Swine Flu Vs. Yearly Flu: Let's Look at the Numbers...
Our goal with this blog post is to educate people and to help them make informed choices. It is important to know both sides of the story before making these kinds of decisions. That being said, let’s try to ponder some key questions that are being constantly addressed in the media. Note that this post will be substantiated with direct links to websites to see the articles where the facts have been obtained.
Is Swine flu deadly? According the Center for Disease Control, (CDC), “most people who get the H1N1 flu will have mild illness, will not need medical care or antiviral drugs, and will recover in less than 2 weeks,”(found at: CDC link 1). However, the Swine Flu can kill, just like any other flu is potentially lethal. Even the common cold is lethal TO SOMEONE WHO HAS A WEAKENED IMMUNE SYSTEM. Studies show that 70% of the complications from the Swine flu did not occur in healthy individuals, but in children or adults who were already immuno-compromised. Here is a list from the CDC as to those people who are more at risk of serious complication:
• “Chronic pulmonary (including asthma), cardiovascular (except hypertension), renal, hepatic, hematological (including sickle cell disease), or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus);
• Disorders that that can compromise respiratory function or the handling of respiratory secretions or that can increase the risk for aspiration (e.g., cognitive dysfunction, spinal cord injuries, seizure disorders, or other neuromuscular disorders)
• Immunosuppression, including that caused by medications or by HIV;
• Preliminary studies suggest that people who are morbidly obese (body mass index equal to or greater than 40) and perhaps people who are obese (body mass index 30 to 39)
• Persons younger than 19 years of age who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy.”
o Found at: CDC link 2
How likely is someone to get the Swine flu? As of 11/25/09, there have been 22 million cases of Swine flu in the US. The total population of the US is hovering somewhere around 307 million, which equates to 14% of the population actually contracting the Swine flu [found at: CDC link 3]. However, there have been an estimated 9800 reported deaths according to the latest statistics from the CDC. Interestingly, the CDC states: “Each year in the United States on average, 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu; on average, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications, and about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes.” [found at:CDC link 4]. That means that the swine flu at present is affecting the same percent as the seasonal flu, with far less fatalities so far. According to these statistics, 9800 deaths from swine flu in 2009 is significantly less than the 36,000 fatalities annually from regular seasonal flu.
Are kids more likely to get the Swine flu? An estimated 8 million children have contracted the Swine flu in the US, (9% of the number of children in the country), with 540 deaths. Considering that there are 75 million children in the US, the death rate of the swine flu in children in 1.5%. [found at: CDC link 5].
What is in the Swine flu shot? Each needle-delivered vaccine contains Thimerosol, a mercury derivative, as one of the main preservatives in the shot (unless you get lucky and find a single dose preparation versus the multi-dose preparation). Mercury is a major toxin to the brain and is carcinogenic, and has been implicated repeatedly (including an important article in the June 2009 issue of the journal entitled Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry) to have a potential relationship in the rise in autism and other developmental disorders [found at:
Journal link 1]. The only vaccine without Thimerasol is the Flumist nasal spray, although that contains MSG and antibiotics. Formaldehyde, used to preserve dead bodies, is also in some of the shots. These ingredients were found on the FDA website at: FDA link 1.
What about testing for swine flu? Recently, doctor’s offices have stopped taking the extra step and actually confirming if their patient has the swine flu with a lab test. These tests cost a lot and take time, so now if you have flu-like symptoms, it is ASSUMED you have Swine flu. According to an article on healthcentral.com, there are a few reasons testing is now longer routinely completed: “1) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is no longer tracking each case of swine flu, 2)Doctors are familiar with symptoms of the flu and are able to make a diagnosis without a test, and 3)Treatment is the same whether you have the flu or have a viral respiratory infection”[found at: health central link 1]. Therefore it appears that this may statistically increase the number of false positive cases of the swine flu.
With the dozens of shots our kids are given from an early age, do we have a healthier America? Are our kids, or adults for that matter, a shining example of health and vitality? No, we are sicker, more obese, and less fit than ever before. As reported in the Huffington Post recently, one in three American children has diabetes, one in three is obese and one in three American children have allergies, autism, ADHD or asthma. [found at:
huffington post link 1]
It was additionally postulated in an article in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine that my generation will be the first in recent history to have their average age of death be younger than the generation before us [found at:
New England Journal of Medicine link 1]. What does all this mean? It sounds (statistically speaking) that the 2009-2010 Swine Flu is relatively similar to the "regular seasonal flu!" I don’t know about you, but these statistics show that with the degree of fear being discussed, we are traveling in the wrong direction. It is like the signs on the highways that say, “Wrong way. Go back.”
OK…so with all that bad news, what can be done to help give you the strongest possible body, one that might be more apt to fend off the swine flu? Our approach is simple and three-pronged: 1) Chiropractic, to boost your immune system and keep it functioning at 100%; 2) diet, to make sure you are eating the best possible foods to avoid weakening your own immune system by poor food choices, along with taking proper supplementation to give your body (for example, extra probiotics and vitamin c); and 3) exercise, to keep your body as strong as it can be, which helps reduce stress and thereby increase your ability to fight disease.
