Sadly Somethings Are Not Limitless

Once upon a time there was a microscopic cell. 

In that cell there are complex compounds made up of matter. Just like each of us, this little cell needs the proper nutrients to function properly. Each of these nutrients are also made of matter. Even if each and every nutrient is supplied to this little cell, and it functions to its fullest potential it can still only do what it is specified to do. A blood cell is really good at carrying oxygen but lousy at sending electrical signals to other parts of the body, but a nerve cell is excellent at doing that.  They are both made up of the same basic pieces of matter but the scope that they can achieve is very limited.
Just like this cell, all of our bodies are made up of that same matter.We can do specific tasks and functions that help us through our daily lives. These functions include: walking, running, sleeping, eating, typing blogs, speaking, and even healing ourselves. The problem is since we are made up of  matter we have limitations. We cannot fly under our own power, we cannot breathe under water, we cannot work beyond what our matter can handle. Our bodies will get to a point where there is no return to full function because of the deterioration of the matter in our bodies and ultimately it will stop functioning all together. What we can control is keeping our bodies, and the matter in it, in tip top shape by giving it all the nutrients and maintenance it needs to function at one hundred percent. We can do that by proactively taking care of our bodies through proper diet, movement, stimulation, and of course keeping our nervous system working properly through regular chiropractic care. 

So lets give this little microscopic cell and billions of cells in our body a happily ever after ending through proactively taking care of all of them.

-Mike E

Why I do What I do and Why I am Who I am

A lot of factors go into deciding what we are to become. For me it has been a life full of culminating events that has prepared me for the profession that I have chosen. When I was only seven years old I was stricken with an inflammatory disease, called Kawasaki Disease, that left the arteries to my heart severely damaged. The miraculous thing about that experience is that my body innately adapted to the damaged arteries and created a new way for my heart muscle to get the blood it needed through extension of other arteries. This was my first personal experience on the ability and power of the human body to heal itself. In my church it is a common practice for a young adult to spend two years away from school, family, and the distractions of the world to spend all your time proselyting and sharing our religion with anyone that will listen. While I was doing this when I was nineteen years old, I had the wonderful experience to help and serve complete strangers and get to see peoples lives change for the better. This was truly life changing for myself and is when I decided that I wanted to help others improve their lives. Chiropractic is the science, philosophy, and art that allows me to help people enhance their bodies ability to heal themselves and in the process of that improve their quality and expression of life. While I have been in school I have seen improvements in my own life. I have been able to turn my life around and lose over thirty pounds of excess weight because my body has been functioning better. Also, despite my heart condition, in the last six months I have been able to run four half marathon races getting faster times each race. The human body is an incredible thing with limitless potential. I get to help others improve their lives through helping their bodies function at a 100% everyday and I love it.

-Mike E

Virus Upgrade

I have been working on looking at things from a new perspective. In one of my classes last quarter we were talking about looking at viruses in a different light. Take the flu for example, just about every year a new strain of flu evolves. What if viruses were not a thing to just torment us. What if viruses were a means by which we can upgrade our immune system and in a way evolve into a more advanced version of ourselves. When we "catch" the flu (have the symptoms) that just means that our body needs more time to upgrade or reboot our system. I like this view point better and it is definitely more positive then our more traditional view of viruses.

-Mike E

Babies

I have recently been blessed with the opportunity to become a father. These last few weeks have been some of the best weeks of my life. It is truly incredible that my new son grew from a single cell to a miniature little human in just 9 months and without any help from anybody, he did it all on his own. Everything in his little body did what is was supposed to do because innately it knew how to do it. This reminds me of one of my favorite sayings, "The power that created the body has the ability to heal the body." It has been fun to watch him grow each day and see him learn new things as his little body develops.

