A Chiropractor's perspective on "crack addicts"

Dr Hulsebus gives his 2 cents on the television show "crack addicts".  Does this show actually demonstrate a true Chiropractic practice?  He will discuss in this weeks episode. #healthy815 #icachiropractor #palmerproud 

www.rockforddc.com

Transcript

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- Hi, I'm Dr. Brant Hulsebus, and welcome to another edition of my podcast here called"Ask The Chiropractor". What's "Ask The Chiropractor"? Well, "Ask The Chiropractor" is my little podcast that I do when people have a question about chiropractic or chiropractic care. All too often we find that people ask somebody who's not qualified in answering questions about chiropractic. And who's the most qualified person to answer questions about chiropractic or chiropractic care? Well, obviously, a chiropractor. But a lot of people will ask their family physician whether or not it's safe to go to the chiropractor, or I should go to a chiropractor. And, like I said, nobody knows better than the right answer more than a chiropractor. So, people email me questions, people come in and ask me questions. People send me questions all the time. And I recently got a question that kind of caught me off guard for once. It was kind of fun. I got a phone call from somebody that wanted to come in as a new patient. And the question they asked me was,"I want to come in as a new patient. I'm really excited. I've been watching "Crack Addicts", and are your chiropractors like the chiropractors on "Crack Addicts?" Now, luckily for me, my staff who answered the phone knew what that was. I had no idea what it was. But I went online and quickly watched the episodes, there was three episodes for me to watch. And the "Crack Addicts", for those of you who don't know, like I didn't know, is a TV show. I found it on the "Max" app, but I believe it's on The Learning Channel, where they do like a real life chiropractor. They're in a chiropractor clinic and she's a chiropractor, she's taking care of patients. You get a little bit of a backstory on the patient that came into the chiropractor. Then the chiropractor kind of explains what she finds on the patient, then she gives the patient care, and that's where the "Crack Addict" part of it gets to be. And that's supposed to be the exciting part. But then we get to see the patient afterwards, how they get up and walk around, they're mobile afterwards. And so the question I was asked is,"Do we do care like that?" But the bigger question I would ask is,"What is a practicing chiropractors perspective on the show is like, 'Is this a real show? Is this legit? Is this really what we do? Is this something you should really expect when you go to a chiropractor?'" So, overall, I gotta say I was kind of impressed by the chiropractor. I was pleasantly surprised at the job that she did and the work that she did, and the history she took and the things that, like, that she performed. The only thing I was unaware of when I watched the show, well, let's talk a little bit more about the show itself. So I was really impressed with the way she explained things to the patient. I was really impressed with the way she explained the biomechanics, or like how the body twists internal. Why it's causing this problem or that problem. And her ability to get to the root cause of the problem. And several of these people on the show are the prime chiropractic patients because they've already tried quote, unquote,"Everything else", and now they're at the chiropractic office. So because of that, it's kind of neat to see her have those kind of patients come in too. It's exciting to me as a chiropractor. A lot of those patients I have similar stories. Now, not all of them, because part of the show is gonna be the shock factor, right? You gotta find the most extreme or odd cases you possibly can, because you wouldn't just watch a show, like, if I had a patient come in, a 26-year-old who hurt himself golfing, that would not be very exciting to make a TV show. So you gotta find characters like people with big personalities or weird physical traits or something. Maybe I shouldn't say weird physical traits, but different physical traits than the average person, in order for the entertainment value. And, I understand that. So what I see a lot on the show is a lot for shock or entertainment value, especially when these people are being flown in from across the country to go see a chiropractor. I have some people that come from a couple states over to see me, but I don't have people that get flown in to see me. Not that other chiropractors don't, don't get me wrong. I know several chiropractor clinics, that people fly in from outta state. We've even flown people from here to a chiropractic college to get more advanced care for different autoimmune issues. We want them to go see the best of the best. So, that does happen, we do refer out. We send them to a chiropractic college like Palmer College of Chiropractic for another opinion or a bigger evaluation. So that part of the show