As part of the Maine Chiropractic Association 2024 Fall Summit, our very own Drs. Zev Myerowitz, Jr. and Crystal Zagwyn sat down with internationally renowned speakers and researchers Dr. Heidi Haavik and Dr. Sherry McAllister. They discuss the benefits of ongoing, comprehensive chiropractic care and the absolutely astounding research in neurophysiology and chiropractic behind it.
The full transcript follows.
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Chiropractic Today and Tomorrow
WGAN/Maine Points
Maine Chiropractic Association Fall Summit 2024 – Full Interview
SPEAKERS
Zev Myerowitz Jr., Heidi Haavik, Matt Barnard, Crystal Zagwyn, Sherry McAllister
Matt Barnard 00:00
Welcome to Maine Points heard across all Portland Media Group stations every Sunday morning. My name is Matt Barnard, and I’m in for Danny Martingetti. This will actually be the third in a series of interviews with the Maine Chiropractic Association. Today’s topic can probably be summed up as chiropractic today and tomorrow, there are some exciting things happening and coming soon in the field of chiropractic care, and we have some actual international experts with us today to talk about all of it. So we’re going to just do a quick run through of who we have for our guests. We have Dr. Crystal Zagwyn, who is a national speaker through her work as a forensic chiropractor. She’s been in the medical field since 2002 and works to integrate and collaborate chiropractic with mainstream medical professionals and paraprofessionals through education and fun topics such as false advertising, standards of care, scope of practice, compliance and documentation, informed consent, patient rights and drug supplement interactions. Welcome back, Crystal.
Crystal Zagwyn 01:15 Thank you. Glad to be here.
Matt Barnard 01:20 Nice to have you back again. Dr. Heidi Haavik is a chiropractor and neurophysiologist who has worked in the area of human neurophysiology for over 24 years. Heidi has a PhD in human neurophysiology from the University of Auckland. As a researcher, she’s investigated the effects of chiropractic adjustments and dysfunctional spinal segments on somatosensory processing, sensory motor integration and motor cortical output. And welcome Heidi.
Heidi Haavik 01:29
Thank you very much. I’m absolutely delighted to be here.
Matt Barnard 01:32
Dr. Sherry McAllister serves as President for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. Dr. McAllister earned her master’s in science from the University of California East Bay, and is a graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic west where she served as an associate professor. She recently completed two certification programs, Stanford Graduate School of Business and executive leadership development and Yale University science of well-being and welcome Sherry.
Sherri McAllister 01:56
Thank you so much for having us.
Matt Barnard 01:58
Also from Maine, as Dr. Zagwyn is, is another Dr Z, as it happens… Dr. Zev Myerowitz Jr., who simultaneously completed his doctoral studies at New York Chiropractic College and a master’s degree at the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. He’s Maine’s leading specialist in Active Release Techniques, or ART, a patented soft tissue treatment and diagnostic technique. Zev also hosts a post graduate certification in sports science and human performance, as well as sub specialties in rehabilitation and functional movement. And in 2017 Dr. Zev was named the Maine Chiropractic Association doctor of the year.
Zev Myerowitz 02:34
Hi Matt. Good to be here.
Matt Barnard 02:35
No stranger to our microphones. Welcome back, Zev. So we’re going to talk today about some exciting things that are happening right now in chiropractic, as well as some exciting things that are coming down the pike in that field. But also part of this story is that we have here in Maine somebody who is internationally recognized, which is Dr. Haavik. This is pretty exciting, isn’t it,
Zev Myerowitz 02:58
It really is. Maine is a small state in our union, and yet we continue to punch way above our weight class when it comes to education, the strength of our state association, our presence in advocating for patient’s rights and advocating for access to chiropractic care. And we are just so thrilled to have both Dr. Haavik and Dr. McAllister. As a as a member of our legislative committee for the last 10 years, I have been working to advocate for different access to chiropractic. We just recently had full scope access to chiropractor through our state Medicaid program, and a lot of that was based on the Foundation for Chiropractic Research papers that were placed for that Dr. McAllister was a big part of so we’re just so very thrilled to have them as part of our association for the weekend.
Matt Barnard 03:39
I think we should just dive in, because we have, we have several questions, and we have several people around these microphones who have lots to say about all of them. And the first question is sort of broad, which is, what are some of the most promising areas of research currently being explored in chiropractic care? And I will throw that out to anybody who would like to answer them. I think all of us love listening to you talk.
