2013 NFL Combine Seminar

I am back in the office today and ready to apply the great knowledge gained from this past weekend.  Not even "Snowmaggedon" could keep this guy from getting to Indianapolis to absorb some great information and techniques.  I learned so many great things, I thought I would give a brief summary about the seminar and how it will impact our procedures in the office and beyond. Here is a link to a detailed description of each speaker that presented at the seminar:  http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e6o0z0rt63aa6b39&llr=nzw9hziab

On Saturday, the first speaker I had the pleasure of listening to was Dr. Mitch Mally.  He is very well known for his adjusting techniques.  He has training in martial arts and incorporates those breathing and movement techniques into his adjustments.  In this instance he spoke on several common foot problems and walked us through the way he would evaluate and adjust to correct those issues.  Many people are unaware of how important proper foot function is to proper spinal mechanics, not to mention the role it plays in knee and hip joint motion.  In our office we evaluate the feet of every patient as well as observing walking gait.  This seminar will only enhance our ability to evaluate and treat foot and ankle issues.  I have already applied this treatment method to a patient and the results were very good.  An interesting note about Dr. Mally is that he uses information from Medical and Orthopedic journals and textbooks to support his treatments.  In this way he is able to provide a viewpoint with less bias and one that can be accepted by even the most skeptical medical professional.

The second speaker that presented was Dr. Laney Nelson.  Dr. Nelson is a very accomplished in the field Sports Chiropractic and he currently heads the Sports Rehab department at Logan college in St. Louis.  He has been the team chiropractor for a number of different high school, college, semi-pro and pro sports teams.  He has a long list of credentials and he knows how to use them! He talked about on-field, sideline, and locker room evaluation procedures for concussions and common sports injuries.  He also spent time emphasizing the importance of chiropractic in the sports medicine field.  Dr. Nelson did not diminish the role of Physical Therapists, Orthopedic Specialists, or Athletic Trainers, rather he discussed how working with these skilled professionals is the best way to keep an athlete safe and keep them performing at his/her best.

On Sunday the key note speaker was Dr. Frederick Carrick.  He has a paragraph of letters behind his name a professor of Neurology at Life Chiropractic College in Georgia.  He is basically House, DC.  For those who don't know, House M.D. was a Fox TV show where Dr. House diagnosed and treated only the toughest medical cases that no one else could figure out.  Dr. Carrick is the real life chiropractic version of this show.  He knows the brain like Google knows maps.  Ask him how the brain functions and he can give you multiple routes so to speak as well as turn by turn directions.  There is a 3-year waiting list for patients to see him at this point.  He treated Sidney Crosby, a famous hockey player for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as many other famous athletes from around the world.  Suffice it to say that Dr. Carrick is smarter than I, but to be fair he had a head start on me.  It is nice to be in close proximity to brilliant people because it may just rub off.  I am excited that I had the opportunity to learn even a little bit from such a brilliant and skilled diagnostician.  He discussed many of the cutting edge techniques he uses in his clinic to diagnose brain injuries such as concussions. Several of these techniques will be incorporated in our clinic when they are deemed necessary. Here are a few links showing some videos of Dr. Carrick on national broadcasts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tQtAs3d05E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr-Pe85UiII

Beyond the speakers, many of the team chiropractors from the NFL were present to answer questions and provide insight on how to evaluate and treat athletes.  This was an excellent seminar that helped me grow my knowledge and direct me toward new avenues of further study.  Now I am excited to be home and get back to work.  Thanks for reading.

Dr. Drew

Do you have a lingering sports injury or general aches and pains that are keeping you from living life the way you want? Dr. Drew can help.  Just email contact@backandbodycb.com or call (712) 314-0136 and we will be glad to give you a free consultation on how we help you achieve your health goals.

Cleanse Update

So I am a little late on updating the progress of my cleanse.  I got a little busy and am now just able to give you what I am sure is the update you have all been waiting for.  Que the drum roll please.....I lost 6 lbs during the course of the 4 days of the cleanse.  I have since kept off 5 lbs and this is over a week later.  I will be honest and say that I did not complete the cleanse exactly as designed.  I had a few networking events and I enjoyed several boneless wings rather than a healthy meal.  I also had 2 pints of Guinness draft beer (though stout beer is actually anti-inflammatory, topic for another blog perhaps).  To add to my failure I also only made time to exercise during the first day of the cleanse.  I used the elyptical for 20 minutes, did some body weight exercises like push ups, squats, pull ups and some core strengthening exercises as well as sat in the infrared sauna for 10 minutes.With all that said, 5 lbs is still pretty solid even though I have experienced better results in the past.

