Swine Flu Fear Tactics
April 30th, 2009 by angiemeyerdc | Filed under Chiropractic Coaching, Health Care, Leadership, Practice Management, Wellness Practice.
A More Effective Swine Flu Vaccine
When it comes to the newly-hyped media craze of swine flu, how are you communicating it in your chiropractic office? Are you part of the chiropractic profession getting caught up in the fear tactics propagated by the government and media or are you grounded in your chiropractic principles? How is your certainty as a chiropractor? It’s easy to talk about chiropractic and immune function when people are well, but what about when faced with the proposed ‘Swine Flu Pandemic’? Can you keep yourself together, use your emotional intelligence skills and not allow the panic to hijack your amygdala? Can you keep your critical thinking about cause and effect, and your common sense approach to health, wellness and disease to lead your community through this challenge?
My friend, Alain Desaulniers, D.C. has used this photograph and made a poster for his office that says at the bottom, “Chiropractic Care Strengthens Your Immune System. Stay Well Adjusted!” (He has given permission for other chiropractors to use it, so email me if you would like it).
The last time Swine Flu made an appearance was 1976 and the government quickly pushed through a flu vaccine (doesn’t this normally take time to manufacture “safely”, if there is such a thing?), used fear to mass vaccinate and 25 times more people died from the flu vaccine than of the flu itself. Congressman Dr. Ron Paul’s video on Swine Flu recalls this event and states, “The government shouldn’t be in the medical business”. This time it is an interestingly more complex virus, a recombinant H1N1-H5N1 avian/human/swine flu virus never to be seen before. My microbiology might just be rusty but I can’t help but wonder if this is natural genetic evolution or a laboratory virus gotten free?
Let’s look to chiropractic’s history and originating philosophy to on understand the cause and effect of disease, especially infectious illness:
“One question was always uppermost in my mind in my search for the cause of disease. I desired to know why one person was ailing and his associate, eating at the same table, working in the same shop, at the same bench was not. Why? … This question has worried thousands for centuries and was answered September, 1895.” ~D.D. Palmer, The Chiropractor’s Adjuster (1910)
Dr. Fred Barge continued on this theme when he used to say, “Do rats cause garbage or does garbage cause rats?” Dr. Kevin Donka of Chirothots has continued Dr. Barge’s message with a twist, “Flies don’t cause garbage!”
Common sense tells us that rats and flies are attracted to dirty places where there is decaying matter to feed upon. Just because rats and flies are present at a garbage dump or a dirty restaurant doesn’t mean they caused the garbage, they are an effect of the garbage! So why do some people get sick and some people stay healthy? It depends on the cleanliness of the body’s environment! If your body is weak, your resistance is down, and your cells are decaying, doesn’t it make sense that the germ scavengers would find home, food and shelter there? Of course it does! The germs don’t cause the disease, they are present when disease is! It is your internal resistance of your immune system that determines whether you get sick or not. Keep in mind it is called the ‘Germ Theory’ not the ‘Germ Fact’!
Whether or not the U.S. Homeland Security is appropriately given the power to make decisions about the health of Americans, (a political discussion of its own), what are chiropractors doing to coach the people they care for about strengthening their body’s own ‘Homeland Security’? As a Wellness Chiropractic Coach and Consultant at Rosen Coaching, we coach chiropractors to not only communicate and educate people about the 3 Dimensions of Stress and what causes subluxations, but to provide ongoing communication about the ingredients for a healthy body, first and foremost clear nerve system communication. What else can people do to strengthen their immune systems and promote health? Proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals including high doses of vitamin C, movement and exercise, hydration, rest and relaxation, fresh air, sunshine/vitamin D, mental clarity, stress management, emotional peace and fun!
As a chiropractor looking to lead your community to health and wellness, to have practice success and growth as well as to have the life of your dreams you need to stand up, tell the truth and show people there is another way! Let us know if we can help!
Tags: Amygdala, care tactics, Cause and Effect, Certainty, Challenges, Chiropractic Coach, chiropractic profession, communication, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, Disease, Emotional Intelligence, Fear Tactics, Germs, Immune System, Internal Resistance, Leadership, rosen coaching, Success, Swine Flu, wellness chiropractic practice management
Another awesome blog! Keep telling the truth. The public knows that we are right when they hear our message. It is a no brainer but they just have never given it any thought. So our job beyond removing subluxations and their causes is to open the minds of our patients so they can begin to think for themselves again.
Great information, keep up the great work.
Dr Angie, in late April, when this story first broke, I distributed this article to all of my clients to ensure they had a chiropractic perspective on the swine flu scare campaign.
The numbers are a little out of date, but the gist of the message is the same regardless of the statistics.
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Pigs, ‘Flu and Chiropractic
By Dr Tony Croke, wellness educator and integrative chiropractor
Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last few days, you’ve probably heard about the latest ‘flu scare. At last count, about 1,400 Mexicans have developed aches, fevers, coughing and sneezing in the last two weeks linked to an influenza virus which is thought to have originated in pigs. Of these 1,400 cases, 81 people had died. Mexican health officials think that there’s a “likely link” between the deaths and the virus. The World Health Organisation has called it a “public health emergency of international concern”. Bear in mind, the WHO called the inauguration of President Obama a public health emergency too! Perhaps they were concerned about two million people standing out in the cold to watch the ceremony.
So is this swine ‘flu really about to spread around the world and kill millions?
The numbers affected sound high until we consider that 20 million people live in Mexico City alone. Three hundred million live in the USA, where there are only a handful of cases. The number of people affected is a tiny, tiny fraction of the total population. Whilst we should be careful, there’s not enough information to be able to say whether this ‘flu is anything more than just another new strain to which we’ll quickly develop resistance.
What should we do to protect ourselves?
The Director of the US Centre for Disease Control was asked the same question. His only suggestion was to wash our hands more frequently.
My number one recommendation is to get adjusted. This swine ‘flu is the same H1N1 strain that has been linked to the 1918 influenza epidemic in which about 20 million people died, so it may be helpful to look at some statistics from that time.
In the US state of Iowa, medical doctors treated 93,590 people with influenza. One in fifteen died. Chiropractors took care of 6,370 influenza patients, with only seven deaths. That’s one in 910 patients. In Oklahoma, chiropractors cared for thousands of people with influenza. There is a clear record of chiropractors adjusting 233 cases where medical doctors had cared for the patients, but finally gave them up as lost. Chiropractic care managed to save all but 25 of these people.
Here are a few more ideas:
• Eat fresh fruit and vegetables every day.
• Get enough sleep.
• Dress appropriately for the weather.
• Don’t kiss any Mexican pigs!