An introduction to my next big project

Hi!

It's been a while. I've been writing blog posts for my office, and as a product this blog has been somewhat neglected. That being said, today's topic will be a preview of things to come.

I talk a lot about what birth means and why birth matters. Birth is a gnarly process in which parenthood takes hold. I often say that a parent becomes a parent when the needs of their baby (or zygote, or fetus) is above their own needs or wants. Moms tend to see this earlier because the things they put in to their bodies influence baby's health. Birth, however is the mechanism in which an individual comes in to existence. The focus is justifiably often on the baby but this system is really about making people parents. For some, this experience is like a light switch. For others, it's a dimmer switch. Either way, someone is responsible for this tiny little squishy ball of cuteness.

The thing is: Parents have a big a job. That job is pretty scary. The best plan, the most empowering plan, is to help parents make informed decisions before the overwhelm and sleep deprivation slide in. We start this by letting them gather information, ask questions, and have input on their lives.

Starting in January, I'll be interviewing and discussing various birthing methods and outcomes with real women who lived it. I hope you all enjoy these videos as much as I am. The big message to take away from this is that an ideal birth is what best for an informed mama and dad.

I look forward to sharing with you all soon.

Mental illness and health advocacy; a lesson in compassion and growth

Maslow's hierarchy of needs dictates that once our basic needs are met, then we can aspire to healthy interactions with others, and ultimately self-actualization.

A side, but valuable, comment here is that this doesn't indicate that self-actualization is the inevitable crown on a harrowing climb. It simply means that self-actualization, for the sake of life span and achievement, would be the launch pad that would carry someone to their greatest achievements. In other words, self-actualization is really the beginning of what could be. 

Today we will talk about mental health, but not yours.

Many people tout that mental health issues are better left under the rug. I identify strongly with honor culture. It should come as no surprise then, that people in my culture do not discuss their weaknesses. They push through them while mocking people who admit their struggles. For the most part, honor culture is on the decline, and more importantly, honor culture seems to be evolving to acknowledge that one can have pride in one's work, while admitting the difficulties in accomplishing it. 

This is overwhelmingly present in social media. And this is a good thing! We see what it really looks like to lose 100+ pounds. We see what it looks like to struggle to conceive. However there is one huge blot on the professional spectrum that seems to be a century behind when it comes to acknowledging mental health issues: health care. 

Did you know that professions with prescriptive rights are among the most likely to suffer from mental illness [1]? While medical doctors have a high rate of depression, there's also things like bipolar disorder, anxiety, addiction, and panic attacks that aren't accounted for in the reference listed below. 

A second side note: Chiropractors are also listed on the reference, but we are the only profession on the list that says, "Category includes chiropractors (a licensed profession) along with miscellaneous unlicensed health diagnosing practitioners." (insert eye roll here). That is like saying, "This category includes medical doctors along with miscellaneous actors that play doctors on t.v."

All that withstanding, I have two points to make.

1. Healthcare providers are under a LOT of stress. They deserve our patience and our compassion for the work they do.

2. In this current situation, it is not simply a pleasant concept, it is absolutely vital that you be your own advocate.

There are brilliant minds throughout our history that have had mental illnesses. Many of the diagnoses that previously would have resulted in inhumane treatments are now easily managed with chiropractic care, medication, or supplements.. But part of this stress and anxiety that affects our medical professionals so greatly is from carrying the burden of being the "decision maker". I would also argue that some of that stress comes from algorithms and pressures within the hospitalist system, but that's not anything that you and I can influence, other than with our mighty dollars. 

Most people don't become doctors because they hate people. Most people become doctors because they want to help people. Most doctors approach each patient with the wealth of knowledge that they have, and every motion is to help the patient towards health. Most doctors don't act out of malice. Most of them are working on 4 cups of coffee, too little sleep, too much stress, and frankly, too much outside influence to be the teacher their name implies. 

If you are pressured or emotionally manipulated away from your own decisions: you need a new doctor. That doctor isn't a bad person. That doctor is simply too distracted to acknowledge that the body you have is the one you will have for the rest of your days; the actions and consequences performed upon it are literally your burden to bear. 

Things to consider about your health:

• take time to read and learn about diagnoses you've been given
• go into follow up appointments with a knowledge of what to expect
• ask questions
• take a friend with you to listen and be the objective ears in the room. 
• if you are interested in alternative therapies for your diagnosis, print some articles and take them to your doctor
• don't assume that your doctor will say, "My way or the high way." Because I bet, if your doctor is worth their salt, they will either be open to your ideas, or will explain to you why it isn't a good idea.
• ask for dialogue, not just a prescription
• take notes!

1. http://www.businessinsider.com/most-suicidal-occupations-2011-10

Getting by with less.

This isn't a post about budgeting, or how to play your chiropractor into lessening your care plan, or how to not notice 1000 calories missing from your diet.

This is a post about filling emotional needs when people you depend on are no longer around. This post is about chronic, insufferable, unending loss, and how after time it doesn't really get better*, but you learn to get by with less.

My Grandmother was an excellent listener. She listened when she most likely shouldn't have, but it was one of the most comforting things in the world to call my nana and tell her all of the insane things I'd done and wait for her to smack her lips, laugh, or cry (I'd like to think that crying didn't happen too often). Her form of encouragement was unique. When I wanted to give up and felt like I'd never make it, she would say, "Why don't you come home?" That made me so angry! I'd say, "Why do you want to tempt me with mediocrity?" Then she'd go on to say, "Why don't you just come home, live with me, and get your old job back at the grocery store?" This would dig at my heart and make me feel like a complete failure. How could she say that? How could she say that after working so hard and getting so far, that I should come home and work as a cashier in the local grocery store? And then I would push harder than I ever thought imaginable, and she would beam at me with a pride that bordered evil.

I always suspected that she'd said those things to push me, but I also know that she genuinely missed me being home, so it was always a toss up as to whether she believed her own words or not. I imagine that was a battle she also faced.

So fast forward to now. I am 4 months into private practice. Like most ventures, my weeks are full of ups and downs. Lately I've just wanted someone to talk to. I don't really want to talk about what I do with them:I don't really want to talk very much at all. I just want someone to listen to me, and someone I can listen to that has absolutely nothing to do with my daily efforts. (This is the plight of anyone who's spouse is in the same profession as them.) And more importantly, I want my grandmother to listen to me. So how can I find that same feeling of content, and peace without her physical presence?

You find it where you can.

You'll find that after time, you don't need much. And sometimes you'll mistakenly put that need into someone who isn't really going to help fulfill it. But most of the time, just a pinch of that feeling will return and you'll be ok again for awhile.

