The Ear Infections Epidemic - The Truth Every Parent Needs to Know!

Dr. Maj adjusting young Samantha

Dr. Stephanie Maj answers the most pressing question in her pediatric practice: What is the cause of ear infections and what can we do to heal them without drugs or surgery?

Chicago-Ask any parent about ear infections, and you will likely hear one horror story after another. Ear infection or Otitis Media, is the most common reason for visits to the pediatrician’s office. In fact, visits to the pediatrician’s office for ear infections have increased over 150% from 1975 to 1990. It is estimated that over 30 million visits are made every year in an attempt to deal with this problem.

In my practice, we have an effective, safe solution to the problems plaguing parents. What we find is most parents fail to understand what is happening with these infections.

Otitis Media is the general name for several conditions affecting the middle ear. The most common symptoms are earache, a feeling of pressure, and perhaps difficulty hearing due to increased amounts of fluid. Teething often produces similar symptoms, therefore, the child should be carefully observed before jumping to any conclusions.

Historically, the treatment for ear infections has been antibiotics. This method of treatment has come under severe attack over the past several years for many reasons. One of the reasons, the overuse and over prescription of these antibiotics, has led to what is termed “antibiotic resistant bacteria”. These bacteria have “evolved” and changed so that the antibiotics no longer affect them. Because of this phenomenon, stronger and stronger antibiotics are being used, which is leading to more and more resistance. (http://tinyurl.com/yep3y33)

Another reason use of antibiotics has come under fire is because study after study has demonstrated that they are not effective. In other words, they do not work! This is why so many children are on one antibiotic after another, stronger and stronger each time. Sure, many times the infection will go away, but it quickly returns with a vengeance, and so begins the antibiotic roller coaster.

The reasons they continually reoccur is two-fold: First, antibiotics kill off most bacteria in the body including the helpful “good” bacteria our bodies need. This depletes our children’s natural immune system, making them vulnerable to many more infections of varying types.

Secondly, antibiotics merely attempt to treat the symptoms of ear infections, they do not address the actual cause and therefore the infections return.

The real question then is what is the cause of ear infections? The reality is that ear infections themselves are merely a symptom of a greater problem. The vast majority of them are secondary to a cold or another infection, which may be due to a depressed immune system.

The other more physical reason children suffer from ear infections is because of the actual anatomy of the young ear.

In children, the Eustachian tube is nearly horizontal, gradually acquiring a near 45-degree angle. This often slows draining of these tubes and with stagnant fluid, infection may appear.

The obvious question from most parents now is: what can we do? The answer lies in a new level of thinking.

As a chiropractor, my primary objective is to address the root cause of health problems. Treating symptoms, as mentioned earlier, has been proven unsuccessful at best. When dealing with your children and ear infections, my goal is to correct the actual cause, and to allow the body to function at its optimal potential. (http://tinyurl.com/ybqlymw)

There is a direct link between the nerves in the neck (the superior cervical ganglion), the muscles of the Eustachian tubes (tensor veli palatini) and the middle ear.

Let me explain: The middle ear drains any fluid through the Eustachian tubes. These tubes open and close through the action of a muscle and that muscle is controlled by a nerve. This nerve originates in the neck. When this nerve is not functioning normally, the tensor veli palatini muscle may go into spasm, which constricts the Eustachian tube, restricting drainage and causing fluid buildup in the middle ear. This fluid, combined with a stressed immune system, may result in an ear infection.

Ultimately then, this “nerve interference” can cause your children to suffer as they do. My job as a chiropractor is to detect this nerve interference called subluxation, and correct it. A subluxation is a misalignment of a bone in the spine that pinches, stretches or twists a nerve resulting in interference.

By correcting this interference, the child’s body is given the potential to heal and be well. With proper chiropractic care, your child will be able to live a life free from nerve interference, and free from unnecessary medications and antibiotics.

Chiropractic adjustments for children are very gentle and differ tremendously from the adult version. Imagine you are putting a contact in your eye or testing a tomato to see if it is ripe, that is the extent of the pressure used in these treatments. There is no twisting, popping or pulling involved.

Through advances in technology such as Surface EMG and Thermal Scans, a chiropractor can easily detect these subluxations and monitor their correction as well. This enables chiropractors to be accurate and objective, allowing you the best care possible.

