Pearls of Wisdom - Pure & Powerful. Dr. Liz Anderson Peacock

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the big idea, all else follows.

      ~ B.J. Palmer

      1

      Response Ability

      Dr. Liz Anderson-Peacock

      I remember the day I “discovered” Chiropractic. It was life changing. During my years in university, I watched many friends go into their respective fields after two years of “pre-whatever.” Dentistry, medicine, and law were the common ones. I was unsure what I would do after earning my Bachelor of Science, but decided I would finish the program to buy time for choosing my career.

      At that time, I knew three people who entered a profession called Chiropractic. I had never heard of a Chiropractor. I had no idea what they did, but was curious. When my friends and I reunited after their first year in their programs, the medical students looked spent, complained of exhaustion, hair loss, ulcers and many were taking multiple meds. In contrast, the Chiropractic students, though tired from the rigorous hours of academics, were generally more excited about life, could hardly wait to explain how the body functions and to apply their newly learned knowledge. They wanted to palpate landmarks on people. They wanted to see and experience people. It struck me as peculiar, since both of the professions had similar academic studies in the first year. I assumed it was due to the culture of how things were taught through the institutions. Their personas’ made an indelible impression on me.

      As I continued through university, I was drawn to study anatomy. In my fourth year, I enrolled in a comparative anatomy course and an anatomy of mammals course. Both involving anatomical drawings of my dissections, along with the interplay of comparing structure and function. In my fourth year working a summer job with parks and recreation in Alberta, I hurt my low back and went to my first Chiropractic appointment.

      So I went to a Chiropractor: Dr. Judy Forrester in Calgary. She asked me about my history, and while performing an examination, checked my full spine. While palpating my neck, she inquired about sinus problems, allergies, stuffy nose, watery eyes and asked if I experienced any symptoms.

      To make a long story short, I experienced severe environmental allergies as a child, endured ten years of allergy shots and multiple medications. I remember back to the age of five chewing Allerest, Dimetapp or Pyribenzamine before swallowing with a glass of water. I had an air purifier in my bedroom. My family resided on a beautiful fresh water lake in Barrie, Ontario. I was a very enthusiastic and active tomboy, and loved to swim and play outdoors. Suffering from allergies began every year in June and continued through the first frost.

      So Dr. Judy’s question struck me as interesting. Since I had been taking the medications, I assumed all was well within. I appreciated the break from symptoms the meds provided so I could continue on with life. When she asked, I remember thinking, “What does my neck have to do with allergies?”

      The Chiropractor asked me the cause of my allergies, and I made the standard reply, “Primarily dust, molds, dander and pollens.”

      She asked, “Why?”

      I replied, “Because my body is releasing too much histamine when exposed to allergens.”

      She asked, “Why is your body making too much histamine?”

      I gave a circular reply, “Because it is reacting to the pollens, dust, dander and mold.”

      Realizing I was not understanding her point, she changed her line of questioning and asked, “If you and I are breathing the same air, wouldn’t we both be breathing air with the same pollens?”

      I nodded a yes.

      “If you and I are breathing the same pollens in the air, then shouldn’t we both be having the same response if the allergens were the true cause of allergies?”

      I had no answer. I thought my symptoms were due to allergens and by taking drugs and allergy shots the problem would resolve. I never thought to ask why my body was doing something different than other people. I had never considered asking or looking at how other people may have been living their lives differently from me.

      She then explained the modulating effect of the nervous system on the immune system, and how they communicate with one other. She said I likely had an insult in my neck at some point in my past, impacting my body’s ability to adapt to the environment. My body was responding, but not appropriately for the situation.

      I went home and asked my mother about the possibility of a childhood trauma, and she noted that I experienced two black eyes during a car accident at around age two. No seatbelt laws in those days, and I was in the front seat. The collision caused me to fly out of the seat and hit the dashboard headfirst. I was checked-out by doctors and told I was fine, although my mother does not remember my neck being checked.

      In consideration of Dr. Judy’s proposition of a childhood trauma causing insult to my neck, I thought back to my younger years. I used to see how many steps I could jump in-flight down the stairs in my house. Most of the time I landed on the pillows – the operative word being ‘most.’ Also, there were the bicycle wrecks: riding into the side of the house multiple times because I did not know how to use the brakes, or the time a stick was caught in the spokes of my front wheel and I fell on my face chipping a tooth. I played sports, fell out of trees, and so on; pick one incident, they were all physically traumatic.

      To Change Others Worlds, First Change Yourself

      I retuned to Dr. Judy’s office and had my first adjustment and my world changed. My low back was not nearly as important to me as resolving my allergies. Of course, at first I did not fully grasp the importance of rest and diet. I did not yet understand how they affected the chemistry within my body, particularly the excitability of my neuro-immune system. But, upon my first adjustment, my allergies improved immediately by about 75-80 percent. I stopped the drugs; I stopped the allergy shots, and felt like I had a new found life. As if someone removed earmuffs from my ears and the fog clouding my brain, I felt able to process information faster, and with greater clarity and integration.

      The following fall semester I entered Chiropractic as a career.

      Without A Plan

      Upon graduating from Chiropractic school, I was without a plan. I fell back on some opportunities, but in retrospect I had not fully prepared myself for the work required to begin a practice. I thought, like many, I would graduate and people would just start pouring into my office for care. I thought the hard part (school) was over. What a wake up call.

      I began what I referred to as my ‘default practice’ in a location and a city I was not fond of. A smarter person would have asked “Why?” Sometimes the things we need to learn are so apparent to others, but in the moment not to ourselves. Practice was slow, arduous and I was depressed. I had done well in school, yet in my first practice felt like an utter failure. I had never envisioned I would experience complications starting out. Everything seemed so difficult. I worked long hours and commuted a great distance for a number of months. I woke up at 4:30 AM and returned home by 9:30 PM. In retrospect, if I had a patient working those hours five and a half days a week including Saturday mornings, I would have said it was unsustainable over time.

      When the winter came, I moved closer to the office. But still, I muscled through every moment. I was not congruent with what I advised to patients, not eating well nor living well. In the morning, I grabbed coffee and something with high sugar content to stimulate my energy. By the time I returned home in the evening, I was no longer hungry; if I ate it kept me awake later. I was in the vicious cycle of being too tired for physical СКАЧАТЬ