help her to choose appropriate actions, you are helping her to be more competent. Trust me, they hear you. From their point of view, it can be difficult to think about themselves as having power, or worth. That is something we as parents, are uniquely situated to present. Don’t waste the opportunity to make someone’s day or lifetime.

Study after study demonstrates the importance of social interaction in determining a child's future. Geniuses who are socially inept will rarely do more in life or go farther than someone who gets along with people. Those "people skills" come from a childhood of interactions that have empowered the child. Nature vs. nurture is moot and passe. You play the biggest role in determining your child's success in life.

No pressure.

ouch.

2010-06-15T15:02:00.004-05:00

Tired of talking. Enjoy pics of our Athletic Extravaganza.

Invitation

belted.

2010-06-09T10:44:00.002-05:00

More healthy habits from a presentation I wrote.

Habit # 7 -- Teach your kids to wear safety belts.

Child safety seats and belts are referred to as the "wonder drugs" when it comes to saving the lives of children. "If seat belts were medicine, they'd be wonder drugs," says Chuck Hurley, spokesperson for the National Safety Council. "Instead they're like aspirin--so common that people forget how beneficial they are in preventing death and serious injuries."
Nevertheless, too many parents give in to the complaining and resistance from their children and drive without having them buckled into their seats. Six out of every 10 children killed in crashes are unrestrained by either seat belts or child safety seats. In 1997 an 1,244 of the 2,087 children under age 16 killed in crashes were completely unrestrained. In this day and age, there are still parents out there who neglect to put their kids in safety belts. I cannot fathom why anyone driving a car would do this. Additionally, developing the habit of safety will run as a theme in everything you do together. When safety is a habit, that’s a good thing.

There should be some wildly disproportionate penalty for parents who don't seat belt their kids. Public shaming, hot-foot, something. It's just unreal that some parents don't do this.

validate this

2010-05-28T10:49:00.004-05:00

I just realized, I come here and post all the time. I cite references, make timely observations, talk all doctor-y. Why?

Because I am incapable of not justifying everything I do with a peer reviewed study or massive sample size. I'm so used to being the witch doctor that I try twice as hard as the next guy to convince people of what I can do as a doctor. I guess that carries over, even to my blog posts. I'm not sure if that is the mark of a clinical mind, or just someone wanting validation.

I adjusted a small boy this week, he was clinically deaf in one ear, had asthma, and told his mom that he had a headache ever since he could speak.

I treated him three times, with the last treatment coming 2 hours ago.

As of today at 10:30, a.m. he can hear you speak from a distance even with his good ear covered up. He slept through the night last night. He smiled at me for the first time since I met him.

Placebo? Witchcraft? Luck?

That kid can hear, that kid can sleep. I did nothing but take away the interference to his nervous system. There are no side effects, no dangerous drugs, no pill cycle. I did a scientific analysis of the joint between his skull and atlas, and checked the local muscle tension and corresponding cranial nerves.

I'm done being the torchbearer for chiropractic apologists.

I fix little kids. They know it, I know it. Everything else is moot.

Five, Six, Pick up Sticks

2010-05-18T10:08:00.003-05:00

More from my "7 Habits for Healthy Kids Presentation." This next one is one of the toughest, but one of the best for your kids. In order to successfully get your kids to go to bed, you may have to lead by example. Good Luck!

Habit # 6 -- Teach your kids that sleep is a necessity, not a luxury.

Imagine you are in charge of a big factory making tires. You make tires all day, every day, and you have more orders than you know what to do with. From the time you open, to the time you close, you focus on getting as many tires made as you possibly can in order to keep up.
That much tire-makin’ will naturally wear out some machines and some people. Both of which will have to be replaced. You will also need to get all the by-product and trash out of your factory and get it cleaned (the factory) in order to maintain productivity. If you are up to your neck in tires during the day, when are you going to clean the place, change the trash, and put in new machines/fix the old ones? That’s right, at night. It is the only time available. What do you think is going to happen to your factory if you never close, or if you aren’t closed down long enough to get these essential tasks done?

Your body is no different. When you sleep you grow muscle, process emotions and learning, and lose weight. Those things do not happen when you are awake, just like in the factory, you are too busy during your waking hours. If you don’t get enough sleep, over time you suffer and your health will suffer. You must teach your kids (and yourself) that short changing your downtime doesn’t make you tough, it makes you unhealthy. It is even worse for kids. They aren’t maintaining what they already have, in terms of size and strength; they are in the process of addition. Here are several ideas for getting and enforcing a bed time:

• Maintain a daily sleep schedule and consistent bedtime routine.
• Make the bedroom environment the same every night and throughout the night (lights, temp, shades, etc.)
• Set limits that are consistent, communicated and enforced.
• No television or gaming right before bed.

There are many, many tips and tricks for helping kids to get to sleep and stay asleep. E-mail me if you are looking for more, or if you have one I haven't mentioned.
Next week: more stuff!

bigger things

2010-05-10T14:44:00.003-05:00

I went to a memorial service for the infant daughter of a good friend of mine this weekend. She was born premature, the mom and dad had less than a day with her. Long enough for an outfit change, some pictures, and a lifetime of unspeakable pain.

I wasn't going to post about it. But I can't get it out of my head. I've been in pain before, and a pretty good dose of it too. Broken bones, 100s of stitches, concussions. Emotionally, I've been there as well. I was thinking about that too, this weekend. The parents of the daughter and I have had our share of nights out on the town when we were in college. They used to joke about how attached I would get to someone, only to have it eternally blowing up in my face.

But nothing I ever went through, no laceration, "its-not-you-its-me", or dream deferred ever hurt like Friday night. I never met the baby, never saw her except for the pictures in the memorial service, but I could not stop crying. I couldn't sleep until Sunday night, haven't been hungry. I don't think you are supposed to get more emo as you get older.

I think it's that, even the worst possible thing that can happen to you as a parent, is better than anything that happens to you when you aren't.

I hope I got that right.

The child they had, but didn't have, that they will have forever.

5, Alive

2010-05-04T11:13:00.003-05:00

Back on the attack, this weeks post concerns a bit about Chiropractic Care for kids.

Habit # 5 -- Teach your kids to take care of their spines.

I get that when we were all growing up, no one had any idea how important it was to take care of their spine. “Sit up straight” and “don’t slouch” were more intended to correct posture than they were to protect your back.

Times have changed. PET scans, MRI, fMRI, NCV, and more mind-numbing acronym testing confirms that bad back = bad health. Not only is an unhealthy back painful, it’s detrimental to the spinal cord and the nerves running therein. Since your back helps protect the spinal cord, if it’s in trouble, then the nerves that run your body are in trouble. This is especially true for kids, who don’t have the coping mechanisms we do as adults. Unhealthy positioning of the bones in your back can contribute to everything from sleeplessness to high blood pressure. There is a reason why we see so many c-section, forceps, or traumatic birth infants in the office. The pressure on the newly developing spine and central nervous system can be overwhelming. Get your spine checked regularly for maximum health.

Alternatively, you can stick your head in the sand and rely on drugs and emergency care for your children.

close to the bone

2010-04-28T15:56:00.002-05:00

Have you ever skimmed through the blogs on this site?

At the top of the page there is a "next blog" key. You press it, it jumps you to the next blog. Some are in a foreign language, some are advertising gimmicks, most are about families. Sometimes, you will run across gut wrenching play-by-play of cancer or infertility. I've read a lot in my life, but never anything so compelling or as raw as these types of posts.

