So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

- Morrie Schwartz, in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

New Years Special Message

Hello and Happy New Year. We want to say Thank You. We really value knowing you and working with you. Our relationship is dynamic - we learn from you as you learn from us. We really do. Every person we see is a wonderful mystery and our relationship gives us each a unique opportunity to learn, grow and appreciate the infinite variety of life.

At this time of the year we're rededicating ourselves to better healing, better teaching and better helping others - including you and your family. Here is a great article to start your new year...

Chirothots
By Kevin Donka, D.C.

Is It or Isn't It?

One day not so long ago, a practice member named Craig walked into our center with a slight limp. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that he had been wrestling with his son A.J. and had hurt his knee. When I told him we'd take a look at it he replied, "Oh that's OK, it will be fine by the end of the week." Just then, a woman walked in and I heard Amy at the front desk greet her and ask her how she was doing. She replied to Amy, "Oh I'm fine today, but I just know I'm going to be in bad shape by the end of the week with the storm that's on its way!"

Albert Einstein once said, "The most important question you will ever ask yourself is whether this is or is not a friendly universe." Dr. Einstein believed that your answer to this question would in fact be the most important decision you would ever make. The reason it would be so important is summed up in another of his famous quotations; "You cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that existed when it was created." You see, Einstein knew that it is our deeply held BELIEFS about something that will determine which actions we will consistently take or avoid regarding that thing, and those actions or inactions will in turn determine the circumstances we will find ourselves in. So, your determination of whether we live in a friendly or hostile world will influence your actions in the world and bring about the circumstances of your life.

In our center for wholeness, we can see your answer to this question demonstrated in your attitude. You see, you either go through life with what we call a WELLNESS mentality, or an ILLNESS mentality. People with an illness mentality expect that mainly unpleasant things will happen to them because they believe that the world is basically hostile, unpredictable and out of their control. On the other hand, those with a wellness mentality expect that mainly good things will happen in their lives because they believe that the world is basically friendly, and that they control and attract to themselves most of what happens to them through each of their thoughts, words and actions. In the story above, Craig was in a state of dis-ease, and yet he had a WELLNESS mentality - a positive expectation that things would be good. The other woman was actually in a state of ease, and yet had an illness mentality - a certainty that things would go downhill for her.

How do we develop, maintain and even expand a wellness mentality? Three things are necessary.
1. A deliberate focus on moving TOWARD what you want, as opposed to trying to move away from what you don't want.
2. A healthy lifestyle that allows your body to function properly, heal and continue growing.
3. A clear neurological CONNECTION.

Where does chiropractic fit into this equation? Interference in your nerve system (what we call the subluxation process) causes your body to use energy at a much greater than normal rate. This rapid depletion of energy sends your body into SURVIVAL MODE and causes the highest thinking centers of your brain to shut down. With these parts of your brain shut down, do you think it is possible to see the world as friendly, or do you suppose that coming from a state of SURVIVAL that you might interpret many (if not all) things as threatening?

The chiropractic adjustment process restores the free flow of energy at a normal and natural rate; a rate that allows for EASE of function in every cell, tissue, organ and organ system - INCLUDING YOUR BRAIN! Your body goes out of survival mode and back into ease, allowing you to once again see the world as friendly.

You see, your adjustments don't just help you feel better, they allow you to FEEL better - that is, they allow you to sense your environment in a totally different way than you would if you were subluxated and in survival mode. Do you see why we stress so strongly that everyone should get checked regularly? If you have read this and it makes sense to you, I'll see you this week. If you have read it and it just seems like another attempt to get you into our center "well" maybe you need an adjustment!

You are much healthier
than you think....

Most people are physically, mentally and spiritually healthier than they think they are.

For so much of their day-to-day existence, many people dwell on little concerns, stress themselves over trifles and ignore the world of immense beauty and potential in which they live.

Perhaps one of the most mystifying things is that while we are surrounded by beauty, divinity, happiness, energy, excitement and growth our worries blind us to it all.

But that doesn't mean we're immune to all this wonderfulness. Step back a minute. If we look at our lives from childhood to today we must admit that we always had problems, challenges and disappointments. Few things seem to go as planned. And yet all the while there was a silent hand guiding us, watching over us, directing us in ways that turned temporary adversity into necessary lessons. Momentary upset often clouds the deeper, more significant benefits.

