This week, I received two separate requests to treat quadriplegic patients…

Once patients experience osteopathy in the hands of a traditional osteopathic physician, it is something so profound and amazing…something they have never experienced before…the question always arises…

why is it that so few people know about Osteopathy?   why are there so few traditional Osteopaths?

 in my prior posts i try to explain all this…
 the cost of a medical education is exorbitant, but necessary.  we understand the human body – the anatomy, the biology, the biochemistry, the embryology, the physics and mechanics of it all.  in terms of skills, it takes so long to develop the hands on ability to accomplish immediate, dramatic tissue changes, very few of the 65,000 DO, osteopathic physicians strive to do so.  most end up using our hands to write prescriptions, can you blame them/us?  how else to pay back a $250-300,000 debt?

ultimately, those of us who do it, do it because we love it.  we aspire…to greatness…to profoundly help the body effect changes in as few treatments as possible, so that the patient is done, to not need medications, to go off and return to normal life and not need us.

 the first part of this answer is that there are so few of us, and even fewer who do this so well…
 
the second part is that when we do achieve a fair amount of buzz and word of mouth, we are busy and become quite booked; then opportunities present themselves that help us to…disappear.
 
and so…i have to announce that this will be my last post, in this current form…i am working on a new format…how will you find the newest and latest on my findings?  sign up on this blog, i check it daily. when the hits reach a critical mass, and i know there is enough demand, there will be impetus for me to show myself again…i am really excited about my latest discovery: Arthritis-Schmarthritis…

until then, if you are still searching…continue searching, find a traditional osteopathic physician and good luck to you…

My Child Has Chest Pain (and the Cardiologist says the heart is fine)

My Child Gets Sick All the Time

I Have Trouble Swallowing Water

I Have Anxiety After Neck Surgery

I Have Digestive Problems After C-Section

I Have a Red Face

Is There a Cure for My Bell’s Palsy? (yes)

and…

a lot of you out there have ocular migraines while you are driving!  what??!!! why, of all things you could possibly do, would it come out with driving????

how many of you out there have been injured, damaged by chiropractic cracking?

There are MD neurologists, neuroradiologists, orthopedic surgeons, pain management, phys med and rehab doctors who know that surgery is not, most of the time, an answer, that PT fail frequently, that chiros injure and that traditional DOs are effective, so much more effective that they, of the CMS, would…lose patients…they dare not refer patients to us.  The gravy train of sick people needing help would…slow, if not stop.

Please continue to read through the prior posts so that you understand this medical system.  It is important for you to understand how you, your health, your family and friends fit into this system, that there is a far more cost effective (in the long run) alternate system out there.  Stay tuned for my next post in a couple of weeks.  Please forward this blog to friends and family read as, it will not be the same.   I fear very soon, I will be forced to reign in my voice, be more politically correct and censor myself.

I described one of my very first cases that confounded me and had me scratching my head for the longest time.  Needless to say, this old case reminded me of the exact same tissue changes I currently feel now.  Read my prior post Cracking is Bad.

You patients out there, it is a small area on the outside of your elbow.  This is a minor symptom of a completely…disrupted…fractured…nervous system.  In short, you are really messed up.   You got a lot of things going on.  They all seem disparate, like lots of separate different things going on in different parts of your body that might require the attention of multiple specialists.  If you had them attended to, then the meds option did not take you too far.  Never fear, there is always an answer.

But why only a patch on your arm?  Again read Cracking is Bad and Ligamentous Laxity.  It will explain pretty much everything.  Your body can recover from the damage you allowed others to do to it.  You can be treated.  You can heal.  You can be cured.   It will take me 3 times as long (if you are fairly young, under 50).  The general rule for most (untouched, uncracked) people is for however many years you are in strain, that is how many months should should expect for recovery to take…well…triple that and that is the probable ball park around which it will take even when you find a really skilled set of hands of a traditional osteopathic physician.