It is amazing what humans can go through.

if I fall in the woods, will it make a sound?

2010-04-27T09:00:00.003-05:00

I don't remember ever being this busy. It seems like the dispersing of information is my new job. That sucks, because I would rather be knee deep in spines. No one else is giving out the good stuff though, I'm really not sure why. I don't think I know everything (ish), there must be some other doctors out there who have something to offer. Where are they?

Whatever.

Make sure you check out our kick-ass newsletter for May, pretty fun stuff. Add us to your friends list on face book, we update all the time. Fink Chiropractic Center.

Habit #4 -- Teach your kids to wash their hands.

I come from a large family, 5 boys and a girl. My parents worked hard to keep us in line and presentable. You can’t keep 5 boys out of the dirt for long. I fondly remember my dad carting in 100 pound bags of sand for our sandbox. Most of that sand went into the yard, into hair, eyes, mouths, and other areas. You can imagine how easy it would have been for the nefarious bugs and viruses we exposed ourselves to; to make a run at our immune systems. Oddly, I don’t remember ever being sick as a kid. Part of the reason I now realize, the near religious zeal with which my mother embraced hand washing. Teaching your children to wash their hands regularly is the simplest way to avoid infection and reduce colds and flu. This really works. Make it a non-issue by taking the time to wash your own hands. When to wash, you ask?

- Before preparing food, setting the table, or serving food.
-Before eating meals or snacks.
- After visiting a bathroom.
- After blowing their nose.
- After handling money.
- After playing with a pet.

Just like with developing the reading habit, when you teach your kids to wash regularly you are imparting a skill. Imparting skills is a good thing. Skills give power and ability. Power and ability breed confidence, and confidence is everything for young people.

I can haz reedin?

2010-04-22T11:00:00.002-05:00

Continuing my 'Healthy Habits' rant, let's cover number 3.

Habit #3 -- Teach your kids to read. If they aren’t old enough to read, read to them.

Study after study demonstrates how kids who learn to read at a younger age place higher in standardized testing. Also, consider that there are almost 50 million Americans with poor literacy skills in this country. It isn’t because they aren’t intelligent. It is because literacy skills develop alongside cognition and visual skills. Simply put, reading to your kids, and encouraging your kids to read puts them ahead and gives them a great habit that will benefit them their entire lives. Giving them a head start on a skill as important as reading is a powerful gift. The sooner they read, the sooner they can start interacting with the world on their terms. It’s a big deal.

One side note, don't read 'There's is an Alligator Under My Bed' to a 2 year-old.

It's just not going to work out the way you want.

some dudes

2010-04-14T17:14:00.003-05:00

This is what my patient list looks like at 5 today. Adjusting them is easy, catching them is not.

Eat it up.

2010-04-14T13:19:00.003-05:00

Last post, I covered the first habit that I know kids need to have to be healthy. This post, I want to cover the second most important thing we can teach our children.

Healthy Habit # 2 - Teach your kids how to eat healthy.

Nutrition, the discussion of it, and the business of it, are a big (pun intended) topic in this country. Multiples of a billion dollars are spent on diets, supplements, and the like. Given that we spend so much more on these types of foods and ingredients, we should be one of the thinnest nations around right? As it turns out we are one of the fattest and sickest in the world.
How can it be that so much money is spent and so many people remain overweight? The answer is simple. People do not know what to eat, and they do not know what to feed their kids.
I’m going to tell you exactly what to do in order to make sure your kids develop some healthy eating habits. Ready?

1) Eat real food.
2) Do not eat food that isn’t real.
3) Eat more often
4) Eat less

Real food. Food that isn’t made in a factory. It comes from the ground, grows on trees, etc. Food made in factories = not real food. Stay away from it. I don’t care what the wrapper says. Teach your kids to enjoy real food and you give them an incredible edge against obesity and general health.

By eating every few hours, rather than engorging ourselves on 2-3 meals per day, we spread out our caloric loading. This allows our metabolism to burn throughout the day, rather than loading it down. Also, when we eat more often, we eat less per meal. This helps to prevent binging, increases metabolic rate, and lessens the impact a nutritionally weak (pound cake) meal will have on our bodies.

Is this convenient? No. Can it be done? Yes. Health isn’t convenient, and it’s rarely fun. You know what else isn’t fun? Kids trudging along a lifetime of sugar and processed food induced heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and depression. That isn’t fun either. I’m not being apocalyptic, the numbers don’t lie.

In unrelated news :

Fink Chiropractic Center: We give away trophies.

Big Jack ain't happy.

play date

2010-04-07T11:36:00.005-05:00

I like talking.

More importantly, I like talking about health and healthy kids. The problem is that the two are incompatible. You cannot have a discussion about healthy kids with kids in the room. Well, you can, but it isn't very productive.

I haz a solution! Find a big playground and set the kids loose, then spend some time talking about how to raise healthy kids!

Fink Chiropractic Center Playdate.

27 families, 13 pizzas, 50 bottles of water, zero fatalities! Enjoy the pictures!

do what I say

2010-04-07T11:06:00.004-05:00

Going to step away from complaining about the problems I see with the pseudo science of some aspects of modern medicine. I could point out the article in this month's issue of the AMA discussing how the two most common back surgical procedures are a joke and unproven. I could point out how the black label, or off label prescribing of drugs has malpracted a generation of women.

But no, its the high road today for me.

Today and my next few posts I want to talk about kids. I wrote a presentation detailing what I feel are the 7 most important habits we can help them develop. I have a bit of experience observing and being involved in pediatric care. To date, we have over 45,000 pediatric adjustments at the office.

45000.

We have had a chance to partake in a lot of life changing therapies and strategies. I'm going to include some of those discussions here.

Sadly, today's children are among the most under exercised and overweight youths in the nation's history. One in five American youths ages 12 to 17 is overweight, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. NHANES is the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, which is a part of our friends, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Furthermore, two thirds of our children can't pass a basic physical fitness test. Forty percent of boys and 70 percent of girls ages 6 to 17 can't do more than one pull-up. Half the girls and 30 percent of boys can't run a mile in under 10 minutes. In addition, 40 percent show early signs of heart and circulation problems, according to a recent report by the President’s Council on Fitness and Sports.

Habit #1

Move. Just move. Teach your kids to jump, run, play, throw, anything to get them out and moving. This habit alone dominates the rest of the list. Sedentary lifestyle is murdering our kids, slowly but surely.

The human body is made to move. It is through motion, and only through motion, that the brain gains information it needs to make critical decisions about staying healthy. I’m not going to go into details because you don’t care about them. What you need to know is this, if you don’t teach your children to play hard, often, then you aren’t giving them the tools they need to succeed. If they see motion as an option, and not as a basic health sustaining activity, then you didn’t do your job. In every review I did, obesity and sedentary lifestyle played a factor in the lives of sick kids.

How do you teach your kids to move? You move. Get out there and do something. Don’t like sports? Hike. Don’t like to hike? Cycle. Don’t like to cycle? Plant a garden or pick up trash. Hate trees, cycling, biking, sports, and hiking? Get a rope, get a flashlight and go mediate in a cave on what you can do. Bottom line is this, suck it up and take your kids out to do something. Repeat this several times per week.

Habit 2 soon.

