The Killer Flu and Chiropractic

I took this from the November 2009 newsletter written by Dr. Tedd Koren:

These are statistics from the 1918-1919 killer flu which killed millions under medical care:

• The Palmer School of Chiropractic had one death out of 1,635 cases while Iowa DCs reported 6 deaths out of 4,735 cases.
• MDs (Davenport) lost one patient out of every 15 (6,116 deaths out of 93,590 patients).

[Rhodes WR. The Official History of Chiropractic in Texas. Austin, TX: Texas Chiropractic Association. 1978 andChiropractic statistics. The Chiropractic Research and Review Service. Indianapolis, IN: Burton Shields Press. 1925.]

Once infected by a virus, why would a chiropractic patient do better than a medical patient back then?

And today, 90 years later, wouldn't the same hold true?

Change

I've made a huge decision.

Only a few know about it so far, but it won't be long now before I broadcast my intentions out to the world.

Life-changing choice.  A new path.

A new opportunity to serve.

I will keep you posted.

The Jingle

A few months before I implemented the Honor Box, I had a patient come in desperately wanting chiropractic care.  When I explained my fees to her and her husband, I was made a counter offer.

"Money is a little tight right now for us," the husband explained.  "Can we make a trade instead?  I'll compose and create a jingle package in exchange for you helping my wife with chiropractic."

A jingle?  What the heck would I do with a jingle?  Is this guy for real?

I was, at the time, not spending a dime on advertising.  No radio.  No TV ads.  No wait, I think perhaps I was running a small ad in The PennySaver.  But that was it.

A jingle?  What the heck would I do with a jingle?

But I agreed to the deal.  I honestly thought it was pretty much like I was adjusting her for free-- that I was receiving the short end of the stick with this trade, getting just a useless, amateur product in exchange for my professional chiropractic services.

Wrong!

Photo by Creative Minds 808First, this musician took the time to sit down and work with me in discovering the feel, the vibe, and the message of the jingle.  We came up with the hook, "Who's got your back?" and set it to a Jawaiian groove.  This guy recorded the jingle in a professional studio playing all the instruments and doing the vocals himself.

Then about two weeks after we agreed to the deal, he presented me with my jingle package: an audio CD with 8 tracks, some with intros, outros, and a few "doughnuts" (tracks with an intro and an outro).  The jingle package was ready for radio and TV spots.

Of course, I still had no intention at the time to run any commercials.  How could I afford that?

But man oh man!  Did I have a cool jingle!

If you haven't heard it yet, click here to go to my website home page.  It will play automatically in about seven seconds.

So the barter went down like this: I gave $1000.00 worth of chiropractic care to his wife and I got a jingle package in trade.

Now more than eight years later, I can honestly say that I got the better deal.

At first I thought I was getting something of little worth, what I ended up with instead has been a blessing and a resource beyond measure.

• Having such a cool jingle did motivate me to find advertising opportunities to show it off
• The jingle anchored many radio spots on stations like 92.3 KSSK, Island Rhythm 98.5 and ESPN1420
• The following year, I was able to network with an account manager at KHON2 who was able to get me on TV at very affordable rates.  The jingle has played on every spot.
• A few years back, Ernie Cruz, Jr. graciously agreed to star in a new commercial for me and even wanted to compose his own version of the jingle.
• Since 2001, this jingle has helped me effectively brand my practice and the Honor Box throughout the islands

But most importantly, I learned a great life lesson:

You never know what hidden value something or someone may have.  What may at first appear to be of little worth, may in fact hold a tremendous life-changing benefit within only to be manifested months or years down the road.  We must be careful before dismissing and disregarding something that only seems worthless.  It might actually be of great worth, beyond our wildest dreams.

An adjustment.

A stranger.

A jingle!

Localization and Prevention

“Localization: the determination of the points at which functions or pathological conditions originate.” (pg. 207)

                                                      --Lippincott’s New Medical Dictionary

When a patient receives a migraine medication, like RELPAX or Imitrex, has the problem truly been localized?  Nope.  The drug is prescribed to cover up the pain, not to eliminate the cause of the headache.  In fact, in most cases, the exact cause of the migraine is never discovered.

The obvious problem with focusing only on alleviating the symptom instead of going after the cause is that the source of the problem remains ignored.  So why do most patients accept the omission of localization from their doctors?  Simply because the drugs make it feel like things are getting better.  The pain is relieved and without the pain indicator, many are fooled into thinking the source of the symptom has been taken care of... but in reality, the cause of the pathological condition persists.  And often times worsens day by day.

If the migraine is caused by a subluxated atlas, correct that subluxation!

You can take all the prescription medications you want, but no matter how many pills you pop, the drugs will never ever move that misaligned vertebra back into place.

It is interesting that this principle of localization applies to most of the problems we encounter in life-- whether these problems be physical, financial, or even spiritual.  We need to be aware of the root cause of whatever crisis we are in and work to correct that root cause instead of desperately searching for quick fixes to eliminate the pain.

The higher principle of localization is, of course, prevention.  Successful prevention of a painful crisis occurs when we determine a pathological condition way before that problem elicits any suffering.  This is the wisdom behind wellness, wealth and inner peace.

"There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve."

                                                                                --Mike Leavitt

The Art of Dealing Drugs

Last year, pharmaceutical companies in the United States made $291 BILLION dollars.

There are approximately 307,500,000 people in the United States-- which breaks down to $946.35 spent by every man, woman and child last year on prescription drugs.

Incredible feat.  Especially when you take into account that these products cannot be purchased freely by the average consumer.  Each sale requires pre-approval by a licensed medical professional.

Drug companies depend on doctors to dispense their medications.  Without the M.D. "middle man", sales would come to a screeching halt.

And these doctors don't make a single dime in commissions on the sales they broker, right?  They're working for free on behalf of these pharmaceutical companies, right?

So how do they do it?  How, despite the economic crisis we are in, did the drug companies actually make huge profits last year?

It's an art.

To sell their drugs, pharmaceutical companies hire former cheerleaders and ex-models to wine and dine doctors, exaggerate the drug's benefits and underplay their side-effects, a former sales rep told a Congressional committee this morning.

Shahram Ahari, who spent two years selling Prozac and Zypraxa for Eli Lily, told a Senate Aging Committee chaired by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., that his job involved "rewarding physicians with gifts and attention for their allegiance to your product and company despite what may be ethically appropriate."

Ahari claims that drug companies like hiring former cheerleaders and ex-models, as well as former athletes and members of the military, many of whom have no background in science.

"On my first day of sales class, among 21 trainees and two instructors, I was the only one with any level of college-level science education," Ahari told ABCNews.com on Tuesday.

During their five-week training class, Ahari claims that instructors teach sales tactics, including how to exceed spending limits for important clients, being generous with free samples to leverage sales, using friendships and personal gifts to foster a "quid pro quo" relationship, and how to exploit sexual tension.

Complete report: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4438095&page=1

Read an older blog post for a first-hand observation of this process: http://drshiraki.squarespace.com/the-chiropractic-ensign/2009/5/20/the-lunchtime-drug-deal.html