Yesterday was a rough day. I cried 4 times. You should probably know that I've cried 4 times in the past 12 months, so 4 times in a day was odd. I cried in my car, cried over a pot of rice, cried in my office, and cried while watching a video of a man who couldn't walk kiss his wife on unsteady feet. It was amidst the car cry that I realized I was upset because I didn't feel as though I had that outlet; that person to argue with quietly until one of us had had enough and we'd sit in silence until we were ready again. That person who egged me to "come home" and settle for what was handed to me at birth. So last night I got up and went to a meeting that I'd kind of been dreading. I showed up and spent way too much time on my phone instead of interacting with people around me. Then one of the most brilliant minds I've ever encountered walked up to me and said, "How's it going?" I said, "I'm ok. I'm doing great, just not where I thought I'd be. I'm impatient." And she replied simply, "Me too." And that was it. That was all I needed. I needed to see that outside of my bubble, the difficulty in visualizing the future while living in the real present was universal.

And that's really the heart of this. The ups and the downs and the ins and outs are not special or unique to Chiropractic, or NFP, or me at all. These feelings and experiences are universal. If you are a SAHM, or a auditor working 85 hours a week, the waves of satisfaction and defeat are just as real for you as they are me. Some times we just need a little shoulder bump as a reminder that all of this is ok. This is all part of some nasty goopy process that will ultimately and unavoidably end in our excellence. We are all in the same life raft and no one ever gets their fair share of steering.



*https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Warwick_Middleton/publication/232480143_Pathological_grief_reactions/links/57637bf008ae9964a16baa32.pdf

The tact and grace of an inside joke.

I seem to mention at least every other blog or so, "mom guilt". It is a soul crushing distraction from all the other great things we have to be stressed and freaking out about. In my opinion, building a community based on inclusion and "laughing through the chaos" is one of the best ways to combat "mom guilt"

So what on earth does an inside joke have to do with chiropractic, pregnancy, fertility, or ketogenesis? Everything. Have you ever been so stressed out that you focused in on a doughnut until it was in your mouth. Have you ever been so tired or out of it that you missed an entire conversation someone was trying to have with you? Have you ever caught yourself looking at facebook on your phone while facebook is also open on the computer in front of you? These are symptoms of overwhelm; and they are part of the problem.

We, as humans, are meant for social interaction. We hug, we kiss, and for those of us who are really uncomfortable with physical touch, we have great intimacy in sharing the mundane tiny details and simply speaking to other people.

When we talk about inside jokes, the beauty and simplicity of the comment is that there's no necessary depth before the event comes to fruition. We have inside jokes with people we've only met a few times. To say to a person, "Remember that one time..." even if it was the first time, is no less valuable. An inside joke artificially (and then, of course, genuinely) increases intimacy. We want people to remember us. We don't all want to be the star of the show, but when you meet someone  for the second or third time and they remember something you were wearing or something you said, it makes us feel as if that person values that memory.

So, if you are tired of being home with babies, and you are looking for a mom group or a scheduled event for kids and moms alike, seek out the women that remember you. Those women are the goodies, the ones who pay attention, and the ones who are more likely to laugh at life with you, instead of chastising every decision you make.

The art of the inside joke takes the edge off of what could be a painful reintroduction to society. In general I think we could all stand to laugh a little more.

Recently I was asked, "What do you want to do with your life?" And I said, "I want to make people laugh." Can chiropractic make people laugh? Absolutely. If we know that the brain is speaking to the body and the body is speaking to the brain, and that person is "working on all cylinders" then we know that no matter what happens, they will be adapting to whatever life throws at them better.

A quick story to round out this pretty light post:
**This was told to me by a professor in Chiropractic School**

A man came into the clinic for low back pain. He brought his daughter with him. He didn't speak much, and his clothes were often dirty, and over all he seemed like a pretty angry man. After the first phase of his care plan ended he told the doctor he wouldn't be coming back. The little girl started crying. The doctor asked, "Are you not feeling better? Are we not getting the results you anticipated?" To which the patient said, "I feel much better, but I don't have pain any more so I'm not going to come in anymore." The doctor turned to the little girl and asked if she'd noticed any differences in her father since he'd started care. The daughter said, "Since he started chiropractic care he doesn't hit me anymore. I'm afraid if he stops he'll start hitting me again."

1. We can not down play the effect of the adjustment on the brain.
2. We can not down play the effect of dysfunction on behavior.
3. We can not pretend that "pushing through" issues has no effect on children.

Laugh more. Live better.

An unexpected opinion piece on the art and bastardization of supplementation.

Hi. I am Dr. Sam Curtis, DC. And in the past year I have made a dramatic shift away from supplementation.

How perfect is the idea of the vitamin capsule?

 Do you have an ailment but don't like the idea of herding to the doctor for a prescription?

 Have you heard that every pill you take will immediately shut down your kidneys and give you Alzheimer's!?!?!? 

Yep. Me too. So it only seems right that we, as the "thinking citizen", would opt out of those medications until ab.so.lute.ly. necessary. So, wayyy before chiropractic school, way back in my crunchy infancy, I started using supplements. Got a cold? Vitamin C, Zinc, echinacea. Heavy menstrual cramps? Cal/Mag, ginger tea, primrose oil, and a dash of black cohosh. These are the Dr. Google go-to's of supplementation. I firmly believed that if there was an issue, there was a vitamin, a mineral, or a pill to fix it. So maybe you are thinking, "A vitamin is way better than a prescription drug!" And in many ways you are right.

However, in my line of work, healing comes from the inside out. If you are dumping the highest quality gas into a car with a wrecked radiator.... it wont get you to your destination any quicker. As a chiropractor it is imperative that we ensure your brain is able to effectively communicate to your body and vice versa before we begin throwing the kitchen sink into the mix. You do you though. If you want to take a supplement, and you have either been advised by a trained professional or you have done your own research, I am certainly not speaking against that. What I am saying is that the sweeping protocols that make supplementation the billion dollar industry that it is, is really no better or more empowering than a prescription from the drug store. It may be better for you, it may cause less environmental and biological harm, but in simplest words: Allopathy is the method of taking a pill for an ailment

At present I can think of a few examples of supplementation that are misguided, and a few that are exceptions to my "no supplement" rule.

Misguided:

1. Vitamin D. We have ample research that says vitamin D is necessary for calcium to perform its best with bony lay down (new bone as old bone is broken down). Many people at this point will say, "The higher vit D levels the better!" This isn't true! [1]. Basically, about 2 decades ago, some researchers found that people with higher vitamin d levels had decreased homocysteine. Homocysteine is linked to cardiovascular disease. Because heart disease is still a heavy weight contender for most common cause of death, the healthcare world said, "oh, duh! Let's put everyone on a Vit D supplement and watch the heart disease plummet!" The major issue with this is that we aren't meant to ingest vitamin D. We are meant to create it inside of our bodies using our skin, our liver, and our blood. Vitamin D has a similar structure, or a base structure, of cholesterol; this is also true of estrogen and testosterone. So, structurally, vitamin d is like a hormone. What current research is showing us, is that when we put hormones in parts of our bodies that they aren't intended to be (ie estrogen in the digestive tract etc), we open a can of worms that we aren't exactly sure how to close. So oral  supplementation of vitamin D is increasingly controversial. That being said, regulated sun exposure is an AMAZING option for anyone with a heartbeat. I recommend downloading the D minder app (no I don't get any kickback from them, plus it's free :))  and starting there. The app will tell you when to come inside and can even estimate the D3 produced in your body per session.