2 doctors walk into a bar

2010-03-25T14:12:00.003-05:00

I was reading a fascinating article, published over at medscape. Before you ask, yes, I stay current on the medical journals. Despite the frequent urges to yell at the screen or send off nasty e-mails I find that occasionally, someone over there will get it right.

Not today though.

In a article written by a vascular surgeon and a cardiologist they discuss why the health care costs of America are skyrocketing and what can be done about it. "Dollar wasting" they call it.

One of the citations they make is of how salaried surgeons at a New York hospital were ordered to increase their admissions and operations by 20% or face a pay cut. They (the authors) think its crazy for every hospital to want to be in the black.

What a crock.

There are so many things wrong with that line of thinking, from the hospital viewpoint and the surgeon viewpoint that figuring out who is right becomes moot. In the end, the patient suffers.

Medical mistakes are out of control in this country. In the land of freedom and opportunity 7 jumbo jets worth of people die every year from medical mistakes. Hospitals are run by executives, bottom-liners responsible to a board, not to the son or daughter of the patients they malign in order to cut corners.

They don't get it now, nor will they, because their system of 'health care' propagates itself on the sick. More people sick, more money for them.

Until we begin demanding and paying for people to keep us healthy, not just symptom-free but actually healthy, we (and our kids) are in big trouble.

in your face

2010-03-24T13:53:00.004-05:00

Ya, turns out you can just moderate the comments section. I didn't have to go all joseph georbels. Such a shame, these dudes cold posting in my comments. Not even comments about me, mind you. I can deal with 'you suck' or 'what you talkin' bout foo' (although Mr.T rarely posts in here). I mean, if I cared about acceptance I would have gone to medical school, amirite?

No, what bothers me is the people using my comments section to validate their silly fake shoe ads. Acting like they want advice, about shoes mind you, but really just trying to get mah audience.

Well, enough of that.

I moderated the heck out of the comments.

In other events:

We are a good-looking group.

My dudes.

The website is done but not yet cool. Finkchiropracticcenter.com to check it out.

just do this

2010-03-24T13:42:00.003-05:00

I post timely, important information on here as well as my own thoughts on life in general. A lot of people tell me they think it's pretty funny stuff. On occasion people comment that something I said (wrote) changed how they thought about their own health, and in the new context they were able to make better decisions. Other people think this blog is just another way for me to talk about myself.

Who is right, and what am I trying to accomplish?

I'm not telling.

What I am telling is that the idiots who come on to this blog and post their b.s. shoe ads in my comments section can go test drive a prius.

I'm locking the comments section.

the worst

2010-03-10T13:38:00.002-06:00

Growing up, we all have that second-parent type person who helps us along, gives us advice, pulls our head out, etc.

That person is good for telling things you cannot tell to your friends, and you sure as heck can't tell your parents. I guess you could call them a bridge-friend, or something, I don't know.

When that person dies. It sucks.

I feel old now, in a way I never did before. The people who gave me advice growing up and in my first couple years in practice are dying, and not in freak accidents.

pass the salt

2010-03-02T10:52:00.002-06:00

What's up with these made-for-TV medical doctors wearing scrubs on daily shows? Did they just come from an OR? Were they in the middle of rounds and realize they have a 50 minute show with a live audience waiting?

Am I jealous?

You bet I am.

I want thousands of screaming fans. Thousands.

Anyway. I wanted to post about a topic I am going to be covering at the Fink Chiropractic Center play-date, which I just thought up.

The play-date, I just thought up the play-date, not the topic. I don't randomly post on topics, we'd be here forever.

The greatest thing about the interwebz is the unfettered access to mountains of data about all sorts of topics. It allows you (me) to explore ideas about increasing family health with some modicum of authority. The authority of data!

Bored yet?

Fine.

Sit down with your kids and eat as a family.

Some peeps at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University posted some incredible statistics on families that eat meals together versus those that do not.

The families 'boning down' together are less likely to experience members with eating disorders, drug use, smoking, and alcohol abuse. The kids specifically are less likely to consume junk, overeat, and are less likely to be overweight.

All from sitting down to eat as a family. When you think that the 3 most chronic conditions affecting kids are from lifestyle decisions, this is pretty powerful stuff.

I can hear your thoughts you know.

Kids are too busy with practice? Have too much homework? Husband getting home late? You have a show coming on soon?

Who.
Friggin'.
Cares.

You are the parent. You are in charge of the health of your own health and that of your flock. This is a huge, huge, huge milestone for keeping your peeps healthy and giving them a shot at a long, healthy life.

Make it happen, your kids deserve it.

this sucks

2010-02-24T13:08:00.002-06:00

This is downright depressing. Check out the latest and greatest in a series of scary trends for America's youts (My cousin Vinny).

I get so tired of being right, especially about this particular topic.

I'll say it again:

Until we take the time and money to teach our kids about eating right and exercising, not just blowing smoke, we aren't accomplishing jack.

It's that simple.

Half a century of better living through better drugs did nothing but produce 2 generations of fat, sick, depressed, and addicted humans. The proof is indisputable.

Want healthy kids? Put someone in charge of making sure they have all the tools to be healthy, and then check in with them regularly. That is the only way. End of story.

dudes.

2010-02-12T10:15:00.003-06:00

And we're back.

So I have two children now, two boys!

Jackson Avery was born September 20th, it has been a heck of a ride. I had assumed that it would be twice as crazy since we were doubling the number of kids we had.

I was wrong.

I was off the mark by an order of magnitude. It's easily 4x as nuts around the house. I love it. Big James is as rowdy as ever, and at the height of a 4 year old, he is a beast. All we do is wrestle, like the cartoons, where the fighting is a cloud of fists and legs, that's us. Thank God for such a patient wife.

When I was single, child-less, (and well-rested) people told me how much more fulfilling my life would be once I had kids. I humored them, after all, I was the one driving the H2 and flying out of town every weekend while they went home to their kids and early bedtimes. I figured, how could they possibly compare the two.

I don't know if I have been as wrong about anything as I was about that.

I figure, I have about 9 years that James will still think I'm cool and want to be around me, gotta milk it!

yep.

2009-09-15T11:56:00.002-05:00

When I was single, people used to try and set me up with their friends. I guess dating the unstable doctor was on a lot of people's bucket list. Anyway, during the blind date negotiations one topic that always came up, and got danced around, was the "looks" department.

"Yeah, you should go out with her, she's smart, funny, real cute."

or

"Duuuude, she's hot, you should go out with her. Plus its the only way her friend will go out with me."

I noticed that no one ever said "yeah, she is not ugly at all."

What does this have to do with my practice members?

When you think about your health, and the health of your kids, do you strive to be as healthy as you can? Or do you just want to be "not sick". I spoke with someone this week who didn't know there was a difference. Rest assured, there is. We are taught that just being "not sick" is good enough. As long as you don't have symptoms, you're fine. This is the reason that health care (other than at our office) is so terrible. Instead of being proactive, people wait until they cannot stand their symptoms any longer before they seek health. They do this because that is what they were/are instructed to do by their health care providers, either intentionally, or by inference . Think about the difference between a heart attack and minor chest pain. How much money, pain, and suffering could be avoided if we actually taught some prevention and health in our offices. The last numbers I looked at show actual health prevention and education at something like 5% of the national budget for health care. What a joke.

The difference between being healthy and being "not-sick" is the same as the difference between being gorgeous and being "not-ugly." Think long and hard about this. Please.