Heidi Haavik 04:03
So how long have you got? No, there’s some really exciting stuff coming. There’s, like, the last 24 years I’ve been in research. It’s literally been exploring the effects of chiropractic care and the spine, basically the spine, on brain health. And because we know for a fact now that chiropractic care actually improves the brain’s ability to accurately perceive what’s going on inside the body and the world around us, we know that we can impact just about anything, not that we cure everything, but we can impact just about anything, because we know we’re affecting the brain, and the brain controls everything. So there’s some really exciting studies that have been happening over the last 10 years, and there’s some even more exciting studies coming. So when I started my PhD way back in the early 2000s we right from the first few studies, discovered that we were actually changing the brain more than we were changing spinal cord. We always, as a chiropractic profession, used to think that we were affecting the spinal cord and the nerve roots, but in fact, every adjustment that a chiropractor makes is actually impacting directly the brain. And so that was quite a big deal. And then over the years, we ended up with different collaborations. We ended up in Denmark, and we had a whole head EEG study. And this postdoc is very, very clever lady, Dina Lelic, and this is Professor [A.M. Drewes] lab in Aalborg [Denmark]. They showed that these changes that were taking place in the brain when we’re adjusting subluxated segments or dysfunctional segments of the spine, were predominantly taking place in the prefrontal cortex. And that’s this part of your brain, right behind your forehead, and it’s actually a really important part of your brain. It’s a bit like the director for the whole rest of your brain. So it’s sort of controlling what’s going on. It’s a multi modal integrator as well, meaning that that part of your brain integrates all the sensory information that comes in from your body plus all the information that comes in from outside your body. And it integrates and makes sense of it also interprets your own feelings, your desires, your wishes, also integrates your past memories and what your plans are for the future, and all of this gets mushed together into your reality. So it’s literally the sense of our sense of self, and these are the absolute latest studies that are coming right now is that we’re showing that we changed conversations within the brain that create your own sense of self. So it’s like, I get, I get, like, my hair stand up on my arm, just thinking about this, because it’s almost like we’re touching a person’s soul. Because this part that creates your sense of self, it’s how you interpret your own body, how you interpret the world around you. And you know, if you’ve been through trauma in your life, I don’t know if you know this, but it actually changes the way you interpret your reality. And the amazing thing too, is we appear to be also changing our not changing our memories, but changing our interpretation of our own past and changing our choices for the future. So, it’s really exciting research, and I can’t overemphasize that enough.
Crystal Zagwyn 06:57
So as a chiropractor who is working with the patient base right here in Maine, I would say that what Dr. Haavik just shared is that patients are coming in with chronic pain or chronic trauma that they have to deal with every single day. It’s like, I wake up, I hurt. I can’t think straight. Nothing makes sense to me. I can’t make a decision. I don’t know what to wear for shoes, let alone what I’m having for breakfast. But as a chiropractor, the research is showing that we can actually change how that patient’s ability to think and process clearly, is working with an adjustment.
Heidi Haavik 07:32
Exactly. Yeah, there’s a network in the brain that literally creates your own story of who you are, where you’re wanting to go, what your past means to you, and these are the parts of the brain that we know we’re impacting when we’re when we’re adjusting people. And just on that note, if you are a patient out there and you haven’t experienced these positive changes, one thing we’re also discovering is literally how chiropractic care works, and what’s quite key is we seem to be when we’re adjusting the spine. What we’re actually doing is we’re exercising the tiny little muscles closest to the spine, the vertebra, the little bones in the spine, the little the little muscles that cross the individual bones in the spine. What happens to them if they get injured, and it could even be from an emotional shock, they can go to sleep. So they literally get turned off or switched off, and they start to shrink. That’s called atrophy. The muscle tissue gets replaced with this fatty infiltration. This is all known as negative or bad, maladaptive plastic changes. They even change their fiber type. It’s really quite fascinating, but anyway, I won’t go into all these details. So those little muscles, they literally shrink away, and they become stiff and fibrotic and unhelpful. But what we’re discovering is their communication with the brain is essential, and what we think chiropractors are doing is actually exercising those little muscles back into proper function. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, which is a little bit sad, and Sherry and I always talk about this, that you can’t exercise once and twice and then expect to be fit for life, right? So this actually takes time and repetition. Chiropractors have always known this, that you actually need to have those repeated checkups and adjustments, and some of our research studies have actually shown that some of the changes in the nervous system in the brain don’t actually happen until somewhere between six to 12 weeks of chiropractic care. So if you’ve only been to a chiropractor once or twice, then you’re missing out big time. It’s like buying an iPhone just to make phone calls. There’s so much more potential there.
