The Biology, Science, and Power of Chiropractic Care with Dr. Elizabeth Hoefer, Ep 48

Episode 48. We're taking a deep look into the world of chiropractic care, setting straight some common misconceptions with the help of Dr. Elizabeth Hoefer of Well Connected Chiropractic in Mission Viejo, California. As a specialist with advanced training in cranial cervical junction procedures, Dr. Hoefer is here to demonstrate how crucial a chiropractor can be to your healthcare team. Imagine having a body that works optimally, much like a well-maintained vehicle, and how that could impact your quality of life. That is the importance of taking care of your spine, and it's not an endless commitment, but one that aids in preventative maintenance for your body. 

It's time to bridge the gap between holistic health and medical science. It's time people realized that chiropractic care is something you do in addition to—not instead of—seeing your primary care doctor or other specialists. They do different things, and offer different benefits. Just like you go to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning, you should see a chiropractor on a regular basis to maintain a healthy body alignment.

We delve into the invention of the Blair Technique, the development of cone beam CT technology, and Dr. Jake Hollowell's game-changing method of analyzing the neck. We confront the origins of pharmacology, and the growing need for holistic ways of healing. Spoiler alert: Chiropractic care has been thriving for over a century for a reason. Tune in to hear success stories from Dr. Hoefer's practice, and discover how chiropractic can be the little help your body needs to kick-start natural healing. After all, your body is wonderfully capable of healing itself. Let's explore how chiropractic care can be a key factor in this process.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to auto biology, the podcast where you can learn a little biology now so you can think for yourself later. Introducing your host, who dreams of being on an episode of Star Trek, as the quirky biologist who saves the day, jennifer Little Fleck.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Autobiology. Today I have with me Dr Elizabeth Hafer. She is a chiropractor with well connected chiropractic, but she is also the president of CalCHIRO, which is the California Chiropractic Association A very prestigious seat on their board of directors, I must say, and that comes with a lot of responsibilities and interesting initiatives. I know that you take on not just for your own business but to help other chiropractors as well. But first I just want to give you an opportunity to say hello and welcome to the program.

Speaker 3: 1:16

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. We've been looking forward to this conversation for quite some time, so I'm so grateful that it worked out today.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Great, yeah, me too. And one of the reasons that I was so excited to talk to you is and I've talked to quite a few chiropractors functional medicine specialists but you're a little bit different and because you have very specific methodologies that you use that not a lot of chiropractors do, which intrigued me, because there was one that I had been researching myself. We'll get there in a minute. But the other thing is that you are one of the few that I've met that work very well with other types of practitioners and more of a multifunctional approach to medicine.

Speaker 2: 2:08

And before I went to my first chiropractor, I really had a lot of misconceptions about what they did. But what I have learned through our shared experiences with learning about the brain and the functionality of the gut and how it talks to the brain, and if your body is out of sync, a lot of things go wrong, and I realize that that's a lot of what you focus on as a chiropractor. So I'm going to go ahead and let's hear all the misconceptions that you get when people walk into your office.

Speaker 3: 2:44

Oh, man, you know what. I'm so grateful that you want to have this conversation, because I always love an opportunity to shed light and illuminate truth, because there are a lot of misconceptions, one being that we're not real doctors. That's like I hear that all the time. In fact, even my patients who are on the table with me, they'll say, well, my real doctor. And I'm like what do you mean your real doctor? Do you mean your medical provider? Do you mean your dentist? Do you mean your podiatrist? Who's the real doctor?

Speaker 3: 3:15

And so, unfortunately, there's just been this odd disconnect between the world that I live in and the training that I've received and the perception that the world has. So we are real doctors. We went to school for a lot of years and received a doctorate of chiropractic degree, and so, even beyond that, I personally have gone on to earn a diplomat in cranial cervical junction procedures. So I have essentially another postgraduate degree that gives me extra training. But you know, a lot of times people think that another misconception is that once you go to the chiropractor you have to go the rest of your life. And I say to that isn't that funny. I know that's what you hear, that's what people say.

Speaker 3: 4:06

But you know what? It's funny? I don't think anybody's ever said you know, I've gone to the dentist once in my life. I don't want to ever go back.

Speaker 2: 4:13

Excellent point.

Speaker 3: 4:15

When you go to the dentist, you go there with the intention to make sure that your dental health is good. They clean your teeth, they make sure that they're checking your gums and you know all of the things that go on to make sure that you have a fantastic smile. And if you went one time to the dentist, do you not think you might have a problem in the future? So when people tell me, oh my gosh, if I go to the chiropractor I'm going to have to go for the rest of my life, and I say, if you want to experience full, optimal potential, it's probably a good idea. But it isn't even like I have to have you here three times a week for the rest of your life. That's something else that you know.