One of chiropractic's premises is that we are born with a wonderful healing potential. It is always with us. We must learn to respect it and work with it so it may permeate our beings and fill us with healing, strength, hope, growth and life.
We are never without this potential. Even cancer patients, for example, still have a healing ability. Cut a cancer patient and they will heal. The question is, if they can heal a cut, why can't they heal their cancer?

They can! There are numerous case histories of people with all kinds of terminal illnesses who undergo spontaneous remission - they heal. Somehow they were able to tap into their innate or inborn healing ability and defy all the doctors' grim predictions. Years later they may attend their doctors' funerals.

Chiropractic helps us tap into our potential by freeing us of subluxations - blockages to our flow of energy and information. Free of subluxations, your body and mind function more efficiently - in communication with your natural perfection.

Chiropractors are specially trained in the location and correction of subluxations - permitting you to function in tune with your natural state of perfection.

For the first time ever (and it's about time!), large scale studies were done asking whether it's better to rush into back surgery for ruptured lumbar disks and sciatica or...just wait. The results found that surgery was no better than doing nothing. Patients in both the surgery and non-surgery groups improved substantially over a 2-year period.

Tell that to the 300,000 Americans that have spinal surgery each year.

Actually these findings are nothing new - other studies have demonstrated the same thing: people with ruptured disks in their lower backs or with sciatica usually recover without surgery and (very important) there is no harm in waiting. No one in either study developed cauda equina syndrome that can cause nerve damage, weakened leg or loss of bowel or bladder control.

Many surgeons were against doing the studies because they said that they knew that the operations worked and it was unethical for their patients to participate in the study.

The study mentioned that a percentage of those who had back surgery needed repeat operations within the year. (2-3)

Read this before saying yes to a bypass, angioplasty or stents

There's no evidence that heart bypass surgery, angioplasty or stent procedures prolong life or prevent future heart attacks in the majority of patients.

The three-year survival rate for most patients who have had bypass surgery is almost exactly the same as it is for patients with heart disease who don't have surgery. Plus add a 3%-5% death rate from the surgery itself.

In fact, all these expensive and risky procedures can be replaced by natural foods, avoiding poisons in our diet and lifestyle changes. For wonderful heart healthy advice go to http://www.westonaprice.org/index.html.

Most heart attacks are caused by tiny blockages in small arteries - these arteries are not replaced during surgery.

Finally, the majority of bypass patients may suffer brain injury: cognitive difficulties, and memory problems. Bypass surgery patients are also nearly four times more likely to suffer a subsequent stroke. All this from a procedure that doesn't prolong life or make a patient healthier.

Infertility and Chiropractic
(From The Monterey County Herald)
Did you hear the one about the woman who went to the chiropractor and got pregnant?

Really, all Karen Bulch wanted was a little neck-and-shoulders adjustment. But a month after wandering into chiropractor Mark Kimes' Salina office, the 44-year-old Monterey woman was with child, something she had unsuccessfully been trying to accomplish for 4½ years.

Kimes told her it might happen. And if it did, he said it would be within the first few months.

Kimes noticed a subluxation - essentially, that's chiropractic for blockage - in Bulch's lower back. He wasn't sure, but Kimes thought he just might be able to tweak the subluxation to the point of reproduction. "I've been in practice for 12 years and I've seen it happen with many women," he said. (5)

Deafness, hearing loss and chiropractic
Patient: 68-year-old woman native of the Dutch East Indies. At age 7, she was struck in the head by a Japanese military officer after she spilled tea on him while serving him. This caused her left ear to bleed. At age 9, a grenade exploded about 30 feet from her and she lost all hearing in her left ear and most of the hearing in her right ear. She had been wearing a hearing aid in her left ear since she was a young lady.

At her daughter's urging she came in for chiropractic care. By her third visit she was able to hear sounds for the first time since she was 9. On her forth visit she was able to hear sounds (phone ringing, etc.) without having her hearing aid in her ear. On her fifth visit she was able to hear more subtle sounds without her hearing aid. [From the records of Joseph A. La Barbera, DC]