CEO Newsletter 07 number 27

Chiropractic Equity Offices Inc
Home of Neurologically Based Chiropractic (NBC) and the "InVision"

Contents
1. A True Christmas Story of Hope!
2. Getting Inside Their Heads
3. Thoughts from Dr. White
4. New Science Behind Chiropractic Care

1. A True Christmas Story of Hope! -A true story from Australia -Thanks Toni!

Jim called not knowing what chiropractic could do or how it could help, but he knew from his own experience of regular care it had helped him!

Jim was calling for his mother Rosa this time, and his voice sounded strained and worried. Jim had brought his mum to live with him, as she was unable to maintain her independence.

Rosa was really struggling, she was not only in pain, but could no longer look after her personal hygiene, toileting, and could barely communicate.

Jim was so sad and frustrated, his mum had always been so independent, but he knew if he couldn’t do something, then a nursing home was going to be the only future for his mum Rosa.

Jim said, “ I’m not sure if you can even help her, but if we can just get mum out of pain, then at least her comfort might be improved”. Jim held little hope for his mum, but he did wish in the back of his mind he could at least have one last Christmas with her.

When Jim brought mum in, he assisted her walking, she was slow and bent over, and although tidy in appearance personal hygiene was poor and she omitted a strong body odour and urine smell. The initial tests were carried out and a report of findings was presented to Jim and Rosa.

The Chiropractor told Jim that he could improve the quality of Rosa’s life. So Jim agreed on behalf of his mum to give chiropractic a try, and diligently brought her in for Chiropractic care three times per week, as asked by the Chiropractor.

Each time Rosa came in, you could notice small but subtle changes, not just in Rosa, but also in Jim. Chiropractic care had given Jim hope, and for his dear mum it was giving her back her life! Jim reported, “She can now have a shower, go to the toilet and dress herself again, unassisted!”

As the weeks went by Rosa began to walk ahead of Jim, couldn’t wait to get in to see the Chiropractor. She was blossoming before our eyes. Her ‘life light’ had been switched back on and everyone could see it. She could communicate and socialise, smiling and making jokes while she happily waited in reception in anticipation of her adjustment. Rosa was sharing with everyone how fantastic she was feeling, and her appearance echoed that.

Rosa is now living independently back in her own Sydney apartment and Jim travels up weekly to visit and take mum to the chiropractor near her home. Rosa has her quality of life back and Jim has his mum for this Christmas and many Christmases to come!

NB: Names have been altered to maintain privacy of the clients.

Editor’s notes: This Christmas story is the exact reason I support open room adjusting and the CEO procedures of patients sharing goals and victories. I remember a DC friend returning from a Parker seminar with a new sign for his office. We have all either seen it or said it – “Chiropractic - the world’s best kept secret!” It is time to let the secret out – Follow the CEO procedures and it happens!!!

2. GETTING INSIDE THEIR HEADS By Daniel G. Amen MD LA TIMES Op-Ed December 5, 2007

What do Rudy Giuliani’s messy personal life, John McCain’s temper and Hillary Clinton’s inability to seem authentic have in common? Maybe nothing. They just may be overblown issues in the otherwise normal lives of candidates under the political microscope. Such symptoms, however, may mean a lot — such as evidence of underlying brain dysfunction. Sometimes people with messy personal lives have low prefrontal cortex activity associated with poor judgment; sometimes people with temper problems have brain damage and impulse control problems; sometimes people who struggle with authenticity have trouble really seeing things from someone else’s perspective.

Is the brain health of a presidential candidate a fair topic in an election year? Certainly Dick Cheney’s heart condition wasn’t off-limits in 2000, nor have questions about McCain’s age been considered out of bounds. The White House issues a complete medical history of the president each year — detailing everything from his seasonal allergic rhinitis to his adenomatous colon polyps. Clearly we care about the health outlook for our elected leaders. Should we go so far as to do brain scans? Of candidates for the Oval Office? Some people might consider discussing brain health a ridiculous idea. Not me. As a neuropsychiatrist and brain-imaging expert, I want our elected leaders to be some of the “brain healthiest people” in the land. How do you know about the brain health of a presidential candidate unless you look? The brain is involved in everything humans do: how we think, how we feel, how we get along with others, how we negotiate, how we pay attention in meetings and how we turn away the advances of White House interns or decide to invade a country based on contradictory intelligence.

