My passion, professionally that is, is helping people maintain and improve their health. Chiropractic care is the first line of treatment I use, obviously. It's what I've spent my career doing and it's the best way I know to get and stay healthy. But, there is more to being healthy than structural therapy.
Like I wrote about in an earlier blog post, us Chiropractors look at the "Triad of Health" a.k.a the Body-Mind-Chemical balance theory.
In this is a three part theory, Chiropractic adjustments handle the "body" piece, and other practitioners are typically taking care of the "mind" piece. But what about the "chemical"/nutrition piece? That's a huge part of health, obviously. And it became more evident through the years to me and my partner (Dr. David Monson), that this was worth exploring more in depth.
Why, you ask? Well, first of all, to improve the results we were getting with patients pain symptoms in general. So, we started the journey to learn more about nutrition therapy. I have to say, it's been a long and bumpy ride. Last year I added up the hours we've taken over the last 20 years and it was right around 1000 for each of us. Considering that a weekend seminar has 8-12 hours of training....that's a lot of weekends!
Taking seminars is work, but it can be so interesting. To me, the harder part is figuring out how to fit the knowledge into what you already know. And... how to implement it into your practice. I've taken enough seminars to know that when the brochure states "you'll be able to start using this on Monday morning." Well, that's wishful thinking at best. But still the quest continues... even for one more seminar or system that will make sense of all you've learned to date.
Sometimes, the one piece you're looking for is there all the time, but you may not have been ready to explore it. I believe that in my case, I have figured out what that is for me. See, the last year or so, I've been using Hair Analysis testing. Not that it tells all, but because it sets up a plan to follow, its a great place to start. And at certain intervals the test is repeated, maybe several more times too, until you reach a point of "homeostasis." That's a kind of fancy way of saying balance, but it has more to do with bodily systems and function.
One big reason I find this type of testing so useful for my baseline nutrition work is that it helps me set up a plan. In health care talk, we call this a "treatment plan." It's so easy to get caught up in patients changing symptom patterns that you overlook the core issues.
Hair Mineral Analysis works on the theory that the vast majority of people on this stressful polluted planet we live on have toxic overload of heavy metals which impede the healthy uptake of nutrient minerals and vitamins leading to poor glandular health. Glands, meaning thyroid and adrenal mainly, but not exclusively. So that's why the repeat testing, because you need to get rid of the bad/toxic/heavy metals first.....OR maybe you have to replenish as best you can the glands first if the persons adrenal glands are really tanked.
No the word tanked isn't a medical term, but I think you get the picture.
Anyway, I've been using this work for about 1.5 years and all results have been positive. It's a process, like all journeys to health, but the results are encouraging. And the latest case (I really don't like to think of my patients as "cases," they're people!) is particularly exciting. And I did get an okay to mention this individual's case in my blog. (I do respect my patients privacy!)
This individual has been struggling with high-stress situations for the last few years (was out of work, etc.) Even though he takes care of his health pretty well, the stress had taken a toll with sleep issues, mind-racing, and he was unable to relax. It was all really starting to affect his ability to perform at a new high-stress job, one with lots of overtime. When we reviewed his results, it revealed exhausted adrenal glands, blood sugar issues and plenty of other baddies. With the report and chart right there for him to see, we could map out a plan. First things first, we started him on new vitamins. The very next day I got a phone call from him saying that he already noticed a big change in his symptoms.
Over the next week other positive results started to appear. And this is the way it's been for pretty much everyone, myself and Dr. Dave included. Oh, there's ups and downs, but that's to be expected.
I don't really have a nifty wrap-up here. Just that this is the most useful functional tool I've found to start patients on that are looking for a nutritional advice and want to get on a system. Because systems are what make the most sense. Otherwise, you're just symptom-chasing--Oh, you can't sleep--let's try this, etc... That is just a time waster. And I don't want to waste anyone's time, including my own.
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