Just like our older bodies, babies go through stresses each day. These stresses can be detrimental to the bodies ability to adapt and heal as it should. So just like us, babies need to have their spines checked by a chiropractor. Just think about all the stress that was put on his little spine and body as he was squeezed out of his mother like toothpaste from a tube during child birth. Do you think that he could have some defensive posture in his spine and some undo tension in his nervous system? I would say so! I have been taking a Network Spinal Analysis class at school this quarter and we had the wonderful opportunity to have my teacher give him one of his first spinal entrainments. It was great to see how he responded to it and use the entrainment to help his little body work out some of the built up tension and allow him to have more effortless mind-body control through his nervous system. Also the awesome thing about entraining/adjusting babies is they cannot fake it. So here is a little video of Dr Brian T. Lumb giving a spinal entrainment to our little boy at one week old, enjoy:

-Mike E

Illness to Wellness

There are two ways we can view healing. One is the illness point of view and the other is wellness. What is the difference between them? If you look at the words themselves we can see the answer. The only difference between the words is Illness and Wellness or simply I and We. When we are Ill we say things like "I am sick," "I have this condition," "Whoa is me," etc. It is a self centered perspective. When we look at being well, on the other hand, it is a more community oriented view point. This is where we open ourselves up to accepting help from others and also provide help for others by sharing our life experiences. This is where we actively seek help because we know that we cannot do this on our own, but understand that as a part of an active community we need to do our part as well.

We all live in a community whether we want to accept that or not. In nature we see that every action has a reaction. True wellness, and happiness for that matter, comes from our positive interactions with those around us. That is the difference between illness and wellness.

-Mike E

Entrance Exam

Along with all the the basic science classes I have taken in the last 7 quarters to prepare me for national boards, I have had a sprinkling of technique and diagnosis classes. Usually I have had about 2 to 3 classes a quarter of that flavor. Since those classes are the prerequisite to becoming an intern in the clinic I had to be tested in a practical method to see if I was competent in those areas. So our professors have developed something they call Entrance Exam that I was fortunate to be able to take yesterday morning. This is how it organized.

There were six individual stations: first the Case History station, where we were given the age, gender, and chief complaint of the patient and then had to ask pertinent questions to the patient to narrow down what they might have wrong with them. The next station was the Differential Diagnosis station where we were given a case history with some subjective and objective findings and were asked to give three differential diagnosis that made sense given the history and findings. We then had to give specific reasons why those diagnosis made sense using the findings and history of the patient. The next station was Orthopedic/Neurological Testing station. In this station we were given three random orthopedic tests (we have learned well over 70 unique tests) and had to perform them on a patient and also state what a positive would be as well as what they indicated could be wrong with the patient. We also we given one spinal nerve root to test motor/reflex/sensory function on (there were only about 11 different nerve roots that we have learned to test). The next station was Palpation station. Here we were given a specific spinal vertebral misalignment (we have special ways of labeling misalignments called listings) and were asked to demonstrate and explain the static, motion, and muscle/ligament findings for that specific listing on a patient. The Set Up station was next. This is where we were given two segmental listings and had to set the patient up just like we were about to give an adjustment without giving the force. The last station was Physical Exam, this station we had to preform four individual parts of either the eye, ear, anterior/posterior thorax, heart, or abdominal exam. We were graded not only on performance but also on professionalism, so we had dress up and introduce ourselves as if they were all real patients.

So what happened was they took six of us at a time and we had one minute to get to the door then we were told to enter the room via intercom. We had five minutes to complete the station and we were given a 30 second warning via a ding over the intercom speaker then we were told to leave and were given another minute to get to the next doorway and it repeated for all six stations. After we were done we were sent to a "quarantine" room where we had to wait for all the groups to finish. I was able to go in the second of 4 groups. It was very nerve racking but luckily all the things that I had to do I remembered how to perform and the case history and diagnosis station were not too bad. I feel like I performed well and I did not have to wait in quarantine for that long. It was a good experience and just another step closer to my ultimate goal.

-Mike E

New Table

My new table came this week. As I am preparing to enter clinic, this will be a great help for me to practice set ups and what not. This addition also helps me to focus my vision since it is a table I will use in my future practice. It is portable so I can take it where ever I go in the world in the future. 

Everything is coming together and it is exciting to move forward with my education and life. Out of the book learning and on to the application! 

-Mike E