Speaker 3: 4:53

There's all these different, maybe, models and care plans and, depending on the person prescribed in the care plan, it might make sense for you to come three times a week. Or, depending on the issue that you're dealing with in your physiology, it makes sense to come three times a week. But if we have you three times a week for the rest of your life, are we not making a difference? And that's where the conversation of am I being an effective provider comes into play. So, just like you use diet and exercise and dental hygiene to provide health for yourself, having a chiropractor on your health care team is an essential piece to the puzzle, in my opinion.

Speaker 2: 5:28

Okay, I'm going to totally grow out here and you know and give you another analogy, but it's kind of like, you know, we get our hair done, you know, every six to eight weeks or whatever your, your schedule is. Or we get our nails done, you know, because the body grows, your nails continue to grow, your hair, your hair continues to grow and you need to maintain that. So our bodies continually change as we age and I think that, again, that's how you can kind of think about the chiropractic help in keeping the spine aligned as you do stupid stuff like lifting stuff the wrong way. Yeah, you know, just experience, you know, maybe trauma or or maybe you have some sort of degenerative condition that needs to be watched.

Speaker 3: 6:17

Yeah, and just like, if we don't, if we take it out of health care or personal care and we just think very mechanistically about like maybe car right, if you don't change the oil in the engine of your car, it will eventually seize.

Speaker 3: 6:29

If you don't align the tires on your car, your car will eventually start driving off to the right or to the left and not work well, and when the alignment isn't correct, every other thing in the mechanism of that function starts to decay.

Speaker 3: 6:42

So what you said about alignment is absolutely correct, and so we were designed to stand on two feet, to translate gravity through our spinal column and to have those things in alignment.

Speaker 3: 6:52

Now more than ever, there's research upon research upon research that talks about the improvement of our health based on spinal alignment and joint biomechanics, and so I was blessed to sit through an amazing four hours with the phenomenal Dr Dan Murphy this past weekend at the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Conference and just be inundated and almost bathed in all of the research that proves more and more that what chiropractic is and does is what we need as a foundation. Now everything else can come on top of that and absolutely be impressed by, you know, the foundation of alignment. But that's where it all starts, and if you have disconnect in the joints, in the ability for your body to communicate with the brain or for the brain to communicate with your body, that's where everything starts to shut down and starts to have issue. So chiropractic is foundational in my opinion, and it isn't just because I am one. The science says that.

Speaker 2: 7:50

It does and you know. So one of the really cool things that you know I have learned in teaching affective neuroscience to people you know, in terms of explaining gut feelings. I talk about that a lot because when we are making decisions about something or we're trying to size up someone we just met, you know a lot of it sometimes comes down to good feeling. So I try to explain biologically what that is that we receive information from all over the body through our cranial nerves. Is it the tenth?

Speaker 3: 8:24

or the twelfth, or the tenth cranial nerve.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Ten is the biggest nerve. Okay, I don't know why I thought twelfth, but yeah, so, the tenth cranial nerve, and yeah, we get information from all over the body to help us make decisions and so yeah. So then I, you know, started learning about, well, what happens if those nerves aren't sending messages, or what would. Why would those nerves not be sending the correct messages? And I feel like that's where you really come in.

Speaker 3: 8:58

So in the philosophy of chiropractic at least where I was trained at Palmer College, and we talk about the three things that cause subluxation, and subluxation is the term that chiropractors use to explain the disconnect or the dis-ease in the nervous system. So if we kind of want to go to more of a philosophical kind of understanding and just kind of break it down that way, lux that root word means light and sub means less than, and asian is a condition of. So essentially what we're saying is you know, the light that we have to admit to the world is less than functioning because it's disconnected, it's subluxated, right, and then you can get super mechanistic and talk about, at the joint or the biomechanic connection or even down to the, you know, the neuron and the synapse, there is a disconnect because of a chemical. So we say thoughts, traumas and toxins. Okay, thoughts are the things that we think and we know that thought is movement and we study that.

Speaker 3: 10:02

You more than anybody rich, car, kirin, omani, you guys more than anyone understand cognitive science and how that works and how thoughts are things. And obviously trauma that's like being born, learning how to walk, slipping, getting into a car accident and then toxins is the air we breathe, the food we eat, the chemicals that we ingest wittingly or unwittingly. We were talking about getting our hair done. When we put dye on our hair, that's a chemical. Right? When we get our nails done, those are chemicals and we have to adjudicate that. Our liver and our kidneys and our nervous system has to process everything that we encounter. So chiropractic and a chiropractor's job is to assess the function of your nervous system and mitigate the effects of those things thoughts, traumas and toxins.

Speaker 2: 10:50

Wow, I've never heard it put that way. I absolutely love it. Now you were talking a little bit about, though, how you approach that sometimes is a little bit different than other chiropractors. You mentioned that you just had the opportunity to get to the Blair conference, and I have to be honest with you. Until I met you, I had never heard of the Blair technique, and I know that's a big part of your personal story as well. Could you, could you, fill us in on?

