No Cause for Alarm

pan·dem·ic (pn-dmk)

adj.

1. Widespread; general.

2. Medicine Epidemic over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population: pandemic influenza.

n.

A pandemic disease.

from TheFreeDictionary.com

Main Entry:

¹pan·dem·ic

Pronunciation:

\pan-ˈde-mik\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Late Latin pandemus, from Greek pandēmos of all the people, from pan- + dēmos people — more at demagogue

Date:

1666

: occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population <pandemic malaria>

from Merrian-Webster.com



H1N1 Flu is now considered to be a pandemic. We can all rest assured, however, that the powers that be are "on top" of the situation. The CDC, the government-sponsored disease authority, has posted the total infected and the total deaths so far in all of the United States (all 50 states plus territories) due to the H1N1 virus. At this moment there have a grand total of.....303 deaths in the USA. Hmm...303 deaths total since this whole scare began back around mid-April during Obama's trip to Mexico. Thats roughly about 3 people per day since the outbreak in the USA. 303 people have died out of a population of over 300,000,000! This breaks down to about 0.0001% of the population of the United State that has died from H1N1 flu virus. Does this data support the use of the word Pandemic (see definitions above)?

Compare that number against the "normal" flu. According to the CDC each year in the United States over 36,000 people die from the "regular" flu. That works out to around 0.12% of the entire population that dies from the flu each year. If we multiply the 3-month outbreak of H1N1 by 4 we would then have 0.0004% of the population (assuming similar death rates for the year). Looking at H1N1 against the "old, not-headline-worthy" flu, we can see that the "boring, business-as-usual" flu that has been with us forever is actually 300x more deadly than H1N1. Does this data support the use of the word Pandemic (see definitions above)?

Suffice it to say that the results as of July 24th, 2009, just don't seem to justify the alarm. Some have suggested that by increasing the amount of panic and fear in the general population that we are being distracted from other things - wars, unemployment, destruction of the middle class, the rise of facism, etc. Clearly there are many things we would be better served to pay attention to than the hysterical propaganda coming out of the government-sponsored disease center.

The Associated Press recently broke a story regarding the H1N1 flu, vaccines, and immunity. Except that upon reading the article one quickly realizes that immunity is not being offered for sick and suffering Americans. No, legal immunity is being given to makers of H1N1 vaccines. It must be nice to offer a product for sale, have the government demand that everyone has to purchase it, then to be granted immunity from damages should the product forced down everyones throat actually turn out to be harmful.

Remember that in the 1970's there was a swine flu outbreak. And over 300 deaths occurred - from the vaccines themselves. History doesn't always repeat, but it usually rhymes. Things are coming to a head, a sort of crisis on many levels - economic, ecological, and spiritual. Staying healthy is the best defense against whatever "bug" is out there.

Click here to learn about a petition against mandatory vaccination. Mandatory vaccination by the federal government would be taking another gigantic step down the road towards a fascist dictatorship. When we are no longer free to say no to being injected with dangerous, experimental vaccines.....what are we then?

Yours in Health,

Andrew

Staying Centered

Its been a busy, busy summer. But now that midterms are behind us (we had two more exams before 10:00 am today) there might just be a little more room for some commentary...

Staying centered is crucial. From the center, all things are possible and all information is equally within reach. It is here, in the center, that athletes break records, that musicians record masterpieces, and that philosophers uncover a new way to look at the world. The center is akin to the singularity that all great religions seek - some have called it peace, love, zen, happiness, etc.

In the center there is unity - oneness. Struggle doesn't exist on its own. Neither does pain, or hate, or even death. All these negative, death-energy concepts rely on a splitting and dividing. All things are connected in the center, and when we are consciously present there, we too benefit by sensing the connections all around us.

In order to heal others its important to realize many people, structurally, chemically, and emotionally, are way off center, lacking balance. Its important for those doing the healing to know where the center is and how to get there. If they are successful in placing their self into a grounded, open-minded, and empathetic posture, then they will have access to intuition and insight that will greatly benefit the healing process.

While talk is cheap and its easy to point to where one wants to go, taking the steps to get there will challenge everyone who dares. The point is that we will all be challenged. Those who challenge themselves as they attempt to grow will be paying their fees upfront and enjoying dividends down the road. However, those who avoid being tested and take the easy road will simply be using their dividends today and will suffer with more serious challenges and consequences down the road.

Find the center and all things become possible...What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Yours in Health,

Andrew

Seven Words

Medicine Cannot Fix What Medicine Doesn't Understand.