A promising study published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics now indicates that there is a strong correlation between chiropractic adjustments and the resolution of ear infections. 332 children with chronic ear infections participated in the study. Each child, ranging in age from 27 days to 5 years, was given a series of chiropractic adjustments. The results show that close to 80% of the children in this study experienced NO ear infections within the six-month period following their initial visits. The six-month period included maintenance treatments every four to six weeks.

Correcting the cause through chiropractic has been shown to help over 80% of all children with ear infections.

Treating the symptoms of ear infections with antibiotics has proven to be ineffective. Give your children a fighting chance with chiropractic; it could change your lives!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Stephanie A. Maj has been helping children and adults experience life at their maximum potential through Chiropractic for over 14 years. She is the author of the book, “You Can Be Well” and lectures throughout Chicago on a variety of health issues, and may be contacted at 773.528.8485. Community Chiropractic is located at 1442 W. Belmont, 1E Chicago, IL 60657. Her website is www.communitychiropractic.net.

How Did You Become a Chiropractor?

My name is Dr. Stephanie Maj. I am a chiropractor. How I became a chiropractor is not all that exciting and yet it’s my story and I am going to tell it here. I got injured, had spinal pain and my mom urged me to go to a chiropractor. She also urged me to be a chiropractor. “Chiropractor?” There are none in our family and to my knowledge, no one in my family had ever been adjusted. So I went to Dr. Tony Battaglia in my hometown of Akron, Ohio. I was 23 years of age, working in an environmental lab and was looking for deeper meaning in my life. I went to this office looking for pain relief and received so much more. I was assigned a young doctor, excited and passionate about what he did and how he was going to help lots of people get well. No one talked about helping people at my lab job. Intrigued, I dug deeper. From my earliest memory, I had always wanted to be a doctor. A pediatrician to be exact. Through my undergraduate studies at Ohio University, I was a premed/nutrition major and just assumed my path was to be a medical doctor. After going through the application process, I realized that there was something that didn’t fit about me and traditional medicine. I decided against that career for reasons that were not fully formed in my mind and have since become crystal clear to me. After completing my treatment plan with my chiropractor, I not only healed the sprain in my neck from my car accident, my lifelong headaches went away as well.

After that experience, l decided that I needed to get my life moving in a better direction so off I went to Chicago to chiropractic school. Chiropractic school is a 5 year program, very similar to medical school except when medical students go into the hospitals, chiropractic students study the biomechanics, neurology, and function of the body deeper. I spent my last year and a half of school in clinics, helping the community and firming up my techniques of diagnosis and treatment. School was the most intense experience of my life. It was hard to think of life after school and the direction now of my career. I just wanted to help people, that’s all. I saw that there were so many people to help; this world has never been sicker. I felt for me, working under another doctor for a time was important. I studied under Dr. Peter Feldkamp outside of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Pete is a good man. I learned many things both clinical and business from him although my biggest lesson was that I could make a living, help lots of people, and do it with integrity and honesty.

I opened Community Chiropractic in Chicago on April 1, 1996, my 30th birthday. I have operated a family-oriented wellness practice in the Chicago area where I specializes in returning people to health, family, pediatric, pregnancy, and wellness care ever since. I am certified in Pediatrics from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association where I completed over 120 hours of curriculum offered techniques and protocols of care for children and pregnant women. I also earned a Certificate of Proficiency in the Webster Technique, a specific analysis and adjustment used for pregnant mothers. This chiropractic technique helps to correct sacral misalignment, balance pelvic nerves, muscles and ligaments which allow the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.

Community Chiropractic is filled with people in various stages of health. We have sick people on the road to getting well, we have healthy people that utilize chiropractic care as a means of keeping their body functioning optimally. There are young families, athletes and everything in-between. Our hope is that we can be the coaches that lead you on your journey to health and wellness!

I recently returned from the Dominican Republic where I was a part of an orginization called ChiroMission. We help supply much needed health care and funds to the poorest of the poor in that country.

The mission at Community Chiropractic is to check as many people as possible for hidden health problems and to save them from a life of drugs and surgery. We do this in Chicago everyday yet I realized after this trip that the world needs our help as well. I have been hit by a lightning bold and will never be the same.

Local Chiropractor takes her Practice to the Children of the Dominican Republic

Chicago – The people of the Dominican Republic live with staggering poverty, having very little access to any form of health care and no access to chiropractic care. Dr. Stephanie Maj has just returned from a chiropractic mission to help supply much needed health care and funds to the poorest of the poor in the Dominican Republic.