Sherry McAllister 09:24
As we move into this area. And I absolutely love the excitement for people that are in chronic pain to have an option and an avenue to really move themselves to that next place of being able to get their functional quality of life back. But one thing that I think as Dr. Heidi has been purveying the research going out into the international audiences is starting to recognize that what we get people are in chronic pain. Six in 10 Americans right now are suffering with chronic pain, and three out of four every health care dollar goes to chronic pain. What’s unfortunate is 90% of the prescriptions that are actually given out in the United States right now are for chronic pain. But wait, let’s contemplate if there’s an ability to stop chronic pain, and think about what are the advantages that chiropractic offers, like alleviating pain is one piece, but what about prevention and optimization, because those are also one of the pieces that many of the listeners are contemplating right now is, I’m not in pain. And we say to ourselves, this is great. Let’s keep you out of pain. Let’s keep you functioning at optimum. And I think with Dr. Heidi’s research, we’re starting to recognize some extraordinary outcomes in performance optimization, and then also the ability to increase quality of life. And one of the things that hopefully everyone would like is longevity.
Heidi Haavik 10:51
What we’re finding, too, is that there’s improvements in not just quality of life, but things like anxiety and depression fatigue. There’s some subtle changes in sleep, and they’ve done big surveys in America, and 40% of Americans who have seen chiropractors also report that they sleep better after chiropractic care. And of course, sleep is so massive so important for our brain health, it’s if you get into deep sleep that’s like the dishwasher for the brain, so flushing out all the chemicals. And I like Sherry, I liked you bringing up that point about, well, what if you’re already out of pain, so you’ve had problems in the past? Well, a lot of our research studies were actually done in people that weren’t in pain when we were studying them. The reason for that is, if you change pain, you change the brain so if you just have a change in feelings of pain, that automatically means you’ve changed brain function. And we were specifically interested in knowing, well, what happens when you adjust a subluxated segment or a dysfunctional segment in the spine? And so we couldn’t have people in pain, or we wouldn’t actually know if it was the pain feelings that were changing the brain, or if it was the adjustments changing the brain. So we found all sorts of things, because we’ve ended up studying people and shown that they retain motor learning. So if you’re trying to learn a new skill, a sport, musical instrument. Even if you’re a chiropractic student trying to learn how to adjust the spine, it’s a motor skill. Kids at school, I mean, everything they’re doing is motor learning. You don’t retain that motor learning for the next 48 hours. If you’ve got dysfunction in the spine, which is really quite fascinating. And when we adjust you, then that motor learning, the retention of that it improves again. But not just that postural control, being aware of where your body is. And you might be wondering, well, you know, being aware of where your body is. Well, you know, if you’re knocking your elbows on door frames or hitting your head when you’re getting into a car or putting your cup down, and it sort of drops to the floor because you missed the bench top. That would indicate that your brain isn’t accurately aware of where you are in space. And it’s not just the spine, which is really fascinating. When chiropractors adjust the spine, again, what we’re finding is that it improves the awareness of where your arms and legs are, which, again, I suppose is not so weird when you think about it, because arms and legs actually happen to attach to the spine. Haha, very funny. Sorry, nerdy science joke. And so it appears that the for your brain to accurately send the right movement messages to arms and legs, it needs to know where the core of your body is, and that’s the spinal signals as well.
Zev Myerowitz 13:11
And the research is it corresponds really strongly to the to what we see in on the floor, in the grounds, with our patients. I mean, one of the most important things that we try to do when we’re seeing significant motor control dysfunction, the inability to move in a very specific way. Often those patients, if they’re adjusted before we give them any kind of active loading, it primes the nervous system to help accept that input so that they can take some control in correcting or grooving that new movement, to make sure that they can take that dysfunction and start to eliminate it on themselves as well, but without that, that adjustment, you don’t see nearly as well an outcome.
Heidi Haavik 13:44
Yeah, and that makes perfect sense as well, because when the brain isn’t aware of where a body part is, it’s it still can guess right. Your brain’s been with you most of your life. There’s another one of my nerdy little jokes there, so it kind of knows, and it can guess so. But if it’s guessing wrong, because it’s not accurately aware, and it and what I mean by not being accurately aware, if there is that dysfunction in the spine and those little muscles that I talked about earlier, they’ve literally gone to sleep, they stopped talking to the brain, then the brain doesn’t know what’s going on in that part of the spine. And this influences not just the way the brain controls spinal movements, but also arms and leg movements. And this is where you can end up with these little micro tears and micro traumas and, you know, and this, this influences everybody, from a little kid to older adults. You know, particularly, we’ve done some sports studies, which I know you’d be interested in, said, but it’s quite interesting with the optimization, and again, that’s what you were talking about, Sherry, that you literally seem to be enabling that person to function at a better level, like because imagine if you’re sending the wrong messages to muscles over and over and over, and that person is working out in the gym, or a sports person, they’re really developing injuries within themselves because their brain isn’t aware of you know exactly what’s going on. So what you’re talking about is spot on. You adjust people, they’re accurately wherever they go, what’s going on in their body, so they can control their whole body better.