9/19/2011  Update:  since i posted this blog, there have been a few of  you out there inquiring about this specific problem; i suspect that this is not your only problem; i suspect that you guys have neck pain, headache, heavy legs and more; this weekend I flew out to Indianapolis to talk to a very old retired physician and he gave me incredible insight into this issue of the numb elbow.  I have to tell you to look for a couple of things on your body…on the same arm of the numb elbow, dig the fingers of the opposite hand into this armpit.  if you feel tight tendons and sore knots of muscle, these knots are choking off the blood and nervous supply to the rest of the arm.  You can go to your PCP or a neurologist and ask if your exam shows you to be hypertonic and hyperreflexic in the arms and legs.  if yes, then stop all manner of anyone touching you for any sort of pain, stress or tension…you will pay for it eventually.  i am working on developing this issue, sign up to this blog, i monitor traffic, we will work out a plan…eventually.

In my pediatric practice, I am pleased to say that I have not had to do this.  I do not accept Medi-Cal so that you don’t have to sit in a crowded waiting room, your child exposed to other sick children (sorry, I’ve done my time, mission trips, volunteering in free clinics -this was before children, when i was still young and idealistic).  I have not compromised on my stance regarding informed consent as the basis for a reasonable vaccine schedule (i.e., i have not succumbed to the HMO incentives for vaccination along the CDC schedule; yes, there is one financial incentive – this is another post for another day).

So the lesson of this post is Aspiration is inversely proportional to Compromise; in non-mathematical terms, they are diametrically opposed, they are antithetical to each other.  As you give up aspiring, you end up compromising.  As you compromise (your standards), you have really stomped on any spark that was once aspiration.  What is happening with “healthcare insurance?”  This is an oxymoron.

Insurance, in any other business arena, is just that.  They take your money and you don’t want to have to collect; life insurance is really death insurance and you don’t want to have to collect.  Health insurance, is no longer insurance.  I would call it medical contracts cards, that is what we are buying monthly with our premiums.  People use and consume.   Healthcare is no longer healthcare, it is disease maintenance.  It then, in effect, our premiums purchase a “disease maintenance medical discount contracts card.”  What a mouthful.  Believe it or not, most doctors, we are stuck in this cycle as well and we usually choose not to consume and we ourselves purchase super high deductibles so that we don’t not use.  When we do use, the cost to us at the discounted contract rate is considered a reasonable expenditure for information.

What happens then is that the increased cost of medical insurance comes from usuage.  When usuage increases, the insurance companies squeeze profits from employers, the insured, and the doctors.  So usuage leads to cuts, which leads to decreased quality, increased volume in waiting rooms, less time with patients.

So as you can well guess, insurance and the standard, biochemical, biostatistical model of medicine is not is not compatible with osteopathy.  For those of us who are traditional osteopathic physicians aspiring to greatness, we merely tolerate insurance for a short time…

Again, it is very important for you to share this blog with your friends, co-workers and families…more in the next few posts…

In doing this work we learn from our patients how to be better physicians. Most normal physicians want to spend time with our patients and to be compensated for the investment we have made in our knowledge, skill and experience.  Ultimately, what we want for ourselves is to be able to solve a case in as few visits (for the patient) as possible.  Patients are thrilled!  After wasting their time and money on multiple specialists who charge them, but then don’t get them any tangible results, the $500-$1,000 is the best cash they ever spent.  The trust is that philosophically, we want what you want, which is to not come back because you are better.  While we ambitiously strive for this goal, we continue to develop our treatment skills…we aspire…to greatness…

I will continue this thought in the next post.  In the meanwhile, it is very important that you share some of your favorite past blogs with friend, co-workers and family…

The day of the conference, I was getting out of the car, leaned in, reached and grabbed my bag of books.  The load was unexpected and I felt a tweak in my neck.  During the conference, as I was paired up with wonderful doctors who have years of clinical experience, I was not quite right.  I had so much respect for these doctors but they were able to do only little with the weird pains and sensations I was dealing with.  I have to say, they were severely handicapped by the situation.  I and my strains are new to each, and I can not expect  them to figure me out completely within 10minutes.