The necessity of chiropractic can be found in these seven words. Who will step up to take care of the sick and diseased in our society? If humans are viewed as machines, then medical doctors are simply mechanics. Swap a part here, drain and change some fluids there. Viola modern medicine at its best. Perhaps only in todays post-modern, post-human world of concrete, glass, and steel did we as a society somehow forget that humans, and all life, are filled with a powerful force. It is the same force that causes trees to grow, to fix their roots deep into rich nutritious soil and to send their branches skyward. Trees like all life seek fearlessly to deploy material and energetic resources in the most efficient manner possible. Roots do not hog nutrients to spite the needs of the leaves. There is no such thing as self or ego or possession - in nature all things are united. There is just the driving force to grow and succeed that permeates each and every cell of every living creature on earth.

Medicine works on the assumption that the suppression of symptoms is an effective way to treat disease. Its akin to saying the person who never cleans their house and lives like a pig can just spray air-freshener over everything and then claim it to be clean because it doesn't smell dirty. We have learned that symptoms are a latent sign of dis-ease and patho-physiology. Yet since the symptom is usually the first sign of illness, it is erroneously assumed that the symptom IS the sickness. When the winds blows and leaves tremble we can say the wind is blowing. We cannot see the wind, but we can see the effect of its passing. Disease and illness works in much the same manner. If we are trying to understand what is afflicting a patient, it would be a disservice to focus on the symptom (the leaves) while ignoring the causative factors (the wind).

It should be clear at this point that a superior health-oriented paradigm is greatly needed. Chiropractic is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this leadership void. We are learning that adjustments open up the body's intrinsic pathways of information and energy resulting in a being living at a higher level of functioning and integration. We are learning that proper alignment of the skeletal system, specifically the vertebral column, is vital to health. The brain and spinal cord are integrative, information processing centers that are interdependent upon the structures through which they travel. So by focusing on adjustments and corrective structural intervention, chiropractic has the answer for many in our society who are seeking a better way. We should remember that chiropractic is perfectly capable of taking care of itself and its patients without changing who and what we are. Treat people as a whole entity instead of treating symptoms as an isolated incident.

Toxic Town

We credit the alchemists for coining the phrase "as above, so below". This simple yet powerful statement reveals that the there are universal laws and truths operating at all levels of reality. The planets in our solar system rotate around the sun just like atoms whirl around the nucleus of an atom. There are solar winds traveling through space just like there are jet streams in our atmosphere and ocean currents in our seas. Nations organize human beings into systems just like living things organize cells into organs. What the alchemists were alluding to is the fact that similar phenomenon exist at all levels, micro and macro.

Consider then the community of cells we call the human body. Our cells respond to toxic food, excessive stress, and emotional suffering just like human beings respond to fear, violence, and poison. Lets consider what would happen to normal, healthy individuals in the following scenario:

Imagine a dense urban environment, called "Toxic Town", where we remove all the nutrition from the food supply and replace it with processed sugar only; place drugs into the drinking water; pollute the air; tear down the lines of communication to the rest of the world; and finally wall off that part of the city. What do you think the health of those citizens would be like in a few days? A few weeks? A few months?

We took normal, healthy people and changed their environment. In this walled-off part of the city people suffered greatly from dis-ease as they were unable to escape the health negative effects of their environment. Anyone subjected to the above reality would likely experience degeneration and dis-ease. Without the ingredients for health available in the immediate environment, and without the ability to flee, is there any doubt as to the fate of these imaginary people?

Keeping with this train of thought, how might today's medical authorities deal with this situation? If we follow the orthodox medicine point of view then our remedy would be to send in ANTI-BIOTIC foot soldiers to "wipe the floor" with these sick people. Or perhaps a SURGICAL air strike would effectively wipe this dis-eased Toxic Town right off the map. When we consider that cells are like people, orthodox medicine becomes violent very quickly. And how are we going to heal each other, if we practice violence against ourselves?

The citizens of Toxic Town didn't do anything wrong and obviously don't deserve to get obliterated by medical intervention. They became victim to their environment - an environment that made it impossible to experience health. In our own bodies it is not the fault of our cells that they become diseased, anymore than it is the fault of the people in Toxic Town. And like the people stuck in this toxic part of town, our cells cannot up and move to a cleaner part of our body.

We should consider then how vitally important is the environment. Whether we are an individual human being or an individual cell, our health and our fate is fully dependent upon the support of the immediate environment. Mother nature has made it simple for us to keep our cell environment healthy. All that is required of the average person is to avoid things which are made by people in labs and factories and to eat fruits, veggies, and meats growth in an organic and sustainable manner. By selecting foods rich in vitamins and minerals we will be assuring that our cells are awash in the biochemicals they depend on to function at their best.

