Teens and young adults growing up on myspace and other social media sites are increasingly asking questions about attending chiropractic colleges throughout the world.
How long does it take and how much is it going to cost are questions being asked by the majority of inquisitive online surfers. There are currently 18 colleges in the United States that offer Doctor of Chiropractic programs and there are schools located throughout the world.
Some countries besides the USA that have chiropractic colleges include Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Length of education and cost for programs is going to vary from state to state and country to country. Most of the chiropractic schools in the USA involve a 4-5 year graduate program earning one a Chiropractor degree upon graduation. Tuition costs vary so interested applicants are advised to contact each school they are considering to attend if they’d like to get more information.
A list of all eighteen schools in the USA are available here: Chiropractic Schools Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa was the first chiropractic school ever established. There are four colleges of chiropractic located in the state of California, more than in any other state. The two schools in Canada are Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and Universite du Quebec.
If you are anywhere nearby a local chiropractor, it may be a good idea to drop in an introduce yourself. You can get some great information if you just ask. It’s also a good idea to get some feedback from your local DCs and ask them their thoughts on attending schools and what chiropractic programs they’d recommend. Tell them 90026 sent you!
by Daria Belov
If you’ve been running out of things to say while adjusting your chiropractic patients, never fear, Merriam-Webster has 100 new dictionary words for your linguistic pleasure. They have a list of the new terms on their m-w website. You can view them at… New Words 2007
Don’t be an old fuddy-duddy chiropractor that is not up on the latest lingo. I have put some of the new words being added into sentences so you can get to using them right away.
First on the list is ginormous, a combination of the words gigantic and enormous. Many uses for that word in chiropractic. Here are some examples… It’s a ginormous chiropractic office, there’s over 3200 square feet of open adjusting space. Wow, that adjustment was ginormous! Big Pharma drug advertising is ginormous, they are spending billions.
Next on the list is crunk, a word used to define southern based rap or hip hop music. Sometimes crunk is used to mean intoxicated, combining the words crazy and drunk. Best definition I know of is by the rap artist Lil Jon who defines crunk as a state of heightened excitement.
Here are some examples… We won’t be playing any crunk in this chiropractic office, it scares our Medicare patients. Some chiropractors do know how to party. Monday through Friday may be wheat grass and vegetables, but on the weekend some get crunk and tear up the town. That chiropractor is crunk!
DVR is a word being added to the dictionary, and it’s not to define Downward Vertebral Rotation. In the dictionary sense, DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder, a device used to record video in a digital format to a disk drive or other medium.
Here are some examples… I’ve been saving all my favorite Planet Chiropractic videos on my DVR so I can watch them when I’m not online. Don’t take more than one educational subluxation pamphlet from our front office, our DVR security system is watching!
Smackdown is another word being added. A smackdown is the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent and it’s commonly used in entertainment wrestling. Chiropractic wife Candice Michelle probably uses the term often.
Some examples… That was a nasty smackdown, she is seriously going to need a chiropractor after that! I don’t want some wimpy chirowannabe adjustment, give me one of those ginormous smackdown style moves and set my pelvis right.
IED or improvised explosive device is being added to the dictionary as well. It’s primarily a term to define a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It’s an unlikely term for the chiropractic office so we’ll just keep it out of our chirolexicon for now.
Last on our list is spizzerinctum or the shortened term spizz. Only kidding, spizzerinctum is not a new word, it is a term made popular by BJ Palmer around the 1910s to 1920s which refers to chiropractic enthusiasm or excitement about chiropractic.
In some examples… That chiropractor is loaded with spizzerinctum, his adjustments could make a bald man grow hair like a collie dog! You have no chiropractic practice without spizzerinctum, everything else is just mechanics. Great chiropractors are loaded with spizz, they are magnetic and abundant energy flows through every cell of their being.
Turn down the crunk, turn on the DVR so you don’t miss WWE Smackdown, get your ginormous head out of your IED butt, and get some spizzerinctum in your life!
by Michael Dorausch, DC
Michael Moore was recently on CNN to talk about his latest film “SICKO” and you can view the segment via youtube.
