Spinal Hygiene

When I mention the words "spinal" and "hygiene" together, I usually get a good chuckle. Hygiene commonly refers to the act of cleanliness, such as brushing your teeth properly or washing your hands often. In reality, the true meaning of the word "hygiene", according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is "Conditions or practices conducive to health." Therefore, these two words fit together perfectly. Here's a question to ponder: If the brain controls everything in the body, how do the signals get from the brain to the body and back again? It's not a trick answer. The answer is: the spinal cord. All of the nerves that run through the spine, and the 24 cranial nerves, control EEEVEERRYYYTHING in the body. Therefore, it's vital to maintaining optimal health and function to be very aware of proper spinal hygiene.

The first an absolutest rule to proper spinal hygiene is: get a chiropractor. When bones misalign, they can and do put pressure on nerves. When nerves have pressure placed on them, things start to go bad, and it doesn't always cause pain. Chiropractic care takes the pressure off the nerves. You can never reach your true potential in life without chiropractic care! Secondly, the rest is up to you. Do what you can when you're not in your chiropractor's office to keep yourself healthy. This includes setting up your work areas to reduce physical stress. This is referred to as "ergonomics." This also includes de-stressing yourself mentally and emotionally on a regular basis. Dr. Daniel David Palmer, the founder of the chiropractic profession, said that 80% of all illness is due to "autosuggestion", or how we think. Spiritual health is also very important. I'm not talking about the need to go to church or practice a certain belief. Being "spiritual" simply means doing what is right and keeping in mind that there is a bigger picture and a Divine Order to the universe.

In my stress reduction workshops, I teach people a series of physical stretches that specifically focus on spine tuning as part of a complete spinal hygiene package. These exercises were developed in 1999 by Dr. Ron Kirk, dean of the chiropractic program at Life University in Marietta, GA. These exercises are so simple that anyone of any age can do them, even if they have some sort of back problem. You can see the instructional program on how to do these exercises here: http://www.life.edu/node/868. In followup sessions, people have told me that when they do these exercises, they find that they have better endurance throughout the day, whether they are working at a desk job or whether they are an athlete in training. I encourage everyone to look through this spinal hygiene and spine tuning program. It just might make the difference in how healthy you feel and in how well you function!

If you don't already have a chiropractor, and you don't know who in your area to choose, you can always contact me. I will check around to see who in your area I feel will be able to serve you best based on your particular needs. Not every chiropractor is the same, meaning that some have different subspecialties. For example, not every chiropractor is trained in pediatric care or in the care of extremity problems. You can contact me through my NEW website at www.mihsUSA.com.

A New Format

Since I've hardly used this blog, and when I did it was either a for a rant or a good story to tell, I figure I will use it as an educational tool. I am completely revamping my business, my websites, my resume, and now my blog. I still have yet to figure out how to incorporate the Blogspot site into other sites, like you can with WordPress. I'm becoming more in tune with these things, thanks to some help I am getting these days from fellow business professionals. One reason why I haven't been very successful in business is because I always tried to go it alone. Those days are over. Networking with likeminded people is crucial in this day and age. I once complained that it's because people do not like my autistic mannerisms. BUT, that is something people don't even find out about until they've walked through my door. Getting people to do THAT much is the trick!

So, in the days to come this blog will be used to give little health and wellness tips. Nothing fancy, nothing controversial. My newest venture is to get out of the office more and onto the road. The Sufletesc Center has become Mobile Integrated Health Solutions. Mobile does not mean that I am going back to doing house calls. Doing that is how I ended up with chronic pain in my shoulder, which has since healed up nicely. It does mean that I will make business-to-business "house calls" to places like trucking companies, private offices, community events, etc. "Integrated" means that I not only offer chiropractic care, but I also do D.O.T. physicals, employee health screening, employment & athletic physicals, and functional medicine services, just like I always have. This is the new deal. For the time being, I will be serving all of Minnesota from Duluth to Fergus Falls to Worthington onward to the southeast.

For more information about what I've been up to lately, you can see my NEW website at http://www.mihsUSA.com . Or, you can follow me as I take the show on the road on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-Louis-Park-MN/Mobile-Integrated-Health-Solutions/126862493842?ref=ts . There's more to come!

The Next Chapter

It's been more than a month since I last wrote. My writing habit comes and goes. For a while I have a ton of stuff running through my head. Then I go into that "empty box" where my head just doesn't feel like thinking of anything. Since I last wrote, I hopped back on the "what am I really supposed to be doing with myself" wagon. Thanks to that autistic tendency to want to try to fit in with different groups of people to see where you can fit in, I ended up losing my job as a security guard at the theater here in Minneapolis. People complained because I said things, rather I wrote things on their Facebook page, that made them feel uncomfortable. My explanation was that being autistic makes it hard for people to draw the boundary lines between what should be said when and to whom. This much is really true. But the fact that they fired me for it and merely relocated another guard to another position led me to file a charge of discrimination with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. I'm not even going to follow up on it, really. Whatever happens happens, and in the meantime I have moved on.

