Back Pain Overtreated by M.D.’s

If the brakes on your car were squealing, what would you think of your mechanic if he/she did expensive diagnostic testing on your car, then supplied you with and expensive set of earplugs to cover up the squealing sound? Crazy? Yes, but that’s the approach your medical doctor is likely to take when your back or neck sounds the pain alarm on you! According to researchers at Harvard Medical...

A Little Common Sense Beats Too Much Health Care

In today’s Los Angeles Times, there were three articles with a common theme: too many people are being sold medical tests and procedures that do not promote better health. In the first Times article, we learn there are 220,000 bariatric surgeries performed a year. Originally it was hoped that, by undergoing this drastic procedure, people might be spared from obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and arthritis. Alas, the ongoing...

Numb Feet, Jittery Hands, and Losing Your Hair?

Back in chiropractic school, we were taught that nutritional deficiencies were something you’d see in poor countries where people didn’t get enough to eat. As a chiropractor who has been practicing over 20 years, I wish there was a way I could have known then, what I know now. Vitamin deficiencies resulting from malnutrition are common in people right here in Rancho Cucamonga. There are several reasons why this...

Excuse Me Miss, Your Diagnosis is Showing

A millennium ago, when I attended chiropractic college at what is now Southern California University of the Health Sciences, I had a professor I’ll never forget. Dr. Ahmed wore a long white lab coat and paced in front of his podium, admonishing us to pay attention. What if we missed only one class, one day in our lives, and that was the day he lectured on diagnosing appendicitis? A...