Yield to me.

2009-09-08T13:40:00.004-05:00

People ask me (since I run my mouth about it so much) what I think the answer is to fixing the health care crisis. The answer is very simple;

Come to our office, be a patient, do what we say.

Yes, I'm serious. Let me be crystal clear. I think my office is the answer to the health care crisis. Take a moment to be shocked and awed at my audacity.

2.3 billion (BILLION) in fines to Phizer last week for flat out bribing M.D.s to pimp their drugs. Was your MD involved? Don't know the answer do you? Then you have the blatantly faked studies from the professor in New Jersey regarding clinical trials of a widely-used drug. Shocker. I can't wait for the next flat-earther to tell me Chiropractic needs more research. What are we, 38th in world health? We spend how much on health-care, which is really sick care, mind you. Health care involves education and prevention. Sick care involves expensive and dangerous short-term symptom reduction.

You cannot look at how sick, fat, depressed, and addicted we are and think the system is remotely acceptable. Who has been in charge of health care (sick care) in this country for the past 50 years?

Exactly.

So, the answer to the crisis? Come to the people you pay to keep you healthy. No one works harder as a staff to maker sure you can do whatever the heck you want. That's health care baby. Get in line for the good stuff.

Is this a joke?

2009-08-20T15:38:00.005-05:00

Yeah, life expectancies are up according to this study done by our boys down at the CDC. It's too bad we lag behind about 30 other countries.

Pretty odd that we die so young compared to countries that don't spend a quarter of what we do on drugs and surgery. I wonder why that is? I mean, shouldn't we be the healthiest and longest living country on earth, since we take so many more drugs and have such an advanced health care system?

Maybe better living through better chemistry doesn't work, as studies like this one suggest. Maybe our jobs as doctors should instead be facilitating the education of people on how to stay healthy, rather than running obsolete tests and giving drugs based on blatantly faked studies.

Nah! Not with big pharma and a mediocrity awarding health-care system pumping billions into advertising. Moar drugz plez!

Bring on your ruminants!

2009-06-30T11:31:00.005-05:00

I've been sitting here for what feels like ages (probably 5 minutes, but I've had 3 cups of coffee) trying to figure out how to introduce this blog. I wanted to build it up, you know, a classical build-up to a story. Rising action, climax, prologue, the whole thing. Why?

Look at the picture man!

There we were. A typical St. Louis summer day at Grant's farm. It's hot, St. Louis hot. The kind of heat that starts searing you the second you open the car door. It evaporates any A/C cooled air instantly and climbs into the car to get you. You are actually sweating before you even get out of the car.

Then you walk. Oh, do you walk. Across the blacktop parking lot which is more like a tar-lot, and into the tram, packed full of smelly, sweaty, hot humans. Once the tram got moving the breeze helped. I think the tram operator knew we were all hot because he was hauling ass. No one complained though. There were about 20 people riding with their heads out the window. We musta looked like a whole kennel of dogs riding in a clown car.

So its hot right, we get to the goats part, where you can feed them from the outside of their enclosure or the inside. I'm hot, pissed, and worried about my 7 month's pregnant wife. I'm not really down with going into the enclosure, thereby adding one more thing to worry about. Superman wants to go in though, and Jamie gives me the "take him in, its his first time" look. Well, I never win against that look, I am the king of doing things with James for the first time. I'm sure that will be on my tombstone.

Anyway, we go into the enclosure with the milk to feed them and the goats start swarming. I try to push them back and set James down so he can get a bearing on whats going on. They are dodging my leg sweeps though, and he is squirming so I set him down. He immediately goes to his haunches as a goat squares up about 6 feet away.

I've got the milk and I am trying to distract all the goats away from James, but this goat doesn't want the milk. He wants my kid's clothes. He starts in on James, taking slow steps, but coming nonetheless.

At about 4 feet James swings his arm out and gives the goat a big "NO". The goat pauses, then resumes his steady approach. James repeats his warning. The goat doesn't even stop this time. I'm about to intervene when my kid, without even rising up from his haunched position, slowly brings his arms and hands out in front of him. The goat walks right into the hands and James closes them around it's throat. It was spectacular. I'm not kidding it was methodical interdiction designed to put his hands on the goats throat at the furthest possible range. The goat hits the hands and jerks to a halt. James doesn't budge.

Time stopped, seriously, I couldn't believe I was watching James take on a goat, and he was holding the goat back. It was so primal, so savage, and strangely, satisfying.

My son had encountered something he had never seen before, stood up for himself, and gone mano a mano with the unknown.

No I am not being dramatic, its a metaphor, a blueprint, for how I want to teach him to take on the world.

I can't stop smiling.

two.

2009-06-17T16:13:00.003-05:00

Superman turns 2 on Saturday, two!!

What the hell just happened? Seems like I just got done freaking out over being a father, now I find myself almost tearing up because it is going by so fast.

Is this one of the "mellowing" effects of fatherhood I'm experiencing? It is true that I am uncharacteristically nonchalant these days (as evidenced by the lack of speeding tickets and shaking fists). Suppose he starts to potty train in the next few months. If we weren't planning on having another baby (in production now, btw) that means I would be done changing diapers by christmas.

My brain boggles just thinking about that fact. The first thing that comes to mind?

Everyone complaining about diaper changing, all you "just wait until you have to do it" or "you'll see" people are serious wimps.

I took the worst of the diapers due to our friend "morning sickness" making an encore so I know diapers. It wasn't that bad. Did you people not share a house with 1000 other students in college? Now that was bad. Smelly? Gross? Show up at the bar and help me close it after St. Patricks day, you'll never drink again.

Back to more important matters. What to get him. Stay tuned.

this

2009-05-20T17:13:00.005-05:00

The American Alligator.

Beastly, carnivorous, the subject of wives tales and reality survival shows. Mostly recently, my sons indispensible, second-only-to-dad-in-coolness new buddy. He carries a 3 foot long alligator everywhere we go. It rides in the cart with us at Home Depot, everyone who walks by does a double take.

"Baby, Allgator."

"Yes, James, that is your Alligator."

"This, this, this, this"

"This" accompanied by pointing at the object is his was of saying, "that's right, its mine, and its bad ass."

Teddy bears, fairies, overly verbose plastic dogs?

My kids toy eats them.

I cannot get enough of it.

Stuck.

2009-04-20T14:10:00.003-05:00

Cran-raisins. The work of the devil himself.

They are small, squishy, flesh-colored and tart-tasting. The perfect storm of things you don't want your kid putting up his or her nose. They are small enough for the child to get into the nasal cavity, but large enough that once you begin running out of space, which the upper part of the nostril is famous for, you can easily get one lodged. They are squishy, they bend and shape to the cavity as they are being pushed up, once they get stuck they have compressed and tightened to the point where they are filling, and blocking off, the whole nostril. Because of this squishy-ness they are difficult to grab with a tweezers. Made even more difficult is the fact that the damn things are the same color as the nose! What the hell! Not only is the screaming, kicking child getting apoplectic as you manhandle the delicate nasal area, you can't even see what you are doing in those brief lulls between whole body spasms.

No more fruit-veggie hybrid things that are the same color as human cavity linings. Period.

I learned one or two things from the whole episode;

1) Pediatrician over ER doc for removal, they have more experience with both children and non- traumatically lodged objects in children.