While being a "healer" always ends up being the answer to what I was really meant to do in life, building a clientele continues to be my weakest point. I can help a three-month old overcome colic when everything else failed, I can help a family member overcome vertigo when a medical doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong, I can uncover deeply-rooted emotional hangups that keep a person sick thanks to medical intuition, but I can't build a practice. Go figure. Just last night I figured that I really shouldn't be surprised. After all, not knowing how to correspond appropriately and with the right people has ALWAYS been my downfall. It still continues to be my downfall. But just like Dr. Temple Grandin, if not for the people who knew of her gift and stuck up for her, she probably would have succumbed to the same lack of social propriety.

On that note, I recently decided to make lemonade out of lemons. I designed a class specifically on living with autism spectrum disorders -- a class about ASDs taught by an audie. What a concept! I advertised it to several local community education programs, 117 of them to be exact. So far, I have about six of them that I scheduled this class with for their upcoming Fall community ed programs. I am also taking this opportunity to seek out the advice of a psychologist who may be able to give me some practical advice. The one who has experience working with audies was all booked up (surprise surprise). So the one I will have an appointment with this coming Wednesday specializes in anxiety disorders and depression. I can't say I have any issues there, but at least it was something that stood out as different from the rest of the people on my insurance provider list. The difference is that I know where to start -- I am a person with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. I didn't know that just 13 months ago.

I guess there really is no "next chapter". I am just revisiting the previous one, but now knowing what my shortcoming is. And it's something I'll have to deal with and make known to potential employers. I have gone back to trying to promote myself through making phone calls and proposals for providing chiropractic and examination services. I even list in my most current brochure that I myself live with an ASD. I pretty much had to do that in hopes of cutting down on the amount of strange looks I get if and when people visit my office and see somebody they judge as not being "doctor-like". I have to make do with what is and forget about what isn't. Another thing I am looking into is what possibility there might be that I can get some kind of disability compensation. Sure I can work. But functioning is a different story. Functioning as a "neurotypical" may always be an impossibility. It would be nice if there was somebody who could walk in front of me whenever I am going to make a presentation or reach out to a new contact and say, "Here is a physician who can help you, as long as you overlook the fact that he may act differently because he is autistic."

Audies DO live in a world of their own. It is up to the neurotypical to learn how to coexist with them and communicate with them in a meaningful, functional, non-judgmental, progressive way.

A New Venue

A light bulb went on in my head just a couple days ago. I started putting together some of the pieces of the puzzle of my life in a more meaningful way. First, I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and I do not have the ability to get out there and promote myself and be present during the daytime hours. Second, thanks to the early days of this CFS problem when I was pretty much houseridden, I became hooked to the internet. I still spend quite a bit of time online, just not in chatrooms anymore. Yes, I have my doctorate degree, which I've felt is going to waste for quite some time because I have not been successful in business. So, how can I get myself out there AND make money at the same time. All this time I've been focusing on creating my websites, tweaking them, making up brochures and ads, all to promote myself. In the past year or less, I started answering questions in different health forums, and I found that I really enjoy that very much. So, finally, it dawned on me what I should do.

The question came to me, "How can I answer people's health related questions online AND get paid for it?" I'm actually quite surprised that I hadn't thought of it sooner. The answer is -- by creating a virtual office. That is what I am in the process of doing now. I found a website where people can call in or write to experts in different categories. If they approve of my credentials and profiles, then away we go. If they do not, then I'll create my own forum on the website that I already have, and I'll advertise it all over the place. All you have to do is click a button and you have me in a chatroom, live and at your service. I already know what I will be charging, and I already have about a year of experience doing this online. Now let's see what happens. It WILL be up and running soon. It's just a matter of how many people I can attract. I figure I can't be invisible forever. Yes, I am here to serve, as a physician, as a healer, as a shoulder to lean on for people who are in need. This IS my calling.

Recently my wife and I saw the movie "The Proposal". Although a very funny movie indeed, there was one somber moment where a question of mine was answered out of the blue. Because of my floundering business success, I had been asking myself lately what it is I was REALLY meant to do. I figured that I wasn't being very successful because I wasn't doing the right thing. Then Betty White answered my question in the movie with this line: "Whatever you do, that's what you'll be." Now it's no mystery to me. I'll keep being what I always was -- a healing practitioner. Let's see how this new venue works out.

