The Human Condition

I discovered chiropractic medicine as a teen. It helped me improve my swimming and diving and recovery from sports injuries and climbing.

A family member got severe Lyme disease from an obvious tick bite. There was good recovery after a long battle using chiropractic and herbal medicine. Later, the carnivore diet cleared up lingering symptoms.

When I had braces and wisdom teeth removed, I discovered holistic dentists.

When I left for college, I studied chemistry, biology, physics, music, medical anthropology, philosophy, and judo. Then after a sports injury I was told I needed surgery on my shoulder.

Basic science and critical thinking were a huge part of my undergrad science and humanities studies, with a sound basis in the philosophy department too.

My academic undergrad advisors told me I could get into any medical school in the country so why would I choose chiropractic?

They did not get it.

I was helping friends get healthy as I moved through undergrad just informally in the dorms and on campus with conversations.

I even took an extra term so I could take fewer classes and study my own interests in the university medical library. There I found photos of my relatives in a graduation yearbook from 1924. I took on-campus and off-campus courses and certifications and learned every technique I could study.

I also studied more neurology than I thought possible. I had a good basis in biochemistry, physiotherapy, clinical lab nutrition and physics as well as anatomy training.

I went down every rabbit hole I found in regular classes and allowed my distractions to be indulged at the library with as many hours as I needed to explore side topics triggered by some lecture during the day.

This was the best decision ever. To this day I explore wild history and contrarian theories with gusto.

It was a destination spa and I rose to be the medical director for physical medicine and the staff of almost 30 clinicians and support staff. I worked opposite a psychiatrist who was in charge of mental health and the staff of that department. I sat in hundreds of hours of therapy for the guests and our staff. I also treated many patients and we worked through chronic, tough cases together on patients from around the world for nearly 5 years.

Our approach was to use a lot of orthomolecular psychiatry, nutrition, and chiropractic treatments and almost no drugs. I saw impossible, but verifiable, healing in people with my own eyes and learned to question everything I had learned.

Eventually, the financial leadership at that facility changed and I left to start my own practice.

During this time, a dear friend got in a car crash and was in a hospital in a coma. I discovered that I knew nothing about his condition as a doctor. He eventually woke up from the coma and still battles quadriplegia to this day. This experience drove my desire to understand recovery and rehab of the brain and spinal cord even more.

I went to postdoctoral school in clinical neurology for several years and completed the exam to become a board certified chiropractic neurologist. I now serve on that exam board.

After passing the board exam, I took on interns in a teaching capacity and they taught me most of what I know through the Socratic Method of asking questions instead of lecturing.

I was shown and guided in critical thinking for lab testing, physical examination, diagnosis of root causes, and nutrition well beyond the already excellent curriculum of my chiropractic school.

I saw and applied colonic irrigation hydrotherapy, cryotherapy, acupuncture, Hopi tribal medicine, and orthomolecular psychiatry in action with excellent guidance.

I grew to lead many university neurology interns as their mentor, and this process taught me even more. Mentees drive mentors through good questions that cut to the core of why we do what we do, how we explain and how we think through the process to solve problems and barriers to healing.

My students taught me more than any coursework I had taken through the process of probing patient cases and I am so grateful for each of them. I learned more about myself and my weaknesses from this process too. I learned what budding student doctors need from an apprenticeship.

In lab and food science, I saw many physical and mental health disorders melt away. From elimination diets to cleanses, supplements and diet changes in macros (carbs vs fats etc) and more, I saw seizure disorders and many other neurological and brain problems and injuries reduce or go away altogether.

In functional chiropractic neurology, I got to see the diagnostic process of bedside exam, bedside manner, and hands-on rehab with specific exercises.

We would examine the minute eye movements, pupil reactions to light, sweating, temperature, digestive, heart and lung sounds and the palpation of the body tissues. The art of the physical examination is lost, and I was lucky to teach it for years at the university and post-doctorate levels.

We would give people ultra specific brain exercises like micro eye movements in certain directions, just for 2 reps while watching for signs of autonomic fatigue and have them stop immediately so the nerve cells targeted could recover and build plasticity. We saw people get an exam, get a localized diagnosis of the target cells in the brain, develop a set of exercises for that small area, do those exercises and see changes the same day in symptoms, stability, balance, digestion, menstrual periods, pain, dizziness and mental illness.

It was incredible.

Later in my career I continued to treat mental illness with counselors and psychologists, using lab science and dietary and cleanses. I had been using neurofeedback of several types and QEEG quantitative electro-encephalography which studies awake brain waves at rest, and ERP event related potential brain waves under a task.

I also saw law enforcement gaps for both injured officers and chronic repeat offenders and decided to complete the specialty in QEEG and became a mentor for the international QEEG board to complement my neurofeedback work.

Now I am a registered mentor for the International QEEG certification board and I seek to represent the chiropractic side of this board to balance the heavy representation of counselors on that board. Being able to perform a physical exam, order imaging and labs, and diagnose and treat the body makes a huge difference in assessing the organic brain dysfunction component of mental health diagnoses.

I was given a brain that could have easily made vast wealth in markets or other financial realms. I chose to push hard into learning physiology and root cause medicine, and took on only the most difficult chronic cases both to test my abilities and out of compassion.

When I met someone in need, a sprout of an idea would form as to the mechanism of their illness and a way out, and this led to more and more tough cases and consulting. I have done a lot of teaching for many schools and universities, and continuing education for doctors, and led grand rounds in many forms.

Gradually I taught and consulted for the nutrition and biotech industry and created new supplements. I also taught CEU credits for doctors, and helped them with tough cases and as a consulting neurologist and business consultant.

What I have learned is that while there can be a steep learning curve for health issues, the real thing we all need is to give up our conditioning and assumptions for healing and recovery and reversal of illness. We also need to let go of fear, and the advice of those who have not succeeded. Examples abound of amazing healing and it does not have to be expensive or technical, although that can help.