We believe that the power that made the body can heal the body. We believe that the best ‘vaccination’ is prevention, through chiropractic, diet and exercise. The body has this amazing intelligence that controls it from above, down, inside out. It knows what to do, when to do it and how to do it, and our job is to make sure it is working at 100% of its potential.
When this winter is over, I will be very interested to see how many regular chiropractic patients got Swine flu, versus the rest of the population. In the meantime, keep healthy with chiropractic, diet and exercise!
Please post your comments, whether they are for this article or against it…I would enjoy seeing your reactions, and will respond to all posts. And most of all, have the happiest and healthiest of holidays! Check out theadjustment.com for more information.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Chapter 4: How to Raise a Chiropractic Family
By Dr. Lisa Rubin, Ph.D. (my beautiful wife and guest blogger)
Director, Life University, Student Success Center
If you want to know the true story about chiropractic, just watch a child. Kids instinctively know how to play and have fun; we don’t have to explain to toddlers and preschoolers how to enjoy themselves. They just do it naturally. Children even know how to innately bend down and pick things up properly by using their legs. How come no one needs to explain this to a youngster? Chiropractic kids think differently because they are exposed to different ideas about health and life choices.
We share the chiropractic story with our children in many ways: “The body heals from the inside out,” “The power that made the body heals the body,” and “The body heals from above, down, inside, out” are typical examples. Chiropractic, for many families, is more than just a health care choice. It is a lifestyle. To illustrate, we have chosen to bring our son up as a vegetarian. One afternoon we were going through Whole Foods and my son asked what was rotating in a glass case, (it was rotisserie chicken). Four-year-old Palmer was horrified and started chanting, “Don’t kill chickens. Don’t kill chickens.” He did not yell this out to have others feel bad about their choices, he explained. Palmer was trying to educate people about other life choices that they could have. That was pretty profound for a kindergartener.
An important lesson we learned early on was to reach out to other chiropractors to help us on our journey. On one occasion, Palmer was playing with friends. They were pushing him in a cart and he fell off and cut his lip so badly that his lip was hanging away from his mouth, halfway to his chin. We had to choose between getting it stitched up, or letting it heal on its own. After several hours of agonizing debates, we finally decided to take him to a plastic surgeon. This was the third time he busted his lip at the same location. The first two times we allowed it to heal naturally, but the tear appeared to be progressing with each injury. Palmer was just learning how to speak and we were concerned that maintaining an open wound this time might affect his speech or his ability to eat properly due to the size of this large tear. The stitches went fine but Palmer developed a horrible eye infection. We finally got on the phone and called our chiropractic friends for their advice. They told us to have him drink Eye-bright tea and put the cooled tea bag on his infected eye. What a miracle it is to have others help. We have relied many times, before and since, on our chiropractic friends to offer guidance culled from their own experiences.
When our kids go to school they stand out. They sometimes eat different foods and practice different health choices. On one occasion, a female classmate came to school with a cast on her arm. Palmer was very upset that she had gotten hurt on the playground the day before. He asked her, in a very worried tone, if she had to go to the hospital. She responded that she did. He looked grief stricken and queried whether she needed to get shots. That was the beginning of a very interesting conversation.
“Of course not,” she responded. She went on to explain when shots were given. Palmer had never heard such a thing, and responded that he never had shots. She argued that not getting any shots was impossible. I stood back watching the interaction wondering if the teacher was going to intervene. She absolutely did! The teacher reminded Palmer that, when born in the hospital, you receive your first shot. Palmer then responded proudly that he was born at home. Here we go… The teacher’s expression was priceless. She gave him a sympathetic look that he must be a bit confused. She eventually gave up trying to convince Palmer that before you come home, one is born in the hospital. This issue did not disappear. When Palmer was in fourth grade, vaccines were brought up again. A classmate said she had a flu shot. Palmer reminded her that he never had shots. She told him, “If you don’t have shots you will die.” Palmer retorted, “Then why am I still living?”
Our children are very powerful people. They are asked to stand up to challenges that even give us difficulty. I tell our son that it must be hard to have us as his parents because we ask a lot from him. We make so many different choices than the bulk of society, from being born at home, being a vegetarian, consuming no milk or meat, eating mostly organic food, taking no vaccines or drugs. The list goes on and on.
I walked into school one day when Palmer was in first grade. All the children’s artwork from the day was hanging up. I knew immediately which one was Palmer’s. His painting was out of the lines and all the colors were different than the other children’s patterns. I looked at that picture and said, ‘of course’. We taught him to think outside the box; exactly what chiropractic philosophy has taught us. Our son has all the qualities a parent would hope for in a 20 year old but as a child it is a tough road to be a free thinker. Chiropractic kids tend to explode with many inquisitive questions they want answered and are not afraid to question authority. We’ve made sure Palmer at least understands how to do it courteously.