On Being Aligned With The Divine

I am in the process of listening to the new audio presentation of Dr. Wayne Dyer's "Excuses Begone". It is a powerful presentation, and many of the things he says I have never heard before. That's what makes it special. The main message is that we should throw out every excuse we ever used for our not being able to accomplish something and instead think from an "awareness" perspective. The "awareness" part means that all that exists is a manifestation of God. Thus, acting from the awareness that we ARE The Divine made manifest means that excuses should never enter the picture. Excuses are the product of the ego, not of God. Also, the more we think about what we SHOULD be doing, where we SHOULD be, how much money we SHOULD be making, etc., we are thinking from the perspective of the ego. God simply is, and God simply does -- as us, through us.

Yes, I have accomplished quite a bit in my life. I've suffered many health challenges. I've had many life experiences, both as a hospital patient and as a health care provider. I've earned a graduate degree. I have a lovely wife and home. I like where I live. The positives in my life are many. However, taking to heart what Dr. Dyer points out, and what many great sages throughout the millenia have said, I find it odd that God would be content with being sedentary. If God is acting through me, as me, then he must really enjoy having all these ways in which he can love people and help them without actually having anybody coming into the office to receive. Interesting concept. Rather humorous, at that.

So, anyway, I had some ideas of what I wanted to write. But I think I just used them all. It's 5:00 in the morning now, and I really need to get to bed. I have to go back to my $11 an hour job as a security guard in a theater this afternoon.

Enter The "Holistic Physician"

Last week while I was working at my security job at the Guthrie Theater, I got talking to a couple of the ushers. Most of the people I work with already know that I am a chiropractor. But what they don't know is that I am very holistic in how I care for my patients. "I address all of my patients' health concerns," I said at one point in the conversation. At that moment, one of the ushers I was talking to perked up and started asking me all these questions about her high blood pressure problems. She wanted to know what natural ways there are to take care of it. I then thought to myself that THIS is why I became a doctor -- to help people with their health concerns in a holistic way. I didn't become a "back pain specialist," and I really hate being mistaken for one. Even though my business card says that I am a "holistic chiropractor," the word "chiropractor" insinuates, in most people's mind, that I take care of only back pain and headaches. I've been in health care for over 26 years now in many different capacities. I certainly never intended to limit myself by becoming a chiropractor!

What people DO understand is the word "physician". D.D. Palmer, the founder of the chiropractic profession, always frowned on chiropractors who would call themselves "chiropractic physicians". Many medical doctors with an ego would also frown upon a chiropractor considering himself to be any kind of physician. I've always been neutral to using this term because, as the Latin origin of the word "physician" implies, a physician is a practitioner of a "natural science". (Source: the Online Etymology Dictionary) So the question would then be, could I simply call myself a "holistic physician"? To answer that, I turned to the good ol' internet, that magical land where all knowledge can be bestowed. Alas, I came up with an article who answered that question with a profound "yes". Here is the link to the article: http://www.radicalmedicine.com/holistic_physician_defined.html .

According to the article, there are six different healing professionals that can use the title "holistic physician": medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, dentists, and acupuncturists. Therefore, I feel at ease to change my business cards to read "Dr. Patrick V. Suglia, Holistic Physician". Then, to be in accordance with Minnesota state law, I would list chiropractic care among the services that I offer. I do offer a slew of others, such as health status testing (which the American Holistic Medical Association calls functional medicine), routine and specialized physicals, Reiki healing (which the AHMA refers to as energy medicine), and others. I won't go into detail about them here because you can always see everything I do on my website at http://sufletesc.twicmn.org .

People haven't quite made the full paradigm shift yet to fully comprehend and appreciate the words of Thomas Edison: "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." The human frame IS the specialty of the chiropractor, and the other mentioned items are the concern of any holistic physician. The paradigm shift started only 18 years ago when in 1991, for the first time, more visits were made to practitioners of "alternative" medicine, with chiropractors leading the figures, than to general practice medical doctors. Yes, the paradigm is still shifting. More and more people are learning about the wonderful HOLISTIC benefits of chiropractic care, while the current being created by the medical establishment, who is trying to hold on to their dying ego, continues to try to push us further from the public's interest. Until the paradigm shift is complete, which I hope I live to see, I will, for now, call myself a Holistic Physician.

Writing Cramps

As you may notice already, I hardly write in this blog. But when I do, it's pretty much to the point. People tell me I'm a great writer and that I should consider it for a career. That would be great, if I was a writer. To tell you the truth, I really have to have something pounding in my brain, begging to come out, in order for me to write well. Otherwise, if I just sat down to write because I had to, it wouldn't sound good at all. Such is life! So, that's about all I have to say right now. I'm still waiting for the next great spark.