It’s not news that chiropractors worldwide recognize the need for greater respect from the public, other health care professionals and various policymakers. What many people say is the missing key to solve this perceived inequity is our lack of general public trust which would permit our self-governance. When the public fully trusts a profession, then truth is what that profession says it is. The professional group defines itself and, without any fanfare or undue prodding, the public accepts this truth. That is the trust that marks cultural authority. Chiropractors have understood that this is a barrier for many years and many chiropractors have set out to build our cultural authority. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Michael Farrell, a chiropractor from the Buffalo, NY region on that subject.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

Links for this show

Michael E. Farrell, II DC – practice website

Building Bridges to Cultural Authority by Arlan Fuhr, DC

How can chiropractic become a respected mainstream profession? The example of podiatry. Donald R Murphy et al

Book: Surviving in Health Care by Dieter F. Enzmann, MD Clearly written by a clinical doctor, this book first helps physicians understand the causes of changes in health care. Then, it explains how to devise a strategy in order to survive and prosper in today’s environment. It covers the entire spectrum of medicine, and encourages solutions that meet physicians’ individual circumstances. It focuses on useful tactics and specific actions, rather than quick fixes. Shows physicians how to formulate a strategy to survive and prosper. Includes discussion about cultural authority.

Chiropractic Summit

IHCPR

You probably don’t give it much thought. It’s your kid’s birthday and you need to make the place look a little more festive. So you pop down to the party supply store and pick a few helium balloons in various colors. Maybe one with a cartoon character wishing your whatever-year-old a happy whatever birthday. Get home and tie those floating orbs to the mailbox or some chairs to delight the party guests. At the end of the event, perhaps a rousing game of balloon ball or an Alvin and the Chipmunks impression.

But helium, you may not realize, is not an easily renewable resource. Sure, it is the second most common element but it cannot be artificially produced. It is collected from under the Earth and the supply in the US, the world’s largest, is set to be fully depleted in less than 10 years. The worldwide supply is set to run out in 20 to 30 years.

So what, right? So we use different balloons for the next party. Big deal. Well, you probably never thought that those party decorations may be a direct threat to the future of science and medicine. MRI’s depend on helium to supercool the superconductive magnets used in that diagnostic process. It is also used in generating radioactive isotopes for nuclear medicine. And in the manufacture of optical fibers. And in making LCD screens. And in particle accelerators. And in NASA’s rockets.

As a result of Cold War strategic planning, the US Congress actually passed laws that push the selling out of our helium reserves by Jan 1, 2015. This was done to recover funds spent in the 1920′s for helium exploration. In order to do so, the pricing of helium has been set ridiculously low. In fact, if helium were to be priced according to its actual value and the cost of extracting it, estimates show an average helium balloon should cost about $100.

This is an obscure problem at best but one that will have far reaching effects in science and health care. And once the US reserves are depleted, you can bet the costs for MRI’s and other aspects of health care will rise sharply to meet the expense of importing this rare element from the much smaller areas in Russia, Qatar and Algeria.

The separation is killing us. The isolation of chiropractic from the rest of health care is already difficult enough but we have huge pockets of isolation within chiropractic like cells of solitary confinement within an already secluded imprisonment. Further division continues to dilute something which is already weakened, already damaged. We need to find a solution to this or we are doomed to disappear. Dr. Steven Weiniger thinks the common thread needed to stitch the profession together, perhaps even unify chiropractic, lies in how we carry ourselves. Literally.  How we physically stand up in posture. Can positioning ourselves at the posture experts be the flag all chiropractors can stand behind, regardless of scientific or fundamental orientation?

Dr. Brett L. Kinsler, host of On The Other Hand Podcast, discusses this topic with Dr. Steven Weiniger of PostureZone.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN or search OnTheOtherHand Podcast on iTunes.

• PostureZone.com
• Stand Taller, Live Longer book by Dr. Steven Weiniger
• Posture Rehab Seminars

When we are measuring the impact chiropractors have by their presence in the health care system, and not just in spine care, but our presence overall, there may be something missing. Many chiropractors have had a dramatic effect on the public’s health by being properly trained in diagnosis and emergency procedures. By being a portal of contact for a patient who is discovered to have a life threatening condition, the chiropractor may be integral in starting the chain of survival much sooner than the natural history. Or, the chiropractor may actually perform an emergency procedure that leads to an immediate change in a patient’s ability to survive.

When the lawmakers and stakeholders sit down to carve up the medical allocation pie, there are some large pieces that get allocated to hospitals and emergency care, some large pieces that go to prescription drugs, some smaller pieces that go to specialties like obstetrics. By the time they get around to even thinking about chiropractic care, the pie is pretty well carved up. The justification for this frequently is, well, chiropractic is a nice thing to have. But it’s like massage – not a necessity — more of a nicety.

This episode’s stories illustrate that lives have depended on a chiropractor’s quick actions. Some of the doctors who told their stories are listed below:

* Mike Simone, DC Simone Physical Medicine, Dacono, CO
* Cynthia Vaughn, DC Austin Chiropractic Center, Austin, TX
* John Ventura, DC Rochester Chiropractic Group, Rochester, NY
* Keren Day, DC New York, New York
* Brett Kinsler, DC Natural Health Chiropractic, Rochester, NY
* William Grosso, DC Rockland Health Chiropractic Assoc. New City, NY

Listen to this episode in iTunes or click here

Is inflammation a good thing or a bad thing? Sometimes, the fact that the body gets inflamed is beneficial – swelling caused by acute inflammation following an injury can help promote healing and fight local infection. It’s an appropriate immune response. But another kind of inflammation, a chronic sort, can occur throughout the body, and over long periods of time may actually increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. Chronic inflammation is kind of a glitch in the system — a feedback loop gone awry. How do you test for the presence of this chronic inflammation and, if it is present, what should we do about it? In this podcast episode of On The Other Hand, we hear from Dr. David Seaman, chiropractor, professor at National University of Health Sciences in St Petersburg Fl. and the producer of the website Deflame.com. He’s an expert in the connection between nutrition and chronic inflammation.

