ALTERNATIVELY SPEAKING

ALTERNATIVELY SPEAKING
In the beginning of human health care the earliest practitioners were tribal medicine men and women.  They used a combination of spiritual prayer as well as herbs, roots and other remedies to heal their ailing patients.  Hippocrates emerged as the first physician around the 5th century B.C. Hyppocrates believed that, “A physician should work not for personal gain, but for the good of humanity and should be sober, industrious, clean, discrete and modest.”

The first medical school was established in 1100, in 1543 the first scientific examination of a cadaver was performed, 1796 saw the development of the first vaccination which was for small pox, and in 1897 X-rays
were discovered. Each time a new idea comes along there is always resistance. Albert Einstein said, “ Great
spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Many of our modern day common
place concepts were strongly opposed during their discovery. In 1858 Louis Pasteur discovered bacteria and many of his contemporaries thought he was crazy; “Oh sure, like there are really thousands of bacteria/germs everywhere.”

In 1906 Sigmond Freud first identified and treated psychosomatic disorders and illnesses; In 1842 the first practical anesthetic (ether) was introduced. Before this, a barber/surgeon would get his victim drunk or the person would be held down. In the late 1700’s a German physician named Samual Hahnemann was disillusioned with traditional medicine (blood-letting and similar practices) and created homeopathy, a science of more natural healing methods
designed to stimulate the body’s ability to heal itself with less side effects.

By 1900, after widespread usage in Europe, homeopathy had gained such popularity that there were 22 homeopathic medical schools and 100 homeopathic hospitals in the United States.  The American Medical Association (AMA) was formed in 1847. Viewing homeopathy as a threat, one of the primary missions of the AMA was to dissuade the use of homeopathy as unscientific and “quackery”. The AMA was successful, virtually crushing homeopathy in the U.S. until the 1970’s when it began to emerge again.

Today longer life expectancy is attributed to hundreds of obvious and subtle things. Garbage collection alone, has probably saved millions of lives (and might have prevented the black plague). Knowledge of medicines, nutrition, exercise, and preventative measures all contribute to a longer life expectancy. However, fatty, processed foods, pollution, depletion of minerals in the soil, and other modern day problems now cause 9 out of 10 U.S. residents to die from heart disease or cancer, which were an anomaly at the turn of the century.

There are six ways to promote human health:
• Exercise

• Diet/Nutrition
• Medical/Chemical (Drugs) • Emotional/Mental
• Biomechanical/Structural

• Surgical
(setting bones, skeletal and muscle work)

Exercise has been proven to reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Additional benefits
include lowered blood pressure, increased energy, and improved brain function.

In 1928, the discovery of penicillin led to the development of antibiotics to treat a host of infections. Many other “miracle drugs” have saved and prolonged millions of lives. But buyer beware, drugs can be very dangerous. There are 2 billion prescriptions written each year in the U.S., earning the pharmaceutical industry $49 billion per year. Unfortunately there are 119,000 prescription drug related deaths annually, and 8.8 million prescription related hospitalizations (at a cost of $47 billion annually). As a matter of fact, 28% of hospital admissions are due to the side-effects from medical treatment.

Another major lifesaver is the science of surgery. Laser and microscopic surgeries are changing the face of
surgery as we speak. More than 50 million surgeries are performed each year. Again, buyer beware. On
ABC’s Nightline, it was stated that 15 million (30%) of all surgeries were unnecessary and that 60,000 people die
from surgery each year.

Today, some practitioners believe that almost all ailments are a manifestation of some emotional or stress related disorder. Many people become ill when their body is trying to tell them to take a break. The brain is very powerful, Dr. Bernie Seigel, renowned cancer specialist, says the fate of cancer patients can be predicted in their reaction when they first learn they have cancer. (Fight or die).  The brain controls all functions of the body, it is like General Manager, overseeing every aspect. Every cell, tissue, and organ is under the control of this general manager. One interesting fact brought to light through extensive research is that 90% of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by the movement of the spine. Kind of like a windmill generating electricity.  It requires only 10% of the brain’s energy to run all the systems in the body (circulatory, muscular, nervous system, etc.). The other 90% of the brain’s energy is absorbed in millions of constant calculations necessary to balance and control where we are in time and space.

Gravity is your friend and your foe. Because the brain communicates to the body through the spinal column, of spinal manipulation to the world. He found it could improve a number of conditions, not all of them related
to the spine. D.D. Palmer named his method of spinal manipulation “Chiropractic”, which comes from the
Greek, meaning “to practice by hand”. Achient Greek and Chinese history reveals that spinal manipulation is
as old as back pain. Like other ideas and people ahead of their time, D.D. Palmer was shunned, laughed at, and scorned by the medical community. Early medical groups stated that there was no scientific proof that spinal manipulation could improve health or correct back problems. In the 60’s the AMA formed a committee on “Quackery” with a fierce agenda to frighten patients away from spinal manipulation. The exact agenda was to “Contain and Eliminate Chiropractic”. The AMA’s agenda was a blessing in disguise because this forced massive
studies on spinal manipulation and in 1987, after an eleven year court battle, the Supreme Court ruled that the AMA (and two other medical groups) were guilty of antitrust laws and restraint of trade.

Because 80% of the population will suffer back pain in their lifetime, 40 million people suffer from chronic back
pain, back pain is second only to the common cold as the reason for medical office visits, and second only to
child birth as the reason for hospitalizations, and the U.S. has 10 times more disc operations than any other country, despite the fact that surgery is largely ineffective, there are 425 million visits to “alternative” health practitioners which includes chiropractic, homeopathic doctors, herbalists, acupuncture, etc. and 388 million visits to “traditional” medical practitioners.

Aside from relieving back pain, chiropractic care has been proven to stimulate the immune system. Dr. Roger Sperry, a Nobel Prize winner for brain research found that the more biomechanical faults (spinal misalignments), the less energy was available for thinking, healing, and metabolizing. Dr. Ron Pero, Chief of Cancer Research at New Yory Preventative Research Center conducted studies on the immune system’s ability to resist toxins and disease. What he found was that non-chiropractic well patients had a 200% stronger immunity than “catastrophically ill patients” and that Chiropractic well patients had a 400% stronger immunity and a 200% greater immunity than
the average well patient not under chiropractic care. In concluding, in order to assure proper health; ask a lot
of questions, be satisfied with the answers, and always look for the ounce of prevention instead of the pound of
cure.