2) Hold the child facing away from you sitting on your lap, pin both arms down with your one arm, then use your other hand to hold their head. Its the safest position to restrain them in. It will also make you feel like the biggest piece of crap should you be the one doing it.

3) Remove everyone from the room who is not essential to solving the problem.

4) Keep telling yourself that hopefully this will be the worst thing to ever happen.

5) Ice cream for everyone afterwards, and lots of it.

solo tip

2009-04-13T13:37:00.002-05:00

I just realized I'm on no one's team. I complain about the cult that is modern medicine and it's mockery of real science. At the same time I admonish (excessively, perhaps) other chiropractors when they break down and call me for advice. For some time now I have felt like there isn't anyone else doing what we do so well at the office.

I mean, I have always known that there isn't any other office actually working to give great health care as passionately as we are, an office where getting patients healthy is just the start of what we want to accomplish. Lately though, I have felt like anywhere I go, or speak at, or consult at, that I am the singular one of my species as a physician. It's not just that I feel like no one else is as driven (crazy), I feel like no one else is even trying, like I'm the only one who is even attempting to deliver heath care in our model. That means one of two things doesn't it?

1) The current healthcare model for my part of the world is wrong or;
2) I'm wrong

Well that's sobering.

everywhere signs.

2009-04-02T14:00:00.007-05:00

I saw this sign at the dermatologist's office. Wow.

I realize that with insurance reimbursements dropping that doctors need to see more people in order to make the same amount of money (they do anyway, we are still seeing only the people we want to see), but this is grade-A malpractice. How the hell do you (the patient) know what is important or not important each time you go to the doctor? Is that a mole or a carcinoma? Is Timmy's cough nothing to worry about or TB? Are you putting on a couple pounds or is that a giant sebaceous cyst about to burst on your dinner guests? You don't know! You aren't the doctor so why in the hell shouldn't you be asking these questions.

But the doctor doesn't have time to answer all my questions!

Then find one who does! Jeez, get some respect for yourself and your health. Find one who hasn't built his practice around a failed paradigm and can make time to speak with you rather than treat you like you are a waste of time.

But you see people quickly, how is this any different?

Not quickly, we see people the quickest. Chiropractic lends itself to consistent, rapid visits. This lets us stay up to date with your health concerns. How? Because we see you more often you don't have to ask us a bunch of questions, we answer them as we go. If something more important pops up, then we do our job as doctors, find the answer then follow-up with you at a scheduled time. It's a beautiful thing.

This is the problem with the wait-until-it breaks-then-try-to-fix-it or if-I'm-not-in-pain-then-I'm-healthy paradigms. Most of them cannot/do not operate at anything resembling efficiency, but in this economic environment they are being forced to. How do they feel about it? How is it affecting the business of health care? Who knows, they aren't the one paying the price (pun intended).

You are.

anonymous

2009-03-30T13:23:00.003-05:00

We had a young guy in the office with eczema today. I get a lot of questions about how/what we do to fix it, and why it works. I can certainly understand how people new to chiropractic or who harbor some antiquated ideas (backcrackers) about what we do having some confusion. I probably don't help the situation either. If I'm in public with a mixed group of people (chiropractically mixed, I mean) and someone asks about eczema, asthma, or some other malady that is really not associated with chiropractic I will typically respond with:

"Yeah, we punch 'em in the neck, then they get better" or "I throw them down the stairs, then bill you for it."

Why do I do this?

I have no idea. I guess I just have a chip on my shoulder because not everyone recognizes how good we are at keeping people healthy. The bottom line is that I know we should be the first stop for keeping kids healthy in all of St. Charles and we aren't yet. That irks me. The fact that people don't know about us irks me. People don't send me cars, cards, baseball tickets, or get my name tatoo'd on thier arms, I guess that irks me too.

There is nothing worse than being fantastic and no one knowing it.

braggadocio

2009-03-18T11:50:00.003-05:00

You get healthier when you come to Fink Chiropractic Centers.

Whether you like it or not, whether you care or not, you get healthier. You don't have a choice. Why? Because your state of health is the product of your knowledge of health. Think of it this way, if you really understood what was in soda I guarantee you wouldn't drink it or give it to your kids, even to shut them up. If you knew how that sugary b.s. was pounding your pancreas, depressing your immune system, and throwing rocks through your windows you wouldn't even think about eating it, no matter how good it tastes. The problem is that so many people make so much money off you being fat, sick, depressed, and addicted that they can fund ads for hours and hours. These ads mislead, misquote, and confuse you as to what is healthy and what is not. Better yet, they make their product seem "not that bad". Meanwhile your gut and spine are rotting while you cover up the symptom of back pain with pain killers.

Not here though, nope.

In our office, you get an education, and an adjustment. Nothing formal, no classroom style stuff, but every single time we see you we explain a different facet of human health. Because we usually will see you more often than medical check-ups we can build on your education. Naturally, you begin to make healthier decisions.

Because, if you don't, I ask you why.

If your medical doctor gives you recommendations and you don't do them, what happens? Doesn't much matter does it? You won't be seeing him again for months. You are much more likely to follow my recommendations because I'll be seeing you again on a shorter time table. This creates accountability, which I know is the second biggest problem with the current medical paradigm. No one takes any accountability for your health, and no one holds your ass accountable for your decisions.

No one, that is, except us.

You cannot argue with our methods or our results. 1000 spines a month, 6 years and I can count on one hand the number of people we couldn't "fix".

Bragging? Hell yes I am.

Why do it?

2009-03-12T16:25:00.004-05:00

Your staff will betray you, sooner or later they will meet someone on myspace and leave your ass with a full patient load and no one to run scans, help with rehab, or route practice members for adjustments.

Your insurance company relationships will be a joke. They don't want to pay, they don't acknowledge chiropractic, they make it as hard as they possibly can for you to get reimbursed. All this despite the documented fact that you are saving them millions with every full day of adjusting.

Your personal injury cases will go to hell. Money will sour your patient relationships, bargaining and re-bargaining will make you feel like an expensive prostitute.

M.D.s? Please. You will be as much colleagues as the Cubs are to the Cardinals. Same game, different breed of player.

Long hours, stress, bills, all factors in your practice as a chiropractor.

So why do it?

Because you are a friggin' doctor man. Because some crappy Thursday while you are stuck in the office someones mom calls the office and she is out of her mind. She has called every doctor in town and been to the ER twice. Her kid can't breathe well and the drugs aren't working. She heard from a friend of a friend of a friend that you help kids and hopes you can help. You put off lunch to wait while she races to the office. When they get there you can tell she is absolutely losing it, fully caught up between having some witch doctor crack on her baby and the long, labored breathing of the child.

You begin to talk about what it is chiropractors do but she isn't there, she can't hear a word you are saying. Her kid is in trouble and she is dying on the inside. You abandon the formalities and begin the assessment. Once you are done with your assessment you tell her what you think you should do and you deliver the adjustment of your life.

Ka-boom.

The skies open up, angels descend, junior's soft, dilated pupils snap to focus sharply on you. Suddenly, the kid is there. The mother cannot believe her eyes. The accessory muscles in the neck go soft and the child takes a breath as deep and long as spring.

It is a long, long time before you can stop smiling. That's why I do it.

dude. whatever.

2009-03-06T11:09:00.004-06:00

Big big meeting in D.C. this week. Health care is getting a reform! A big old single payer, multiple payer, how do we stop the crushing costs, extravaganza! Ayeyiyiyiyiy! Yip Yip!