Zev Myerowitz 14:59
So just a real world example of that– I had a high school goalie who is playing at an extremely high level, and took a hit from a 230 pound, six-four monster of a player, and in the days following, started to develop a little bit of back pain. And just to nerd out even more, those little, tiny muscles, they have names like rotatores or multifidus, and the entire muscle group is called transversus by now, is the ones that run in the opposite directions as the main prime movers of the spine for sure. We have the athlete, he’s in a little bit of discomfort, but the most obvious reason why he came in is that he’s slower. He can’t react to be as effective as he can be as a goalie at the level that they’re playing at. I mean, we’re talking a 100th of a second. You know, if you’re if your nervous system is delayed 100 to two hundredths of a second, that’s the difference between making an amazing save and letting go through and you know, immediately we saw an improvement in function. And he may be out of pain within a visit or two, but it may take a few more visits than that before we can actually make those corrections, before he can see that his reactivity is getting back up to the level that it’s supposed to be.
Heidi Haavik 15:57
That’s so interesting because, yeah, we’ve literally done studies, even in Olympic athletes, elite Olympic athletes, and even in them, we’re seeing increases like one of the key things that we know when chiropractors adjusting spines is that you enable the brain to more efficiently produce force, so that that being able to, you know, make your muscles work at their optimal level, is even in elite Olympic athletes. And funnily enough, after we’re done it, these studies and college students and these elite Olympic athletes, where even the elite Olympic athletes had a 6% increase in strength, which, which is, like, you say, I mean, that’s the difference between not even being at the Olympics and winning, you know, like, it’s, it’s huge. But then we actually went to the opposite end of the spectrum, and even did a study in chronic stroke victims, because we were showing that the brain’s ability to produce force was so significantly impacted in college students and elite Olympic athletes. You know, the collaborators that we were working with, the non-chiropractic collaborators, so well, if you can do, you know, if you can enable their cortex, their brain, to so much more efficiently produce force, we need to look at the populations that have lost their cortical ability their brains, ability to produce force. And so we were doing these studies in chronic stroke victims, and there we had significant increases in strength on average, with 65% so this has led to a whole stream of research we’ve done, I don’t know how many studies now in chronic stroke victims showing that they can regain their function, and they can regain a lot of their daily activities of living with chiropractic care. And this has been shown in clinical trials, and it gets quite remarkable. So you get the whole gamut, like, if you’re alive, you have a brain and a spine, you know, chances are you’re going to benefit from chiropractic care, whether you’re in back pain, neck pain, or headaches or not. And that’s what’s so exciting to me. We’re actually starting a baby study now as well. So the first ever newborn baby study, because a lot of babies, they can’t breastfeed properly, you know, think of the birth I mean, if you’ve, if you’ve had kids, or you know about the birth process, you know, some of these babies come out and they can’t turn the head one way. They’re not breastfeeding appropriately. They can end up with these C shaped or banana shapes. Their head can be switched off to one side, and we actually know that that’s very detrimental for their quality of life as they grow older. It’s not just a newborn baby thing. It’s not just colic and things like that. So there’s so much exciting research that is coming, and I’ve touched on a lot here, if anyone else wants to jump in.
Sherri McAllister 18:22
So Heidi, what really excites me is being able to talk about not just pain, because we all understand pain very well, but we’re also talking about quality of life indices. And the average individual in high school right now looks at their cell phone at minimum 54 times a day. And what ends up happening is that that chin goes down to chest, posture is incredibly important when we talk about quality of life. There is a study out of a German psychology that really showcases cognitive learning, how we process and how we’re able to learn if your posture has a significant impact on your on your health, what happens to how you think and learn and process in the in speed of learning. So when you think about taking your child to a chiropractor or asking yourself, you know, how is my posture? Is there things that happen during my day that are really putting me at risk, one of the places that do actually have a functional awareness as a chiropractor to kind of point out to you, you know, 70 years and older, only 50% can actually stand up straight in the United States. That’s a frightening statistic that leads to falls and imbalance. But then think of our youth with chronic headaches, and they’re usually postural. They’re coming from that very unfortunate outcome, that chin to chest on the curves are not being supported, and the chiropractor can make those moments of reflection on the education, but also go one step further, which is building out the awareness of body and space with a chiropractic adjustment, which is just at the next level of being, at true quality of life and true health.
