Know These Signs of a Stroke
I wrote Dr. Brian Mehl of Tom’s River, NJ and asked the top notch UC doc and surfer how life has been treating him and here is his response regarding some travels he has taken:
Life is treating me well, thanks to the last 2 weeks that I spent in St
Maarten and
Anguilla. Then I got back to the typical NJ winter and life went back to reality real quick. My tan faded 3 levels as soon as I landed at Newark and my skin saw the dark gray sky.
I got to see first hand how important it is to get real chiropractic to the European nations, from the time I spent in the islands which are owned by France, Great Britain, and Dutch. I ran across 3 medical offices with the word “chiropractic” on the sign, and not only were they not offering straight chiropractic, but 2 of the offices didn’t even have a chiropractor. Below is a link for one office who advertises on their sign ”a combination of osteopathic and chiropractic services” and the 2 people that work there are physical therapists. I guess the laws in those countries don’t have licensing procedures for chiropractic. I spoke to 1 guy who went to that office, and he said that they do the same procedure as their chiropractor at home (rotary breaks, lumbar rolls) which goes to show just how much skill and training that requires.
Dr. Jason Blackketter from Palmer was interning on the preceptor program in my office this summer and it looks like he will be setting up practice in Arkansas. Jason could use a S.A.M. (posture evaluation) machine and a side posture table (ideally Nicholas Lloyd) You can respond to his request by contacting him at 925-399-2453 cell or
jwblackk@chirokiddos.com We know Dr. Blackketter will be successful in Arkansas. No comments about his office theme song being “Dueling Banjos!!!”
We have been very fortunate to have a high concentration of top quality UC docs in Southern California. One of these is Dr. James Fiore from Santa Ana and he forward a message that may help you pre-screen stroke patients. Here is a brief summary of what he sent me:
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE, coherently. (i.e… It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke ——– Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another ’sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ’stick’ out his tongue… If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.
Dr. Autumn Monteiro practiced with Dr. Drew Hall for quite sometime before setting up her beautiful state of the art Blair practice in Las Vegas. She is seeing some fantastic results but it is like pulling teeth to get her to discuss any of her cases. So Drew secreted this to me:
And I guess its been awhile since I’ve updated you on stories from here.
Have a stage 4 throat cancer pt that has been thru chemo 6x and over 35 radiation treatments….holding first adjustment for 22 days….coloring immediately improved, reports that he hasn’t felt this good since 5 yrs prior to his diagnosis, actually makes it around town and has gone back to work……did spill his feeding tube (6 surgeries to expand esophagus and still can’t swallow) all over my office the other day though. NASTY.
His mother in law was taking 8 oxycodones/ day for neck pain and headaches for the last 10 years
hasn’t needed a pill since…pain free
Migraine man is finally off of all lortab, xanax, imitrex, and percocets!
Have my first “traumatic” trigeminal neuralgia patient coming in tomorrow. pretty stoked
Often it is difficult to find the etiology of an atlas subluxation, other times it is quite easy. Had a veterinarian come in this Monday with a big bandage on her forehead as a horse had kicked her in the face two days prior. Needless to say, her atlas “circuit breaker” did not appreciate the kick!!!
There is more research indicating a cervicogenic source of MS! Dr. Kirk Eriksen sent me this from the November 27, 2009 BBC News, which I’ve attached:
Multiple sclerosis ‘blood blockage theory’ tested
US scientists are testing a radical new theory that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by blockages in the veins that drain the brain. The University of Buffalo team were intrigued by the work of Italian researcher Dr Paolo Zamboni who claims 90% of MS is caused by narrowed veins. He says the restricted drainage, visible on scans, injures the brain leading to MS.
Also there has been a change of date in the Montana Blair Seminar. The new dates are February 12-13 and you can register by contacting Dr. Todd Hubbard at
Todd.Hubbard@palmer.edu BTW, Dr. Hubbard and I will be starting the next Blair series on the Palmer campus December 12,13.
Speaking of Dr. Hubbard, he was recently asked why there wasn’t more research on the Blair technique? I was hoping he would paraphrase the banditos in the Humphrey Bogart classic movie The Treasure of Sierra Madre and say “Research! We don’t need no stinkin research!” but Todd is too much of a gentleman to say that, so here is his response to the question:
Most of the Research we have on the Blair Technique was lost with Dr. Blair. However, we have recently been going back over what Dr. Blair did, trying to replicate his studies. To date there are numerous studies which have verified asymmetry in the cervical spine and question the reliability of palpation. I have submitted a paper to JMPT discussing the low mastoid and occluded C1 transverse process. I will be presenting this study at the 2010 ACC-RAC conference in Las Vegas. After which you will see it in the J. of Chiropractic Education. We also have a case report about Blair and a pediatric Cyclic Vomiting case and Blair and Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. Both have been submitted to Journals (JMPT and JCM respectively). We are waiting for a reply. We also have a study of the Blair Protracto View reliability of results. This study showed a .740 kappa for inter reliability and .940 intra reliability for the Protracto view. This is exceptional results and says the Blair Protracto view is a reliable tool for analyzing the Occ-C1 articulation in the way Dr. Blair described. This paper has been sent to the J. of Chiropractic Medicine for publication. We are a bit behind some techniques in our own personal research but way ahead of most. It is nice to see chiropractic has come far enough in research that we are discussing individual techniques now.
In the works for me are 4 case reports with Blair and Parkinson’s; urinary urgency; photophobia; and neck pain (hey, every now and again you have to go to the well. Also, the guy’s pain is gone after 18 months of full spine care. It only took 3 weeks with Blair care). We are also doing a study on the Base Posterior reliability.
What needs to be done are studies on the upper cervical leg checks and the pattern analysis. BJ did a lot of this for us, but in today’s world the powers that be will just not accept his work. Therefore we must redo it.
I know it is frustrating to find there is not much out there when you are looking for Blair research. Believe me, I know. However, that just means there is a hole to be filled. We are now filling that hole. I guarantee that this time next year, most if not all of the submitted manuscripts will be in press and we will have twice as many waiting to be published.
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Michael Scott on Mon, 14th Dec 2009 11:39 pm
Men & women are similar. Classic “mini strokes” : episodes of visual disturbances, paralysis of one arm/leg, trouble speaking