Last year, I was in my last trimester with my second baby and I did a bad thing.  I was in a “nesting” frenzy and I got up on a ladder and yanked down old crown molding.  That wasn’t so bad so I squatted and yanked out old baseboards.  That really did something bad and the next day, boy did I feel it.  My back did not feel right but that L eyeball achiness popped up again.  I went to a friend to get treatment and he was oh so close.  I thought I might sleep like a baby tonight…Nope…I had a mini eyeball headache that night and the following night everything settled down.

Four months later, I go to another conference and I met a 5yrs new doctor.  He was an engineer in his prior career.  Then at the age of 50yrs, he quit and went to DO school.  Didn’t want to be an MD.  Quit just to do this hands on osteopathic stuff.  He was amazing.  He checked my head and felt this vector from my R head zing straight over to the L area around my eyeball!  Man, this was the only doctor who got that close to my eyeball headache.

So this thing kept going on and off for two whole years.  One day, I am driving and the eyeball is soooo…achy.  While driving I decide to try and exercise the muscles of the eye.  They felt so weak but doing the exercises did not make much of a difference.  I seriously thought to myself, “Self, should I go and get my eyes checked?  This is my good eye.  I should not ignore this.  It has been going on too long.  I thought who am I going to go to see?  My ophthomologist friend wouldn’t know, because this was extrinsic to the eye, and the tissues around the eye.  Should I go see an optometrist that I know who does vision therapy (exercises for the muscles of the eyes)?  Or should I go to my DO friend?

[ADDENDUM (7/29/11):  since this post, there have been others search ocular migraines while driving.  it suddenly occured to me that the "migraines" flare up mostly when the eyes are active, searching and focusing; what does this imply?  very simply that an "ocular migraine" is soft tissue and muscular strain of the eye.]

I did none of these things and continued to intermittently suffer with my weird “ocular migraine.”  Then one morning an epiphany happened and I ended up treating myself.  My eyeball feels great now. No achiness.  I no longer have to worry about going to another doctor, ophthomologist, optometrist and not even another DO.  I am now completely free!  My ocular migraine, it turns out, is/was a pure mechanical strain.  Here is how I figured it out…

One evening, Regan, my baby was cranky and fussy.  I decided to take her into bed with us and nurse her the whole night.  She has been teething lately and I missed us sleeping together.  Big mistake.  She flopped around and was very restless.  I was afraid that if I moved, I would wake her up.  So I layed on my right side the whole night.  The next morning I was stiff.  It was not healthy…I will finish with my cure for my ocular migraine in a future post…read on…

Unfortunately, medicine is a business and is very much like anything else in life.  You get what you pay for.

I have this patient who was jogging and got hit by a car; his brain started to swell on the way to the hospital, he became belligerent so the EMTs had to restrain him.  He was in the ICU they were watching and if the swelling continued, they would drill a hole through his skull to release the pressure (if not he could die within minutes); he was eventually stabilized and went home 2wks later.  After he came home, his personality changed, he was volatile and started to become afraid of being alone with his 1 year old daughter (emotional, not feeling good); he was afraid of hurting his own daughter.  I saw him twice.  After the first visit he exclaimed to his wife, “I don’t know what she did, but she’s welcome to feel me up anytime!”   He did not come back after the second visit because the medical bills were piling up.  Two years later, he comes back.  My shoulder is very painful, my legs feel heavy, my breathing is tight, running is not enjoyable anymore.  I told him, “Your shoulder pain is coming from your hip.”  He replied that I saw a problem with his hip 2 years ago.  He was perplexed.  I said, “Ron, you are mere flesh and blood. 2 years ago, you go into a fight with steel and concrete.  You lost.  I am not a miracle worker.”  It is now 6 visits, this second time around.  The breathing is easier, the shoulder is better, the legs are lighter, the whole body is lighter.  He comes in now every 2 or 3 weeks when he feels his body tighten up.  Soon he will be out once a month and he and i will be eventually done.

