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Show Volume XVII Issue XIII The Ogden Valley news Page December 15, 2009 New Treatment Gives Hope to Fibromyalgia and Other Chronic Pain Patients Traditional Fibromyalgia Treatment Failures Keep Ogden Valley Doctor Busy Lewis D. Harper, DC, a board-certified chiropractor who has been treating patients in the Ogden Valley for more than twelve years, is part of an elite group of physicians able to test and treat patients for neurological fibromyalgia, a painful and often debilitating disease. On Tuesday, December 22, Dr. Harper will lead a seminar at Harper Rocky Mountain Chiropractic in Eden where he will discuss this emerging medical break-through and answer questions Dr. Lew Harper demonstrates treatment. about treatment for neurological fibromyalgia. Today, more than 6 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia. Conventional treatments using traditional western medical treatments have shown limited success, leaving many patients unable to function efficiently at home or work. A new, holistic treatment technique is changing that. “Fibromyalgia is a condition in which a patient’s body actually attacks its own connective tissue. The result is pain that starts in one region, such as the neck and shoulders, then spreads to other areas over a period of time, leading to an expansive list of real and life-altering ailments. Patients who were once labeled as hypochondriacs and given expensive prescription medications to numb the pain are excited to finally receive lasting relief without drugs at our clinic,” says Dr. Harper. People with fibromyalgia may experience moderate or severe fatigue with a lack of energy, decreased endurance, pain, or even the kind of exhaustion frequently associated with the flu or a lack of sleep. Muscular or tension headaches, migraine headaches, abdominal pain, bloating, bladder spasms, and sensitivity to temperature changes as a result of skin and blood circulation are just some of the symptoms patients face. Patients develop fibromyalgia as a result of physical, chemical, or emotional trauma that triggers the body to release an abundance of cortisol that ultimately disrupts the lower and upper brain stem connection. This prompts Type-C nociceptive brain fibers to become overexcited resulting in chronic and sometimes debilitating pain. “The treatment we perform in our office includes a holistic approach to testing, diagnosing, and bringing the brain and nervous system back to balance through a combination of therapies known as Brain Based Therapies (BBT). This does not involve pain-masking pills, potions, or expensive prescription medications,” says Dr. Harper. “Our goal is to help patients return to normal functioning in their daily lives without feeling dependent on drugs to relieve their pain and other symptoms,” he says. “Under normal conditions the brain fires impulses down to the lower two-thirds of the brain. Emotional and chemical stresses adversely affect the brain by causing a decrease in the frequency of firing or impulses. When the lower brain stem slows down, the upper brainstem over fires, causing a person to experience pain. What we want to do as chiropractors IN MEMORIAM JOseph JOhn (James) adams March 12, 1940 December 17, 2006 If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I’d walk right up to heaven and bring you home again. With love, Bev Laurie Van Zandt (801) 388-8103 Combining Creativity & Practicality Unique Landscape Design Project Co-ordination www.theardentgardener.net trained in neurology is to slow down that upper brain stem.” Through a series of tests that check orthopedic, optical, and other functions, a chiropractor can determine the source of a person’s pain. Once this is determined, a plan is implemented to stimulate the side of the brain that will help decrease the pain. This can involve a number of simple exercises and procedures. Some procedures, such as unilateral manipulations, need to be performed in the chiropractor’s office. These adjustments are done on one side of the body to increase brain function in the opposite side of the brain. Patients can also receive supplemental oxygen to increase the vascular supply, or fuel, to the brain. In addition, other therapies can be performed that include auditory stimulation using nature sounds and visual stimulation through eye exercises such as gazing at a checkerboard. Heat therapy, ultrasound, and olfactory stimulation using scents like peppermint, coffee, cinnamon, and cloves can also decrease pain. At home patients can do therapies that will help control pain. These include simple exercises such as squeezing a ball or spinning in a chair. These exercises increase impulses to the brain and as these impulses are increased the sensation of pain decreases. “As a physician, I’m passionate about helping patients reclaim their lives from neurological fibromyalgia. I’ve dedicated 30% of my practice to exclusively treating patients suffering from this condition,” says Dr. Harper. “As part of the Sharing is Caring campaign sponsored by the National Fibromyalgia Association, I want to reassure people that they no longer need to live in pain.” Dr. Harper is one of only 200 chiropractors in the U.S., and the only physician in the Ogden area trained in a new treatment technique to treat neurological fibromyalgia without prescription medication. Brain Based Therapies (BBT) has shown great success in helping those suffering from neurological fibromyalgia. If you suffer from symptoms of pain, fatigue, insomnia, headaches and dizziness, and want to determine if Brain Based Therapies may help you get your life back and live with reduced pain, please feel free to contact Harper Rocky Mountain Chiropractic at 801-745-0977 for a free consultation and register for the FREE presentation on December 22 