Three of the last four presidents have shown clear brain pathology. President Reagan’s Alzheimer’s disease was evident during his second term in office. Non- elected people were covering up his forgetfulness and directing the country’s business. Few people knew it, but we had a national crisis. Brain studies have been shown to predict Alzheimer’s five to nine years before people have their first symptoms. President Clinton’s moral lapses and problems with bad judgment and excitement-seeking behavior — indicative of problems in the prefrontal cortex — eventually led to his impeachment and a poisonous political divisiveness in the U.S. The prefrontal cortex houses the brain’s supervisor, involved with conscience, forethought, planning, attention span and judgment. One could argue that our current president’s struggles with language and emotional rigidity are symptoms of temporal lobe pathology. The temporal lobes, underneath your temples and behind your eyes, are involved with language, mood stability, reading social cues and emotional flexibility. A national leader with brain problems can potentially cost millions of people their lives. Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein give us recent historical examples. Both of Milosevic’s parents committed suicide, he had serious bouts of depression and reportedly drank heavily — all signs that point to brain problems. He was found to be unreasonable and unreliable in negotiations and heartless as a political leader. Hussein was described as paranoid and without empathy, also symptoms pointing to poor brain function. His mother suffered severe bouts of depression and attempted suicide while pregnant with him, which is known to affect a baby’s developing brain. He was physically and emotionally abused by his stepfather. All of these stresses must have been involved in shaping his paranoid brain into a mind that could torture dissenters, murder relatives and launch chemical attacks that killed thousands. Functional scans, such as Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, provide a window into the brain. Doctors can now see healthy or dysfunctional brain patterns, much as we can assess the strength of a heart or measure hormone levels, and recognize trouble. All doctors might not agree on the interpretation, but there is a growing body of scientific literature establishing what these scans mean, such as a Attention Deficit Disorder or a predisposition for Alzheimer’s. Ensuring that our president has a healthy brain may be more than an interesting topic of conversation. It can be important information to put into the election equation. A president with brain problems could wreak havoc on the U.S. and the world at large. Maybe we shouldn’t leave the health of our president’s brain to chance. We have the tools, shouldn’t we look?

Editor’s notes: The only people to oppose this need to be tested! I’m with you Dr. Amen!!

3. Thoughts From Dr. White
The age old clash between mechanism and vitalism is now more than ever affecting every one of us in the chiropractic profession. From public/medical scrutiny to third party reimbursement for care rendered, chiropractic has been taking it on the chin far too often and far too long now. And these heated debates will continue as they have in the past with little or no positive outcome or result. This particular debate has raged on for my entire tenure as a chiropractic practitioner. One would think that there would be some positive movement forward in 26 years but I have yet to see any. Each day I awaken I am greeted with virtually the same challenges I had when I first graduated from PCC.
The time has now come that this once proud profession must make a choice and a decision as to what track it is going to take if it is to survive into the next millennium. Maybe its time to rethink our strategy and get off the VSC merry-go-round. For chiropractic to continue to focus on a purely linear restorative healing (VSC) model,(there is a place for this type of care however it is limited, narrow and uninspired,) we may witness the death of a profession. Versus what I believe chiropractic to be as a non-linear reorganisational healing model, a model that will allow for growth and expansion and vision. VSC does not fit into the non-linear classification: never has and never will. It is high time to shed this noose that has been dangling around our necks. VSC has served a purpose in getting the profession to where it is today and thank you to Dr. Joseph Flesia for providing this vehicle.......time for a new vehicle though.
Sorry boys and girls this age old (VSC) model needs to be replaced to keep pace with the works of researchers concentrating on the non-linear function of the human body. Look to Candice Pert, PhD, Bruce Lipton, PhD, and others for an insight to the new understanding of whom and what we represent in the physical.
By replacing the current thoughts and concepts with the model described in detail by Dr. Richard Barwell, chiropractic will prosper and survive. His visionary and audacious call for change joins another voice in Donny Epstein, (my apologies to the others that may share their passion and views, however these are the boys putting their necks out for all to see, condemn and scrutinise,) who sees the survival of the profession as dependant upon this very thing. Change. It will not be easy, but necessary as the foundations of the profession are upgraded to meet the standards of today’s understanding and knowledge regarding our mere existence in our reality which we call our world. Either we direct and control how we change or it will be done for us; one thing sure it will happen with or without your participation and efforts.
Our future is in our hands, not the hands of professional leaders, schools or colleagues with antiquated belief systems, (Dogma,) nor is it in the hands of the insurance industry or the medical profession. Your actions and yours alone will determine the outcome as to whether we thrive or die. What is your destiny?
If you have your doubts I suggest you ring Dr. Richard Barwell and speak to him one on one and have him help you resolve the struggle that exists in your mind!
Dr. Scott D. White - 26-28 Holywood Rd. Belfast BT4 1NT, Northern Ireland

Editor’s notes: Thanks for the vote of confidence Scott, when you have one it is a concept; when you have two, it is a movement!