Speaker 3: 11:19

that Sure. So the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic technique is a system of analysis of the cervical spine. So let's, let's just talk about that word cervical for a second. Sometimes when I say I'm an upper cervical doctor, people think they heard me say cervix, like the anatomy of a woman. No, cervix, in its you know root, word, means neck. So the cervical spine.

Speaker 3: 11:43

There are seven vertebrae, right that we have that support our head over our body, and that houses the spinal column and the and the spinal cord. So that's the point of these bony vertebra and our skull it's to protect the super sensitive and super important brain and central nervous system. Okay, so when those little bones go out of alignment, there's an irritation or a disconnect to the brain communicated to the body and then the body giving information back to the brain, because the spinal cord is made up of tracks, of all of these neurons that connect into our brain as little kind of like relays. So the Blair technique is a system of analysis where we individually identify what's happening at the joint where those vertebrae come together. They're called facet joints and so we study that individually on each side, the right and the left side, for every single vertebra C1, which is the atlas all the way down to C7, and so we use three dimensional x-ray. We create that by using a cone beam, ct, or we do digital x-ray and we can actually create like a three dimensional model using some prism glasses. But the CBCT is where the evolution has gone as far as technology and ability to actually image the area with less radiation and more information, and so we take that analysis, that blueprint, and then we create corrections based on that. So it's specifically engineered for the person that's living in that body. And that's what I love so much about the Blair technique is that it's individually focused and while it seems very mechanistic in its application because we're addressing a joint very specifically and the angle it was designed the holistic approach to it is that when we release that misalignment and we allow that biomechanic to be more functional, it affects the ability for the brain to then effectively transmit energy and information more effectively. Right, so the Vegas, for example, will be better and our prefrontal cortex will perceive things in a healthier way.

Speaker 3: 13:49

The Vegas nerve is super responsible for our social engagement. So when we do not have that connection, not only do we have our, if you will, the gut instinct kind of off, but we don't read the cues as well or we don't perceive the information coming in as effective as we could. So maybe you hear somebody say something and your Vegas nerve is distorted and you hear it one way but the intention was another way. So it really does change the ability for you to filter in information and it helps with your emotional health, it helps with your physical health and there's all kinds of implications to the health of a Vegas nerve.

Speaker 3: 14:22

In fact I know Porjus wrote this incredible book about the polyvagal theory. That's something that I've done a deep dive in in my diplomat and really understanding the dorsal vagal, which is kind of like that primary, like gut response and being able to like fight, flight or flee. And then the ventral vagal, which is the softer cues, being able to see somebody's facial expressions and understand are they surprised, are they angry, are they confused, and just really integrating that system and the Vegas nerve is what helps to regulate the sympathetic nervous system and that is where-.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Yes, I was just. That was the real thing I just made.

Speaker 3: 15:04

Yeah, so it builds on itself.

Speaker 3: 15:06

So you have the dorsal vagal system that is really online in utero, like when we're developing in the womb, and then the sympathetic nervous system comes on.

Speaker 3: 15:15

And that's what's so interesting is, when the sympathetic system comes on, it actually happens at embryologically about 16 weeks, and what most women report when they're pregnant is that's when they start to feel the flutter of the baby and when they start to feel the baby moving because the sympathetic nervous system has come online and starts to activate all the movement. And if that is unchecked, you are hyper, you're ADD, you're whatever. You can't slow down, you can't calm down and then when that ventral vagal comes online, it dampens that sympathetic nervous system and it's what allows us to have the stop and go and the ability to go forward and then calm down or ramp up and run away from the bear and then take a breath and rest. So it's a very delicate system that has checks and balances in it and it's critical to have development be proper and alignment to be proper, because those signals get dysregulated when there's a disconnect in all of the biomechanics that play into the ability for the brain to read a signal.

Speaker 2: 16:13

Okay. So that was a lot and an amazing amount of information, so I wanna unpack a few things. Yes, let's go, yes, okay. So one of the things that you, one of our, had me you had me at hello moments when I first met you because you talked about using the company technology, and I knew about that because, again, I do a lot of holistic approaches to health and I had learned that about that in terms of dentistry and how a lot of holistic dentists are getting away from that old X-ray technology which, yeah, I mean it can be helpful, but there's a lot of things that it doesn't pick up on and the radiation levels, of course. But the cone beam technology can show you things that are hidden, you know, infections that you would never find with an X-ray, that would never show up until the tooth was completely, you know, obsessed and just ruined.

Speaker 3: 17:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:21

So I find that interesting that it can be applied, you know to. Well, obviously it can be applied, you know, because it is a type of imaging.

Speaker 3: 17:32

Yeah, and what I'm so proud of with the Blair technique and the society is that you know they say that necessity is the mother of all invention, right? So we had an amazing doctor who's actually the president of our organization. His name is Dr Jake Hallowell and he was gonna go do chiropractic work in San Marino, italy.