at 7:30 p.m. A Whole New Mind: A Book Review By Forrest Brown Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, is one that should be read by all—students, teachers, parents, children, and especially corporate America. This book is a look inside the world of our minds, how we think and how we plot the course of our everyday lives. Mr. Pink explains how our society has transformed from the computer or information age to the conceptual age, but a lot of us have not made the transition. Quoting from the book, “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind— creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people–artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers–will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” I totally relate to what Daniel Pink is trying to convey. My parents and grandparents, and practically every adult I knew growing up, told me to stay in school. Be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, or engineer because that is where the money is. And, you know, they were absolutely right! Those are some of the best paying jobs. However, most of us that followed this advice have found our professions to be somewhat less rewarding that we imagined. This, typically, is why we seek advanced degrees, take overseas assignments, play golf, learn to fly an airplane, take exotic trips, or many other adventures trying to find our passion that has somehow eluded most of us for much, if not all, of our adult lives. This book describes the phenomena of “right brain rising,” which, to most of us, is somewhat familiar terminology. Daniel Pink goes into minute detail explaining this saying, “Our brains are extraordinary. The typical brain consists of some 100 billion cells, each of which connects and communicates with up to 10,000 of its colleagues. Together they forge an elaborate network of some one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) connections that guides how we talk, eat, breathe, and move. James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for helping discover DNA, described the human brain as the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe . . . . Scientists have long known that a neurological Mason-Dixon Line divides the brain into two region. And until surprisingly recently, the scientific establishment considered the two regions separate but unequal. The left side, the theory went, was the crucial half, the half that made us human. The right side was subsidiary–the remnant, some argued, of an earlier stage of development. The left hemisphere was rational, analytic, and logical–everything we expect in a brain. The right hemisphere was mute, nonlinear, and instinctive–a vestige that nature has designed for a purpose that humans had outgrown.” In spite of this, scientists found that the right side of the brain was not inferior. Mr. Pink references the story of Roger W. Sperry, winner of a Nobel Prize in medicine, who in the 1950s “studied patients who had epileptic seizures that had required removal of the corpus callosum, the thick bundle of some 300 million nerve fibers that connects the brain’s two hemispheres.” The book explains how Doctor Sperry experimented until he found out that “The left hemisphere reasoned sequentially, excelled at analysis, and handled words” while “The right hemisphere reasoned holistically, recognized patterns, and interpreted emotions and nonverbal expressions. Human beings were literally of two minds.” This and other studies “overturned the prevailing orthodoxy that the left hemisphere was the dominate part of the brain,” as well noted by Mr. Pink. He goes on to write “With more than three decades of research on the brain’s hemisphere, it is possible to distill the findings into four key differences: 1. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body; the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body. 2. The left hemisphere is sequential; the right hemisphere is simultaneous. 3. The left hemisphere specializes in text; the right hemisphere specializes in context. 4. The left hemisphere analyzes the details; the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture. I have always thought that our five basic senses are sight, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting, but Daniel Pink’s description of the SIX senses is quite different from what we are accustomed to in our present society. He sheds new light on how these aptitudes help us develop a “whole new mind” in preparation for excelling the Conceptual Age. The senses are: 1. Not just function but also DESIGN. It is no longer sufficient to create a product, a service, an experience, or a lifestyle that’s merely functional. Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create some-thing that is also beautiful. 2. Not just argument but also STORY. Then our lives are brimming with information and data, it’s not enough to marshal an effective argument . . . . The essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative. 3. Not just focus but also SYMPHONY. Much of the Industrial and Informational Ages required focus and specialization. But as white-collar work gets routed to Asia and reduced to software, there’s a new premium on the opposite aptitude; putting the pieces together or what I call Symphony. 4. Not just logic but also EMPATHY. The capacity for logical thought is one of the things that makes us human. But in a world of ubiquitous in-formation and advanced analytic tools, logic alone won’t do. What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand . . . and care for others. 5. Not just seriousness but also PLAY. Ample evidence points to the enormous health and professional benefits of laughter, lightheartedness, games, and humor . . . . In the Conceptual Age, in work and in life, we all need to play. BOOK REVIEW cont. on page 10 |