“I have vacationed in the Dominican Republic and although I knew it was a poor country, I saw first-hand how poverty can affect people,” Dr. Stephanie Maj said. “One community was living on the side of a trash dump, with poor Dominican kids wandering the trash heaps with no shoes. Their toys were old tires and bottle caps.”

In some ways, Dr. Maj notes, the people in the U.S. are more stressed out. The Dominican people lead a simpler life, free of the repetitive stresses such as sitting over a computer all day. Poverty and nutrition are the two biggest factors affecting the health of the Dominican people. The nutrition in the U.S. can be blamed as the biggest factor affecting health as well.

Maj adjusted 900 people in a three-day period. “I would say 75% of the people I helped were children. We would go to a school and adjust every kid in the school, as well as the teachers and staff.” That was for the children lucky enough to be able to attend school. Thousands of Dominican children are abandoned each year by parents who can’t afford to provide for them.

“One barrio we visited, Ponch Mateo, our guide was a teacher named Dumy. He runs a school named ‘Mano a Mano por el futuro’ (hand by hand for the future). Dumy showed us his one room school-house attached to his home. When I say home, I mean a wooden and tin shack with a dirt floor. He has no money to pay teachers and yet supplies a place to help kids get education as well as caring for orphans.”

Dr. Maj practices in the Lakeview neighborhood. She traveled to the Dominican Republic with a group of 30 doctors and 30 students intent on giving free chiropractic care to people. The group was organized by ChiroMission and as a group adjusted 35,000 people in a three-day period.

ChiroMission is the “Doctors without Borders” of Chiropractic. The idea is to teach less fortunate people in Third World countries how to take care of themselves so they’ll have a better shot at avoiding medical problems. ChiroMission has just expanded to Australia to take care of the Aborigines.

“I will never forget the children. Even with these tough conditions, there was joy in their eyes. All they wanted was to hold my hand and to hug me. For every one child I helped, they came back with 5 more. If I helped just one, I consider this trip a success.”

This group had their Chiropractic miracles as well. One man showed up with neurologic problem, a hand tremor like in Parkinson’s disease and drop foot. After being adjusted a couple of times in the morning, he hunted the doctors down at their next location. He walked up exclaiming in Spanish that not only had his tremor disappeared, he no longer had drop foot.

This trip changed Dr. Maj’s perception of poverty and life here in Chicago. “We think this economy is bad yet when you witness first-hand a different reality you realize things aren’t that bad. We need to be grateful for the abundance we have at our fingertips.”

Dr. Maj states, “The mission at Community Chiropractic is to check as many people as possible for hidden health problems and to save them from a life of drugs and surgery. We do this in Chicago everyday yet I realized after this trip that the world needs our help as well. I have been hit by a lightning bold and will never be the same.”

Dr. Stephanie Maj is the clinic director for Community Chiropractic, a full service wellness center offering family health care, acupuncture, massage, orthotics and nutritional counseling. Dr. Maj has been practicing in the Lakeview area for almost 14 years.

Sasha & Malia won't receive Swine Flu vaccine!

Cable News Promoting Swine Flu Vaccine

According to White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, Obama's Daughters will not receive the vaccine based on their profile. Apparently, according to him, only children with an impaired immune system are supposed to take the vaccine. But, I don't think that is not what the media has been reporting at all. In my office, I have been told by parent after parent that they are coming into the schools next week to give this injection and they are targeting ALL these children.

It gets stranger all the time, as this is supposed to be a level 6 pandemic, not a virus that only attacks susceptible children. According to WHO, "Almost half of the reported cases of oseltamivir resistant virus have occured in patients taking oseltamivir for prophylaxis. While the significance of this observation is not yet clear, prophylaxis should only be offered where there are strong reasons for doing so..in general, WHO does not recommend the use of antiviral drugs for prophylactic purposes. For people who have had exposure to an infected person and are at a higher risk of developing severe or complicated illness, an alternative option is close monitoring for symptoms, followed by prompt early antiviral treatment should symptoms develop.

Why do I keep hearing doctors on Cable News, including Fox, recommending that children receive a flu shot for prevention. Am I missing something here? In fact, I went to the official site of the Secretary of Human Health Services, and that was the first thing I saw: the importance of getting your flu shot. Every time I drive by Walgreens, there it is a sign "Get your flu shot."

What the Science Says About Injecting Mercury

Thimerosal is the ingredient in these vaccines that preserves them and is also the one containing mercury.  DON’T ASSUME THE SHOT YOU ARE GETTING IS MERCURY FREE!! Unless you demand that option, you will get the one with 25+mcgs of mercury.