Before CNN host Wolf Blitzer allowed Michael Moore to speak, CNN aired a four minute pre-recorded segment called a “Sicko Reality Check” where chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, went over some of the facts Michael Moore presented in the film.
The four-minute fact checking segment begins with what I would consider a classic manipulation technique. Seek first to establish credibility, then shred your opponent. Using this manipulative technique, a person establishes a believable position by concluding that a big fact checks out, thus giving the viewer the feeling that the reporter is unbiased and all information following will be factual.
The medical correspondent questions whether all the facts check out. “Keeping them honest” the CNN report starts out “with the biggie” that the US is ranked number 37 out of 191 countries by the World Health Organization (WHO).
After the position is established that the WHO information is factual, the segment changes gears to a skeptical position and questions some other facts presented in the film. After four minutes of ripping Michael Moore, basically suggesting he fudged some of the facts in his film, CNN host Wolf Blitzer invites Michael Moore to the live broadcast.
Watching the video you can see Moore appears rather uncomfortable. He begins by stating that the report was so biased that he can’t imagine what pharmaceutical company ads will be coming up during the break. Moore questions CNNs bias and wishes they would tell the American people the truth. You can watch the entire video segment on youtube.
On Michael Moore’s website they were quick to post source information for every “fudged” fact that the CNN correspondent spoke of. Watch the video segment then open Michael Moore’s page in a new tab: SiCKO’ Truth Squad Sets CNN Straight
Whose information is more factual? You will have to decide for yourself.
About the WHO report: “The main message from this report is that the health and well-being of people around the world depend critically on the performance of the health systems that serve them. Yet there is wide variation in performance, even among countries with similar levels of income and health expenditure. It is essential for decision makers to understand the underlying reasons so that system performance, and hence the health of populations, can be improved.” - WHO Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
If you’re thinking any of this universal healthcare stuff is going to be good for people wanting to be healthy, forget it. In my opinion, the universal healthcare models being presented are just another way to pay for a failed medically dominated system, we shouldn’t be supporting in the first place.
by Daria Belov
News reports began appearing yesterday that Apple may be planning to build a cheaper and smaller version of the iPhone, following the slim and sleek modeling design of the iPod nano. According to reports, Apple is silent on the subject. I’ve got to admit that I thought the headlines were a hoax, since the only nano iPhone I’ve seen has been on David Letterman.
About two weeks ago (the night before the iPhone was available in stores) David Letterman did a skit on his CBS program which featured an iPhone sneak peek. According to Dave, the nano version would not be cheaper. On his broadcast he stated the nano version would be $1100. You can watch a clip of Letterman’s skit on youtube.
Maybe there will be an iPhone nano coming to an Apple store near you sometime soon. Maybe David Letterman has the inside scoop on all things techie. We’ll just have to wait and see if this nano thing is a reality.
Either way, I think the iPhone is hot! Haven’t purchased one yet but I’ve played with a friend’s. First thing I did was to determine if the reader subdomain at mac.com was an RSS reader URL for the iPhone. Looks like that was the case. More on that story here… Planet Chiropractic RSS on your iPhone
by Darrel Crain, DC
Where did the bees go?
Toxicopathy is a new word to me, but one I believe we will all be hearing about more and more. According to Dorland”s Medical Dictionary (1993) toxicopathy means “any disease caused by a poison.” The same book defines poison as “any substance taken into the body by ingestion, inhalation, injection or absorption that interferes with normal physiological functions.”
The mysterious disappearance of bees around the world in the last year or two is an alarming indication that we have reached new levels of poisoning on a global scale. Colony Collapse Disorder is the name given to this new toxicopathy for bees. Some scientists say the answer to this mystery is blowing in the wind, in the pollen of genetically modified crops that are designed to be toxic to insects. Let us hope Einstein was wrong in his prediction, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.”
The worldwide low sperm count in human males is another troubling toxicopathy only recently recognized. The drop has been so steep and sudden that some scientists wonder if a human fertility crisis is in the making. Hormone-disrupting chemicals from insecticides and plastic food packaging are high on the list of suspected poisons contributing to the problem.