2. Iron. My grandmother was "iron deficient" for over 40 years. As a kid my iron levels were amazing, and then in my late teens/early twenties, it dipped a bit. If you've ever supplemented with iron, you may know well the constipation and other unpleasantness of supplementation. And if you "picked up what I was laying down" about the digestive tract you may be thinking, "But we do absorb iron through our digestive system!" And to that I, "Heck yeah!" So here are some questions for your healthcare provider if they suggest that you start taking iron supplements:

            a) Is ferritin low? Or hemoglobin? 

            b) Given that Ferritin is NOT synthesized in the blood, EXACTLY how does a serum measurement of Ferritin (i.e. an extracellular marker, and akin to “Kitchen temperature”…) relate to, or have ANY relevance to, the Intracellular Ferritin Protein level (i.e. the storage protein synthesized INSIDE the cells, and is more akin to “Oven temperature”)?

            c) What’s the status of my mineral & vitamin co-factors that REGULATE Iron metabolism: i.e. Magnesium, Bioavailable Copper, Zinc, Ceruloplasmin (Ferroxidase enzyme), & several select Iron markers?

            d) Do I have markers of chronic inflammation (BUN/Creatinine ratio, H1c, CRP? If so, aren't those also heavily correlated to hypoferremia?

The list goes on. If you are ever interested, shoot me a message. There's about 12 other questions to ask before starting iron supplementation. 

3. Folic Acid. Folic acid was synthetically created in the early 20th century. Up until that point our exposure to B9, the well known vitamin that influences neural tube development, was through folate. As of 1998 folic acid is a federally required fortification in many grain products. Unfortunately, as we have seen a dramatic decline in spina bifidas and cleft palates, we have seen an increase in tongue ties, which has an impact on bilateral head movement (ie, breastfeeding on both sides). [2]

Exceptions to the Rule:

A generalized note: Therapeutic supplementation ( short term doses for a diet, for recovery, to support a new body function (like, say, breastfeeding), and for chronic illness, are vastly different than the daily grind of 15-20 supplements that are to "raise your levels". I'm a huge supporter of using supplementation to aid the body through a transition or rehab, but not for longterm generic use.

1. Electrolytes. I don't fan girl over things, and lately the bottom of the list of my fan girl options would be supplements. However magnesium is my jam. Magnesium is necessary for ATP production in the body, as well as muscle recovery after a workout. Without potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium our bodies would literally immediately wither into a puddle. I have heart palpitations from my apparent inability to hold on to water/electrolytes (probably a chronic inflammation that I have yet to address). I've been supplementing with magnesium malate off and on for over a year now. If you are taking magnesium I would highly recommend against magnesium oxide (unless it is an external use) and magnesium citrate. Magnesium oxide is used as a laxative if taken orally and will only further dehydrate you. Magnesium citrate has long term negative impact on the ceruloplasmin and can negatively impact iron production.

2. Fish oils/ DHA/EPA. So fish oils....heart health....blah...blah...blah. The biggest thing about DHA/EPA is that our brain needs DHA and EPA to stay healthy. As we get older our ability to hold on to omega 3s becomes even more important. Dr. Dan Murphy claims that a ratio of O3/O6 above 1:25 wreaks havoc on the mental health and memory loss. The american diet is inundated with omega 6's. My general recommendation is to purchase an Omega 3 only, or an O3/O6 ratio as close to 1:1 as possible. There's some evidence that the body can convert DHA to DHEA, though it's hard to solidly say. At the end of the day you are eating animal fat is pretty small doses; to that I say, "No harm no foul". 

A final note on quality. Calcium carbonate is calcite. It's a rock. It's a finely ground rock. You can take that rock, and eat it, and your blood calcium will likely increase. But what can your body do with rock? Chickens eat rocks and it helps to break down the food they eat. We don't have that function, as our stomach acid is pretty bad a** and can breakdown pretty much anything we can fit down our esophagus. Short advice: try to buy foods based supplements. Or even better, try to eat the foods that contain the vitamin/mineral you are looking for.

1.http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/vitamin_d_more_may_not_be_better

2. Flanagan J, Landa R, Bhat A, Bauman M. 2012. Head lag in infants at risk for autism; a preliminary study. Amer. J. Occup. Ther. 66: 577-585.

If you ain't first, you're last; an account from the lifelong 'last friend to....'

Good Girls don't....: A guide to true cultural sexual rebellion.

One of the defining moments of my life was when I was in the 5th grade. My mother had been mostly absent for years, my grandmother was my beacon of femininity, and my extended family was doing everything in their power to prevent me from slipping through the cracks (Thank God for them!)

I was 11 years old, and I was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of my great grandmother's house. I was on the phone with a friend. I said, "I want to be an obstetrician. They deliver babies and I want to deliver babies. I hear it's pretty complicated, but I think I can do it." At this point my well intentioned aunt (pronounced "aint") walked out to me and said, "Good girls don't talk about stuff like that." I remember giggling awkwardly and just telling my friend I had to go. Coincidentally, about a year prior to this I was terribly confused when I looked under that same aunt's bathroom counter and saw these flat wrapped objects, and I genuinely thought that menstrual pads were like rolling your own cigarettes. I was told then that I didn't need to worry with that stuff.

You know what this did? It led me down the rabbit hole. What else aren't we supposed to talk about? In retrospect my grandmother never called sex, "sex". She called it "Making Love" (to this day I hate that phrase). So, around this time AOL discs were a dime a dozen, or literally free at the local grocery store. I went through about 15 discs in 6 months; I think they were 500 minutes free? 1500 minutes free? Anyway, I looked up everything. I looked at always.com, I looked at kotex.com, I looked up informational pages about periods. I looked up books. I got books from the library. I wanted to know everything I could about sex, periods, and pregnancy. I read Judy Blume (not recommended), and other teen based books; often thick with "life lessons on the irresponsibility of sex out of marriage."

By the time I was 14, purity rings were a big deal. I see that they still are; the jury is out on that one. Needless to say, I was opposed to making promises I couldn't keep. I remember being in 3rd grade and refusing to sign the D.A.R.E. promise for the exact same reason. If you want to believe that indoctrination wasn't an issue while I was in school, I'll ask you to view my school record that shows me getting 1 referral in my life: because I refused to sign a piece of paper at 9 years old. PS, there is another referral unofficially on my record for skipping school; at least I'm honest.