4. New Science Behind Chiropractic Care - Press Release: NZ Chiropractors Association, 23 November 2007 Ground-breaking research has, for the first time, identified the actual changes that occur in the body, the nervous system and the brain during chiropractic spinal adjustments.
The study was conducted by award-winning Auckland researcher, Dr Heidi Haavik-Taylor. It demonstrates that chiropractic care sends signals to the brain that change the way the brain controls muscles.
“The process of a spinal adjustment is like rebooting a computer. The signals that these adjustments send to the brain, via the nervous system, reset muscle behaviour patterns,” said Dr Haavik-Taylor.
“By stimulating the nervous system we can improve the function of the whole body. This is something that chiropractors and their patients have known for years; and now we have some scientific evidence to prove it.”
Research findingsDr Haavik-Taylor has spent the last seven years researching the effects of chiropractic adjustments on the nervous system. However, in her latest research, carried out in conjunction with fellow New Zealander, Dr Bernadette Murphy, she was able to measure how brain waves are altered before and after spinal adjustments.
“This is the first time that anyone has used EEGs to prove that there are definite changes to the way the brain processes information after chiropractic care.”
International awardsDr Haavik-Taylor recently gained international recognition by winning an award from the World Federation of Chiropractic Research.
She has also just been awarded two grants from the Australian Spinal Research Foundation to further her studies on how chiropractic care affects the function of the nervous system and alters muscle function.
Earlier this year Dr Haavik-Taylor was recognised by her peers and awarded the New Zealand College of Chiropractic Alumni Chiropractor of the Year 2007 in recognition of her research and her passion for the discipline.
“Heidi’s work is ground-breaking on an international level by proving that chiropractic adjustments do alter and benefit the nervous system,” said Dr James Burt, president of the New Zealand Chiropractors Association.
Haavik Taylor H and Murphy B. (2007). World Federation of Chiropractic’s 9th Biennial Congress Award Winning Paper (3rd Prize): Altered sensorimotor integration with cervical spine manipulation. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, in press.

Editor’s notes: Nice work in the research but a bit of an oversight here. I did my EEG and Chiropractic work several years ago and my paper has been available for years now. The above is not the first and it would have been nice and proper to have this acknowledged. I am aware that Dr. Jay Holder, Dr. Donny Epstein and at least one other did some EEG and the adjustment studies several years ago as well. The big difference is that the equipment has improved to the point where the data is much better.
The most important news here is that we now have EEG and other neurological parameters available for use in Chiropractic practices today. In fact, it has been on the market for at least three years and we have sold over 70 units to Chiropractors worldwide.
I presented the information about Chiropractic and EEG application at the New Zealand College this Spring. While no one mentioned there was some similar research going on, I am pleased to see that others in Chiropractic are now starting to understand what we has been saying for many years. The primary effect of the Adjustment is in/on the Central Nervous System and we can now prove it!
Neurological Based Chiropractic is and has been the foundation of Chiropractic Equity Offices (CEO) for the last 9 years. Our program and the instrument we developed, called the “InVision”, continue to demonstrate that this is the future of the profession. Want to catch up? – Visit the website listed below and contact CEO about your options!

The Best of the Season to all and watch for the big news on the web site. We are planning some changes in the site over Christmas.
We have now agreed to link with another major Chiropractic group. This is great news and we are looking to 2008 as the year of break through for the Profession.

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CEO Newsletter 07 number 26

Home of Neurologically Based Chiropractic

Contents
1. AAADD .....Know the signs!
2. Drugs Are Not the Answer for ADHD
3. Taking the Third - Posted: Dec. 1, 2004

1. AAADD .....Know the signs! Forwarded - Thanks to DeDe Van Riper

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder.Somehow I feel better, even though I have it!! This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left.My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I’d been drinking.I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.The Coke is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye—they need water. I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning.I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day: the car isn’t washed, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don’t have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my check book, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I’m really tired.I realize this is a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail....Do me a favor. Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don’t remember who I’ve sent it to. Don’t laugh—if this isn’t you yet, your day is coming

Editor's note: Remember that ADD kids grow up to be ADD adults - It is a "How we deal with STRESS problem" and that there is a link between PTSD and ADD. While this may appear as humorous it really isn't.If you live with an ADD individual I hope this can help you understand that they operate under good intentsion but lack the focus to complete a task.