Looks like everyone is going to be there throwing in their two cents about what is wrong with American health care. It'll be like lollapalloza but with suits. Instead of Eddie Vedder they can have the surgeon general leading the wave across the rotunda. In a way I think that is long overdue, but ultimately, they aren't going to accomplish much. Not the wave part, I mean the open discussion, seeing a bunch on congressmen do the wave would be wicked cool.

American health care is not health care, it is focused on "sick" care. The paradigm looks like this: You do nothing until you feel sick, then you go to a doctor and get a pill. If your symptoms go away then you are "healthy" again. Oh sure, they want you to come in once a year to get a check-up. Once a year? And you can only talk about one topic with the doctor per visit? How do these people show their faces.

Here is the deal, I just want to say this now and get it out there, that way in 10-15 years when my patients are the only ones left in this country who are actually healthy I can say I told you so.

Health care in this country will continue to suck until we:

1) EDUCATE children on nutrition and make it cool to eat healthy. I say children because adults are too hooked on sugar and other "my mom gave it to me so it must be healthy" foods to change. It is this current generation of kids that need our help and will still listen.

2) Stop performing untested, dangerous pills and surgical procedures as the main form of health care. There are so many other, better ways to provide actual health care than teaching people to pop pills and get cut open.

I know this won't happen. Too much money is being made on Americans being sick, fat, depressed, and addicted for the idea to blossom. I just wanted to make sure I put it out there so that I can say I was right.

Busy.

2009-03-03T10:31:00.005-06:00

People ask me when/if I ever get to sleep. I guess they wonder what life is like running a wildly successful chiropractic office, getting a book published, speaking several times a month to businesses about health topics, burning dinner, etc. so I have included several snapshots of this past month.

1) The good old days.

My son loves to watch videos of himself. That's right, my 20 month-old son likes to watch our homemade videos of himself when he was just a couple weeks old. Don't ask, every time I talk about it I feel ancient. In this shot you can see one of the videos on the TV as I chase my tiny man through the room. Also pictured are the 3 year old toys that James is tall enough to play with. Can you feel me beaming?

2) Staff Meeting

One of our staff meetings at the office. We meet for a hour once a week to make sure everything is running smoothly, iron-out kinks in office flow, figure out why we left a patient in the re-exam room for 90 minutes, etc. As you can see, dancing is highly encouraged at the meeting, that is Dr. Mawer rocking a sweet robato in the background.

3) Bribed.

This is Jerry, he won the Fink Chiropractic Center pick' em league for 2008-2009. We gave him a trophy. We give out lots of trophies. Why? Are you kidding? Who doesn't want a trophy?!

I'll show you cheap

2009-02-25T10:03:00.004-06:00

I love all the attention that is being paid to how much we, as Americans, are spending on healthcare. Finally, the wasteful and unproven b.s.-ery that occcupies "healthcare" will be examined.

Why am I so happy about it?

Because chiropractic kicks ass, thats why. Even the most flat-earth, pill-popping, pin-headed, technophilic people out there must bow to our numbers.

What numbers?

I'm glad you asked.

An insurance company looked at people over age 75 and compared people who get adjusted with those who do not. The result? People getting adjusted reported less time in hospitals (21%) used fewer drugs, better overall health, and were more active than those who did not.

Another company surveyed people who had been using chiropractic care for more than 5 years. It turns out they spent 31% less than the national average for health services. That is a very big, very significant number.

In a study of more tan 2818 respondents a strong connection was found between those persons getting adjusted and a higher quality-of-life. So much so that 99% of the persons surveyed wanted to continue care.

Going to the doctor for costly, unproven, dangerous emergency care is a fools game, and always has been. It is time for the medical model of better living through better chemistry as the mainstream method of choice to be put where it belongs.

In the trash.

vehemence

2009-02-12T13:40:00.004-06:00

Have you ever looked at the "comment" section on places like the USA today or AOL story pages. What a bunch of jackasses. Where are all these Internet tough guys coming from? I cannot believe some of the reasoning behind most of the comments that are made. It looks like this:

Comment 1 : Random comment loosely based on story, suspicious statistics
Comment 2: Sharp attack on comment 1's logic, assertion of superior logic with equally flawed statistics
Comment 3: Weak attempt to poke fun at comment one and two
Comment 4: Vicious rant with clear relationship issues and/or poor typing indicative of inebriation or "angry-type"
Comment 5: Pacifistic comment completely unrelated and generalized to the point of blandness
Comment 6: Personal attack on the mothers of commenters 1 and 2

Viva la interwebz!

told you so.

2009-02-03T14:12:00.003-06:00

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090119/MOMS/90119016

Not a bad article, except for the zany parts where they ask medical doctors what they think about chiropractic care. In all the medical doctors I have spoken with (that is, the ones who actually return my calls when I try to discuss patient care with them) I have encountered 3 that actually have a grasp on chiropractic care. Normally, I wouldn't care, but isn't it their job to know the best possible treatments for their patients?

If I thought a patient needed surgery, I would recommend it at the drop of a hat. In fact, it is one of the first promises I make to my patients when I meet them. Our allopathic colleagues have the same responsibility. Period.

Ranting aside, we have been seeing 20-30 kids a month for several years now, getting them healthy and keeping them healthy. We do this through hours of education and research on how best to keep these tiny titans bulletproof. It is our greatest responsibility.

Also, their expression is fun to watch when I tell them I am going to sell their spleens.

snow day

2009-01-28T10:38:00.004-06:00

Early 2009 Rumination.

1. How in the world do they do the dancing animations for the Backyardigans? I would love to see an episode where they break-dance fight.

2. Will I ever speak with a medical doctor who has any clue what it is I do?

3. You cannot exercise and stretch your way out of significant subluxation. Period.

4. Sometimes you have to shove health down people's throats.

5. 2 year molars, we hates them.

6. I miss my barbecue pit.

7. Health is not the absence of symptoms, corollary to that; pain is not due to an absence of drugs or an excess of organs.

8. I drink too much coffee.

bring me your huddled masses

2009-01-23T11:56:00.004-06:00

New dads, I have heard your pleas. I know the depths of your pain and am here to offer you the way out.

These are the things you need to do when you want to get your newborn or toddler to sleep through the night (or just go to bed).

1) Make a routine and stick with it no matter what. This is the hardest, but the most important. Little brains are busy shaving off white matter and gray matter and organizing new connections, its an awesome sequence of enzymes and catalysts. What does this have to do with you? You can develop a habit or pattern in those young minds by using the same environmental cues at the same time each day. Give the baby a bath, turn the lights down, read to him or her (no t.v.) in the baby's room. As much as you can, recreate the same scene every night. This is difficult for new parents who may still be used to the 'stay up till whenever thing'. Those days are gone. You traded them in for your bundle of joy.

2) Put the thermostat down and slowly back away. Most of the parents I speak with about this react like I just deleted their TiVo. I completely understand the desire to make sure the child is comfortable, especially when you won't be in the room. Understand that most humans will sleep better in a colder environment. It induces the sleep reflex. If your child is flush while sleeping, you may have too much heat for their sleep to be relaxed and uninterrupted. In general, if you have the room temperature below 70 degrees (F) you are in the ballpark.

3) See you in hell! Placing a sleeping baby in a cold bed will not work well for you. Especially when you think you've almost got the baby down. Using a warm towel or flannel sheets to warm that bed up or keep it warm will work wonders for you.