This cleanse is difficult for me because I have the bad habit of eating when I am bored.  So in the evenings, when I am sitting and watching television, reading or what have you, I have difficulty controlling my urge to eat junk food even when I am not hungry.  Since finishing this cleanse, my appetite has decreased somewhat and I have been getting full quicker.  Overall I would consider the cleanse a success.  If you are interested in trying this cleanse give us a call at 712-314-0136 or send me an email a dwhighamdc@gmail.com and I can give you more info.  Overall  cost of this cleanse will run about $65 at our special offer price.  But if you have your own protein shake you can just purchase the cleanse powder for about $45. The breakdown for this cleanse is that it replaces 10 meals over the course of 4 days.  That is an average of $6.50 a meal.  

As for my next adventure in nutritional supplementation, I will be completing the Advocare 24 day challenge. This consists of a few different phases.  The first phase is a 10 day cleanse that incorporates a few fiber drinks, cleanse pills, and probiotic pills into the daily routine. The second phase involves trading out one meal with a meal replacement shake and incorporates an appetite suppressing supplement. This cleanse is a little different than the last cleanse in that you can eat normally during it.  Now it is highly encouraged attempt to eat healthier to enhance the effects. I would be more than happy to recommend healthy recipes or sample daily/weekly meal plans upon request.  I have completed only the 10 day cleanse portion of this challenge in the past and while I did not lose as much weight as I did with the Isagenix cleanse, I did notice a boost in energy and improved digestive function. Furthermore, the fiber drink actually tastes pretty good. I have recommended  the 10 day cleanse portion to several people I know with digestion issues and they were very impressed with how much it helped said issues improve.  I have ordered the challenge but it has not come in yet so I am not starting today.  When it comes in the mail I will give a detailed post on what the products are, what the schedule is, what my starting weight is as well as a few measurements.  Then I will post updates as I go through the challenge.  If you would like to join me and complete this challenge along with me, use the contact information provided above and I will get you an order.  This challenge runs about $200 or about $8.33 a day.  I am always happy to respond to any questions, comments, or concerns so feel free to post any or all of the above.  Thanks for reading.

Dr. Drew

Death of a Salesman

I simply can not stand it when somebody is trying to sell me something.  It could be something I already decided I want and I will still consider not buying it if I think the salesman came on too strong.  A big reason is trust.  I do not have much faith that a good majority of salespeople try or use the products they claim to be the best.  For this reason, we have decided that at Back & Body Chiropractic, we will not be selling you anything.

Now, with that said,  we will have things for sale that are useful tools in enhancing your health.  From nutritional supplements, to pillows, to biofreeze, etc... we will have items available for you to purchase at your own discretion.  But we will not be pressuring any patient or friend of ours to buy anything.  We only put items for sale that we have personally used and can vouch for.  And to prove this point I will be writing blog posts on a regular basis, reviewing the items we have for sale at the office.  We feel that it is important to document our usage to establish the level of trust we want you to have in our recommendations.

I will begin by using a cleanse product from Isagenix.  It is a basic cleanse that can be customized to a person's needs.  We will be offering both 1 day, 4 day, and 10 day versions of this cleanse at our office. Starting today I will be using the 4 day version of this cleanse. This consists of 1 container of cleanse powder and a portion of one container of meal replacement shake mix.  The breakdown of my next 4 days will look like this:

Days 1 & 4-- 2 scoops of cleanse powder in 8 oz of water every 3-6 hours
                      at least 8 8oz glasses of water
                      no food

Days 2 & 3-- 2 meal replacement shakes replacing 2 of the regular 3 meals
                      1 sensible meal of chicken or fish and vegetables at or below 500 calories

Now this is a cleanse I have done about 3 times a year for the past 2 years and this will be my first time this year.  It is not easy because it breaks the addiction to the action of eating.  It is not a cleanse that will make you run to the bathroom every 5 minutes.  In fact, you will find your body functioning quite efficiently.  The results I have seen personally from this cleanse typically range about 6-10 lbs of weight loss at the end of the 4 days.  I have recommended this to several friends and family members and their results were in the same range.