In my household nothing was a big deal. Making mole hills out of mountains caused me to not be overly preoccupied with alcohol or sex. This is not to say that sexual curiosity didn't come on early for me, but I wasn't terribly concerned with having sex at an early age. Anywho, I went away to college, was put on birth control for a medical reason, met a boy, and the rest is completely.... deviant from the norm. :)

I moved to California when I was 22. I was put on birth control when I was 19, and around 24 when I stopped. I didn't stop because I wanted to get pregnant. I stopped because it was ruining my relationship. I stopped because my already "dry" emotional state became like a tin roof; nothing stuck. Nothing bothered me, but nothing made me happy. I was non-committal to everything. Plus, it wasn't getting rid of the symptoms it was supposed to. When I stopped taking birth control I was convinced for a year that I would get pregnant. And then I didn't; this is not a miracle or anything, we were using barrier method.

And then. And then. My old employer was a Catholic SAHM. She told me about NFP. And that part really is history. Through, what I can only identify as a rebellion, I've realized that how we speak and react to fertility is perpetuating an unnatural fear of sex. I love sex. I don't just love sex for me, I love sex for all consenting adults. I openly admit in my instruction that my goal as an instructor is to give a couple as many usable days as possible. Call it manipulative, call it unhealthy, but sex is a pretty savvy cure-many (notice it's not a cure all), for relationships. When two people are consenting and having a good time, let the good times roll! Whatever floats your boat, let it take you away. That part is no one else's business.

My goal is to help people be empowered in fertility. Fertility is not a barrier to sex. Fertility is the heartbeat of sex, one to be observed and listened to, like the heart pounding of a first kiss or the barely noticeable slow, patient, beat of a Sunday morning cuddle. You do not have to get pregnant while practicing fertility awareness. It is not a game of chance. It is not purely for Catholics and Muslims. You have been lied to, and I'm here to help.


Marquette efficacy:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18997569

Generic NFP research:
Frank-Herrmann P, Heil J, Gnoth C, et al. The effectiveness of a fertility awareness based method to avoid pregnancy in relation to a couple's sexual behaviour during the fertile time: a prospective longitudinal study. Hum Reprod. 2007;22(5):1310–1319....

Predicting ovulation with at home urinalysis (not produced by Marquette)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23831784

Medical training on forms of natural family planning:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28620604

Ovulation correlation to cervical mucus production:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25724738

Most common birth time: 8am. Surprised? I was.

I'm a huge fan of improvingbirth.org. When I was a wee fledgling in the world of birth and birth advocacy, they had information on hand that led me to the dark side, or the...like... empowered side... :) of birth.

They recently (today) shared an article that claims most infants make their appearance at 8am. And most commonly on weekdays. This made no sense to me. Birth is chaotic (commonly) and irratic in timing (ask any mom who really wanted a due date baby).

I trust improvingbirth to give me accurate information. So why would this report say that children are born at 8am? On weekdays? Babies don't have schedules. They are squirmy gushy little beings of smelly goodness (baby fever anyone?).

The article absolutely states that this information was collected across the board: hospital, home, cesarean, induction, natural, all of it. So I decided to dig a little deeper. The article claims that c-section rates are 32% across the nation. I happen to know they are slightly higher in my neck of the woods. But basically, that article is implying that medical intervention is skewing natural birth cycles. Most babies born without medical intervention are born at night.

There are two reasons that a baby would be born in the morning:
1. Medical intervention (C-section/induction). **Shocker** I'm not a c-section basher. Stuff happens and we are all blessed to have access to this emergency care. However, let's be real. If a mom has been laboring for a long time, she will fatigue and will need help or, in some cases, convinced she needs help. All research shows that after intervention (lets be conservative and assume pitocin or other forms of induction), the risk for c-section increases dramatically [1].

2. Delayed/difficult/regressing labor. If you prefer to believe that regressing labor doesn't exist, let's just pretend for now that it's not written down and I'll express my thoughts on the topic later. If a woman has slow progression of labor due to anxiety, 'back labor', structural complications, or is forced to labor in a less-than-ideal birthing position, the delivery can be prolonged.

Guess what? Most of that second reason can happen and does happen outside of the hospital as well. The other interesting thing of note in the chart above is that the hospital birth line has well defined peaks, as where the out-of-hospital births don't really have peaks, but instead gentle "hills" of commonality.

All this to say, it would be interesting to see how breastfeeding and other baby basics (eat, poop, sleep) are even temporarily affected by an altered natural birth time. I'll keep you all posted if I find a study, and hope you'll do the same.

Cheers!


1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3751192/

The Judge-y thoughts.

There are people in my life that claim we can judge people as long as we hold ourselves to the same standard. There are .GIFs dedicated to the "Don't Judge Me!" phrase.

As most of you know I am hardcore in the opposing corner of mom guilt. The best thing we can do in life is find people who are similar to us, so if we ever feel the need to test our true north, we have family or friends or a tribe to set us straight. That's not to say that we need to surround ourselves with like-minded people. I seem to thrive in environments where people question my beliefs, but honestly, sometimes it's fun to make a joke about my crunchy ways and have some genuinely laugh with me instead of laughing AT me. 

Yesterday I was on (duh duh DUH!!!) Facebook and I saw a photo of a friend of mine. She sells fitness, as a package. And my immediate thought was, "She didn't have that much to lose in the first place (insert eye roll here)!!" 

And then, boom. UUGHH! I'd stupidly thought someone's battle was easier than mine! I demeaned her effort and her brand by thinking that she hadn't worked hard for her body. Meanwhile this woman is constantly bringing other women UP. I then thought, "She isn't really building a business. She's slinging crappy products at unsuspecting women." HOLD IT. HOLD.THE.PHONE. Where did this snarky woman come from? Who cares what she's doing? She is helping people love themselves; which the world is so lacking right now. 

I am known in my community as a silver-linings-loving-optimist-you-can-do-it-all-in-one-pep-squad. I am known as this because this is what I want for myself. I want people to surround me and say, "Starting a business is hard! But you are rocking it!" Guess what? this woman that I thought the snarky things about is always the first to tell me how great of a job I'm doing. 

So, my brief thought of the day is this: It's great to not speak poorly of someone else, but if you want all those benefits for yourself, you have to stop thinking them too. 

Secondary Infertility

It may surprise you to know that there are more than one type of infertility; and I don't mean male and female infertility. One of the lesser known types of infertility (or subfertility) is secondary infertility. This is described as the inability to conceive after birthing one (or more) children.

The causes of secondary infertility are along the same lines as primary infertility:

1. Sperm quality

2. reproductive organ damage

3. Scar tissue or complications from previous surgery/pregnancies

4. Risk factors like advanced age, obesity, and other health issues in both partners.

The reasons of secondary infertility are not all that shocking, however, when a couple decides to try to achieve pregnancy for the second, third, or fourth time, and they find themselves trying for a year or more, not attaining pregnancy can be a bit of a shock.

This is a huge benefit of charting cycles with FAM or NFP. Regardless as to how one approaches trying to conceive, knowledge of ovulation and symptoms that are (or are not) present can be a blinking red indicator of where the dysfunction lies.