Speaker 3: 17:54

Well, italy doesn't allow chiropractors to take imaging, like it's just a law in their country that chiropractors aren't allowed to actually take the X-rays themselves and most chiropractic techniques.

Speaker 3: 18:05

You can just send your images out to any old imaging center, but with the work that we do and the way that we analyze, traditional radiology techs don't know how to take the pictures.

Speaker 3: 18:16

So while we can train a radiology tech to do it and that's what I did for a number of years before we switched to cone beam CT, but they were in house and I had a little bit more control over it if he's in a foreign country and he's having to send all of his patients to an imaging center, there was a loss of translation, not only in the language but also in the ability to really fine tune, because the work that we do is super specific and the way that we take the X-rays is dependent upon the body in front of us, so there's little tweaks that have to happen in real time, that if the doctor isn't there, it can't be done, and so he had to figure out a way to be able to get this image done and have it so that we can still get the analysis that we need, because the analysis is what drives the correction and that's what sets the tone for the healing to happen.

Speaker 3: 19:01

So he is a brilliant man and he was able to learn how to harness the technology of the cone beam CT and have the focal point go lower than just the jaw so that we can capture the entire neck, and from there he was able to use tools in the system to create our analysis. So this probably happened. It's probably going on about 15 years and what we've been able to do through the society is fine tune, the way that this technology is used, and now we're introducing it to the other upper cervical techniques at large and chiropractic at large, because a traditional chiropractor who does diversified or gone stead can easily use this technology, because it produces an X-ray image, but in a 3D way, to really understand the vector in which they need to put the force so that less damage can occur and more specific results can be attained.

Speaker 2: 19:50

Wow, so I mean, so it really did start from learning how to go from the jaw down. Yeah, wow, that's amazing, I didn't know. See, look, look, you know putting all these pieces together with these different types of practitioners. Yeah, and that's what I truly love about thinking outside the box in terms of real doctors.

Speaker 3: 20:16

Exactly. I mean, it always cracks me up because I'm like, what kind of doctor should I be? And you know, I didn't go to school to learn surgery or medicine because I didn't want to do that. I wanted to use my hands and I wanted to have a holistic ability to influence the nervous system. And so it made sense that I became a chiropractor.

Speaker 3: 20:37

And I respect my medical doctor friends. Kudos to them for all the hours of study and all the crazy years of residency that they go through. And if it weren't for them, many of us wouldn't be here, because in an emergency they are absolutely crucial. And I have a lot of medical doctors refer to me and come to me as patients because they equally respect the work that they see in the upper cervical world chiropractic and so it's really neat to be able to bridge the gap of the miscommunication and the disconnect that's occurred.

Speaker 3: 21:06

And you know it all came from originally. Sadly, it came from a lot of fear. Right, like in the early turn of the century I guess 1900s there was this kind of push to kind of eliminate all the holistic ways that have been around for thousands of years, because those don't make you a lot of money, you know, but the history of pharmacology and all that kind of stuff started with people that had like petroleum excess product and they wanted to figure out a way to kind of make money on that, and so that's where, like all of this, pharmacology came from. You should know, you were in that industry for a very long time.

Speaker 2: 21:43

And I still am, you know, here and there, because you know, like you said, there's a lot of value in that industry, but there's value elsewhere.

Speaker 3: 21:52

There is and there's so much money in that industry and they are cutting edge and they are able to do research and chiropractic. God bless us. Despite the meager beginnings that we had, we're still thriving and growing and surviving 128 years later. 1895 was the first correction that was made on a guy named Harvey Lillard in Davenport, iowa, and I was fortunate enough to be born in Davenport, iowa.

Speaker 3: 22:16

Where Get out so I I was raised in the town where chiropractic was founded, and so it makes me to kind of like explore that right. And I I got a job working at the college and then I was like this is so much bigger than I ever knew and that's what led me down the road to becoming a chiropractor. And then the experience that I had with the Blair work really Made a personal difference for me. It really, I'd say it changed and healed me and saved my life and has given me so much passion to be able to educate people and, um, really Connect people. That's why my practice is called well connected, because it isn't just about, you know, connecting you Physiologically, but just I want you connected in every area of your life financially, emotionally, spiritually, relationship, wise and I want my practice with all of the practitioners around me to be well connected, because we all play a role in people's health and we all play a role in helping humans live to their fullest potential.

Speaker 3: 23:13

So I have a vast network of amazing people that I refer to and refer to me, because we're all in this thing to win it for each other. And it makes me so happy when even I get connected with you, because it all came from the brain-centric design world and learning how to be a better communicator, learning how to get past that fear, that amygdala, and get into the prefrontal cortex and even more, um, even more than just having the. The science of communication is the structural alignment to allow that to be possible. Those two worlds coming together. It literally like lights me up.