The important thing to note is that some of this weight you lose is food that your body is not using efficiently that becomes trapped in your digestive track and eventually becomes waste.  This build up of waste is toxic to your body and can effect your health in a multitude of different ways.  The purpose of this cleanse is to allow your body to utilize only what it needs and clean out the waste.  Thus resulting in weight loss.  However, if you immediately return to eating a large amounts of food following this cleanse, then the weight will return.  It is meant to kick start healthy eating habits.

As of today I weighed in at 245 lbs.  Needless to say this cleanse is a little over due.  I will be posting my results in a blog at the end of the week and some general thoughts on how it went.  I will add in my meal and exercise amounts also for those that are interested.

Now for the best part.  I said at the beginning of this post that I hate being sold things. In addition, I do not like selling things.  Well here is me not selling something to you.  If you are interested in trying any of the products we offer at our office.  We will sell it to you at our cost plus 10% for shipping purposes if you agree to tell us about it when you are done using it.  We will also give recommendations on the proper ways to use the products free of charge.  Just post your thoughts about the product, good, bad, or indifferent on our facebook page when you are done and that is it.  This allows us to see if our products really work.  If you are interested you can message us on facebook, email us at dwhighamdc@gmail.com, or call the office at (712) 314-0136.  We have products for all ranges of goals and health needs. Contact us today.  We will be running this deal through the end of the month but if we get a lot of interest there is a good chance we will extend it. Thanks for reading.

Dr. Drew

Groundhog Blog

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Good afternoon and Happy Groundhog’s Day! Currently I am sitting in a meridian therapy seminar at my alma mater learning many wonderful ways to use this ancient treatment method to treat a multitude of ailments both common and uncommon.  I always get excited about attending seminars because I enjoy discovering new ways to improve the health of my patients.  This is a very special day for it is on this day we celebrate one of my favorite random movies of all time starring Bill Murray.  For those who haven’t had the pleasure of viewing this classic, here is my synopsis: Bill Murray is flawed individual stuck reliving the same day (Grounhog’s Day) over and over again.  He is caught in a seemingly endless cycle that he attempts to fill with fleeting methods of satisfaction such as gluttony and lust but none of those things satisfy him and none break the cycle.  It is not until he realizes that he is meant to shed his flaws and win the heart of the character played by Andy McDowell that he is finally able to experience the glory of February 3^rd. 

I think this movie presents an excellent concept that can be applied to the health of many individuals.  Instead of reliving Groundhog’s Day over and over, most people spend life battling the same chronic conditions every day, again and again.  Many traditional forms of medicine may be failing and the pain seems unending.  If this is you, nod your head and keep reading.  I am sure just like Bill Murray, you sometimes feel like this cycle seems impossible to break and may be pushing you close to your breaking point. What I am hear to tell you is that at Back and Body Chiropractic we offer a variety of treatments that are exceptionally efficient at reducing and often times eliminating chronic pain.  We have a treatment cupboard stocked full of Andy McDowell’s if you will.  Today I am focused on Meridian therapy (better known as acupuncture).  Isn’t it convenient that within the treatment methods of Meridian therapy there is a specific set of meridians (points) that are used specifically to treat chronic conditions? These are known as the Horary points.   

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Dr. Drew, I want nothing more than to find my Andy McDowell so I can experience February 3^rd for myself, but I am nervous about trying Acupuncture.”  I understand your hesitant approach considering most people get nervous around needles.  Fortunately, acupuncture can be accomplished through multiple delivery methods.  Though a needle is the most powerful way to stimulate a meridian, the use of micro current, laser, and/or acupressure can be very effective treatment methods as well.  We offer all four of those treatment options at our office and will work with you to determine which treatment method is the best fit for you.  And because I like Groundhog’s Day so much and because I am in the Meridian mood from this seminar, I am going to give all the Facebook friends of Back and Body Chiropractic a deal.  Through the month of February, anyone who “likes” our page will automatically receive $15 the initial exam and $10 of each acupuncture treatment.   Just let Brittany know that you like our page and she will gladly reduce your bill. Have a happy Groundhog’s Day and hopefully you will all experience a beautiful February 3^rd in the very near future.

Dr. Drew