Our children constantly see chiropractic in everything they do because that is what we share with them. One such example was when my son was in my husband’s chiropractic office playing with the photocopy machine. I noticed about 20 pages of paper lying on the carpet. I asked Palmer, age 5 at the time, what he was doing, realizing he was on a mission. He responded that he was taking x-rays. His tone basically said, “Come on Mom, don’t you know this?” I told him I could tell he was taking x-rays, but was wondering why there were so many taken, (of course, he must realize it is important to not overexpose patients to unnecessary radiation, right?). He stated in an exasperated tone: “Here’s the before chiropractic x-ray, (the doll’s head was turned to one side). Here’s the after chiropractic x-ray, (the doll’s head was perfectly straight, looking forward).” I saw in his eyes and voice inflections that he was thinking, “Okay, Mom. I’ll just have to explain the obvious.”
Another time, I picked up Palmer from school and he had fallen in the playground. He stated that he needed to go to “Daddy’s office” to get adjusted before we went home. Upon arriving at the office, he realized that his dad had just unveiled a holiday poster/writing contest for kids. He wanted to participate, and liked the idea of winning a prize, (which, knowing his daddy, meant everyone gets to win). Since Palmer was only 4, he asked that I write his “story.” These are Palmer’s words: “I hurt my knee because a little bit of subluxation was squeezing on two nerves. I went to Dr. Drew’s office and he ‘adjust’ me. I almost felt better. But, after it was almost better, G-d healed up the subluxation and I felt much better.” Kids get chiropractic. It is plain and simple to them.
Many of us also have children that adjust while they are pretend-playing as toddlers. I remember one time my son was playing with his cousins. Their father is a medical doctor and understandably they were giving shots to their dolls. Palmer stated he was going to show them something “cool” without shots. Guess what? Moments later, all the kids started adjusting the dolls. Another time, my son was at a chiropractic seminar with us. He was sitting with a chiropractic student who was trying to keep him busy. Jesse asked if he wanted to draw a picture of his hand and traced his hand for him. He was excited and asked if she would trace his other hand on top of the first one, so it looked like he was adjusting.
We also have to guide our children. In first grade, Palmer happily came home one day announcing that he had adjusted his friend Zach on the playground after his pal complained of a headache. My husband asked Palmer what he had done. Our son casually explained, (with that look once again that said ‘don’t you know already?’), that after his buddy told him he was going to the school nurse to get an aspirin, Palmer replied in a horrified tone: “Don’t do that! I can adjust you just like my dad does.” We asked Palmer to refrain from adjusting people until he gets a license.
When Palmer, now almost 11, was asked for his opinion of what to put in this article, he said, “Tell them that chiropractic will give them a much happier lifestyle.” So just follow these steps:
1. Start from day one explaining your philosophy to children and include “why” you do things.
2. Talk with other chiropractic families for support or advice; you don’t have to do this alone.
3. Keep informed by reading constantly. There is a plethora of books, magazines and websites about every alternative health option you could imagine.
4. Go to holistic seminars with your entire family, whether they are just a local “Saturday” night or four-day intensives. There you will either be reinforced for your choices or be exposed to new ideas.
5. Ask lots of questions until you know what your choices are, and then make your decision and stay strong.
6. Understand that your family and non-chiropractic friends will think you are nuts most of the time, so don’t let them talk you out of what you believe in. Share with them in a loving manner; don’t let your different choices make them think that they are wrong for following the conventional approaches. Remember, it is better to be loved than to be right. Let them have their opinion, just as you have yours.
7. A crisis is not the time to make a health care decision. Try to make as many choices as possible before big events like birth, first vaccinations, breastfeeding, family bed, etc.
8. Answer all your children’s questions without biasing other’s choices. Answer them honestly and don’t hide the facts. Offer them a chance to be part of the decision making process and they will eventually be able to make these same choices as they get older and reach the more difficult peer pressure years.
By Dr. Lisa Rubin, Ph.D. (my beautiful wife and guest blogger)
Director, Life University, Student Success Center
If you want to know the true story about chiropractic, just watch a child. Kids instinctively know how to play and have fun; we don’t have to explain to toddlers and preschoolers how to enjoy themselves. They just do it naturally. Children even know how to innately bend down and pick things up properly by using their legs. How come no one needs to explain this to a youngster? Chiropractic kids think differently because they are exposed to different ideas about health and life choices.
We share the chiropractic story with our children in many ways: “The body heals from the inside out,” “The power that made the body heals the body,” and “The body heals from above, down, inside, out” are typical examples. Chiropractic, for many families, is more than just a health care choice. It is a lifestyle. To illustrate, we have chosen to bring our son up as a vegetarian. One afternoon we were going through Whole Foods and my son asked what was rotating in a glass case, (it was rotisserie chicken). Four-year-old Palmer was horrified and started chanting, “Don’t kill chickens. Don’t kill chickens.” He did not yell this out to have others feel bad about their choices, he explained. Palmer was trying to educate people about other life choices that they could have. That was pretty profound for a kindergartener.