Crystal Zagwyn 20:05
I’d like to add into that Sherry that not just what you said, everything is wonderful, but bringing that full context to a lot of my pediatric patients struggle with depression and anxiety, which is directly coming from rib immobility, which affects oxygenation up to the brain and all of the neuro plastic pathways that just help us know where we are in space, or this big, fancy word, proprioception. But for everybody out there listening, if your child is struggling with mood disorders of any type, and the prescription amount of medication that’s going out to our pediatric population is alarming. I’ve worked in the pharmacy for 22 years, and the amount of kids coming in for prescription medicine has more than tripled since I started in 2002 but being in the chiropractic profession for like, the last, I don’t know, 13 years or so, I’ve really seen an impact on how spinal adjustments not only help the postural corrections and all the muscles that relay the information up to the brain, but how their mood and outlook on life and their ability to retain their memory, their working memory is increased.
Heidi Haavik 21:14
Well, this is coming right back to the brain research again, because we know that adjusting the spine changes parts of the brain, like, for example, the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is essential for mental health and emotional control, so you can’t, you cannot search up any mental health disorder and not find a prefrontal cortex dysfunctional component to it. And we know every time you’re checking and adjusting someone’s spine, you’re actually directly impacting that prefrontal cortex. And that prefrontal cortex is also the seat of our executive functions. They’re known as executive functions. This is your ability, your memory, your working memory, your ability to pay attention, you know. So again, a lot of children with attention deficit disorders. Again, it’s, it’s all prefrontal. Well, not all prefrontal, but it’s a huge component of that is this prefrontal cortex dysfunction. Again, this part of the brain that you are changing every time you check and adjust spines so it’s your working memory. It’s being able to set goals, achieve goals, filter out distracting information. There is so much to it, and that’s just two parts of what that prefrontal cortex does. We also know it’s involved in every movement you make all day every day. It’s a huge part of pain. And it’s really interesting this pain topic, because our understanding of chronic pain has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. So basically, as we’ve been understanding the importance of the spine, so has our understanding of chronic pain. And we know, for example, that chronic pain is very much a brain problem as well. So people think that if they’ve got chronic elbow pain, it’s something wrong with their elbow, but it might have started with an injury to their elbow, but from then on, it’s become a learned problem in the brain, and we actually need to retrain the brain back out of pain. And again, this is most likely why chiropractic care works so well, because chiropractic has that direct neuroplastic effect on the brain. And if you don’t know what neuroplastic means, it just means that the brain can adapt and learn and change. And a key way that chiropractic care works is by changing and adapting that brain in a positive way, enabling that brain to more accurately perceive what’s going on inside of you and outside of you so that the brain can adapt and change, whether you’re an elite athlete or someone with, you know, elbow pain or knee pain, or you’re a child, or you’re a newborn baby, or you’re a teenager, and that’s what’s exciting, Crystal. With those new studies coming up, we’ve got a teenage study with a randomized control trial, including the brain measures and a newborn baby study. So that’s going to be really exciting and helpful moving forward to help you chiropractors.
Zev Myerowitz 23:44
What’s so great about this is the research is really starting to affirm what we already know, and that what we’ve seen. I mean, you know, in the medical space, there’s often turf wars, or there’s a little bit of, unfortunately, some politics or different agendas that can be behind why patients might not have the access to care that they need. But in the free market space, results are what matters. And when you go to the elite level, if you’re looking at professional sports teams, where these human bodies, these athletes are how these entities can continue to be profitable, every single major sports team has a team chiropractor, all of these athletes are getting adjusted. They’re getting adjusted multiple times a week if they feel that that’s helpful to them. When you take a side, political or profiteering interest and you’re just looking at the results, the evidence speaks for itself. And now we’re taking that performance component, where it’s purely for financial gain and for profitability, and we’re taking these concepts and we’re applying it to the masses. Professional sports are entertaining, but I care about the chronic disease and the chronic pain epidemic that’s happening in our country. And why do these people not have the same ability to seek access to the same services that the Patriots have access to every single day? Should they find that necessary? Why is there such a barrier and recognition of this service?