“All things are poisons,” Paracelsus is often credited with saying, “for there is nothing without poisonous qualities…it is only the dose which makes a thing poison.”
Paracelsus, sometimes called the father of modern pharmacology, was born in Switzerland in 1493, a contemporary of other radical thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther and Nicholas Copernicus. He was attacked by medical authorities of the day for his rejection of their faith in the ancient Greek theories of balancing the four humors (liquids) in the body that called for such risky procedures as bloodletting. Ironically, his theories about the importance of spiritual healing remain a controversial subject for medical authorities to this day.
His “dose is everything” theory of poison recently passed the test here in California when a woman drank so much water it killed her during a contest to win a small prize. For the woman, the water itself proved toxic, but for most of us the real threat is the remarkable cocktail of additional stuff the water may be carrying. Lead, arsenic, PCBs, pesticides, radioactive nucleotides and mercury are quite common in the world”s water supply these days, not to mention the poisons added on purpose, such as fluoride and chlorine. And not just in the water either, these bad boys are coming at us from all directions including from electric power generation, factory farming, manufacturing, and medical procedures.
Paracelsus’ understanding of toxicity has proven incomplete because of factors he did not comprehend. For starters, certain substances are so incredibly poisonous that even the tiniest exposure has a toxic effect, such as radioactive elements. Then there is the synergistic effect, in which two substances radically increase one another’s toxicity, such as mercury and aluminum. The human race has produced and dispersed such an incredible volume and variety of poisons in a historically brief period that scientists are unsure which ones are reacting with each other or which ones should be blamed for specific disorders.
There is little disagreement, however, that environmental toxins have become a primary burden for all animals on the planet, limiting the ability of us all to make normal, healthy cells and thus maintain health. The toxic load that accumulates in the body derails the immune response and favors genetic mutation and cancer.
Far from being all gloom and doom though, this information tells us that we may still have considerable control over important factors to keep ourselves healthy. In an increasingly toxic environment, clearing poisons from the body is essential. The three most important ways the body is equipped to eliminate toxins are exercise, exercise and exercise. Byproducts from our own energy production become toxic inside the body unless we stay in motion.
We can also nutritionally enhance our cellular efficiency at clearing toxins. Some of us seem to be more sensitive to environmental toxicity than others. For example, many autistic children are deficient in a cellular process called methylation, required to remove toxic metals from the body. Boosting energy pathways with specific nutrients is one element of the biomedical approach that is allowing thousands of kids to experience significant recovery from autism.
As more disorders are recognized as environmentally induced diseases, or toxicopathies, healthcare will eventually be forced to shift its emphasis. People”s natural systems have varying abilities to clear toxins based on levels of exposure, lifestyle and genetics.
At an estimated rate of consumption of 25 million pills per hour in the United States, medical suppression of symptoms may prove be a shortsighted solution. It is a striking fact that every vaccine and every drug, whether prescription or over-the-counter, fits the definition of poison precisely. They are all substances that interfere with normal cellular function. Due diligence to fully understand the risk versus benefit for all these interventions seems more important than ever.
The most obvious thing we can do is to avoid toxins whenever possible, including buying organically produced foods and monitoring the nature of everything that goes in the body. One major challenge for us humans is that polluting the body can often be great fun, even when we know it isn”t good for us.
“The one conclusive argument that has at all times discouraged people from drinking a poison is not that it kills but rather that it tastes bad,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche.
Which reminds me of the time my son John helped himself to a second large piece of cake off the table when he was two years old. “Hey, that”s too much,” I snapped. He looked over at me and said happily, “I love too much!”
by Michael Dorausch
Last month I was contemplating the idea of converting a web site, that I invested about $3000 of development on, into an open source model, or something that would be available via a creative commons license. The first web site that was converted over was the template for chiropractor website (see link to view site).