Another concern for this issue is self-diagnosis. Often times I hear of couples who may have been surprised with their first pregnancy. And then a few years down the road, when it is time for baby number two they are discouraged when in the first month they do not conceive. I am in no way insinuating that secondary infertility doesn't exist, but I think it is very important that we stick within the diagnostic characteristics of the disorder at hand. 

In my opinion, secondary infertility can be just as harmful emotionally as primary infertility. To have the want and love for a baby you haven't met yet, and to month after month be disappointed is challenging enough, and then if you express sadness over secondary fertility often times the retort is that, "You already have one baby, some people don't even have that!" This goes back to that nasty old parent-guilt business that I talk about all the time. 

Below are some of my personal thoughts on the causes of secondary infertility:

1. Stress. I say this ALL the time in person, but let's say it here too! 

         If you go in to your kitchen and you see a kitchen fire, what is the first thing you are going to do? You probably wont start to fold laundry. You are going to try to put that fire out and save your house! Your body works similarly. There are natural cycles happening all over the place inside of you, and that's how its supposed to be; FSH, serotonin, insulin, TSH, even daily poops work on a schedule and cycle. So if your body perceives a greater threat, the focus will move away from those "activities of daily living" (think chores and errands) and hone in on the crisis at hand (think kitchen fire or basement flood). Managing family, friends, work, and toddler is pretty stressful. Take that natural stress and then impose upon it the rampant parent-guilt of modern culture, and stress levels easily become unmanageable. Then, on top of that, add the stresses of disappointment of not conceiving as quickly or as easily as a couple did the first time around, and you have a recipe for cortisol soup.

           To all of this I say: Chiropractic. Chiropractic is the methodology of helping the body adapt to stress. Often times people will say, "Oh, my shoulders are so tight! It's just stress though." I entirely disagree. Stress is common. Stress is everywhere and we all feel it in different ways and places and manifestations, but it's always there. However, you should be able to work with the stress in your life. When you fail to adapt, dysfunction becomes a major factor. This is most evident in people with knee pain; almost always, knee pain comes from hip or foot dysfunction. The most significant take away from that metaphor is that it is simply a metaphor; these mal-adaptations happen in our brains, in our lungs, in our visceral organs, in our nerves, and because our spinal cord is the main communication device between our brain and our cells and tissues, it plays a major part in how we adapt to stress. Long story short: get your nervous system checked.

2. LAM. Lactation Amenorrhea Method.

       This is actually a form of NFP, sort of kind of.... Basically, if a woman ecologically breastfeeds, as in, no schedule, and feeding baby whenever baby is hungry (including night time), she can and most likely will delay the return of her menses. I live in a community that has a higher than average age for first births. Some may think of this as a negative thing, but I think its pretty beautiful. We also have a higher than average single earner family rate. I also think this is beautiful. Families on the Central Coast tend to be pretty crunchy, and we have a much higher than average "prolonged breastfeeding" statistic. It is not impossible to achieve pregnancy while breastfeeding, and despite some old wives tales, it is not harmful to breastfeed throughout pregnancy. However, the return of menses is also accompanied by a shortened luteal phase. The stunted luteal phase means that while a woman may be ovulating, her body is not providing a nice soft endometrial pillow for the fertilized egg to implant upon. The luteal phase should be at least 12 days so that the egg has time to make the trip from the Fallopian tube to the uterus, implant, and begin the division processes that will lead to a viable pregnancy. If the luteal phase is too short, the egg will simply be disposed of during the period, like every other non-fertilized egg of her menstrual cycle's history.

3. Shortened luteal phase due to other circumstances.

     Unfortunately our culture is soy, and otherwise xeno-estrogen happy. Our government subsidizes the growth of soy beans, so much like wheat and corn, it is in everything. Hormonal birth control is also widely popular in our country. These are a few factors that contribute to the over all estrogen rich ecosystems that we walk around in daily. Estrogen dominance is not simply, "too much estrogen." Though, "too much estrogen" is absolutely an issue of its own. The greater issue is the amount of estrogen in relationship to the amount of progesterone in the body. For about half of the menstrual cycle, it is meant for estrogen to be the dominant hormone. Estrogen is responsible for the thickening of the endometrial lining; so it is safe to say that estrogen creates the pillow for the fertilized egg to implant upon. However progesterone is the luteal phase dominant hormone. This means that within 36 hours of ovulation, estrogen drops and progesterone starts to ramp up. Progesterone is the dominant hormone after ovulation and only when progesterone starts to wane, will the menses begin. If a woman's progesterone is low, then the woman is more likely to have a quicker onset of menses; so her period will start again quicker than if she had more progesterone. When the menses returns quicker, say, less than 12 days, the environment of her uterus becomes less friendly to conception, or rather, implantation.


In short, secondary infertility is a heartbreaking experience. The best thing you can do is be an advocate for your own health and chart your fertility. Note cervical mucus, LH spike, and how many days after ovulation your period comes. These factors alone can make a world of difference. You are not alone and you are not broken. You are not wrong for wanting another baby. Just because you have one baby doesn't mean you should be satisfied or accepting. Fertility is a natural cycle in our lives to be respected. Please don't feel selfish or arrogant for wanting another baby. And please reach out for help if you have feelings of depression and futility.

Cwikel J, Gidron Y, Sheiner E. Psychological interactions with infertility among women. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2004;117:126-31.

Ideal birth; an image

We've seen all seen it. In the age of social media dominance, you've seen that gorgeous mom with the high top messy bun, eyeliner on point, perfect manicured nails, in a deep squat or on her back with a doting scruffy faced husband with a furrowed brow or bulging eyes at his instantaneous conversion of seeing his wife the sex goddess become his wife....The Godess. She is 40 weeks to the day, maybe even a few days early, she gained 20 pounds exactly, and only in the past 3 weeks gave up her back squats. She delivers naturally; probably in a birthing center. She is only moments away from the perfect latch and perfect milk let down. She will be enchanted by her baby immediately and will step into motherhood with grace. Because of her authoritative physical presence, no one will ask her when she will start watching what she eats. No one will bat an eye when baby sleeps for 9 hours a night after the first week until the baby is 13 years old. The baby will never have a blow out, ear infection, and certainly will never cry every night between the hours of 4:30pm and 8:00pm. She will wait the appropriate 4 hours after birth and her husband will post an image of mother and baby on instagram, and he will say his wife is the strongest woman he's ever met and he is SO in love with his new baby.

Gah, these people are such jerks! Right!?!? Nope. They aren't. They aren't jerks. They are two people that decided to have sex during the fertile phase of the ovulatory cycle, and as a result, she had a baby. Even that is presumptuous. That baby could have been prayed for, for years. That baby could be a rainbow baby. The point is not how other people do pregnancy and birth. The point is that you don't have to do it that way. 

There are general markers of pregnancy; as a whole, consuming a bottle of wine a night is not the best idea. It's a good idea to have a birth leader; be that a midwife, an obstetrician, or your Aunt Lucy. They are way more attuned to the best practices of pregnancy, but the focus here is that you choose. 