The standard counterclaim from the medical industry and the bobble-heads on TV is that these ingredients, in the doses administered, have never been proven detrimental to human health.

This is a bold faced lie.

But it’s an effective lie, because most people will simply take that statement at face value without doing any further research. Life is far too busy to double check “reliable resources.”

The fact is there’s plenty of evidence indicating that significant brain damage can occur as a result of being exposed to agents such as mercury and aluminum, both for children and adults. In fact, some researchers believe that aluminum may be an even more important toxin than mercury in the vaccines.

For example, in a brand new study published in the journal Neurotoxicology just last month, the researchers found that primates injected with just ONE vaccine containing thimerosal suffered significant neurological impairment when compared with those who received a saline solution injection, or no injection at all.

The monkeys received a weight-adjusted amount of the vaccine preservative thimerosal, so each dose included 2 mcg’s of ethyl mercury. A human infant dose of thimerosal-containing vaccine typically contains 12.5 mcg, and most seasonal flu vaccines as well as the swine flu vaccine will contain 25 mcg of mercury per adult dose.

As a result, the macaques vaccinated at birth took more than twice as long as unexposed macaques to acquire three standardized skills typically used to measure infant brain development.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that has built up over the years, US health officials are still promulgating vaccines as the best solution to the flu.

Worse yet, in a nauseating twist, the state of Washington's Health Department has now temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3, just so that they can start administering the swine flu vaccine to toddlers and pregnant women as quickly as possible…ANOTHER THING TO SCARE YOU ON HALLOWEEN!

Supporting our Troops Near and Far!

We are working to Support our Troops in our office this week ( http://tinyurl.com/nef9vd ) and now it looks like they will have access to Chiropractic care too!

U.S. House of Representatives approves expanded armed forces access to Chiropractic

July 13, 2009 — The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a directive that orders the Pentagon to make chiropractic care a standard benefit for all active duty military personnel.

The legislation is contained in HR 2647, a bill authorizing defense programs in fiscal year 2010, and is based in part on recommendations from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC).

The bill — passed by the full House on June 25 — also contains language allowing for chiropractic demonstration projects at overseas military locations and clarifies that chiropractic care at U.S. military facilities is to be performed only by a doctor of chiropractic.

The Senate is expected to take up the legislation in the near future.

Also reported was that beginning this fall, 11 additional military hospitals and clinics will provide access to chiropractic services for active duty military members.

Included in the list of sites tentatively scheduled to open on Sept. 30, are military treatment facilities located in Germany and Okinawa, Japan — marking the first time in the history of the Chiropractic Care Program that overseas active duty military members will have access to chiropractic.

The 11 new locations join the 49 military clinics and hospitals currently providing chiropractic care.

Please call your Representatives and let them know you support these efforts.

Boost Your Brain!

There is a growing body of research suggesting that the benefit of exercise extends beyond physical health; it may even prevent mental decline. So, the next time you're pondering where you left your keys, consider coming in to work out. It may boost your memory power.

Healthy Lifestyle Tip: Boost Your Brain

Next time you are feeling uninspired, puzzled or stumped, don't bang your head against the wall, get moving. Even a short 20-minute bout of exercise might be enough to unlock your mental block, says Philip Tomporowski, Ph.D. an exercise scientist at the University of Georgia.

It's no surprise that exercise can put pep in your step and a smile on your face. The connection between cardiovascular activity and mood is more than a feeling, it's scientific fact. There is growing evidence that exercise makes you smarter, enhances your ability to solve problems, brainstorm ideas and think fast.

"If I had to pick between fitness training and brain training, I'd go with fitness," said Sam Wang, an associate professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University. So far, he said, physical exercise has been shown to have an effect several times larger than computer-brain exercises.

One of the best thing you can do for your brain is to move your body.

Bad Research, Bad Bad Research!

The Wall Street Journal reported that a prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist fabricated 21 medical studies that claimed to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex, according to the hospital where he worked. http://tinyurl.com/badresearch .  This brings to light the problem with research that is funded by drug companies.

I remember many years back hearing one of my mentors, Dr. Patrick Gentempo talking about a research study stating that there is an overwhelmingly higher incidence of a positive outcome for a research project when it is funded by a pharmaceutical company (BMJ. 2003;326:1167-1170).  One report, a review of 30 studies, based on a MEDLINE search from January 1966 to December 2002 and an EMBASE search from January 1980 to December 2002, found that trials sponsored by a pharmaceutical company were four times more likely to show positive results for that company's drug than were studies funded by other supporters. This report was published in 2002 and evidently did little to curb the problem.