We have all heard that the body is our temple. That means that if we respect, cherish, and love life that we will keep that temple clean and healthy. No one benefits from living in a Toxic Town. And no cells can thrive living in a toxic body. We can change cars when we wear them out. We can move into a new house if we wreak the one we have. We have but a single body and it needs our love, respect, and attention.

Swine Flu - Balance Fear With Information

Over the past few days the media has begun a blitz of sound-bytes and info-bytes regarding the outbreak of swine flu. It is alarming that the reports brought before us show a spreading, powerful strain of swine flu. The picture being painted on the main media outlets is that this strain is new and powerful - plenty of reason to be fearful. First in Mexico, and now in other countries as well the swine flu appears, at first, to be everything the alarmists are claiming it to be. The purpose of this short article is to provide some much needed perspective so we can put our fear into balance. The last thing we need to be doing is being fearful because negative emotional states act to immediately weaken our immune system and hamper our own well being. Please take moment to read the article below.

At this early stage already there is much alarm and dread in the media. While these swine flu deaths that have taken place are unfortunate, we must be aware that every year in the United States over 36,000 people die from the flu. That is around 100 people each day! These flu deaths are just "normal" flu and are not afforded such frenzied media coverage. Clearly seasonal flu is an ongoing issue every year. Even at 9:00 am on April, 26th, 2009 there are only 20 infections so far in the United States. We are talking 20 infections out of 300 million people! Compare 20 infections, not fatalities, to around the usual 100 deaths a day. Obviously we are not at a point where our fear and hysteria are justified. We should keep asking questions and think for ourselves. Below I have attempted to highlight a philosophy of health that suggests what we call cold and flu symptoms are actually correct responses by the body to a viral infection. Rather than take medicine to suppress the symptoms, aren't we better off allowing the body to do what it needs to do? Hopefully we can all learn that symptoms are tools used by the innate intelligence of the body to restore health. We should not fight that. The body is fully aware of what to do and we should simply nourish it and get out of the way.

According to the CDC, the swine flu we are dealing with today is a "new" variation of swine influenza A. The fact that it is new should not alarm anyone. It is critical to understand that viruses change all the time. Science and medicine cannot even cure the common cold, one of the most simple sicknesses that we all encounter. The reason is not for lack of trying but rather that the virus is constantly in a state of evolution. Its like an ancient game of cat and mouse. The cold virus gets into our bodies and attempts to replicate. Our immune system is designed to monitor and remove such threats. So the cold virus is the mouse and the immune system is the cat so to speak. In order to make this point clearer, please consider the following point of view.

Each one of us has the cold virus inside our bodies. I understand that to mean at all times, even during times of great health, there is some cold virus within us. Its just that during those times of immune strength our bodies are doing an excellent job of keeping the growth of the virus down to minimum levels. Constant vigilance is the name of the game for our immune systems. Our immune system defends us all day, every day without us being aware of it at all. Such is the beauty and power of the human being. We could conceivably enjoy this period of health and immune wellness for many months and even years. There is no reason to believe we cannot live in such a state for long periods of time.

Now lets say for this exercise that we have become overly stressed, we found ourselves eating poor food, and we haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately (sound familiar anyone?). Remember that our immune system is always working to keep the cold virus, or any virus for that matter, under control. But when we experience stress - emotional, physical, and chemical - our immune system is the first thing to weaken. Now instead of having a virus under control, we have a virus that spreads systemically.

At this point we are not aware of being sick. Keep in mind that what we call sickness is actually the intelligence of the body responding to the threat. We call our symptoms the sickness. In fact, the real sickness is the fact that the cold virus has spread throughout our bodies due to the weakening of our immune function. We probably would not say we feel sick at this point. We might feel something coming on, but it would be too far in the background of our awareness. We just can't tune in at that level.

So now we are at a point where our body recognizes intelligently that the cold virus has spread to unsafe levels. The initial immune response was unable to keep it in check due to stresses placed upon the body which drain the vital energy needed by the immune system. But the body fights back at this point. This is the critical point in the process where most would now say we feel sick. The body knows that the virus lives and proliferates only in very precise environmental conditions. In other words, in order for the cold virus to spread it needs to have just the right temperature, pH, etc. Lucky for us the body can alter these factors and thus cause the virus to stop spreading and cause it to die off.