2. Drugs Are Not the Answer for ADHD Source: - BBC News November 12, 2007 Department of Health Statement - Forwarded – Thanks to Dr. Ken Vinton

Research has shown that treating children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with drugs is not effective in the long-term. After three years of treatment, drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta work no better than therapy.
Long-term use of the drugs can also stunt children's growth, and the benefits of the drugs have been exaggerated.

An influential 1999 study seemed to find that medication worked better than behavioral therapy for ADHD after one year of use. This finding caused a vast increase in prescriptions.
But now, after longer-term analysis, the report's co-author, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo, has stated, "I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study. We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn't happen to be the case. There's no indication that medication is better than nothing in the long run." Pelham said that medication had "no beneficial effects" and that in fact, the drugs had a negative impact in terms of growth rate.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in England is currently revising their treatment guidelines for ADHD to include strategies that will likely involve training for parents as well as "behavioral interventions".
"The important thing is that we have an approach which doesn't focus just on one type of treatment," Dr. Tim Kendall, chair for the working group, said.

Editor's note: ADHD is now considered to be a division of ADD. Whathold for one division holds for both! Drugs are not the answer!!!!

3. Taking the Third – response prompted by a letter from WCA
Letter from the World Chiropractic Alliance and Terry Rondberg
First the WCA letter
The draft of the newest chapter of the "Best Practices" document released by the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters (CCGPP) contains statements and conclusions that could prove devastating to the chiropractic profession. In it, the CCGPP gives rogue regulatory boards the weapons they need to go after and sanction subluxation based chiropractors who provide this care, and third party payers the ammunition they need to deny reimbursement for subluxation care apart from NMS conditions.
The chapter, entitled "Chiropractic Management of Prevention and Health Promotion; Nonmusculoskeletal Conditions; And Conditions Of The Elderly, Children And Pregnant Women," makes it clear that, from the data the CCGPP members considered, there is not enough evidence to support the use of chiropractic care for patients who are not presenting with specific non‑musculoskeletal health issues. Shockingly, the CCGPP also ignored all case studies, regardless of how many patients were involved. It explained its decision only with the statement that "even though there are a large number of patients described in case reports, these reports can only provide evidence that patients with the conditions described have sought care from chiropractors; case reports cannot provide convincing evidence to support best practices."
“It takes little imagination to see what state boards and other regulators will do with this," he warned. "In today's politically charged atmosphere, a board could easily target a particular class of doctors and charge them with endangering patients by providing care unsupported by research and disavowed by the CCGPP guidelines.
What's really going on? There is a well‑choreographed plan to sculpt the future of the profession. It casts chiropractic as a profession that uses crude manipulation for the short term symptomatic treatment of a narrow range of spinal pain syndromes. It involves either denying the very existence of vertebral subluxation, or at best downgrading it to a local mechanical lesion. The use of objective assessments is dismissed. Instead, care is based primarily on symptomatic response, without regard for x‑ray or neurofunctional changes. Of course, lifetime wellness care is unthinkable in this model.
Thankfully, DCs who focus on subluxation and wellness care have a resource to defend themselves: the Council on Chiropractic Practice (CCP) guideline. The guideline is a compilation of the best available evidence concerning the detection, management, and correction of vertebral subluxation. It serves as a tool to empower DCs with the information needed to develop more effective clinical strategies, and objectively assess functional and clinical outcomes. The document also provides chiropractors with the intellectual ammunition needed to defend their practice style when challenged by regulators, policy makers, and in court proceedings.
The chiropractic guideline document, "Vertebral Subluxation in Chiropractic Practice," produced by the CCP was reviewed by an independent research agency (ECRI) which is a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on this review, it was accepted for inclusion in the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC), a public resource for evidence‑based clinical practice guidelines. NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), US Department of Health and Human Services.
The CCP and its official published documents were accepted for inclusion in the Healthcare Standards Database and the printed version of the Healthcare Standards: Official Directory. Healthcare Standards (HCS) is a comprehensive list of published standards, guidelines recommendations, position papers, policy statements, technology assessments, and other authoritative documents. ECRI is the WHO's official health care standards and guidelines archive. HCS is used daily in legal and clinical settings by a wide variety of medical and legal professionals such as: risk managers, litigators, paralegals, legal nurse consultants, medical and legal librarians, patient safety officers, biomedical engineers, insurance carriers and more.
When challenged by regulators, policy makers, or in courtroom proceedings, where will you find the resources to defend your practice? If your vision of chiropractic embraces lifetime, subluxation‑based wellness care, you need CCP. The Council on Chiropractic clinical practice guidelines have been used to successfully support the ability of persons to receive chiropractic care for vertebral subluxations to improve function and quality of life. Care is based upon indicators of vertebral subluxation, not the presence of a short list of medical conditions.