is pretty cool. Now part of the show though that I can't speak on, because I don't know if it's true or not true, is whether or not she's taking films of everybody. She's putting films up. I don't know if these are films they walked in with or films that she took. I would hope that she would x-ray everybody before she took care of them. Especially with these unique cases. You never know what you're gonna find before you x-ray somebody. I had a young lady in here, she's in her late twenties, and I x-rayed her and her vertebraes had grew funny where they were all, normally what happens is the bones come around the spinal cord and the backside, they form what we call a spinous process, the little pointy part of the spine. The part of the spine you feel when you rub someone's back. And hers are sort of coming out and wrapping around the spinal cord and forming that, they interlinked above and below. So it was more like an interlinking thing up and down. So that was a very unique case. I'd never seen nothing like that before. So we sent those x-rays to Palmer, and Palmer College got back to us right away that this patient's totally safe to take care of. Just keep it in mind when you're doing your examinations that the range of motion's gonna be altered because of the way the spine grew. So I don't know if, again, if she pulled some x-rays up on some other people. We didn't see the x-rays on. Maybe the x-rays weren't that remarkable to put up. I'm not 100% sure, but I would be hoping that she would be doing a full x-ray of them. Now, she does a really good chiropractic exam. She doesn't really describe to what she's seeing or how the exam is, but as a chiropractor I'm watching her do it and they are doing it. And her chiropractic technique that she's using to adjust people is very sound. It's the very similar kind of stuff that we use here. So when the patient called me and said,"Do you guys adjust like they do on 'Crack Addicts?'" The answer would be, "Yes, we do it just like them. But we definitely always make sure we do a complete x-ray examination first." And, again, maybe she is doing them, I don't know. I can't speak of it. I can't tell if she is, or can't tell if she isn't. Again, she's showing some x-rays on some of them, but not all of them. And, again, if you have x-rays taken at a chiropractic clinic, you're great. If you have x-rays taken at your medical doctor, great. Bring them in with you that the he chiropractor can look at those too. They don't have to be our own x-rays, we can use somebody else's x-rays. Medical doctors do x-ray you backwards though. Chiropractors do it the correct way. We put the right on the right, and the left on the left. Medical doctors do it backwards. So whenever I get one of those x-rays then I have to remember that they took the x-rays backwards. I say that with a tongue-in-cheek because that's what they always say about us. So, we say the same thing about them. It's just the way we like to look at the x-rays versus the way they look at the x-rays. We care about your back, so we put the back up first. They care about the front, so they flip it around. The same x-ray though, I promise you. So if you've had x-rays taken somewhere else, get a copy of the x-rays. And don't bring the chiropractor the x-ray report, bring the chiropractor the x-rays because a chiropractor looks at not only like the bones and make sure there's no fractures or tumors or anything goofy going on like your medical doctor does. But the chiropractor's taking it a step further, and we wanna look at the analysis of how the spine rotated, twist and turned. So that's a big part of what we do too. So if you go to a chiropractor, don't just bring the report, bring the actual x-rays. A Chiropractic Report will tell us it's safe to take care of you. But there's so many bigger clues we get when we actually see the films. So hopefully the chiropractor on the TV show is doing that too. Hopefully. Next part, the chiropractor on the TV show, the other day she put up a word called subluxation. And that's a chiropractic term. I know of the medical term that uses it too differently than we do, but it's a chiropractic term. It's in all of our textbooks. It's all the way back from the early 1890s that word was there, subluxation. And they left out a big part of it. And this is a big part that she leaves out of her show too, I don't feel like we dwell on enough. And it's probably the one part that chiropractic and medicine has friction about. So maybe that's why they left it out. Maybe they're all over her case and telling her she can't say stuff like that, which she shouldn't do. She should do it anyways. I would, I have, I've done it. It's about the neurology part. I mean, she really talks about the biomechanics, how the spine moves and bends and twists. And how if this back's twisted here, it pulled on this muscle here, it rotates this hip, causes your knee to turn this way, and that's why your big toe hurts. And all that's true and all that. She does a great job explaining that dynamite. But the other