An important lesson we learned early on was to reach out to other chiropractors to help us on our journey. On one occasion, Palmer was playing with friends. They were pushing him in a cart and he fell off and cut his lip so badly that his lip was hanging away from his mouth, halfway to his chin. We had to choose between getting it stitched up, or letting it heal on its own. After several hours of agonizing debates, we finally decided to take him to a plastic surgeon. This was the third time he busted his lip at the same location. The first two times we allowed it to heal naturally, but the tear appeared to be progressing with each injury. Palmer was just learning how to speak and we were concerned that maintaining an open wound this time might affect his speech or his ability to eat properly due to the size of this large tear. The stitches went fine but Palmer developed a horrible eye infection. We finally got on the phone and called our chiropractic friends for their advice. They told us to have him drink Eye-bright tea and put the cooled tea bag on his infected eye. What a miracle it is to have others help. We have relied many times, before and since, on our chiropractic friends to offer guidance culled from their own experiences.
When our kids go to school they stand out. They sometimes eat different foods and practice different health choices. On one occasion, a female classmate came to school with a cast on her arm. Palmer was very upset that she had gotten hurt on the playground the day before. He asked her, in a very worried tone, if she had to go to the hospital. She responded that she did. He looked grief stricken and queried whether she needed to get shots. That was the beginning of a very interesting conversation.
“Of course not,” she responded. She went on to explain when shots were given. Palmer had never heard such a thing, and responded that he never had shots. She argued that not getting any shots was impossible. I stood back watching the interaction wondering if the teacher was going to intervene. She absolutely did! The teacher reminded Palmer that, when born in the hospital, you receive your first shot. Palmer then responded proudly that he was born at home. Here we go… The teacher’s expression was priceless. She gave him a sympathetic look that he must be a bit confused. She eventually gave up trying to convince Palmer that before you come home, one is born in the hospital. This issue did not disappear. When Palmer was in fourth grade, vaccines were brought up again. A classmate said she had a flu shot. Palmer reminded her that he never had shots. She told him, “If you don’t have shots you will die.” Palmer retorted, “Then why am I still living?”
Our children are very powerful people. They are asked to stand up to challenges that even give us difficulty. I tell our son that it must be hard to have us as his parents because we ask a lot from him. We make so many different choices than the bulk of society, from being born at home, being a vegetarian, consuming no milk or meat, eating mostly organic food, taking no vaccines or drugs. The list goes on and on.
I walked into school one day when Palmer was in first grade. All the children’s artwork from the day was hanging up. I knew immediately which one was Palmer’s. His painting was out of the lines and all the colors were different than the other children’s patterns. I looked at that picture and said, ‘of course’. We taught him to think outside the box; exactly what chiropractic philosophy has taught us. Our son has all the qualities a parent would hope for in a 20 year old but as a child it is a tough road to be a free thinker. Chiropractic kids tend to explode with many inquisitive questions they want answered and are not afraid to question authority. We’ve made sure Palmer at least understands how to do it courteously.
Our children constantly see chiropractic in everything they do because that is what we share with them. One such example was when my son was in my husband’s chiropractic office playing with the photocopy machine. I noticed about 20 pages of paper lying on the carpet. I asked Palmer, age 5 at the time, what he was doing, realizing he was on a mission. He responded that he was taking x-rays. His tone basically said, “Come on Mom, don’t you know this?” I told him I could tell he was taking x-rays, but was wondering why there were so many taken, (of course, he must realize it is important to not overexpose patients to unnecessary radiation, right?). He stated in an exasperated tone: “Here’s the before chiropractic x-ray, (the doll’s head was turned to one side). Here’s the after chiropractic x-ray, (the doll’s head was perfectly straight, looking forward).” I saw in his eyes and voice inflections that he was thinking, “Okay, Mom. I’ll just have to explain the obvious.”
Another time, I picked up Palmer from school and he had fallen in the playground. He stated that he needed to go to “Daddy’s office” to get adjusted before we went home. Upon arriving at the office, he realized that his dad had just unveiled a holiday poster/writing contest for kids. He wanted to participate, and liked the idea of winning a prize, (which, knowing his daddy, meant everyone gets to win). Since Palmer was only 4, he asked that I write his “story.” These are Palmer’s words: “I hurt my knee because a little bit of subluxation was squeezing on two nerves. I went to Dr. Drew’s office and he ‘adjust’ me. I almost felt better. But, after it was almost better, G-d healed up the subluxation and I felt much better.” Kids get chiropractic. It is plain and simple to them.
Many of us also have children that adjust while they are pretend-playing as toddlers. I remember one time my son was playing with his cousins. Their father is a medical doctor and understandably they were giving shots to their dolls. Palmer stated he was going to show them something “cool” without shots. Guess what? Moments later, all the kids started adjusting the dolls. Another time, my son was at a chiropractic seminar with us. He was sitting with a chiropractic student who was trying to keep him busy. Jesse asked if he wanted to draw a picture of his hand and traced his hand for him. He was excited and asked if she would trace his other hand on top of the first one, so it looked like he was adjusting.