4) Just 10 minutes more, please. Drapes, shutters, black paint, anything but those airline eye patches to keep the room dark. This will buy you time enough time in the morning to get to the coffee pot, thereby saving everyone a rocky start.

4) Fight on! At first, the new routine will be annoying for both of you. Stick with it, over time the pattern will take effect, you will notice your baby getting sleepy as soon as you begin the routine.

5) Act cool. Any mom will have this information because they have already researched it 1000 times. What scores you monster points is then you know this information. Don't tell her I told you, act like you knew it on your own. She will be reassured that she selected you as a mate.

Let me know how it goes, and good luck out there!

assignment of blame.

2009-01-22T13:35:00.005-06:00

"Dr. Fink, my doctor said I have pre-hypertension, he said I will need to start taking drugs."

"Tell him you are pre-death as well, ask him if you should be taking drugs for that. Also mention that you are pre-prostate enlargement, see if he will give you an exam. Ask him if he has any drugs for pre-high cholesterol so that you can eat whatever you want completely free of any physical responsibility. See if he has drugs that will let you spend whatever amount of money you want whenever you want and never have to pay it back. Tell him you are glad he doesn't take on the responsibility to educate you on the 7 ways that are more effective at reducing 'pre-hypertension' than just shotgunning drugs into patients. Ask him if he wants me to call him and give him a brief overview of human nutrition. Ask him if he thinks people get sick because they have a shortage of drugs in their system."

"Dr. Fink, you scare me."

"Yeah, I know. Doctor who cares right? That must be terrifying."

you stop it.

2009-01-19T13:33:00.004-06:00

When you are driving down the road and the little red "check engine" light comes on, what do you do? Do you put tape over the light so you don't have to look at it?

If you don't talk to your wife for 1 month how is your relationship going to be?

Going to the gym once per month? How are those abs gonna look?

Walking once per lunar cycle? How is that going to impact your heart health?

When I in school I had a friend who could cram for tests like no other, the guy would eat books whole, then puke 'em out during test time. His grades were pretty good too and this was biochemistry we are talking about. It was impressive. My father in law has a large farm, on one part of it we have corn and winter wheat. How well do you think that wheat would grow if we just ran out there the night before we wanted to harvest and planted and watered the crop. Would it grow overnight? Is it possible to cram growth and development? Do you you think your health is closer to a cramming for test situation or a growing crop situation?

Stop with the b.s. about your health. You know it and I know it isn't going to work any other way that for you to eat right, sleep right, and get some damn exercise. Diets do not work, they never have, they never will. I don't care about the 3 or 4 people they plaster all over the magazine covers who used some miraculous diet.

Your body works on a universal set of principles similar to the principles that make corn grow. It can't be rushed or tricked. That is the truth, and you know it.

Is it inconvenient? Hell yes. Is it worth it? Ask someone who isn't healthy what they would give to be in your shoes.

skill sets

2009-01-12T13:48:00.005-06:00

Lately we have been seeing a lot of new dads in the office. It's gotten to the point where I know the wife/girlfriend/co-conspirator is pregnant solely by looking at the man's face. I gotta tell 'ya, it's pretty brutal to look at sometimes. I have made it a point to pull them aside (the man) and issue several edicts that, if they follow, will make their (the man) transition into fatherhood that much easier.

1) Learn to get dressed in the dark.

If you wake the baby or the sleeping mother you fail and will be disparaged like the other scrub fathers when the moms get together. Your goal is to be the shining dad at these contests. Being able to get up, get your stuff, and get out without waking anyone up is a trick you should have mastered in college. If you did not, take the time before your baby is born to perfect it.

2) Hold the baby every chance you get.

One of the biggest fears that new moms have has nothing to do with junior. She is terrified of you. After many conversations with new moms I can safely tell you that she has nightmares that you will run away, cheat, become disinterested, or fake your own death. Holding the baby will reassure her that you aren't going anywhere (if you are going somewhere you really should have thought this through better) which will ease her anxiety. Believe me, you want her anxiety eased, it makes life better for everyone.

3) Get your kitchen organized and make room for the bottles or formula on a low shelf near the 'fridge.

Since babies only want food/drink once you are asleep this will prevent you from going insane and/or injuring yourself when trying to make a midnight bottle. That way, when you wake up and hear the call of the hungry child (piercing wail) all you have to do is go to the one place you were probably going to go anyway. Make sure this shelf with the baby paraphernalia stays neat and tidy. It will save your life. For God's sake, don't be a scrub and make her get the milk/formula. She is most likely breast feeding every 3 hours for the first couple of weeks if not months, when its time to bottle up, grow up and be the errand boy.

4) Arthas can wait.

When you have your first baby, you will not believe how much time you wasted screwing around everyday (when you have your second, you will not believe how you found time to conceive). You must be able to focus and schedule effectively despite the lack of sleep. If you try to fit in all the things you used to do (WoW, Halo, Parcheesi) and raise a baby you will destroy yourself. Do yourself (and her) a big, big favor and pick the thing you do to relax the most and focus on that. Besides, your progeny is way more interesting, I promise.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

2009-01-08T18:00:00.003-06:00

Witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station.

we still got love for the streets.

2009-01-06T09:55:00.005-06:00

What's this thing you ask?

Its a trophy. Given to us by a group of our practice members.

Why?

Because I wasn't one of the "40 professionals under 40" award recipients. Despite the fact that my office completely dominates health care in our community through free public lectures, a book that I published, our spinal care class, my T.V. interview for the city on backpack safety, our office philosophy and physical layout with patient care at center stage. Not to mention that we are a referral only practice with a week long waiting list just to get in the door.

Yeah, we are awesome. We work harder than anyone else to make sure we are awesome. There is a reason why over 90% of the people who come into our office get/feel/are better according to a self reporting questionnaire we gave out in the fall.

But that's cool, I'm sure the chiropractor who did win has done a lot for the community, right? I'm sure his patient care model has revolutionized patient care, completely changing the failed paradigm of symptom-based tomfoolery.

Wrong. I'm not going into it here, but what a crock.

Apparently, word has gotten around our patient base about this brazen oversight. Yesterday we received this trophy.

I know doctors who can't get their patients to show up for an appointment, much less care whether their doctor wins recognition. If getting a trophy for not getting a trophy doesn't tell you how good we take care of our people then nothing will.

Also, whoever designed the city musuem downtown should get a trophy of thier own. That place owns.

It's what I do.

2009-01-04T19:44:00.003-06:00

I don't make New Years resolutions.

Not that I think I'm perfect or anything like that (ish), I don't make them because I spend the majority of my time helping other people accomplish theirs.

I want to lose weight.
I gotta get back in the gym.
I want to live longer for my kids.
I'm going to stop looking and feeling like an old man.
I need to look better naked.

All valid New Years resolutions, and all well within my sphere of influence.

Tomorrow when we open our doors we will be in the New Year's resolution maelstrom. From January to February we dispense more health advice and (this is the kicker) it gets followed better than any other time of year.

We answer every single question, we follow up with our practice members, we design work-outs. It is an awesome sight.

So yeah, I'm not doing resolutions for myself. I'm too busy making other people's come true.

come on man, it's the holidays

2008-12-31T10:57:00.002-06:00

Attn: Starbucks
Re: i thought you closed for a day to improve this.