One of the biggest complaints M.D.s have with regard to Chiropractic is "Where is the research?"    Check out the list of peer-reviewed journals  http://www.chiroindex.org/publications_peer.php .  I guess the research done to condone the drugging of our society is not all that solid itself!  Bad research, bad bad research!

Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure says WebMD!

The above headline comes from a March 16, 2007 article on WebMD (http://tinyurl.com/chirpbp). The article is based on a study done at the Hypertension Center at the University of Chicago Medical Center and published in the March 2, 2007 issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.

In this study, 50 patients with hypertension were divided into two groups of 25 each. One group of 25 received a specific light force chiropractic adjustment (administered by a chiropractor) to the Atlas vertebrae (uppermost bone in the neck). The other group of 25 received a similar procedure but with no adjustment being given. Researchers called this procedure the "sham adjustment". Since the type of adjustment given was very light force, the patients involved in this study did not know if they were receiving the real or sham adjustments.

The results were surprising to even the medical researchers conducting the study. After 8 weeks of care the 25 people in the group receiving the real chiropractic adjustments all showed a significant reduction in blood pressure compared to the group that received the sham adjustment. Those patients who got the real adjustment showed an average of 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure count), and an average of 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number) over those who got the fake or sham adjustment.

In his interview with WebMD, study leader George Bakris, MD commented, "This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination. And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems."

When they first analyzed the data, Dr. Bakris and his statistician had trouble believing the data. He noted, "When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true. The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."

X-rays were used to confirm that the chiropractic adjustments actually changed the position of the Atlas vertebrae. Dr. Marshall Dickholtz was the chiropractor who performed the specific adjustments and commented in WebMD, "At the base of the brain are two centers that control all the muscles of the body. If you pinch the base of the brain -- if the Atlas gets locked in a position as little as a half a millimeter out of line -- it doesn't cause any pain but it upsets these centers."

Even with the overwhelming results, the authors of the study were cautious in their conclusions and posed several questions. They commented, "The mechanism as to why this improvement in blood pressure occurs is unknown and cannot be determined by this study”. They continued, “The data presented, however, raise a number of important questions including: a) How does misalignment of C1 affect hypertension?; and b) If there is a cause and effect relationship between C1 misalignment and hypertension, is malposition of C1 an additional risk factor for the development of hypertension?"

When Pigs Fly Flu

Enjoy my guest article by Dr. Harte.  He says it better than I could.

WHEN PIGS FLY FLU by Don Harte, D.C.

The nation... the world... is on alert. A super zoonotic infection may be on the march. (A zoonotic infection is one that crosses from animal to human.) In this case, the latest flu outbreak is apparently part human, part pig, part bird... hence, "When Pigs Fly Flu." I doubt the CDC will come up with a better name. They surely will not dub it the Mexican Flu, since that would be so un-PC. For the same reason, they will not close the border, though common sense public health standards demand such. If and when this gets out of hand, you will know whom to blame. Ah, when science and politics mix, stupidity almost always arises.

So, what's the deal here? Might we have a catastrophic epidemic, what is known as a pandemic? Yes. Why do I say that? Three reasons. (1) This is very much out of flu season. (2) Many of the dead were young adults, unlike the usual targets of the very young and the very old. (3) Time of the appearance of the disease and death were short. (The Mexican archeologist who gave President Obama a tour was dead from this flu, so it is sometimes reported, the day after.) All three characteristics appeared in the Flu Pandemic of 1918. Certainly gives me pause...

But then, nothing might happen. Let's go back to the Swine Flu of 1976. Government health authorities spread panic, rushed a vaccine to production, which lead to 517 cases of paralysis and other very serious problems, and 23 cases of death, from Guillane-Barre Syndrome. Yes, all this was from the flu vaccine, not the flu. What was the actual toll of the swine flu of 1976 itself? 13 actual cases of the flu, one death. So, mortality-wise, the flu vaccine was 23 times more deadly than the flu itself. (You still trust these people???)

What does this mean? I urge you to think before you line up for the flu vaccine now, which is NOT the same strain as the current flu. (It almost never is.) DO NOT consider it a wise precaution. Besides have little to no preventive value, the substances in the flu vaccine carry substantial health risk. Despite what the "talking heads" of the media and the government may have to say, there will be virtually no benefit, and substantial risk getting this vaccine.