Speaker 2: 23:44

It's so fun so I, uh, first of all, uh, thank you for saying amygdala. It's like my personal passion to say it on every podcast I have All right. So a couple of things. I I, when I think of chiropractic care, you know, I do think of it as like one of the very initial holistic ways that we learned to fix Something that was not working right and and I think that there's A lot of value in starting there when something is off, we're not, we're not sure what's wrong, because you know.

Speaker 2: 24:25

You know, the body has an amazing ability to heal itself. Actually sometimes it just needs a little bit of help, um and and obviously then we have different types of Illnesses and trauma and things and and, like you said, we need, you know, our western western physicians for that. But, I always feel like you know the basic go-to is some form of chiropractic care, um, to just to make sure that you know everything is where it's supposed to be, and if that's not the problem, then we can start branching out, trying to.

Speaker 3: 25:00

I'm just having an understanding about basic like health, like when people get a fever right. So, for me, um, my kids have never taken a Tylenol or never had any kind of over-the-counter medication, because To me, the body expressing itself in a fever means that it's fighting something, and if I were to suppress that, that would take the body's ability away. And I'm not saying that if they needed some medication, I wouldn't give it to them. But I think that we need to have a More basic conversation about what is truly happening and is our body acting in a way that's actually healthy and as it was designed to do? Um, especially in America, I feel like we've got this idea that that we should never have any symptoms, we should never have any emotions, we should never, like, have anything go wrong, and, and and there's nothing wrong with crying, there's nothing wrong with saying I'm upset, there's nothing wrong with having a fever. Now, when it gets out of control, that's when it needs to be managed right and that's where all of us come together.

Speaker 3: 25:58

But, yes, I love that you think chiropractic is the foundation and that that, at first, that's the first thing that should be checked because, remember, chiropractors are doctors of the nervous system and our job is to assess the function of that system. We do it mostly through the portal of entry, which is the alignment of the spine. But I have brilliant chiropractor friends that are functional nutritionists, that are functional neurologists, that actually read x-rays for a living and they help us chiropractors in the field make a determination Is it safe to make a correction at that specific area? Because there's something that we don't see every day, that they know Is that is a contraindication. So I feel like in the world of chiropractic there are specialists everywhere, just like in medicine. It just isn't as well known because chiropractic isn't as accepted as I would love to see it be accepted.

Speaker 2: 26:45

Well, yeah, exactly, and like I even I had dr Forrest Sauer on, you know, a couple of weeks ago and you know, and, and he, you know, his specialty, like you said, is like the functional, you know, medicine and nutritional side of things. So, exactly, right, so you know, what I find so fascinating about all this is the practical application, like if you know some of this and it's, it's, it's not hard to understand, but if you know some of this, you can kind of solve your own problems.

Speaker 2: 27:15

when you think about, when you think about when we go back to activation of the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic system and in fight or flight response, yeah because, um, just for a fun female example, um, you know when sometimes and I'll just use myself an example I get worked up, I get mad about something you know, you start losing the ability to control things you know and maybe, if you start to cry, um, other other things happen. There's like a cascade of events and if because if you're a nervous system you know starts to just do its thing, I mean it results in all kinds of things you have no control over right.

Speaker 2: 28:03

Um, you know, you know goose bumps even, or just Um, the ability to control your bladder. Yes, sometimes that is directly related to the nervous system, because it is. You know, I love explaining to parents about, um, when they're trying to potty train and they can't get their um two-year-old to Understand. You know that when you have to pee you have to go here, but unfortunately it's actually a muscle that has to develop the full connection with the nervous system to gain that control or no control function. Yeah, once people start understanding. Oh, you mean, my nervous system is connected to my muscular system and that's why I can't control this when this happens.

Speaker 3: 28:57

Yeah, uh, I say at least probably 15 times a day. Structure dictates function, and so when the structure is intact, your function will probably be intact. And just like you were talking about a toddler learning how to potty train, the thought, the cognition of feeling, that sensation of having to go to the bathroom comes online and they start to understand what that means. And I was always a fan of just kind of leaving them run around without any clothes on, because my method, yeah, because the minute they feel that they're like wait, that's uncomfortable and I don't like that, and then they start to connect wait, I don't want to feel uncomfortable, so I have to go here and do this, and that's how you build it right. And so I mean, even in traditional like talk therapy, they have exposure therapy right, where you have to go back and kind of Recreate or talk about the thing that caused the psychological damage in the first place and obviously done in a safe way, it's really impactful because you break up that that negative feedback loop and you recognize that right now, in this moment, that isn't actually happening and I have the ability to control the panic or the racing or the heart or the anxiety. And what's interesting is.