When anyone tells me they are pregnant I send them to the same place. It is my favorite place to send people because it is a webpage that offers, "40 questions for your midwife." Most often I send people there and they immediately say something like, "I don't even know what half of those words mean." This isn't meant to overwhelm you or make you feel stupid. This is meant to call you to a higher level of thinking. The questions asked on that page are going to make you ask questions. Hopefully, when you ask those questions, you get answers that make sense and align with what you want. My goal in practice is to empower parents to be as present with their children as possible and in my mind, this starts right with that first pregnancy test, and probably even before. 

Your ideal birth doesn't have here or there, or up or down, or right or wrong. It must be one where mama is comfortable. In my social circles, if I said, "You know, I really want to deliver in a hospital with an epidural." I would be harshly judged. That judgement would come from a place of education and statistically likely outcomes... but it's judgement nonetheless. I'm sure there are social groups that would faint at the idea of an unassisted childbirth; it would appear that the politicians making the rules on all of our births are in that crowd.

As a newb entrepreneur, I've been attending a lot of personal growth/mindset meetings in my community. 75% of them are amazing and worthy of your time, by the way. In those meetings the final, obnoxiously esoteric and yet also applicable recommendation, is to envision your dream. I don't see why birth should be any different.

When you think of birth, what are your first thoughts? I suspect that a solid 1/3 of the people reading this immediately thought of the financial burden. Ok, so let's take that and place it aside. What next? What do you see? I think, because I saw it right when it occurred to me that I might one day go through birth, I think of Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up; again...maybe not the best image.

Who is in the room? Who holds your hand? Does your hand need holding? Are you quiet and still? or panting and dancing and wild? What do the eyes look like of everyone in the room? Are they old and crinkled into anticipatory smiles? Are they wide open to take in every velvety moment? Are you on a bed? Or are you on the floor? Are there medical masks? What are you wearing? Are you wearing a hospital gown? Are you wearing a cute piece of lingerie, like women wear when they need an extra "oomph" of confidence? Are you wearing your spouse's old shirt? Are there windows in the room? What's the weather like outside? Are you inside or outside? When you give that last push, what is the first thing you want your baby to feel? Will a doctor catch your baby in nitrile gloves? Will your baby go from one aquatic environment to another? Will you pull him to the outside world yourself? And then what? Will there be shrills and screams of pleasure and excitement? Or will everything melt down into liquid serenity. Will anyone else exist in those precious moments?

I've been told a million times, "I thought I wanted to sit on the ball: I didn't want to sit on the ball". "I thought I would want my husband to rub my back: If anyone touched me I threw up." It's ok for things to change. It's ok to want to wear something special and then it gets poop or pee or some other bodily function on it and have to change. It's ok to start at home and end up not at home. It's ok to have a birth plan that goes out the window. But that doesn't make the birth plan any less significant. Have someone, or a team of someones with you to help you. If you don't want pitocin, and you are offered pitocin...that's not ok. If you don't want an epidural and you are offered an epidural, that's not ok! If you don't want your husband's sister's mailman in the room, guess what? THEY DON'T COME IN. You are delivering your baby into the world. Anyone else in the room is merely an observer or an accomplice in miracle work. Make sure your company is worthy of the experience; because birth is nothing short of miraculous. 

Chiropractic and Birth

For the sake of this post we will only discuss pelvic floor and mechanistic views of the pelvis for labor and delivery. There is A LOT more at hand, but this is the best entry point for what will later prove to be a pretty complex relationship.

Round Ligaments
These are best described as the ropes that tether the top of a hot air balloon. Before conception, these ligaments sort of hang off the top of uterus like arms. The fibers of the round ligament actually descend so far as the labia majora (external female genitalia). As the uterus expands to accommodate the growing baby, the round ligaments look like the ropes that go over the top of the hot air balloon keeping it on the ground.

This balloon is tethered, and look how roomy it is! This is what we want the uterus to look like. If a woman has a traumatic pelvic trauma like falling off of a bike, falling off of a horse, even some hard falls when she was a baby, these ligaments can have different tensions. This would lead to something like this:

This is an exaggeration, but our goal is to give baby as much room as possible to flip and flop and wiggle around all they want until the time comes to get serious. Then, when it's time to get serious we want baby to engage and exit with as much ease as possible, for mama and baby.

Sacrotuberous ligament
This ligament deserves a regal entry. This dude is the unsung hero of all pregnancy. So, the sacrotuberous ligament makes a lot of things work: it attaches the spine to the leg (sacrum to biceps femoris, aka major player of the hamstrings), it protects the pudendal nerve (responsible for muscle tone in the perineum--wowzas!!), contains branches of the gluteal artery, Similarly to the round ligaments, if a woman has pelvic trauma, this ligament can lose it's flexibility, thus preventing the pelvis from opening properly during labor.

Sacrospinous ligament
The fibers of the sacrospinous ligament are integrated into the sacrotuberous ligament, but this job of this ligament is to essentially create the greater and lesser sciatic foramen. If you have ever been pregnant, and developed sciatic-like nerve pain...this ligament could be a contributing factor. Again, this ligament, as it is so closely related to the sacrotuberous ligament is going to have heavy influence on the pudendal nerve, which is the nerve that helps determine the muscle tone in the perineum; if the perineum is taut, you are more likely to have perineal tearing and postpartum incontinence [1]

Abdominal muscles
The abdominal muscles are an accessory in birth. While the myometrium of the uterus is responsible for the actual contraction, the abdominal muscles are there for backup and extra "oomph". Guess where the insertion of 2/3 of the abdominal muscles are? Either directly on the vertebrae in your spine, or on the tissue that is attached to those vertebrae,

Pelvic girdle
The Pelvic girdle consists of muscles, bones, and ligaments of the pelvis that ideally open symmetrically to allow baby to exit. Pelvic girdle pain is exceptionally common in the last trimester and up to 16 weeks postpartum. Many of the muscles in this area are innervated by the pudendal nerve. Previously we said that the pudendal nerve was closely related to the sacrotuberous ligament, and that between the round ligament, the sacrotuberous ligament, and the abdominal muscles, the attachment sites for all of these are either on the spine or directly to the bones of the pelvis.

So what does Chiropractic have to do with any of this?
Chiropractors who specialize in pregnancy should know how to address all of these ligaments and bones. Our pelvis is responsible for keeping us moving. Think of it in terms of survival; our arms are held on by a flimsy articulation and 4 main muscles. You can lose an arm and still get away from the lion chasing you.Your legs are held on by one solid ball in socket articulation; in our body this is the most stable a joint can get and still move. Beyond that, there are at least 5 ligaments and 4 muscle groups (multiple muscles working together) to keep your leg on; because you need the leg to escape the lion. So then amplify that by a million, when we incorporate a mother's protective reflex, and you begin to realize the significance of this hammock that we make while pregnant.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279110/

Carbohydrate consumption and estrogen

It's been a while since we did a more keto/research filled post. So, let's hop on it!