What about when they have the new vaccine ready in a few months? Remember the 1976 disaster. What will you do if you wake up paralyzed? Should you question to alleged experts? You betcha! Keep in mind the vast amounts of money that the pharmaceutical industry is destined to make on this. We are talking BILLIONS. You can be sure that they are leaning on all of their government contacts to make sure that everything (your tax dollars) is in place to enrich their coffers, despite the dangers, despite the lack of effectiveness.

So, what to do, to be prepared? Instead of following the "experts," like sheep, may I suggest that you THINK. Infection? Your defense is your immune system, which is run by your nervous system. My suggestions?
1. Get adjusted! If you are already under chiropractic care, make sure that you maintain your intensive care or your wellness schedule. Even a little extra, just to make sure, wouldn't hurt. Why? Again, your defense is your immune system, run by your nervous system. If you have interference, Vertebral Subluxation (most of the time, there is no pain), your immune system will be at a disadvantage in fighting what seems to be a totally novel virus. Vertebral Subluxation is corrected by chiropractic adjustment. There is no substitute. IF YOU ARE NOT YET UNDER CHIROPRACTIC CARE, call me now.
2. Eat well. Avoid junk food. Avoid excess sugar. Take supplements of Vitamins C and D.
3. Get some sun. (Good for Vitamin D activation.)
4. Get plenty of rest.
5. Have fun. Maintain a good mental attitude. Relax. Maybe meditate.
6. Exercise regularly. Yoga is good, too, but different.
7. Avoid crowds.
8. Make sure that you understand, and act on, #1.

If and when the When Pigs Fly Flu becomes dangerous? Do more of steps 1-8. That will surely be the critical time to get your family and all of your friends in here to get checked for Vertebral Subluxation. If you are not yet a practice member, get here as soon as you can. If it really hits the fan, there might not be any room here. WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT???

The Flu Pandemic of 1918. 25 to 40 million died. Here's the figures. In 1979, Walter Rhodes wrote that, during the Pandemic, medical doctors in Davenport, Iowa treated 93,590 patients, with 6,116 deaths, in other words, one out of 15 under medical care succumbed to the flu. At the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, 1,635 flu cases were adjusted, with only one fatality. Outside of Davenport, Iowa chiropractors adjusted 4,735 flu cases, with only six deaths - one out of 866. In 1919, Palmer College of Chiropractic published "The Flu and You." The ratio of flu cases cared for vs. deaths were as follows: Medical care: 1 out of 17 died. Osteopathic care: 1 out of 36 died. Chiropractic care: 1 out of 886!

Do the math. Outside of the BJ Palmer clinic, chiropractic care was 59 times more effective in saving lives than Medicine. Inside the Palmer Clinic, Chiropractic was 110 times as effective. No matter what preconceptions or prejudices you or someone else may have, what works... works. And, it makes sense. If you can't follow this, the time to come to my "Chiropractic: The Big Idea" class is now! It will all make perfect sense.

So, you can follow the so-called experts like sheep, or you can do what intelligent people do, use common sense, and learn from the lessons of history.

Grandpa John: Akron's Hercules!

I never knew my grandfather John Mallo. Grandpa John was the world weightlifting champ at the 1933 Worlds Fair in Chicago.  This is obviously where I get my petite frame! He was a legend in our family and his pictures are burned into my memory banks.  There are pictures of him lifting Model T's and one picture of him dead lifting 3 guys at one time.

Grandpa John hoped to represent the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. His goal was to surpass the 827-pound record for three lifts in the 1932 Olympics.  He finally did it — 830 pounds — while training in April 1934.

Several days later, he began to notice severe pain in his abdomen. At first, he didn't tell anyone, but then the throbbing became too much. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed acute appendicitis and performed surgery.

Then he developed peritonitis, an infection of the abdominal cavity.  That infection quickly took his life.  Penicillin, which might have cured him in later years, was still an experimental drug.

Why am I writing about this now?  Well April 15 is the 75th anniversary of his death and he is featured today in the Akron Beacon Journal article (http://tinyurl.com/jmallo).

Us chiropractors get a bad rap as being anti-medicine/anti-drug.  This is a prime example where an antibiotic would have saved his life.  There is no arguing that at the appropriate times, drugs and medicine have their place.  I have had peritonitis myself and know that my healthy body in conjunction with antibiotics saved my life.