Speaker 3: 30:06

A lot of people come to me for neck pain, back pain, sciatica, migraines, you know all that stuff. But at the end of eight weeks after we do their exam, they say I don't have a sleeping problem anymore and I don't have as much anxiety and I'm actually kinder to my spouse and my children because I'm not as irritated. And all of that comes because their their ventral vegas nerve has been supported. Their sympathetic response, the fight flight is no longer an issue and they're able to just sit back and kind of have that balance. They're like, wait, it isn't so bad.

Speaker 3: 30:36

So, as you were talking, I was thinking about just like the act of taking a deep breath and how important, how important just breathing is, just opening up your breath and allowing your sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous system to be balanced. So, yes, there are a million things that I teach my patients every day to do at home, outside of the work that I get to do for them, because the truth is they're healing in between the visits with me. Their body's always on a journey. The visits with me are to number one, confirm that they are moving in the right direction. Or, if they're not, what can we do right now to allow that to continue and Uh support them in a way that would allow them to continue to grow and maintain and even improve their health, as opposed to just being stuck.

Speaker 2: 31:20

So when you do get patients referred to you sure, and let's say, let's say you have a pcp who is a patient to you what is the most common reason that they're going to send them to you?

Speaker 3: 31:37

No, it depends on who the provider is. You know, a neurologist is going to send them to me because they have migraines or they have tinnitus or they have vertigo. I have a it's called the audiology institute here in orange county. They send me a lot of their vertigo patients because they do all the vestibular rehab and I get them into alignment so that the rehab can be effective. I have pts that send their patients to me a lot of times because of sciatica pain or neck pain that while they've done great with pt, while they're doing it, the minute they stop doing it Intensely it comes right back because the truth is the, the core issue hasn't been resolved. They've just been kind of masking it with the exercise. So if we can get to the root issue and if and fix the structure, then all of that function will be restored and the pt will be even more effective.

Speaker 3: 32:31

A medical doctor I have an amazing medical doctor who's an internist. She treats adults only and they come in with all manner of things like Depression, anxiety. They're not sleeping their digestion's off, they have, you know, neck pain, back pain, headaches, like you know, pretty much the stuff that musculoskeletally Medical doctors really don't have answers for except for medication. They send them to us and me because we get to the root of it so quickly. And then the patients are like so grateful, and all the referring practitioners look like heroes. They're like oh you know, we know that what you do is awesome. And then you referred me here and so together we're like even better. It's like a synergistic advancement of the person's health care.

Speaker 2: 33:15

Well, yeah, and then it's the hooves, the primary care physician, to send them to get that relief, because they're then always going to be coming back as a patient, because they know, no matter what, if they can't help them, they know who can.

Speaker 3: 33:30

Yeah, and then there's been other circumstances where I've been seeing a patient and then they go to their medical doctor and they tell them what they've been doing and the medical doctor's kind of confused because they didn't have a good opinion of chiropractic, they didn't know it was possible for me to be able to help with whatever their issue was. And then I establish a new relationship because the patient advocates and says you know what? This isn't the way that this doctor practices. And then they call me and they say what do you do? It's different.

Speaker 3: 33:58

I'd love to have a communication and we have lunch, we have a meeting, they come over, they take a tour and they're like, wow, I had no idea. So you know, and you know, chiropractic works. And so if we could just have better communication with our counterparts on the other side if they're easy-viennese side, just different training and different modalities of thinking, I think that, wow, the healthcare here would be so much better. But thankfully I'm surrounded by amazing people who are open-minded, who don't have huge egos, that just care about the patient before them and are open to any and all things that will help them get better. So that's what it's all about, just healthy communication.

Speaker 2: 34:35

That is one of my hopes and dreams. You know, I have another interview coming up here soon with a sleep apnea dental physician who works very closely with an ENT physician and it's a very synergistic relationship, just like you're talking about, and it is just my hope that we can make that conversation larger so a lot of physicians who never really thought about different modalities might become more open-minded.

Speaker 3: 35:10

And you know there's been this kind of chip on the shoulder of chiropractic as far as we've always been the underdog, we've always kind of been the like the black sheep of healthcare. I don't think that. But I see where people are coming from with that, because we did have to fight for a very long time to establish our credibility At the hands of a pretty large institution. That was just afraid. And so when we realize where people are coming from, we can speak to that and then we can move forward right. But what I think is so beautiful is when practitioners like you were just talking about will seek me out and just say I have heard about the work you're doing. I want to have a conversation.

Speaker 3: 35:51

I'm not quite sure I understand it and I can't blame them. Could you imagine having gone to medical school and done all the things that you had to do to get through those rigorous programs and then just be like sure, let me think about chiropractic. You just it isn't something you have time to learn about. Just like I never had to spend, you know, 48 hours in a row trying to figure out how to do surgery it's not something that I was trained in. So because I don't fully understand it and know it. It doesn't mean that I'm you should never have surgery because I just don't get it. You know what I mean. Like, I defer to the professional and I have a conversation, and what I see happening more and more which is it makes my heart so happy is that people from other modalities, other thought processes are starting to say you know what, just because I didn't learn about it doesn't mean it's not valid and let's have a conversation. So that's happening in more than ever and it makes me happy.