First:
Estrogen dominance is an umbrella term for a culmination of health issues affecting not only fertility, but the whole body [1]. It is important to note that estrogen dominance doesn't necessarily mean an excess of estrogen, but potentially a lack of progesterone. This is significant because in some instances, decreasing estrogen may not be the issue. Over all, we know that elevated estrogen contributes to a gambit of health disorders, but progesterone is what holds estrogen in balance.

Next:
Previously I've shared some articles about long term benefits of a reduced carbohydrate diet. I'll openly admit that the fad aspect of the ketogenic diet makes me want to roll my eyes so hard... BUT, things gain momentum and popularity often because they yield some semblance of the desired result, so for the sake of my experiences with low carb/ketogenic eating, I'm going to stick to it as my reference point. Please feel free to look back at those articles for more generalized information.

Here's what we know:
Xenoestrogens are becoming more prevalent in our lives [2]. This often leads to the body being unable to accommodate with natural progesterone production. Think of it like a line graph.

Sometimes in the cycle, estrogen is meant to be higher. For you Marquette/NFP/FAM people, this is the proliferative phase of your cycle. After the period, estrogen is the hormone responsible for building up a nice pillow soft landing for that fertilized egg. After ovulation, estrogen is starts to wane and progesterone takes over. Again, for your Marquette/NFP/FAM people, this PHASE III!!!! 💗💗💗💗 (for non-Marquette/NFP/FAM people, this is the least likely time to conceive, so, many couples use this phase exclusively for intimate contact). NOW, the important thing to note here is that progesterone is the dominant post-luteal (post ovulatory) hormone. So, for all you postpartum mamas and daddies out there thinking "Oh my gosh! We DTD on day 234234234 (mild exaggeration of course) and peaked the next day!!!" Guess what? Our bodies are so smart that in the postpartum phase, progesterone is trying to come back on line after all that lochia and prolactin and oxytocin that usually that post-luteal phase is so short that the body doesn't have time to make that super comfy pillow before the period starts. This is also a serious concern for all estrogen dominance disorders. This is only true for breast feeding mamas. Formula or non-ecological feeding mamas tend to have an earlier return of their period, and thus, ovulation [3].

So, let's say someone, somewhere, with some authority, has told you that you are estrogen dominant, or you've been diagnosed with dysmenorrhea [4], endometriosis*, uterine fibroids [5]. The information below belongs to you.

From research presented in this post, we can gather that there is a correlation between estrogen related health disorders and thyroid health. We can also gather that there is a relationship between estrogen and liver function. The liver metabolizes fat, filters the blood, and sends cholesterol packin' for the exit.

There are two main reasons that carbohydrates can be a contributing factor to estrogen dominance.

1. Fructose, the sugar from fruit, bypasses normal sugar breakdown and is immediately taken to the liver for storage (fat). Eating WHOLE fruit, not just juice, slows this down, but it happens nonetheless [6]. Also, fast available energy is going to unavoidably increase blood sugar (that's kind of the point), thus kicking the liver into "work mode". This should be a normal and common occurrence, however, in the proportions of the standard american diet, the liver simply can't keep up, at least not on any long term basis. This taxation forces the liver to "prioritize", and depending on the body's state, different things will result, but in any case the result is not the optimization of liver function [7]. Think of it like Lucy and Ethel eating chocolates off the candy line. Recent research shows that adipose tissue (fat) can actually produce estrogen, thus further contributing to the estrogen dominance [8].

2. The other way that carbohydrate consumption influences estrogen, and to me this is the biggest shocker, is mold. MOLD. This one blew my mind. Below, under "extra fun reading" you'll find one legit article, and then several weak, or wiki articles. These are purely supporting pages that let you know the sources of the mold mentioned in the first article. These molds that are directly known as estrogen metabolites are covering most grains, beans, and corn. It's not their fault that these molds love them so much, but anything that is mass ground (wheat, barley, corn) is going to contain at minimum trace amounts of these contaminants. And we aren't saying, "oh this may be a contributing factor." Science is saying "this may be THE THING". Mold.

By consuming a sub 25g net of carbohydrates a day, you are most likely not fitting wheat, corn, or beans into your diet. Thus, potentially removing 60-80% of the contributing factors of estrogen dominance.

*Frankly, non-reputable sources highly correlate endometriosis to decreased sensitivity to estrogen receptors...but I can't find anything that is accessible to the public (there are about 17 sources on pubmed, if you have access), but I wont cite crappy research.



1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113168/
2. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-11-S1-S8
3. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000992288802700804 ** if you have access to this article it is GREAT. I can't find it for free to share with you :(
4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02134006?LI=true
5.http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1209993
6. http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/abundance-of-fructose-not-good-for-the-liver-heart
7.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022473187902007
8.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11511861

Some extra fun reading about contributing factors of estrogen dominance:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC164220/
    a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zearalenone
    b)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberella_zeae
    c)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_culmorum

Ferocious Love

Today is not really about chiropractic, keto, or fertility. I guess my last post wasn't either. But today is sort of about my culmination of topics that is fed by my, "Why". Why does all this matter? Do these things even belong in the same sentence? Well, first, a story.

In 2009 I started working for a family in Santa Maria. I hadn't changed a diaper in over 10 years. I'd never worked with a kid with cerebral palsy. But here I was, killing it (sarcasm). I worked for a family with three children. A set of twins and one younger child. The twins' birth had been complicated and as a product, one of the kiddos had a fairly advanced Cerebral Palsy (CP) diagnosis. I was coming in about 6 months after his feeding tube had been removed; I think he was around 7 years old. When I met him, he was vibrant, intelligent, and really in to Batman. While he couldn't walk unassisted, his original prognosis was that he would never talk or eat. One time the mother told me that a doctor consulted her soon after the twins' birth and suggested that the twin with CP go to a home for children "like him." Her response is officially the topic of the day: "Not my boy."

This woman worked a full time 3rd shift job so that she could accompany her son to school when the school provided aid would unavoidably fail to show up. She worked full time in a separate business built for him to get the therapies needed to make him mobile. She lost friends, received criticism from family, and sacrificed promotions at work to make sure that her son was advancing. Her drive and passion throughout the past 14 years is, "He has to be able to survive without me."

So this week, as we barrel towards the Mother's Day weekend, I'd like to celebrate a certain mother demographic, the "Ferocious" Mother.

The ferocious mother is the mother that once she leaves the room, everyone's eyes widen and they exhale for the first time since she walked in. The ferocious mother smiles and rocks on her heels, laying in wait, as she anticipates the fallout. And once the first brick falls, she springs to action like a lioness towards her babies, keeping them safe and slaying people blocking the path towards her children's success. The ferocious mother succeeds when her children accomplish what doctors, family, experts, and sometimes even the children themselves, think can't be done. The ferocious mother is silent and pleasant, until the first glance of a furrowed brow from a baby. Then the ferocious mother becomes a wolf on the hunt.