Yes, there is a treatment. Yes, there is a cure.  I have done it many times.  I even have patients test raise each leg. I do a treatment and right there and then, I have them recheck as proof that I know what I’m doing.  It is beautiful.  In these last 6 months, since August 2010, I have used this quickie technique to show patients how strained tissues can instantaneously change.  I grab a hold of strained tissues and actively reduce strain.  Wow.  It is a lot of work on my fingers.  It has only been this last week that I discovered what our osteopathic teachers have been talking about all along.  Hey, you guys out there, my patients and readers, all three of you who know that I am way gentle, yes…this is even more subtle than what I have been currently doing.  I have been doing osteopathic manipulative treatments for the last 11years and I finally, just this week realized how to do more precision, even less force work to achieve more dramatic change.  What is this huge epiphany?  Sorry, can’t tell you.  This is proprietary knowledge that belongs to the DOs.  Go to DO school, pay $250,000 for your education, study for 11 years (4 years college, 4 years medical school, minimum 3 yrs training), then ask me and maybe I will open my mouth and go into a lengthy exposition.

For those of you searching for answers, how can I help direct your search?  Since this blog was first posted, so many, many of you people out there have searched for answers and I bet you got a big fat zip for your efforts at those other (MD) web sites; yes even the ones that are really reputable and that are by institutions of medicine that I like.  The answer for you is Osteopathy…

Read my prior posts about osteopathic, health, our (traditional osteopathic physicians) and search for a DO licensed to practice medicine in your state.  Absolutely do not let anyone crack your back or neck, yank your legs or hips.  I will tell you that hands on osteopathic treatment styles can vary between different DOs; I liken it to the martial arts, some people are very subtle, some people are out there fru-fru energy stuff; I am more hands on cranking mechanical…I like to prove before and after within minutes in a visit because my goal is for you to trust.  Call and ask about experience and comfort with treating mechanically.  We charge for our time to get results so that you…do not need to come back.

7/29/11 ADDENDUM:  since i first wrote this post there have been 2300 searches on this topic.  you people out there are searching for help…i know what your problem is and can cure those legs…there was also one comment that this post did not provide any real answers to this question…unfortunately, it took me this long to figure this out and to try to explain to lay people what their problem is and how to fix it themselves would be impossible; in fact i have 2 local colleagues that have more experience and  different treatment styles and even they don’t know about this; so this is essentially my own discovery…today, i test explained this idea to one of these 2 colleagues; at first she did not seem too impressed – yes, my legs are about 10% lighter only after 10mins, so what?  big deal…. it took about 20minutes when the changes worked themselves up into her neck, face and jaw that i saw a twinkle of respect…so come to California for your cure or if you can afford it fly me in for a consultation…in the meanwhile, i will continue to discuss this topic with my colleagues and teachers; perhaps we can develop a course or training program so that you can find a trained osteopathic physician to address this issue specifically; you guys out there need to demand it of us DOs; sign up for my this blog; i check daily on the traffic, when there is enough demand, a critical mass is reached, hey, how about crashing this site with volume? maybe it will drive and impel us to do more.

1/4/2012  ADDENDUM:  since i first posted this blog, there have been 6300 views.  so many of you out there…i don’t know what to tell you…i am working on trying to get interest so that MDs and DOs can be inspired to learn this.  to get really good treating hands, it takes about a minimum of 7 years, i don’t know if physicians in general, want to spend more time and money to learn something that will free you up and not keep you coming back; especially if they are satisfied, churning the repeat volume…we shall see…i will keep you posted…