Speaker 2: 36:45

Okay. Well, I'm glad to hear that and I'm going to do whatever I can to foster that. All right, so I'd like to finish up today with some of your favorite success stories.

Speaker 3: 37:01

I would love to share a couple. I have some really cool cases. In fact, you know, I've been in practice for 15 years and my own personal journey led me to become a Blair practitioner was that, you know, I was suicidal for 15 years and I got a Blair correction and it instantly healed my mind, saved my life and then put me on this trajectory of really trying to educate people about the hell, the potential of chiropractic, specifically Blair. But since I was healed, I felt like God gave me this ability to then then lay hands on people and help them heal too and empower them, because they also have an innate intelligence that allows their body to do its thing. You even said it earlier. You said we have this innate ability to heal ourselves, and so we were given that as a gift. This is our body and so we want to make it last as long and as healthy as possible. So I can think of really two cool cases right off the top of my head. One is very recent. It's probably in the last, like three months.

Speaker 3: 37:56

I had a gentleman come in who was suffering from trigeminal neuralgia and, if you've not heard of that, a nickname for that is called the suicide disease, because the pain is so excruciating that literally the wind blowing across your cheek or having to chew food or even talk is so excruciating that the pain is unrelenting and you can't get away from it because the trigeminal nerve is partly responsible to sensory to your face and to your teeth. And so he came in. He had been suffering for seven years. He couldn't talk. He was literally typing out all the notes on his cell phone and would hold his cell phone up for me to be able to read and then ask a question. He'd also write on a notepad. And you know it's always hard when you meet somebody in that excruciating pain and you know, like I know, like meeting somebody, it's not always going to be a quick fix. I'm not always going to have the experience that I had delivering an upper cervical correction where instantly it's all better. But what we did was we x-rayed his neck, gave him a very thorough neurological exam and determined there were some areas of his cervical spine that were out of alignment. We adjusted him specifically without any twisting, crocking or popping of his neck and literally within a week he came in smiling and talking and so ecstatic that he could chew food for the first time in seven years without excruciating pain. He was tearing up and then just recently it was literally two weeks ago he was in here and we were talking about his journey and I was kind of kneeling below him and writing out the journey of healing and talking about the retracing process and he just stopped. Too many, he said. I just want you to know that this picture in my mind of you below me just really dialing in for me because I'm a question asker like this is the heart you have for service towards humans and I just was so blessed by it. But the fact that he could even come that far to be able to have that conversation and talk without pain was just so remarkable because for seven years he suffered endlessly and in just a couple of months he was pain free. So that was a huge success story.

Speaker 3: 40:05

And then let me think there was a really cool story of a little baby in my practice who was kind of stuck and he wasn't moving his head to the left. In fact I have a video of this adjustment. He was 17 days old. He was born really quickly, so he was born in like four hours and his labor was intense and he was stuck, so he wasn't turning his head the way he was supposed to, he wasn't sleeping, he wasn't pooping, he wasn't eating all the things that babies do to show you there's an issue, right. And his mommy brought him to me and I did a very specific analysis on him. We didn't take any x-rays. I typically don't x-rays babies. I usually when there are three and they can sit still. That's when I typically am able to do the cone beam. But I was able to feel his neck and do a very gentle adjustment and he let this sigh out. He was like, and I was like that was perfect. It was his release and his ability to communicate as a 17-year-old newborn that he was better. And so now he's five, he's in kindergarten, he goes to my children's school and he's this vibrant little boy. And so for the last five years I've been able to see the impact of that correction and how it changed the trajectory of his little life and his family, and both of them. They're all under care, I know. And so people freak out when they think what are you doing?

Speaker 3: 41:29

Adjusting a baby birth is hard. I've given birth three times. I know how difficult it is and so, yes, being able to check the nervous system as soon as possible. My daughter is 24. She's given birth twice now, so I have two little granddaughters and she. Each time. I was blessed to be there with her at the home birth and be able to help her labor and bring these beautiful little babies into the world. And within minutes of their life I was able to check their necks and get them adjusted.

Speaker 3: 42:00

And I can tell you already, with my two-year-old Juliet, she definitely has the most coordination, she definitely sleeps the best, she eats the best and she is so talkative. When you speak to her she's too, you think you're talking to a kindergartner because she is so developed in her language ability and it just. The only difference is that she got adjusted and I know like I don't know for sure, but many of those kids I don't think have because people don't understand it. So it's my job and my responsibility as a member of this beautiful profession to be able to teach it and bring it in a way that people will listen and understand what I'm saying and then, you know, respond appropriately, because once people truly get it, they're not going to want to say, nope, I don't want you to function properly. People aren't going to do that. Yes, yes, absolutely so. Thank you for letting me share those stories. It's so fun to go back and reminisce about all the amazing things that I've been able to do in my career.