The web site pretty much has everything a chiropractor could seek when it comes to building a successful online destination for existing patients, as well as new patients. The site was converted over to creative commons licensing in the month of June, 2000 and programmers are working now to generalize all of the template pages so that chiropractors could basically fill in their own information, resulting in a great chiropractic web site made in a very short time.
The greatest advantage of all this is that the web site is free. That’s what the open source movement is all about. It may not be traditional open source like the development of software, but in the spirit of sharing, it’s the closest thing the chiropractic profession has when it comes to web design.
There is an article posted on June 30 titled “Giving away my chiropractic website” which has most of the pertinent information about the decision to make the site open source and share it with others.
What we will be doing here at the chiropractic homepage project will primarily be a focus on improvements made to the homepage of this recently made free web site. Taking a look at the homepage, some changes are in order such as flipping out the graphic (which has an office logo on it) with a text header that can also be used as the title tag.
We also like to see the graphic image version of a phone number (not good design principles for a web site) changed out to a text version that could easily be edited by a web site administrator. There are several other changes requiring a templating of sorts but those of the first two that are recommended in the process.
This will be an exciting project as chiropractors have already been signing. Everyone is going to get a free chiropractic website, only time will tell on how many will actively participate in making improvements and keep the project moving forward.
There is a video circulating on the Internet that features someone receiving a chiropractic adjustment on the top bone in their neck. The adjustment is commonly known as a toggle recoil or upper cervical specific chiropractic adjustment. The technique used to be taught at the Palmer school of chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.
This particular video has a woman lying on her side, with her head resting on a movable head piece. Watching the video, you see that the chiropractor fields around at the top of the person’s neck, and the base of her skull. He makes a contact in the area just below her mastoid process with the pisiform of his adjusting hand. Most of the video shows the chiropractor “setting up” on the patient, with the adjustment taking all but a fraction of a second.
If the video embeds properly, you should be able to watch it here on this page. If you click through to Google video make sure you vote for the video so others can know whether it’s worth watching.
Search around this site or view below for some more chiropractic videos.
by Daria Belov
Happy 4th of July 2007 America! Independence Day is upon us, a birthday celebration of the day the United States claimed independence from Britain. The US is a nation made up of diverse and dynamic people. This Fourth of July will be like many before, with Americans celebrating their freedoms by enjoying barbecues, family gatherings, trips to the beach, and most definitely fireworks shows.
Millions of Americans will be indulging in meals that include such American favorites as hot dogs (aka frankfurters) and hamburgers. While most meat eaters will be limiting their intake to a few hot dogs maximum, some will be seeking to break world records.
There is a major hot dog eating contest in New York’s Coney Island that’s been held on the Fourth of July for years. The event is sponsored by Nathan’s Hot Dogs and some of the top contenders are expected to consume as many as 60 hotdogs in the allotted time of 12 minutes.
There’s been news in the press regarding the six-time defending hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi. According to news reports, the 154 pound Kobayashi is reportedly suffering from a TMJ problem with his jaw. He has great hopes of winning though, the hot dog eating champion has been receiving care from his chiropractor in preparation for the event, as well as dental care.
I’d prefer the vegetarian version two hot dog eating contest, washed down with freshly brewed iced tea. Suppose there will be no contests for me!
Good luck to Kobayashi and all the others competing in this 2007 Fourth of July event. To everyone else in America, give your doctor of chiropractic a day to relax, enjoy the fireworks, enjoy the food, and enjoy your freedoms!
Update: 23-year-old Joey Chestnut beat Kobayashi in the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. Chestnut, a resident of San Jose, California, broke a world hot dog eating record, consuming a total of 66 hotdogs (including buns) in 12 minutes.
The event was attended by an estimated crowd of 50,000 people and ESPN sports announcers stated that Joey’s win could be the “greatest moment in American sports history.”
You can watch the video below, coming from a youtube feed. Both these guys could use chiropractic care with the way they are swinging their necks back, especially Kobayashi. Be forewarned, Kobayashi suffers a reversal of fortune (upchucks some hotdogs) towards the end of the competition. Viewing is not suggested for the faint hearted.
Only in America!