Heidi Haavik 24:55
And on that note, what I think is really important, something that you mentioned there is the frequency of care. Like, I speak to chiropractors all over the world, and that’s literally what I do now. I spend more time outside of New Zealand than I do in New Zealand. And I ask all the chiropractors, how often do you get checked and adjusted? And most of us get checked on a weekly basis. And I ask, how long have you been getting checked and adjusted regularly for? And you know, it literally just depends on how long they’ve known about chiropractic or how long they’ve been in practice. Been in practice. So sometimes they’ve been adjusted, adjusted regularly for 50 years. You ask them if they have kids, how often do their kids get checked and adjusted again? It will usually be weekly. It will usually be weekly, every fortnight. And I think this is really key, because, like, we know the benefits, right? And I know the research has been a bit behind, but now the research is showing why this is so important, because we’re impacting those little muscles. It takes time and repetition, and it almost seems like the longer you’re under care, the more benefits you actually end up getting from it, because your brain, then is adapting and changing from a place of full awareness, as opposed to being adapting and changing from a place of not being aware and compensating. And you know, again, you can see how this slowly over time, adds to the burden of disease, or that can be slowly making the person function at a higher and higher level. So reaching their optimum potential is something we chiropractors are very, very interested in. And we finally understand why. You know that time and repetition is so important,
Sherry McAllister 26:22
Heidi, as you start to go through and contemplate the value add to your life and knowing that chiropractors have this secret of the spine that often comes with the knowledge of what an adjustment does and why it’s so important, why doesn’t everyone have this access to care and awareness of the benefits of chiropractic care. And the Foundation did a Harris poll in October, which was October is noted as Chiropractic Healthcare Awareness Month, to spread the benefits of chiropractic on a global scale, because so many people are lacking the knowledge base, and oftentimes even our healthcare professionals don’t see the latest research and the optimization of care. And one of the pieces I wanted to bring to attention was in Hong Kong, they’re doing a study right now, prevention focused care, the potential role of chiropractic in Hong Kong’s primary healthcare transformation. Number one, the outcome is there’s a rise in the elderly of 86% and they recognize that if we can prevent chronic pain and we can take the unfortunate burden to the hospital system outside of that, then we’re going to be alleviating a lot of the costs that are associated with chronic pain and contributing to hospitals that can care for their patients with quality of care rather than the quantity. Defining like overwhelmingly that these patients shouldn’t be in an urgent care setting. They should be in a place where they can be really helped. I love the study. If anybody is as geeky as Dr. Heidi and I it is by Dr. Andy Chin Lynn, and it’s as recent as last year came out in March of 2023 but the focus is publicly, bringing them in, in the whole being care, and I love the whole being access of this is about detecting and preventing, educating and counseling. This is where chiropractor has been internationally, and I know Dr. Heidi seen that. But the strategy really is to improve health status, take away the burden on health care systems, and establish a sustainable health care system that everybody should have access to when they need it, and that the dollars are being spent to prevent and that’s what the insurance companies, like the American health insurance plans, when we have conversations with them, to say it’s about the return on investment and there’s no greater return cost effectively, there’s no less fragmentation of care, meaning people are not going to several different health care providers. They start with a Chiro, they end with a Chiro. But the beauty of it is the patient satisfaction rate is out of this world, we have one doctor in the University of South Florida, in the traumatic brain injury so very difficult area to maintain patient satisfaction level. She’s won three Press Ganey awards, and for the audience listening, what is it? Press Ganey award. It’s 100% patient satisfaction rate. So this is off the charts when you understand the quality of care, the prevention, the optimization and how it can impact pain. Everyone should have a chiropractor.
Crystal Zagwyn 29:36
And to those of you listening on this radio show today, this is one big mission for the Maine Chiropractic Association is patient access to care and working to facilitate no restrictions as to how often or when or how many visit limits you may or may not have to adhere to, because how you function and how your body is working for you is your choice. It should not be up to any other entity that’s telling you what you can and cannot do, or what are the rules to your health care. This is your body, and we’re here to stand up for you right here in Maine.