Speaker 2: 42:55

No, I just I had somebody. I went to high school with someone who about four years ago committed suicide because of that tri-Geminaria and I just remember him saying I just can't live with this pain. And it was really heartbreaking because you know, I remember him from high school. He was, he just always had a laugh, he was always smiling, he was like kind of a jokester but like everybody liked him and you know he had this, his family, you know, just devastated his. You know, and you know like you just don't realize how much the body tries to tell you that something's wrong.

Speaker 3: 43:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:43

There's a huge mental health issue going on right now, and what if it could? What if it could be corrected? So simply just by putting the body back in alignment.

Speaker 3: 43:56

Amen, I know it's.

Speaker 3: 43:58

It's something I'm super passionate about, clearly because I lived it and I understand the depth of despair and the darkness that comes from those ideologies and those thoughts.

Speaker 3: 44:08

And it all stemmed from, you know, physiological and mental trauma that I incurred as a child, and so I'm really passionate about being trauma-informed and about studying how the nervous system works and whatever way that I can do, whether it's through the work that I do or making a referral to the proper person to help with the mental health aspect.

Speaker 3: 44:29

I've seen so many lives transformed personally and I feel like that's a blessing to me and a gift because, like I said at the beginning, I was given my life back and so for the rest of my life I feel like it's a duty and an honor and a mandate really to to be able to provide that for other people. And I know that there is hope and so often we call ourselves that well connected. We call ourselves hope dealers, because people come in and they're hopeless and they've been everywhere and tried everything and they've even seen other chiropractors and for them it just didn't work. But this way, the way that we do chiropractic and the way that we apply the science, is just super special and we see pretty incredible miracles on a regular basis, so it's really rewarding.

Speaker 2: 45:11

Oh my gosh. Well, that I mean. Like I said, I think that this gives parents something else to look at when they do have a child who is clearly suffering.

Speaker 3: 45:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:24

And you know not again, not that medications you know not going to be a part of the answer.

Speaker 3: 45:29

Sure.

Speaker 2: 45:31

This is definitely something that parents can easily explore and not be worried about. You know, adding another drug.

Speaker 3: 45:38

Exactly and there aren't a lot of negative side effects. I mean sure you can have a bad chiropractic adjustment and people have been injured. That's not to say that that doesn't occur, but when you have a proper analysis done and you have really, you're paying attention to the details there's very little risk in having alignment happen and the rewards are many and great. And so, yeah, it's definitely worth investigating whether you're a minute old or 110.

Speaker 2: 46:06

Exactly so. I bet you that other chiropractors who have listened to this. In my world of biology and biohacking we have a lot of chiropractors, but if they were interested in learning more about what you do, maybe some techniques that they can start incorporating into their own practices, how can they find you best and how could they find more information about the Blair techniques?

Speaker 3: 46:38

Sure, that's awesome. So, personally, you can get ahold of me on my website, wellconnectedchirocom or drhaferhowefercom. I am an advanced instructor for the society, so I do teach the technique, and I actually travel around and teach students and doctors. In fact, in a couple weekends I'm going to be helping my buddy assist an advanced instruction seminar in San Diego. The best way, though, to get connected to the Blair Society is to go to theblaretechniquecom, and that's where all of the like doctor training site comes in.

Speaker 3: 47:12

We have blarecharopracticcom, forward facing for consumers, so like people who are looking for a solution, and so that's where you can go to blarecharopracticcom and find a provider. So I'm in Orange County, I'm in Mission Viejo, california, and if you can't get to me, there's probably a Blair doctor in the state that you live in, and now we're starting to have them internationally. So Dr Hollowell, who started the Cone Boom C technology for us back in the day, he now lives in Brazil with his wife. So we have chiropractors in Brazil, we have chiropractors in Belgium, we have chiropractors in Australia and New Zealand. Now we're starting to train some from Japan, and we have lots in Canada and lots in the United States. So there's people, we're growing our organization and our motto is Blair to the world. So blarecharopracticcom or blarecharopractict techniquecom, you will find a way to get involved and absolutely, if you have any questions, comments and concerns, find me at Well Connected. I will point you in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 48:08

That's amazing, and this is just yet another way to up your brain health, and if you have brain health, you can have body health and yeah, that's my mission.

Speaker 3: 48:19

I love that and I'm so glad we're connected on this journey.

Speaker 2: 48:21

Yes, yes, I know, and you have helped me a ton too, so I just thank you so so much for taking the time today. I know you're crazy busy. You know teaching and seeing patients and being part of again of that CalCyro Association.

Speaker 3: 48:39

Yeah, you're so welcome. It's been my pleasure, and thank you for letting me share a little bit of my passion, and I can't wait to do this again.

Speaker 4: 48:49

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