We also have to guide our children. In first grade, Palmer happily came home one day announcing that he had adjusted his friend Zach on the playground after his pal complained of a headache. My husband asked Palmer what he had done. Our son casually explained, (with that look once again that said ‘don’t you know already?’), that after his buddy told him he was going to the school nurse to get an aspirin, Palmer replied in a horrified tone: “Don’t do that! I can adjust you just like my dad does.” We asked Palmer to refrain from adjusting people until he gets a license.
When Palmer, now almost 11, was asked for his opinion of what to put in this article, he said, “Tell them that chiropractic will give them a much happier lifestyle.” So just follow these steps:
1. Start from day one explaining your philosophy to children and include “why” you do things.
2. Talk with other chiropractic families for support or advice; you don’t have to do this alone.
3. Keep informed by reading constantly. There is a plethora of books, magazines and websites about every alternative health option you could imagine.
4. Go to holistic seminars with your entire family, whether they are just a local “Saturday” night or four-day intensives. There you will either be reinforced for your choices or be exposed to new ideas.
5. Ask lots of questions until you know what your choices are, and then make your decision and stay strong.
6. Understand that your family and non-chiropractic friends will think you are nuts most of the time, so don’t let them talk you out of what you believe in. Share with them in a loving manner; don’t let your different choices make them think that they are wrong for following the conventional approaches. Remember, it is better to be loved than to be right. Let them have their opinion, just as you have yours.
7. A crisis is not the time to make a health care decision. Try to make as many choices as possible before big events like birth, first vaccinations, breastfeeding, family bed, etc.
8. Answer all your children’s questions without biasing other’s choices. Answer them honestly and don’t hide the facts. Offer them a chance to be part of the decision making process and they will eventually be able to make these same choices as they get older and reach the more difficult peer pressure years.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Choose Life- Chapter 3
Chiropractic Can Change Your Life…I’ve Been Asthma-free Since 1984!
The question was asked of me recently…”Why should I go to a chiropractor? I’m afraid of them hurting me. I’ve also heard that sometimes you end up feeling so good that you have to come back for the rest of your life.”
Here’s my answer: I was once in your shoes, not knowing what chiropractic was. I was a patient first, before I became a chiropractor, because of years of horrible asthma. I got a few hours relief from inhalers, and that was it. That was no way to live.
During my first visit to the chiropractor in the summer of 1984, I was shaking like a leaf for two reasons. Number one, because I was so scared, based on all the notions of what I thought chiropractic might be. Number two, because of all the asthma medication I had been on for years and years and years. You see, nothing had helped me in the fifteen years previous to my first chiropractic adjustment. This was my last ditch effort to save my life. I had given up hope and figured I’d just have to take pills and puff on inhalers for the rest of my days. I feared the day I’d forget my inhaler and die somewhere alone.
This chiropractor that my mother dragged me to gave me hope. For the first time in my whole life, someone actually gave me hope. He said, “Maybe we can help you,” then asked, “If the master communication system isn’t working at a hundred percent, how could you?” He said if chiropractic reconnected me with the glorious healing power that is within me, that I could watch my life change right before my eyes. My first chiropractor challenged me, stating: “You can walk out of here and never come back and always wonder, what if, or you can give chiropractic a chance. If it works, if a miracle occurs, you could have a whole different life, a whole different destiny.”
Whoa. That was a unique way of looking at things. A lot more positive than I was used to. Then my first chiropractor said the most profound sentence anyone has ever said to me: “If you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’re getting. If you want something different, you’ve got to do something different.”
Zoinks! Talk about a paradigm shift. I never thought of that before. I had been taking drugs for 15 years, expecting something to change, but now there was a new thought: If the drugs hadn’t gotten rid of my asthma for 15 years, they probably weren’t ever going to! That was profound!
I gave chiropractic a chance. He told me my lungs knew how to breathe but they were not getting a hundred percent of the message from my brain. He said anything less than a hundred percent is not enough for God’s perfection. God wants us to be healthy, but we can’t be healthy if we have interference with the master communication system.
And lo and behold, my asthma began to disappear after three months of chiropractic adjustments. It’s been 25 years now since my last asthma attack. That’s 25 YEARS!!! Every breath I take is a good one, because I am living at a hundred percent due to chiropractic care. Nobody can take that away from me. I am no longer dependent on drugs, or inhalers, or anything. I am dependent on God within to heal me. And, dear reader, all I ask for is a chance to allow chiropractic to do the same thing with you and your family.
You may ask: “Does that mean you’ve been getting adjusted for 25 years?” Yes, I have been getting regular chiropractic adjustments now for 25 years and will do so for the rest of my life. It is the same as dieting or exercising…once you get to your ideal weight or have the perfect figure, do you say, “Ok, now I can stop all that dieting and exercising!” No---you keep it up to maintain the new you that you have become! You can always be healthier! You can always get stronger! Make those deposits and your bank account will continue to go up!
