The Irony of Alternative Care

As a chiropractor and LENS neurofeedback practitioner for many years, I have observed an interesting, and bizarre, irony related to many patients making a first time foray into alternative health. Fed up with years of invasive medical testing and procedures, unsuccessful care, and a plethora of drug cocktails (and their side effects), they enter the office apprehensive and skeptical.

And therein lies the first bit of irony.

I embrace their apprehension and skepticism, and wonder why it didn’t kick in years ago relative to their ongoing complaints and years of failed medical care; not to mention the more significant risks they accepted associated with that care.

But the real irony lies in their expectations of alternative care. They tend to hold alternative care in very low esteem (hence its last resort status), but at the same time, they expect it to fix them quickly; as in a matter of days, at most. In short, they expect a miracle. This always makes me wonder…if they thought it would help them that quickly, why didn’t they try it first?!

However, the ultimate irony, as I see it, must be from the patient’s perspective because a large number of them, with these chronic complaints, respond extremely well to a short course (within 4-6 weeks for chiropractic patients, and 4-6 visits with LENS patients) of non-invasive, extremely low risk conservative care in combination with practical self-help measures (with acute cases, most often, responding faster)….and leave wondering: “why didn’t I try this a long time ago?”

LENS: Up Close & Personal

I continue to be amazed at the results I am getting with patients using LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback System).

Most recently, I am most amazed by my own experience.

In early October 2010, I was trained and certified as a LENS Practitioner. It was also the last time I was treated. Since then patients in my office often ask; “Were you treated with LENS? And, what did it do for you?”

Up until recently, my response has been:

“Personally, I am sleeping much better. I had been waking up every 90 minutes throughout the night. Since LENS, I wake only 1-2 times a night. My dreams have become incredibly vivid to the extent that when I do wake at night, I can go back to sleep and pick up my dream where I left off…and, there is nothing better than me as an action hero, in tights, all night long. Also, my reading retention has improved.”

That’s all well and good, but nothing compared to some of the profound life-changing results many of my patients are experiencing. It’s almost the more dysfunctional the brain is, the more ‘like-wow!’ the response to LENS.

My improvement, like that of my patients, has been consistent after treatment, with one new, quite shocking, personal realization.

In the past 4-6 weeks I have encountered a major life stressor. For several reasons, I had to close my practice in Northampton, MA. As you would imagine, deciding to close, facing up to my decisions and choices, confronting co-tenants, and walking away from a big investment were all very stressful. About two weeks into the close/move, I realized something remarkable. I was going through the process without any of the anxiety and insanity that have characterized me in the past in similar stressful situations. No second guessing, anxiety, or depression about my decision. No bolting awake at night. No minor panic attacks, cold sweats or nervous stomach. And, no irritability, or acting-out, at home.

It took me ‘hitting a wall of stress’ to unveil my personal ‘like-wow’ experience, to realize the profound ways in which LENS has helped me.

My Tribute to Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne, ‘the founder of the modern fitness movement,’ died at the age of 96. He was a showman and a salesman. He was passionate in his message, and his message was spot on correct. It was a message of health.

In 1936 Jack LaLanne “opened the prototype for the fitness spas to come — a gym, juice bar and health food store — in an old office building in Oakland. The Jack LaLanne Show made its debut in 1951 as a local program in the San Francisco area, and then went nationwide on daytime television in 1959.”

Had Americans heeded his advice back then, and ignored the advice of their doctors and the AMA, we would have been a much healthier nation and tens of millions of lives would have been spared the devastation and death of the chronic lifestyle degenerative diseases of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and more.

According to Jack LaLanne, “the doctors were against me — they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.” Oops. What an amazing, glaring, costly (in terms of disease, death and money) and self-serving ignorance of health that turned out to be a financial bonanza for the medical-pharmaceutical-insurance industrial complex.

And this was far from the first, or last, time they have been so wrong. In fact, I refer to it as ‘creating the next generation of users’ (of medical/pharmaceutical care and insurance).

“Back in the 1930’s, the AMA played a role in establishing cigarettes as a popular product. The AMA helped develop, and then accepted in its journal, advertisements that made cigarettes appear to be a physician endorsed product.” In fact, in the 1940’s, cigarette makers regularly used ‘science’ and physicians in their ads to sell cigarettes. “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” “cool and soothing to the back of the throat”…fueling the rise of lung disease and death from emphysema and cancer. Oops.

The 1950’s brought the cholesterol scare. The combination of food industry and medical science and doctors began to scare people away from eating natural animal fats in favor of the synthetic trans fats vastly contributing to the rise of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and death over the subsequent decades. Oops.

And now, doctors are scaring people out of the sun in favor of the full-body application of chemical sunscreens for life, creating a pandemic of vitamin D deficiency. “Individuals with low levels of vitamin D appear to have a higher risk of death from all causes, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.” Oops.

Why is none of this surprising? What would you expect from an industry that focuses on, and profits from, disease and disease care; generating $2.6 trillion dollars in 2006 ($86,000/second), projected to be $4.3 trillion ($136,000/second) by 2017?

Jack LaLanne was a chiropractor. His message was/is the message of chiropractic health; that health is the innate set-point and possible throughout our lives if we safeguard and nurture it with proper exercise and nutrition…a simple, elegant, and irrefutable message. Why is it so hard for people to believe?

Worth watching. As they say, it harks back to a more innocent time.

As I speak with patients, sometimes I am surprised what comes out of my mouth. The following are what I believe to be original quotes:

Life is an Education: So Live & Learn & Learn to Live

To become the person you want to be, you first have to know the person you are.

The fountain of youth is health.

If you don’t put your health first, at some point everything else will be second.

Your life is a work in progress. If you are willing to do the work, you will see the progress.

Health is a lifetime, lifestyle commitment.

If you are not in control of your health, someone else is.

Intuition is hardwired.

How can we expect to have a healthy planet, when we don’t understand how to create health within ourselves?

How can we expect responsible corporations and government, when we ourselves are irresponsible?

How can we expect honesty from others, when we are dishonest with ourselves?

How can we have respect for a higher power, when we so disrespect the miraculous gifts we have been given in our health, our life, and our world?

The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

My Platinum Rule: Take personal responsibility in all aspects of your life.