Heidi Haavik 30:08
Yeah. And there’s some really interesting research, just following on from what Sherry is talking about. If you think of the opioid epidemic that’s going on, I mean, it’s just heartbreaking, and we know that if people see chiropractors first, they usually end up with far less opioid medications that they don’t end up taking them. And there can be a variety of reasons for that, and we can get into but also this escalation of care, because we know, for example, a lot of problems, spinal problems in the past were treated with like surgeries and drugs, and now all the research is coming out about how harmful that is for the patients that have had the surgeries and the drugs and so it’s really interesting to see. Now, this research coming out from big data, I think that’s a really important thing. So you’re looking at, you know, 1000s and 1000s of people, and looking at actual, real patients, chiropractic patients, compared to those that have ended up, you know, in hospitals with drugs and surgery that was very harmful for them, you end up with less of this, drugs and surgery if you see a chiropractor. So seeing a chiropractor should be the first port of call for anything relating to back pain, neck pain, headaches. But what we’ve also talked about today, which I think is hopefully an eye opener for you out there listening, is that you know chiropractic care is having a direct impact on your brain and your brain’s ability to interpret what’s going on in your body and the world around you. So it’s far more than just preventing an opioid epidemic or or reducing your chances of ending up with surgery. I mean, if you need the surgery totally, totally cool, but for many of us, it was unnecessary and harmful, and I think that’s really sad as well. So there’s some really cool big data coming out showing that if you’re going to see a chiropractor, your chances of that kind of escalation of care into unnecessary and harmful interventions is reduced quite dramatically. And I think that’s a really good thing, you know, if optimization of health and well being isn’t isn’t your top priority, it should be.
Crystal Zagwyn 31:58
This brings us into why so many other paraprofessionals should be triaging anything musculoskeletal, pain related, quality of life related, right out to their local chiropractor, because we impact not just the pain cascade, but movement, function, memory, mood, reason and decision making. There’s so much more to our profession that’s undervalued by other aspects within healthcare, and bringing international and nationally known speakers like Sherry and Heidi in today is it’s just really for patient awareness that there’s so much more that your chiropractor could be doing. And if you’ve ever been scared to go to one or not sure what they do, just call just reach out to a local one, call the Maine Chiropractic Association, go to the website, we’ll lead you to the right place. There’s somebody that’s got to be close to you. We are underserved in the state of Maine. We do not have enough primary care physicians here. We do not have enough mental health care practitioners in this state either. There’s waiting lists for eight to nine months to get into mental health practitioner, cardiology, neurology. I see it all day, every day in my office. And if you want to talk about opioids, I’ve had patients die in Richmond Maine before they could get in to see me because they didn’t know to call okay. It is real here in this state, and there’s so much that your local chiropractor could be doing for you every single day, every single week, and it’s just an underutilized resource that we do have an abundance of over 250 300 doctors actively practicing here that could be changing lives and helping you get to where you want to go in your life, for what your goal is, it’s not about us. It’s about how we can help you live your best life.
Sherry McAllister 33:37
As I look at this from the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. One of the things that often comes to mind is, where do I get the help? There’s an aunt, uncle, grandfather, or someone out there that’s that may not know about chiropractic, and you’re in Maine, but they live in Texas, and I want to be able to help each and every one of you out there today. And you can go to our website. It’s Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, find a doctor and that will help you find the care that you need, deserve and should be looking for in the future, a non drug way, an optimization of your health and quality of life. And many people ask, well, where can I learn more? Well, in a fun, relatable way, there’s a podcast called Adjusted Reality, and it is a podcast series trusted by the adjusted. And it’s a way to optimize your health in a fun, relatable way, with celebrities, influencers, healthcare professionals, we want you to continue your search, your deep dive into, how do I be the best person I can be with the best care I can get? And I can tell you significant through my 30 years of experience, I’ve never had a pill that’s made me as good as chiropractic care. So I want to turn it to Heidi, because I believe, as an international speaker, and someone who has talked to, witnessed, researched and professes the benefits of chiropractic care, some of the last leading points that I think would really be helpful for the audience. To recognize in the chiropractic world.