What have you got to lose? Especially with the gentle version of chiropractic that we offer, using the Activator Adjusting Instrument. It is the mildest, calmest way to receive a chiropractic adjustment (check out www.activator.com for more information). What would your life be like if you got your health back, and then your life back? Don’t live the ‘what if’. Live the now. It’s time to go for it. Live the chance that chiropractic could be the thing that is the catalyst for your reconnection to living at 100%. As I always say, ‘if you haven’t tried chiropractic, you haven’t tried everything.’ Positive thinking was the first key in the Choose Life Plan, and Chiropractic is the 2nd key. Stay tuned next month for number 3.
Please post comments here on the blog or email them to rubinchiropractic@gmail.com, or visit our website at www.theadjustment.com.
The question was asked of me recently…”Why should I go to a chiropractor? I’m afraid of them hurting me. I’ve also heard that sometimes you end up feeling so good that you have to come back for the rest of your life.”
Here’s my answer: I was once in your shoes, not knowing what chiropractic was. I was a patient first, before I became a chiropractor, because of years of horrible asthma. I got a few hours relief from inhalers, and that was it. That was no way to live.
During my first visit to the chiropractor in the summer of 1984, I was shaking like a leaf for two reasons. Number one, because I was so scared, based on all the notions of what I thought chiropractic might be. Number two, because of all the asthma medication I had been on for years and years and years. You see, nothing had helped me in the fifteen years previous to my first chiropractic adjustment. This was my last ditch effort to save my life. I had given up hope and figured I’d just have to take pills and puff on inhalers for the rest of my days. I feared the day I’d forget my inhaler and die somewhere alone.
This chiropractor that my mother dragged me to gave me hope. For the first time in my whole life, someone actually gave me hope. He said, “Maybe we can help you,” then asked, “If the master communication system isn’t working at a hundred percent, how could you?” He said if chiropractic reconnected me with the glorious healing power that is within me, that I could watch my life change right before my eyes. My first chiropractor challenged me, stating: “You can walk out of here and never come back and always wonder, what if, or you can give chiropractic a chance. If it works, if a miracle occurs, you could have a whole different life, a whole different destiny.”
Whoa. That was a unique way of looking at things. A lot more positive than I was used to. Then my first chiropractor said the most profound sentence anyone has ever said to me: “If you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’re getting. If you want something different, you’ve got to do something different.”
Zoinks! Talk about a paradigm shift. I never thought of that before. I had been taking drugs for 15 years, expecting something to change, but now there was a new thought: If the drugs hadn’t gotten rid of my asthma for 15 years, they probably weren’t ever going to! That was profound!
I gave chiropractic a chance. He told me my lungs knew how to breathe but they were not getting a hundred percent of the message from my brain. He said anything less than a hundred percent is not enough for God’s perfection. God wants us to be healthy, but we can’t be healthy if we have interference with the master communication system.
And lo and behold, my asthma began to disappear after three months of chiropractic adjustments. It’s been 25 years now since my last asthma attack. That’s 25 YEARS!!! Every breath I take is a good one, because I am living at a hundred percent due to chiropractic care. Nobody can take that away from me. I am no longer dependent on drugs, or inhalers, or anything. I am dependent on God within to heal me. And, dear reader, all I ask for is a chance to allow chiropractic to do the same thing with you and your family.
You may ask: “Does that mean you’ve been getting adjusted for 25 years?” Yes, I have been getting regular chiropractic adjustments now for 25 years and will do so for the rest of my life. It is the same as dieting or exercising…once you get to your ideal weight or have the perfect figure, do you say, “Ok, now I can stop all that dieting and exercising!” No---you keep it up to maintain the new you that you have become! You can always be healthier! You can always get stronger! Make those deposits and your bank account will continue to go up!
What have you got to lose? Especially with the gentle version of chiropractic that we offer, using the Activator Adjusting Instrument. It is the mildest, calmest way to receive a chiropractic adjustment (check out www.activator.com for more information). What would your life be like if you got your health back, and then your life back? Don’t live the ‘what if’. Live the now. It’s time to go for it. Live the chance that chiropractic could be the thing that is the catalyst for your reconnection to living at 100%. As I always say, ‘if you haven’t tried chiropractic, you haven’t tried everything.’ Positive thinking was the first key in the Choose Life Plan, and Chiropractic is the 2nd key. Stay tuned next month for number 3.
Please post comments here on the blog or email them to rubinchiropractic@gmail.com, or visit our website at www.theadjustment.com.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Choose Life Chapter 2
Choose Life Chapter 2
The Farmer in You
The actions you take in your life will be determined by the thoughts you have. One of the most dangerous thoughts is to keep on doing what you are doing, expecting different results. As the old saying goes, "If you keep on doing what you're doing, you’ll keep on getting what you are getting! If you want something different, then you have to do something different!
For example, say you were a farmer and you wanted to plant corn. You wouldn't wait until the end of August then and say "Okay, I'll plant corn now, and in a few days, I'll have a full crop?" It is not possible to plant seeds today and reap the harvest in a week. Also, if we desire to grow corn, we must plant corn seed, not tomato seeds. If we sow tomato seeds, then we are going to get tomatoes, no matter how much we want to pick corn come harvest time.