My beef is that for many, drugs become the first line of defense against problems.  Have some acid in your stomach?  Ohhh, that is bad!  Take this pill that will get rid of that nasty acid.  Bad, bad Acid!  No one tells people that you need the acid to digest your food and without it, secondary digestion and absorption problems occur. By the way, ACID IS NORMAL in the stomach! How about looking at the nerves that go to the upper GI tract?  We chiropractors help lots of people with these problems by removing the interference and allowing the body to heal and work right.

The next time you are taking a drug think of my Grandpa John.  Is this a situation severe enough to warrant it's use? According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1998, a report finds that prescription drugs kill about 106,000 Americans each year – that’s three times as many as are killed by automobiles—making prescription drug death the fourth leading killer after heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Be careful and be aware there are other options, that is all I am saying!

What are the 5 Critical Steps to Wellness??

1.  Remove Nerve Interference

2.  Supply Nutritional Sufficiency

3.  Reduce Stress

4.  Exercise is a Nutrient

5.  Remove Toxicity

Removing nerve interference is the my unique position in the wellness landscape.  Not that they are not important, yet there are a million books talking about steps 2-5.

My position on this is simple:  You can not have WELLNESS without Chiropractic.

1.  The body is a self-healing, self-regulating organism.

2.  The nervous system is the master controller of all the functions of the body.

3.  Interference in the nervous system causes interference with the body's ability to heal itself (immune system) and function properly.

4.  Chiropractors remove the interference.

Simple yet powerful!!

Don't Settle for the Crumbs

I am embarking on the hiring process once again at my clinic and that forces me to revisit a practice that has worked so well in my person as well as my professional life.  I will be writing my IDEAL new patient advocate list.  What does that mean?  Well if there are no rules and I couldn't fail, what would my perfect employee look like?  I know that from past experience I work best with organized, on time, detail-oriented, self motivated people.  I also like the people I work with to be funny since having fun is part of the vision I have for my life.  I know if I don't tell the world what I want, I will be settling for the crumbs.

What would your life look like if there were no rules and you couldn't fail?  What would your health look like?  What would your relationships look like?  I want it all!  The first thing I realized is that to have it all I need to know what that would look like.  I have been writing goals since 1999.  I can't tell you how many times I have written my yearly goals and never looked at them again until next year.  When I do revisit them, invariably 80% of what is on there I have accomplished!

Tell the Universe what you want.  Dream BIG!  You deserve it.

5 Critical Steps to Wellness! Come & enjoy an interactive workshop w/ Dr. Maj, author of the new book "You Can Be Well!" http://tinyurl.com/deq3cd

Dr. Oz is missing the Big Idea!

How does the body function?  What makes it run?  What is the one system that when not working right has the most detrimental affect on our overall health and our quality of life?  What is the Master Controller of our whole body?  In this country, most would probably say the heart and the blood.  I agree that system is important and the most fussed over with regard to medical doctors.  Blood pressure, cholesterol, lipids, blood sugar and all the other indicators that tell an MD  you are functioning properly.  The main goal of medicine is symptom reduction and if these levels are normal (even under pharmaceutical control) then you are well.  I am here to tell you MD's are missing the big picture on this one with regard to achieving wellness.

The Master Controller of the whole body is the nervous system. Without addressing the health of the nervous system, there can be no wellness!  One day I realized that unless you were in my office, you were not getting my take on wellness.  I see others out there speaking and writing about wellness and what it means and I truly believe that you cannot have wellness without addressing the interference in the nerve system that Chiropractic corrects.  The reason this is so important is that your body is a self-healing organism and the nerve system is what controls that healing.  When there is interference in the nerves, there is interference in your body's ability to heal properly or fight disease (like cancers and viruses).  Chiropractic removes interference in the nerves so your body's own natural defense systems can be restored.

Research shows that when you have interference in the nerve's function at the spinal level, this leads to a cascade of harmful results.  Some of those results include:  Decreased immunity, increased blood pressure, increased cholesterol, increased triglycerides, insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), increased stress hormones, decreased sense of well being and decreased in complex learning abilities.  Yes, RESEARCH has shown this!  See the work of a Chiropractor/Physiologist by the name of James L. Chestnut B.Ed., M.Sc., DC., C.C.W.P.  He has done an amazing job of compiling this information from hard core medical journals.

The Big Idea is that if there is a removal of that nerve interference (The Chiropractic Adjustment), then you can restore normal function to your body.  When normal function is restored the body can literally heal itself.  Who is doing the healing, the band aid or YOU?!  All the problems drugs are supposed to control are the effect, the cause can be stress on the nervous system!