Heidi Haavik 35:02
One thing I could add to that is, if you are interested in learning a little bit more about it, I have written a book, second one’s about to come out, but the book that I have written that is available, it’s available on Amazon, so you can you can get it easily in America or all around the world that’s translated into about 10 different languages now, is called The Reality Check, and it’s by Heidi Haavik, and it literally is a layman description of why your spine is so important for your brain. And I’ll go into experiments like we’ve even shown that if your spine isn’t working very well, your brain doesn’t interpret what you see and hear properly, like these are experiments where it’s kind of mind boggling, you know, and you realize that this is quite big, your spine is so much more important. Think about it. There was a time when people didn’t take care of their teeth, you know, whereas now everybody has a family dentist. And if I have my way, it will be that, you know, within my time here on earth that everybody will also be taking care of their spines. I think it’s that important because it is such a profound impact on the brain. Just another example on that, we’ve done a study looking at the impacts of the brain to enable the brain to more efficiently produce force. And when we had done that study, you know, a 16% increase in strength, and it was a massive drive from the brain. So it’s the brain’s ability to produce force that’s that’s very clear outcome. We were comparing that to a different study that had used the exact same methodology, and they were looking at three weeks of strength training versus three weeks of endurance training, and again, looking at the effects on the brain. And what was remarkable to me was that single adjustment session was as profound of an impact on the central nervous system or the brain as three weeks of strength training. So three weeks of strength training versus one single adjustment session by a chiropractor. So it is, it is a very profound impact on the brain that we have. It enables that brain to much more accurately perceive where your arms and legs are, so that you can move better, more efficiently, produce force. You see again, anyone from you know this will benefit. Anything from you know, a child that’s learning to walk, or a kid that’s wanting to learn how to play the piano or sports, even their belief in themselves. So it goes back to why the children are so important, because if they feel like they’re clumsy kids. I mean, that sets them up for a lifetime of I’m a failure, I’m useless, I can’t do anything, and it could literally just be the functioning of their spine that isn’t working well, which could have been from birth or from the tumbles and falls as children. I don’t know about you, but me and my brothers used to, like, catapult onto each other, and trauma happens, and not even just physical trauma, but emotional trauma, chemical trauma. You know, there’s a there’s so many things that can turn off those little muscles that the brain needs to be able to accurately know what’s going on and control the whole body. So if I were you, and I don’t see patients anymore, so it’s not like no benefit for me here, but I am literally on a mission. I want people to know why their spine is so important for their health, their well-being, their quality of life, and it’s because we are directly impacting their brain. And I think that’s something that everyone deserves to know about.
Matt Barnard 38:12
The Maine Chiropractic Association’s website has information locally, specifically for Maine. Is that right for finding a chiropractor?
Crystal Zagwyn 38:19
Yes, you can go to Maine Chiropractic Association and find any local Maine chiropractor that’s a part of the association.
Matt Barnard 38:25
And I love that analogy of the dentist, because all of us are accustomed to saying, every six months I need to have a dentist appointment. I don’t know if anything’s wrong. I don’t I just need to have my teeth checked. Imagine having every six months just you need to see a chiropractor.
Heidi Haavik 38:40
Yeah, and I personally wouldn’t leave it six months either. That’s the thing, because you don’t have to be in pain. What the chiropractor is going to be looking for is these dysfunctional segments in the spine. They’re usually tender when they touched, so the chiropractor will usually check your spine, and if they push on the dysfunctional segments, you know, you’ll feel it. You know, you’ll that’s one of the key signs that it is a subluxated segment. So, you know, I would honestly recommend monthly, every, every couple of months, at the latest, to go and get checked, because you don’t know what’s built up over time, if you’re going through stress, or if you’re unwell, or if you are, if you’ve had an injury, I wouldn’t even wait. I’d go straight in. Also, if you go to the dentist, it’s really, really fascinating, the connection between the jaw and the teeth and the spine as well. And I work with a dentist turned physiologist as well, too, Kamal Turk. He’s incredible professor in neuroscience, but he was originally a dentist, so I was originally a chiropractor. And we’ve done a lot of collaborations how the spine impacts the jaw. The jaw impacts the spine. So, yeah, regular check-ups absolutely essential. And if there are any chiropractors out there and they want to learn more, we’ve actually put together a whole resource library for you, if you’re interested in learning more of the latest science yourself. Because a lot of this stuff, you know, if you’ve been in practice for 10-20, years, this, this is brand new knowledge. So we’ve put together a resource library. There’s a membership. You can join Chiros Hub.They can learn the science, but there’s also a whole library there available for them to share with their local community all the latest science. So it’s all evidence based, every piece of patient materials that we have, public materials that we have, is fully referenced. So again, patients can verify that these are facts as well, because again, there’s a lot of misinformation out there these days, so it’s important that we have verifiable scientific facts that we’re sharing. So I’d love to get that out to all the chiropractors out there that might be listening as well.
Matt Barnard 40:40
I’m Matt Barnard in for Danny Martignetti, and this has been Maine Points, a pre-recorded segment talking with members of the Maine Chiropractic Association, as well as some very special guests. Remember, you can hear this episode and many others anytime at https://wgan.com/podcasts/categories/podcasts-maine-points/.
Doctors Haavik, McAllister, Zagwyn and Meyerowitz… thank you all for being here today.
Zev Myerowitz 41:00
Thanks, Matt.
Heidi Haavik 41:01
Thanks.
Sherri McAllister 41:01
Matt, thanks so much.
Crystal Zagwyn 41:03
Thank you.