To whom it may concern,

Please, stop pouring the coffee and the grounds into my grande non-fat pike place. I'm not asking for any complicated tincture of chemicals. I don't want some glacier water and 120 month old, applewood smoked, spirit tea.

Cup of coffee, some milk, no grounds.

Come on people, there are spines on the line. I need some coffee.

Dr. F

whew.

2008-12-30T16:47:00.001-06:00

So this year, I added a partner to the practice, published the book (300+ sold) which got picked up by Amazon and Barnes and Noble who also featured me as a local author, started the website, pioneered two new adjusting protocols for babies and toddlers (90+% success rate, take that pharmaceutical reps), and got selected as a Chiropractor of note for the alumni magazine. All that in addition to writing two new lectures on nutrition and family health.

Who cares.

Let's look at what really happened this year:

This hottie and I celebrated one year of marriage.

My son May, June, and October of this year. It is incredible to watch him grow. The doctor in me understands the wild discrepancies in osteoblastic activity that can produce such a tall 18 month old. The dad in me loves that he can kick 3 year-old asses.

Happy New Year!

granny to the rescue

2008-12-29T10:34:00.001-06:00

One of the things about our office that sets us apart (makes us better) than other offices is how well we educate our patients. Once a week the doctors pick a health topic and every single practice member we see that week gets a brief but thorough education on the subject. What do our practice members think of this? Who cares!

Its our job as doctors to educate our patients in addition to keeping them well adjusted. Doing one without doing the other is just as bad as telling patients to wait until they are in pain to seek help.

That is the picture hanging on the board of our patient information center which is situated right between our adjusting tables, everyone who comes in the office sees it.

What does it mean? I'm glad you asked.

Several years ago I gained some notoriety with my practice members when I sent out an e-mail entitled "this will save your life".

In that e-mail I included a picture of an apple and told my practice members to eat an apple right before they went out to celebrate New Years Eve. I told them it could save their lives.

Why? I'm glad you asked.

Apples have natural compounds which act like homeopathic activated charcoal. They help to absorb bad oxidizing chemicals (rum). In addition, having an apple in your stomach will help you feel more full and prevent you from hitting the sauce hard at the start of the night (rookie mistake.) And lastly, my theory is that it is much more difficult to do something unwholesome with a Granny Smith in your tummy.

You are welcome.

paradigm

2008-12-22T14:27:00.003-06:00

Let's say this week you and I "accidentally" eat that pound cake that has been staring at us from atop its lofty perch in the pantry since Christmas. Seems plausible, right? We are just hanging out, watching John and Kate plus 8 or somethin' and bam! 2000 calories of pain inc.

Let's also say you live across the street. Later that night you are throwing up like crazy and you notice through bloodshot eyes that I am not up puking. "Man," you think to yourself, "that guy has an iron stomach."

The next morning you wake up a little sore in the belly and with morning breath but I don't wake up at all.

Now, which one of us was sick? You, whose body rejected the poison, or me whose body was not able to reject it. Right, I was the sick one.

Now, which one of us had all the symptoms? Right, you did. Puking hurts, but it doesn't hurt as bad a being dead from food poisoning.

Think about that next time you get told to "come back when it hurts." Or to "wait until it hurts" to do something.

Lack of symptoms is not an indicator of health. This kind of bs-ery is what got this nation into the health crisis it's in.

Here endeth the lesson.

This just in...nothing is good for you.

2008-12-18T10:20:00.000-06:00

Have you seen the following article? It was in the New England Journal of Medicine. You probably havent seen it but heard about it. Dr. Ludwig, one of the researchers, is widely quoted as he defines the end of American childhood as we know it.

Ludwig and colleagues note that two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight. That dramatically increases our chances of type 2 diabetes (search), heart disease, cancer, kidney disease, and other life-threatening conditions.
But this is child's play compared with the effects of childhood obesity on life span. America's childhood obesity problem is growing faster and faster.
"Obesity rates are increasing fastest among children, and they will carry obesity-related health risks throughout their lives," Ludwig says. "An adult who gains a pound or 2 a year through middle age will be at increased risk. But that is much less dire than the overweight 4- to 6-year-old who gets diabetes at age 14 or 16 and has a heart attack before age 30."
Ludwig -- director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital, Boston -- says the childhood obesity epidemic has three phases. The first came in the last decade, when child obesity became common but the public health effects weren't yet felt. Phase two is right now, as we begin to see serious complications such as type 2 diabetes in very young people. Phase three, Ludwig predicts, is coming soon.
"But we still have a little time before these children become young adults with diabetes and start to have heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, and increased mortality," he says. "It is a massive tsunami headed for the United States. One can know it is coming. But if we wait until we see the ocean level rising over the shore, it will be too late to take action."

Did you skip to the bottom of this wall of text?

If you did, go back and read the article, its important.

I have listened to expert after expert define the problem that we all see coming. Not many solutions proffed though. Also absent is any indication of what is causing the problem.

How can so many smart people be so clueless?

Look, you can reasearch all you want, we already know what the problem is. The crap that is marketed to us and our kids as food or medicine is not only not good for us, its killing us. Fruit snacks, juiceboxes, hollow sugary vitamins, "healthy" wraps with 1600 calories. The list goes on and on.

As parents it is our job to know what is good and what isn't. The problem is that no one makes any money if your kids aren't fat, sick, depressed or addicted so the resouces are limted. But they are there. Its sick that we have to work hard to educate ourselves all the while buffeted by advertisements. But its our job.

Tell me it isn't worth it.

Wait...what?

2008-12-17T16:41:00.000-06:00

People, people, people!

Hold on a second. I know its Christmas. I know we are staring into the gaping maw of the most stressful time of year.

Thats is all the more reason TO get your spine checked. I'm not going to list all the good things that come from having a healthy spine and nervous system, you all know them. If you dont know them, you owe it to yourself to find out (luckily for you that is a different lecture). When you blow off your appoinment (dont act like you aren't, we have heard it all before and we are pretty sure flamigos didnt escape from the zoo and take up residence in your house) you are putting yourself and your holiday at risk.

It is no different that when you have 6 stops left to make on your list and your gas light is lit up like your perfect neighbor's yard. You can skip the gas station, and run out of gas before you get finished, thus compounding the problem. Or you can take a minute, get more gas and finish safe and sound.

See what I am saying here?

I know, not very subtle, but hey its the Holidays!

Believe this

2007-10-16T09:18:00.001-05:00

Gravity, Sunlight, Psycho old flames; these are the givens of our existence on this planet.

They are not disputable, they are non-negotiable. If you jump off a building, you will fall. If you stand outside during a sweltering summer day, you will dehydrate. If you make out with some random you met at a party you happened upon when you were lost, well you know the rest, don't you?

So why the diatribe on the relentless forces which imperil us?

When you go to your chiropractor's office and use words like "believe" and "hope" you are implying that there is a chance that what they do won't work. As chiropractors, our job is to find interference to your nervous system and fix it.

It's just that simple, and just that arduous.

When we remove the interference, its gone. Not "hopefully" gone, not "I believe it will be gone", its gone. Keeping that interference out is the hard part.

Chiropractic is better researched than any drug you have put into your body in the past 5 years. If you don't want to get adjusted, that's fine. But admit that you aren't going because you are wimpy. Saying you aren't going to get your spine checked because you "don't believe it" makes you sound like you think gravity just might not apply to you. Save that kind of b.s. for your pharmaceutical reps.