Podcast can be found on iTunes or at OnTheOtherHand.KinslerPress.com

• Deflame.com – Dr. Seaman’s website with lots of free information
• Clinical Nutrition for Pain, Inflammmation, and Tissue Healing book by Dr. Seaman
• Elations Glucosamine Powder was mentioned by podcast guest
• Essentials of Nutrition – Dr. Seaman’s column in Dynamic Chiropractic

Busy, I have heard, is the new “fine”. As in:

“Hey, Joe! How you doin’?”
“Oh, so busy, Mike! You?”
“Yeah, super busy! Kids?”
“Busy, busy…with sports and dance. Well, gotta go…busy day!”

So, sure, I’m busy. We all have a lot going on. But I am frequently asked how I get it all done? A silly question since we all just get stuff done. But people see the fact that I have a full time practice, have three kids that I help home-school, blog, podcast, serve on the boards for various organizations, etc, etc and I get it done. Surely there must be a secret, right?

There is. And I’ll tell you that secret.

I learned this from the most successful, productive people I know.

We’ve turned off the TV.

That’s it. Simple, really. No cable, no dish, no TiVo. The average American watches more than 4 hours of television each day. The most productive people I know watch zero to less than one hour per day. In our house, the TV is fairly small, not connected to cable and is rarely turned on.

If it is on, we have specially selected something to watch — usually something we think the kids will find value in and we can watch as a family. This is usually programming that doesn’t exist much any longer on mainstream television like The Waltons, Little House or Nova.

The problem is that there is always something on. And with cable and satellite menus reaching well into the triple digits, even finding something to watch by surfing the channels can be a full-time job!

What would you do with an extra 3 or 4 hours in your day? Could you write that book you’ve always thought of writing? Could you actually make it to the gym? Spend more time with your kids or spouse doing something other than staring at a lighted box?

Turn off the time burglar.

Ask yourself, does TV really add anything to your life? Of course you can point to a few memorable spots on the Discovery Channel or PBS but think about the last 5 things you watched — besides a few laugh track chuckles or a thrilling moment of Law and Order plot twist, did you walk away with anything real? Anything productive? Anything of value?

Turn off the mindless chatter.

And it’s not even just the shows. Marketing works. That’s why companies spend gazillions of dollars to feature their products on television. So what messages is your brain constantly being exposed to? Buy this, eat this, do this. And what is the message your kids are getting? So many kids today are unnaturally brand obsessed, addicted to junk food and materialistic — where do you think that comes from?

Turn off the brainwashing.

Most parents spend less than 40 minutes per week having meaningful conversations with their kids while the kids spend over 1600 minutes watching TV. Do you want your kids being parented by the kids on Glee or Hannah Montana? Because they are getting more information from them then they get from you.

Turn off the bad influence.

This is National Screen Free Week, a time when children, families and schools, and everyone really is encouraged to turn off the passive, time sucking, brainwashing, negative influence screen media and spend more time reading, creating or just connecting.

What are you going to do with your extra 21-28 hours this week? And the next? And the next?

I wrote a blog article on the topic of chiropractors and limited prescription rights, especially as it pertains to the state of New Mexico. That post attracted some heated debate and strong opinion. For more depth on this issue, I wanted to speak to two people who went to the hearings in New Mexico concerning this bill. I contacted Dr. James Winterstein, president of National University of Health Sciences and Dr. Gerry Clum, recently retired president of Life College of Chiropractic West to hear what they had to say.

Listen to this episode on iTunes or over at the On The Other Hand podcast website.

J. David Cassidy DC DrMedSc PhD

J David Cassidy, DC DrMedSc, PhD is a senior scientist in the Division of Health Care & Outcomes Research at Toronto Western Research Institute (TWRI).  He is also a professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and professor in Clinical Epidemiology in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Cassidy also holds the Research Directorship in Artists’ Health at the University Health Network.

Originally trained as a chiropractor, Dr. Cassidy practiced in both Ontario and Saskatchewan, where he was a member of the Medical-Dental Staff at the Royal University Hospital and a consultant chiropractor to the Division of Orthopedic Surgery. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anatomy, a Master of Science in Surgery and a Doctorate in Anatomical Pathology from the University of Saskatchewan. His second doctoral degree (Dr.Med.Sc.) was earned in Epidemiology and Injury Prevention at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Cassidy has authored over 225 scientific papers and chapters in books, including publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Achives of Internal Medicine, Spine and other international journals. His research interests include musculoskeletal and injury epidemiology. His current research focus is on disability prevention from occupational and traffic injuries, neurotrauma (brain and spinal cord injury) and health issues in artists.

Dr. Cassidy is recently known for a paper published in Spine that examined more than 100 million person years and concluded there was no additional risk of stroke following a visit to a chiropractor versus seeing a medical doctor.

In this episode of the chiropractic podcast On The Other Hand, J. David Cassidy speaks with Dr. Brett Kinsler about this paper, its strengths and its criticisms.

Listen here, on iTunes or use the handy player below. Transcript here.

Dr. Brett Kinsler reads and responds to some podcast listener mail, discusses some behind the scenes processes of the On The Other Hand program and addresses why he is changing the tagline for the show.

Listen Here