As mentioned the body fights back and it does this one way by raising the internal temperature. This occurs with an increase in immune cell activity and creates an unfavorable environment for the virus. By elevating the temperature the body causes the virus to slow down and denature, while at the same time giving the immune response added energy to disable and remove the virus. The fever is a natural intelligent response by the body. It should be seen as such. It is the correct response in order to remove the viral infection from the body. Yet this perspective is not widely acknowledged. We are raised to think that feeling sick is "bad" but in fact the sickness we feel is just Mother Nature doing her best to keep us alive.

After altering the internal environment and energizing our immune system our body fights off the virus and we are again returned to health. Of course during this period of fever, loss of appetite, and low energy we certainly didn't feel good. But that is the price we had to pay for returning to health.

We have established that the body's response to the cold virus is not really "sickness" but is an intelligent method of riding the body of an infection. While it is unpleasant to undergo these experiences, we should support the body's efforts by eating the most nutritious of foods, usually soups in this case, and provide it with ample clean water. We must acknowledge that the sick feeling is actually the curative process. It has to hurt if its to heal. Covering up the pain with drugs and poison is working against the body. Sometimes a fever is necessary. It may be uncomfortable to cough and feel sick but the body is working intelligently, flawlessly, perfectly the whole time.

The cold virus is always changing. Other viruses like the flu are always changing as well. It is just a fact of life. By always morphing into something new the viruses are constantly challenging our immune system. Our bodies are perfectly capable of keeping us healthy for extended lengths of time. But when we are down, our immune system is one of the first things to go. And like the old saying goes "when the cats away the mice will play". The viruses spread quickly when the immune system is weakened. Keep the body nourished, keep the spine healthy, and keep the body energized and we will all reap the benefits.

Yours in Health,

Andrew

When All You Have is a Hammer...

Using surgery and pharmaceutical drugs, tools best suited to address medical emergencies, as a means to produce a healthy society is a misguided approach. It is like someone trying to grow a garden in their backyard using only two tools - a pair of shears and some insecticide. Obviously the complexities of growing a garden necessitate the use and consideration of many things like proper sunlight, water, soil chemistry, nutrients and fertilizers, etc. If our neighbor claimed only two-tools could yield a healthy garden, would we take that person seriously?

Now consider that the human body is like a very, very complex garden, replete with varieties of micro-organisms which all seek harmony and homeostasis. The body needs a wide array of support from nutrition to emotional well-being. It makes no sense to limit the care of the human being to two tools - drugs and surgery. All too often we become biased by the tools on our belt. Remember, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

The consequence of the narrow approach, of using emergency intervention in the majority of cases, is a misdiagnoses of the needs of patients. Patients may needed emergency care and medical crisis management at certain points. Yet what is need by the patient, and lacking in the medical model, is a holistic, patient-centered approach. The missing diagnosis in the surgery/drug model is the realization that the patient is a whole person, with all the qualities and complexities inherent in an individual. Patients are people with symptoms, not symptoms with people attached.

Firefighters & Architects -- Who are You Gonna Call?

Lets start this by asking a few questions: what is health? Is it the absence of pain? Or is it the presence of something else? Do we need emergency care specialists or should we be seeing preventative care experts?

While those are big questions, I believe chiropractic philosophy can help find an answer. I believe that chiropractic care is the key to unlocking your body's potential. Think of your dream home. Now imagine it has caught fire. Do you call the architect or carpenter? No, you call the fire department because that is an emergency. It is the same with your body. If you find yourself in a health emergency, you need to go to the hospital, to the emergency room. But lets say your dream home has a cracked foundation, some walls and door frames are not square, and a little water leaks in during rain storms. You wouldn't call fire fighters. You would turn to experts who deal with structure and function.

Now it is the same when we talk about chiropractic and health. Chiropractic is to you what an architect or carpenter is to your house. You can live in a crooked house, but would anyone recommend it? You also can live with chronic subluxations (spinal misalignments), but would anyone recommend that? Now consider the human body, its a little more complicated than a house. And if structure is important for your house, imagine how important it is for your health. Proper alignment of the skull and spine allows for proper functioning of the nervous system, which in turn increases health across a broad spectrum. Chiropractors use their hands and simple tools to move bones and tissues back into proper alignment. We don't use drugs, and we don't use surgery. Your body knows how to heal itself, and we respect and understand that.

Health is really a direction. Everything we eat, drink, think, and do affects our health. Chiropractic helps people of all ages, from all walks of life, to deal with the challenges we all face living day to day. Its all about your quality of life, and with chiropractic, you receive care that enhances your overall well-being.

Yours in Health,

Andrew