day she put the word subluxation and she put that a bone or a muscle that's out of alignment. There's not a chiropractor in the world that would accept that definition. The real definition of subluxation is vertebral bones misaligned, irritating the nerve, creating stress response on the nerve. So, you hear me talking about it all the time. When the two vertebraes rotate, there's chemicals that get dumped out there called catecholamines, all the Type IV mechanical receptors. So let me put that in English terms. The two bones rotate. There's stress in that joint. And when there's stress, there's chemicals that tell your body there's stress. That stress hits the nerve. And wherever that nerve goes, then our body's being told that it's time for fight and flight. So as chiropractors, we adjust that. And when we adjust that, that fight and flight response deposates, goes away and the body goes back into homeostasis, reacting the way to the environment it's supposed to. If you wanna look it up, go to PubMed. Look up the Ogurya Studies, you'll see it all there. Ogurya is doing amazing work. She's outta Life West. She's showing how the stress can be measured in salivatory amylase, and stuff like that. Unfortunately, a lot of what I just said, there's no actual tool or instrument or machine that actually measures what we've talking about. We just see the results. But Ogurya's on the fronting edge. Another one's Heidi, Heidi Haavik. Heidi Haaviks doing some amazing stuff over in New Zealand on the same topic. Being able to really show the difference between the fight and flight response before and after chiropractic care. So, if I had a platform like she does, when talking about it, I would've definitely brought the neurology part too. She only talked about the biomechanics of chiropractic, which is good, but it's not like the big wow of what chiropractic does. It's not the big boom, you know? She talks a lot about blood flow being restored to the area. That's osteopath talk, that's talked about blood flow return. Chiropractors are talking about the nerve coming back, the nerve firing back. That's the big difference. So, it's not that she's saying it doesn't exist, it's not that she's against it, she's just not talking about it. And, unfortunately, a lot of times with chiropractors, we get censored. A lot of times with chiropractors that other people come in who have, again, the whole reason this podcast exists. It could be a medical board reviewing what she's talking about, and they're not letting her say that because they don't agree with it. But it doesn't really matter if you agree with it. Follow the science. I quoted the research papers, look them up. Take a look at them yourself, read them. They're good, good stuff. Showing what chiropractors are really doing. Look at the work of Dr. Cavaliere and other people, it's amazing stuff they're producing today in science chiropractic. Alright, so there you have it. What's the chiropractor's perspective on "Crack Addicts"? Overall, pretty cool cases are coming in. Overall, pretty cool results she's getting. I like the way she does her chiropractic care of the adjustments and stuff. That's what we do here. I don't see the x-rays happening. I'm assuming they are. They may or may not be. I hope they are. And lastly, I'd like to see a little bit more talk about the neurology. That's the cool stuff. Hopefully in future episodes we get to that. That's what I hope for. Lastly, the noise. Nobody makes noises like that when you get adjusted. She looks like she's about a little bit over five-feet tall. I'm just under six-foot. I could probably outweigh her by 100 pounds. I've adjusted some pretty big dudes. I've adjusted some all kinds of professional athletes and stuff like that. And the noises just don't make like that, that's all exaggerated. Same with everything you watch on TikTok, those nodes are exaggerated. You won't hear it from across the room. You might hear a click or a pop, but it's never as loud or as dramatic as the TV makes it do it. But that's why you all watch it, that's why they do it, so y'all have to have something to see. So it's a little bit more for drama than it is in real life. So, there you have it, a chiropractor's perspective on "Crack Addicts". Overall, not bad. I'd give it probably an A- or B+. I'd like to see it go a little bit deeper into neurology, and I'd like a little bit more emphasis on the imaging. Other than that, I think it's a fantastic show. Take a look at it if you wanna see some cool chiropractic cases. I don't call them miracles because we can explain it all with science. And they're not miracles, they're chiropractic cases. Alright, if you have a question about chiropractic or chiropractic care, feel free to go ahead and ask me. Leave a message below wherever you're seeing this, and I'll see it. Otherwise, go to my website, rockforddc.com. R-O-C-K-F-O-R-D-D-C.com. Leave me a message there to contact us. I'll get your message, I'll get back to ya. Other than that, take care. Good to talk to ya, talk to you later. Bye-bye.