Nor would you plant corn seed and think, "I'll just let the corn grow all by itself. I won't weed it, water it or fertilize it. See you in the fall." What would this sort of action, or inaction, produce? The weeds will take your garden! Remember that: “if you don’t make a plan for your life, someone else will.” This is so important that it bears repeating…left to its own, the weeds will take your garden! Action is the key to results!
Zig Ziglar paraphrases the Bible when he states, “As you sow, so also shall you reap.” It is time for us to take responsibility for our actions and our thoughts. If you focus on what you don’t want, I guarantee that you will end up with what you don’t want! On the contrary, if you focus on what you do want, then chances are far more likely that you will end up with what you do want!
Stinking Thinking
Why do so many of us fall into the trap of focusing our attention on what we do not desire? Is your focus on how fat you are, or how eating a new way will bring you that much closer to being thinner? Is your attention on how poorly your child is doing in math, rather than how well he is doing in all his other subjects? Is your mind on how broke you are and how you have more month than money, or how you are going to start cutting up your credit cards, and saving 5% of your income every week to start your abundance account? What are your dominant thoughts on? If they are on fat, poor grades, and lack of money, that you will keep on receiving fat, poor grades, and lack of money. The answer: you switch your thoughts, even in mid-sentence, even if you have to catch yourself and yell “cancel, cancel” and bite your tongue or pinch yourself. Change from the negative thought of lack to the positive, attractive ideas of abundance, and you can free yourself from the trap of ‘stinking thinking,’ (another Zig Ziglar saying).
That which you think about comes about. If you want to lose a few, or a lot, of pounds, the worst thing to say to yourself over and over again is "I'm so fat. Everything I eat turns to fat. This will never work. This next bite will go right to my hips." Guess what, you will prove yourself right. If you want to lose weight and you focus on your bulges, guess what you will get more of? More fat. That which you think about comes about.
Likewise, if you want to make more money but you focus on how you can’t pay your bills or how broke you always are and how you are never getting ahead, you will get more of not being able to pay the bills. That which you focus on comes about, in either direction. That’s right… if you think about what you want, you will get what you want. If you think about what you don’t want, you will get what you don’t want. Might as well think about what you want!
Creating Your Field of Dreams
Remember the movie, “Field of Dreams?” The immortal line from Kevin Costner that is so applicable at this juncture is, “If you build it, they will come.” That doesn’t mean just build it physically and sit there and wait for success to happen. That means build it physically and then work on it, both in your positive mental attitude and on the streets. When you think positive about something, there is an energy that is formed around this thought that produces more of the same thoughts, and attracts other people who like that kind of thought. The ‘field’ of dreams is truly your fertile mind, which is connected to every other mind in what quantum scientists call the ‘field of possibilities.’ When you enter into this field by positive thoughts, it is the equivalent of turning on a giant magnet that will attract to you more of your desire.
When you are negative and pessimistic, just the opposite occurs. You turn off this awesome connection with the infinite, and will actually repel what you want since your dominant thought is on what you don’t want. So the attractive magnet is either on and sucking things in to you like a magical vortex, or off and repulsing things away from you like a skunk in a crowded subway station.
What thoughts are you planting in your head, the fertile ground of your mind? The farmer knows if you plant nothing, you will harvest nothing. Hence, you've got to plant something, and it might as well be something you want, not something you don't want.
Why not tend to your farm? What else do you really have to do if you are a farmer, (and all of us are farmers, we are all thought farmers and action farmers)? Your mind is the most fertile soil there is, so plant something there that you want to grow, tend to it and watch your fields become “white with harvest,” (a saying from Dr. Sid Williams).
For more information, contact us at rubinchiropractic@gmail.com, call us at 770-937-6300, or post a comment on the blog.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Choose Life--How to Create and Live the Healthy Life
CHOOSE LIFE…by Dr. Drew Rubin
A Blog about Creating and Living
the Healthy Life
Chapter 1
Your Body is like a Bank Account
Modern science has documented that every year you get a brand new body. Every cell, all 700 trillion of them, is replaced. The kind of new body you get depends on what you do with your body right now. It’s like a bank account. If you put money in the bank regularly, you wouldn’t be stunned when the money multiplies, due to the miracle of compound interest. Conversely, if you don’t put money in the bank regularly, there should be no shock when you go to the bank account and it’s empty. The same holds true for your health and your life. These are like bank accounts too. If you don’t put regular deposits in your health and life accounts, why be surprised when your health and your life are overdrawn? If you don’t put deposits in, don’t expect returns back. But if you choose life, and with it choose health, expect incredible rewards to come your way.
Today, in the 21st-century, people are so stressed about money that they are terrified of their future. With the stock market’s erratic behavior, countless large businesses admitting to fraud from one degree to another, thousands of people facing layoffs and downsizing, and the threat of terrorism still looming in the air after 9/11,
We are asked, while at work, to do 3 people’s jobs because of recent lay-offs. We have 10,000 errands to run every day, while being taxi service to our children, who are so over-involved because nobody plays in their own neighborhoods anymore. We are sold by the media all day, every day, to buy this, that and the other thing. We lay out our hard-earned cash for momentary pleasures or major purchases that suck away huge portions of our income, and still end up feeling like it’s not enough.