I am not so simple to think that you can have Chiropractic adjustments that remove your nerve interference and that is all you need to do to be well.  I address other steps in my lecture series entitled "The 5 Critical Steps to Wellness."  The other steps you have heard about from countless authors:  Nutritional Sufficiency, Removing Toxicity, Moving Well and Combating Stress.

When was the last time you had your nerves checked? The most common answer to that is most likely NEVER!  Make an appointment today with a Wellness Chiropractor near you. You Can Be well too!

Come hear my lecture: You Can Be Well!: The 5 Critical Steps to Wellness.   Tonight, March 30th @ 7 PM, Chicago Public Library, Melrose & Paulina.

Mark your calendar:  You Can Be Well!:  The 5 Critical Steps to Wellness.  Thursday, April 9th @ 7 PM, Flourish Studios,  3020 N. Lincoln Ave.

Let's Talk Pickles!

Of all the stories in my new book, You Can Be Well, the pickle story is the most mentioned to me by my readers.  I want to share it with you today.  First off I need to give my friend Carlene L. from Helena, MT credit for giving me this analogy.  It is powerful when used in any context and I am excited to explain it here.

How do you make a pickle?  Well, you get a cucumber and stick it into the brine and eventually it turns into a pickle.  At certain stages in the process, though, you can pull it out and it is still a cucumber, right?  There is that moment when the cucumber turns and it is a pickle and there is NOTHING you can do to turn it back.  It's a pickle now.

Our health is the same way. Early in our lives we are that cucumber and just take for granted that we will always have our health.  We spend little time, effort and money to make sure we stay well. Then it happens like it happens to so many people. We turn into that pickle. We get sick and our health starts slipping from us. It is at this time that all our time, effort and money goes to trying in vain to change this sick pickle body back to the cucumber. We all know of someone who has flown all over the globe to find an experimental cure to their life threatening disease. Most ‘cures’ unfortunately don’t work.

I want to get to you before you are a pickle, while we still have a chance to turn this whole thing around.  Are you a cucumber or a pickle?  What small thing can you do right now that will save you from the 'pickle life' and restore some of your cucumber qualities.  Share them with us in the comment section.

The Winsor Autopsies

In my bio I say that you cannot have Wellness without Chiropractic.   I am going to give an example of that to illuminate the importance of a healthy nervous system.  The moral of the story is Chiropractic removes nerve interference!!

The Winsor Autopsies
In some amazing research, Dr. Henry Winsor did autopsies to determine if there was any connection between minor distortions of the vertebra and diseased organs, or whether the two were entirely independent of each other. The studies were performed at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Winsor carefully examined any diseased organs, the nerves that supplied that organ, and the vertebra that protected that nerve. He discovered that 221 structures, other than the spine, were diseased. Of these structures, 212 were observed to belong to the same sympathetic [nerve] segments as the vertebrae in the distortion. This is a 96% correlation. 96% of the nerves that supplied the diseased organ came from the damaged vertebral level.

There were nine diseased organs belonging to different sympathetic segments from the vertebrae found to be out of line. However, these diseased levels could have also been impacted by the nerves coming from the spinal distortions because, as Dr. Windsor stated, “the nerves entering and leaving the cord traveled up or down the cord for a few segments, accounting for all the apparent discrepancies.” He indicated that there was nearly a 100% correlation between 'minor curvatures' of the spine and diseases of the internal organs, realizing that the connection between the spine and the organ is through the sympathetic nerves.

For example, all 20 cases of heart disease, all 13 cases of liver disease, all 9 cases of stomach disease, all 26 cases of lung disease, all 8 cases of prostate and bladder disease. Dr. Winsor's research demonstrated spinal distortions irritating the nerve that supplied the diseased organ.
Dr. Winsor concluded that “irritation near the origin of the sympathetic nerve will cause functional or organic changes in the organs supplied by the portion of the sympathetic nerve system irritated.

Based on this research, nearly 100% of diseased organs may be a result of an irritation or interference to the nerve that supplies that organ. The irritation and interference is at the site of the where the nerve exits the vertebra.

Don't you think it's time to have your loved ones checked for hidden nerve interference?

References: All quotes from: Winsor, H. Sympathetic segmental disturbances--II. The evidences of the association, in dissected cadavers, of visceral disease with vertebral deformities of the same sympathetic segments, The Medical Times, November 1921, pp. 267-271.