Taking the Third response -
Editor’s notes: There is an old saying – “when faced with the decision of choosing between two paths - take the third!” It is never more applicable than here, in my view. This letter represents what could be the ultimate downfall of our profession. Not that I oppose what is being stated here in favor of the opposing side, but rather that either side is a no win situation for Chiropractic. There is more than adequate proof that Chiropractic works well at the pain relief and musculoskeletal care levels but to limit this profession to this would be a crime (and I mean that in every sense of the word), especially when the motivation is driven by inclusion in third party pay. If that is all we stand for, then the Chiropractic Oath we have taken is a sham at best.
On the other hand, to continue to take the position that all we need to do is defend the vertebral subluxation theory continues to hold the profession up to ridicule. Yes, I agree that a “thank you” to the CCP in at least offering an alternative to the CCGPP’s extremely limited guidelines for Chiropractic practice is warranted. So, Thank You! However, the continued concept that vertebral subluxation totally defines Chiropractic and any shift away from this would weaken the profession just proves the limitation of this thinking.
The “third path” for Chiropractic will require some trail clearing before we can walk it. Not much, just that there are a couple of boulders blocking the entrance and once we move those we can walk the profession into a new arena. One of the boulders, the largest in fact, lies in understanding the classification of the Chiropractic Adjustment. Is it a mechanical, psychological, neurological, or soft tissue therapy? Or could it be something else? The current divisions in the profession would have us fit into one camp or the other in a position of opposition and we are now well aware of the consequence of this division. There has to be more to the power of effectiveness of Chiropractic care than these two simplistic antagonizing approaches.
I suggest we view the adjustment within another set of laws - the laws of biofeedback. First we need to understand the definition of feedback, bio feedback and neurofeedback.
Feedback
A process whereby the results of action serve continually to modify further action. Isn’t this exactly what we claim we do. We do tell everyone that we deal with the nervous system which in turn continues to create change in the systems. Provable – YES
Biofeedback
Voluntary control by feedback of involuntary functions.
A system evaluating the biological signals produced by the body, specifically biological functions (i.e. heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, etc. ). Provable – YES
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback is direct training of brain function, by which the brain learns to function more efficiently. We observe the brain in action from moment to moment. We show that information back to the person and we reward the brain for changing its own activity to more appropriate patterns.
Provable - YES

So if we can start with a new understanding of the Chiropractic Adjustment as a very powerful and specific form of bio/neurofeedback, then we can start to explain why such a wide range of approaches work in our profession. They are all forms of the feedback mechanism. The third path includes both the pain based musculoskeletal and the vertebral subluxation based concepts while making neither right nor wrong and expands the power of our care beyond these two positions.
The most important factors here are:
1. The research done in the biofeedback world is overwhelming in support of the effectiveness of this care. ( over 40 years of supporting research)
2. There is proof that the Adjustment has the power to alter brain wave activity
3. Research supports the effectiveness of Chiropractic to alter Autonomic Nervous system function.
4. This empowers the profession by broadening the scope of practice with proof rather then restricting it or trying to defend it through a dogmatic stance.
5. We can now demonstrate the functioning level of a nervous system under normal conditions, under stress, and its ability to recover from stress. This is a critical statement with the above letter in mind. Why?
A/ It can demonstrate the need for care outside of signs and symptoms that are pain based
B/ It can demonstrate the effectiveness of care in bringing about neurophysiological improvement
C/ It can demonstrate the effectiveness of a type of care to alter a person’s Neurological response

So, when we consider this information it seems to me that the positions of the CCGPP and CPP are both moot and that we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by just making a simple shift in the concepts of the Chiropractic Adjustment. I’ve been walking down this path for about 8 years now and the view is fantastic. Care to take a stroll? Visit our web site - ask for the free report or call me to find out more about great possibility for Chiropractic

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