Do Saber Tooth Tigers Cause Stress?
Hans Selye, the father of the research on ‘stress’, uncovered that it was the fight or flight response that, when harnessed improperly, causes stress in the body. Thousands of years ago, when Saber-tooth tigers were lurking around our villages, and when snowstorms meant many of your tribe were going to freeze to death in the next few days, this fight or flight mechanism served us well. We either fought the Saber-toothed tiger or ran like heck away from it. Either way our muscles got involved, and when faced with danger, we physically did something to change the situation. That is fight or flight!
Today, sitting behind a computer for 8-12 hours per day, with your boss breathing on top of you about the deadline for his project which takes precedence over the deadline for your project which now makes you late to pick up your kids and get them to cheerleading practice and to gymnastics which are on the opposite sides of town and they were both already warned that being late again will prevent them from being in the competition this weekend (whew…isn’t this how it feels?), your body activates the fight or flight system. It is the same system that goes to work when encountering a life-threatening problem, only sitting in our cubicle doesn’t require us to engage in combat or run.
The problem with this kind of stress occurs because we don’t fight or flee; we just sit and fester, madly cursing away, attempting to get everything done while wondering what you are going to say to your boss, your kids, your kid’s coaches, and your spouse, who is also stuck working late. ..this is pressure!!!
The anxiety we face today in the 21st century is not the like it was years ago, with a Saber-tooth tiger potentially having our family for a meal. It’s our own bodies eating itself up due to improper management of stress. Stress hormones are being manufactured when we are in this fight/flight mode, WHETHER WE GO INTO MOTION OR NOT! If these hormones aren’t utilized properly because we don’t respond with a physical evasive action, then we open ourselves up for eventual heart attacks, cancer, strokes, and diabetes (the top four killers in this country).
Now, in the 21st century, it is time to get a grip on this rampant murderer called stress, and unfortunately, it is not possible to sling hand-carved spears into the Saber-toothed tiger. As a matter of fact, we cannot slaughter it at all. Rather we must embrace our stress and redirect it, much as a large stone placed in a stream redirects the flow of water.
Water and Stress
Water doesn’t get stressed out when it meets opposition. Water will not stop in front of the rock and say, “I can’t believe it. You are blocking my way. I’m late to meet the water molecules down the bend. I really don’t need this headache.” Water, in a mere fraction of a second, finds a new path, and an instant later, has circumvented the obstacle and is on its way.
That is what Choose Life offers you; a new way to embrace and redirect your stress by building such a strong body and mind that, although the stress may still come at you from all different angles, you become resilient to it. It bounces off of you rather than absorbing it. Choosing life asks you to make your life a prioritized one.
It is time to realize that our very security lies not in the almighty dollar, but in the vastness of the universe. There is 'abounding prosperity' available to each of us, if we choose life. We can be 'blessed or cursed' depending upon our choices (paraphrasing some biblical phrases).
Einstein said years ago: “The only thing that is constant is change”, and change begins one choice at a time and will eventually encompass everything we do. Every choice we make matters. Together in this blog we will journey as we take choosing life to a whole new level, a 21st-century peak in which ‘everything matters.’
The Big Decision
There is one thing you must do to make the Choose Life plan work. You've got to make a decision. A decision that will affect the rest of your life.
Like a freight train with 100 cars going 70 mph: if you want to turn that big train around, you can’t stop it on a dime. You've got to slow that mountain of train cars down; those thousands of tons of steel may take a mile or more to stop completely. That is called the principle of Negative Momentum. It is based on
But the decision to stop-- that happens in an instant. What do you have to decide right now? You must answer the question: do you choose life? If you do, join me on this path of discovery.
This blog is designed not to just be read, but as an open dialogue, a creation in progress, that YOU get to contribute to. Comment on the posts. Put links in your posts that support your point. Let’s create a living, breathing blog on how you used Choose Life, or your own version of it…
The
In one word: empowerment. That is the key to living a healthier life, to choosing life. Being empowered. Trusting in your (and your children’s) innate, inborn wisdom. But first we have to build that body strong. When the child is weak because he’s had 6 ear infections a year, every year, first we have to stop that negative momentum. Then, once the pattern is interrupted, a new healthier pattern can be overlaid over the old, not-healthy one and a new child emerges.
Ultimately, I want to see a healthier planet, one person at a time. Our present health care system isn’t doing it for us. Maybe this blog might start you in a different direction. Then it has fulfilled its mission.
For more information, email us at rubinchiropractic@gmail.com, call us at 770-937-6300, or visit us on the web at www.theadjustment.com.
Please note: The chiroblogtic, Choose Life series will have a new chapter posted once per month, by the end of each month (ie, Chapter 2 posted by 9/30/08).
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