As most of you know I am not a mother. I hope to become one, sooner rather than later, but as it stands, I don't know what it feels like to love something as fiercely as a mother loves a child. And it is also worth noting that ferociousness is not inherent. The mother that I am talking about is made through desperation. Some mothers are not this type of mothers, and guess what? That's ok!!!!!!  I don't suspect I'll be this type of mother; maybe that's why I have so much respect for these women that fight so hard for their babies.

I love ferocious mothers because a ferocious mother raised me. I was a little girl with a loving father and an absent mother. My grandmother saw that I needed ferocious love and she took me and protected me until her dying day. She pushed me, often to the detriment of our own relationship, towards success and away from the habits and traits that broke my own family apart. I'll never forget her wagging finger as she told my step-father that no stranger would be taking her granddaughter away in a car. I'll never forget the subtle dinner conversations that said, "When you go to college..." And even though she passed away before I started Chiropractic school, she knew I was going. She, in her 60's was waiting for me at midnight after marching band competitions. She threatened me, not with failure, but with mediocrity because to fail meant that I'd tried.

I met a woman recently, with two boys. She thinks that she hurt my feelings. She thinks she was mean. But I must say, with absolute adolation, that she simply let me know that she loves her children ferociously, and she wont let anyone stand in the way of her children's success. So to you, sweet, fiery woman, Happy Mother's day.

Resistance is futile...

Resistance. So, I've been reading The War of Art, and yes, I wrote it correctly. The main point of the book is that there is a force acting against our best intentions that keeps us from achieving our greatness. These barriers to success are usually some variation of rationalization and can best be visualized with the stereotypical frayed hair and twitchy fingers of "writer's block". These are what keep us in bed instead of going for a run. These are the reasons we don't firmly stick out a hand to our heroes and introduce ourselves. And frankly, these are the reasons that Chiropractors never have a community that understands what they do. 

I am a big fan of  knowing your enemy. Resistance is my enemy. It, for me, is the "Don't go to that event, you're so tired." or "Life is hard right now, go watch netflix."We combat resistance by doing what we are afraid to do or what would make us less comfortable. Why are you not getting out of bed to go on that run? What about 30 minutes of sleep (let's be real, facebook), is better than running around the block? 

I'm going to touch a very sensitive subject; one that I have rolled my eyes over for literally decades now. Have you ever known someone with an ok job, or a crappy job and one day that person tells you they are going on a crazy trip to Indonesia? Or that same person comes up to tell you they are going to Europe for a month? And immediately, you think something like, "Where did they get the money to do that?" We must delegate what we value; time and money are easily the most valuable things to most people. Ironically, those two things seem pretty inversely proportional but at the end of the day those two things are what make the world go 'round. So, many situations leave us exchanging money for time, or time for money. And that is the balance right? That's simply how it works. If you know how to get me more of both of these things, PLEASE do not hesitate to contact me :). However, what we need to squash right now is that you don't have time and you don't have money. Neither of those is true. If my super young, super optimistic, go get 'em friend can work a part time job waiting tables for 10 months and then take a month long trip to India, we all need to think about our "resistance" or our "values". 

I implore you to stop saying that! On the other hand, saying "I don't value it" is one of the most powerful things you could ever say. This says to people "I value my time and my money more than I value what you are offering me." And THAT is a game changer because it is a) the truth b) not propagating negative thoughts into the universe c) giving the presenter the opportunity to hear, "hey, what you just said, doesn't make me care any more about what you are doing. So... change it up. Come back later. Make me want it more," How useful is that? My entrepreneurial spirit is swooning at that type of constructive criticism. 

Now, let's tie it all together. I made the photos above, but I certainly didn't write them. Some of you may know that, some of you may have never heard of them before. This weekend I turned 30 years old, and on Saturday morning I attended a women's conference. Fact: moms don't do women's conferences. It's like they're busy or something? :) This conference rubbed me the wrong way. It was offensive, and kinda sorta in conflict with some major teachings of the organization, all that to be said, this was the blessing at the beginning of the meeting. I didn't want to go to this conference, and after I went I wasn't any more pleased but I defied resistance by attending. These commandments, another version of which hung at Mother Theresa's clinic in Calcutta, are my favorite thing. I think they are God, or the Universe's way of saying "Keep going." 

Despite my love of Star Trek, especially Jean Luc Picard (swoon again), resistance isn't futile. Maybe my fist-to-cuffs opposition of resistance is saying through gritted teeth, "Resistance! You are futile"... but really it serves a purpose. It is there to let us know that when we feel most resistant that is when we are meant to push back harder. 

So don't tell people you don't have time. Don't tell them that you don't have the money. You do. If you wanted to, you could. There are a million ways to scrape time and cash together. Tell them flat out that you don't value what they have. Be mindful to the resistance; do you not value it? Or are you afraid that it might actually make you a better person? 

The moving target of an ideal birth.

Millennials (yep, I'm going there), are culturally perceived to be lazy, but more and more research is showing that people in this age group are working harder, spinning their wheels earlier and longer, than other generations (see facebook meme a-aaaaaa, as example).

We as a whole are out to improve the world. As the Harvard Business Review article below states, millennials do not value vacation time, often choosing the statement, "No one can do my work as well as I do" as a comment on why vacations are on the decline. Is this a deep seeded remnant of arrogance? Or, have we simply come to believe what we've been told: "Become the best, so that you can't be replaced."

Maybe I see this more than others because I am in a profession that is solidly planted in entrepreneurship. Burn out is for REAL in my world; it is an actual threat to the survive/thrive plan. So, what does this ideology have to do with birth?

We, you, they, whatever you want to read, are over-achievers. My people, my crowd, my soul sisters and brothers are the Hermione Grangers of the world. I fancy myself more of a Ron, but at the end of the day I'm intellectually one of the laziest of my friends....and I am a HARD worker. This lends itself to smart people with a lot of promise, burning out way too soon. They burn out because their soul kissing dreams are intangible. Words like "success" and "financial freedom" float around, just outside of grasp because they are indefinite. Here's where birth comes in.

Different organizations surrounding birth have created guidelines of what is acceptable in the progression of normal pregnancy, and this amplifies in birth. In pregnancy you should measure a certain way, blood pressure should stay within a certain range, blood and urine analysis should show markers of health, weight gain has its own parameters, and fetal heart rate has a window of acceptable findings. Any variance from these numbers will inevitably involve some element of intervention. Sometimes this intervention is mild, like bed rest. Other times, the end result is a shell shocked new mom with a 24 week gestation baby, or worse. This is in no way to insinuate that medical intervention is unnecessary. I am quite literally the product of medical technology; if not for NICU services, I most likely wouldn't be alive.

In birth, there are Bishop Scores, APGAR scores, statistical rates of advancement, and other markers that indicate necessary intervention. Here is the problem: time is changing these parameters. As overachievers we want to be perfect. Ne'er you mind the mom who smoked throughout her pregnancy in the 60's, moms now avoid flying due to radiation exposure and avoid deli meats all in an attempt to give their baby the best start possible. These moms and dads are changing their whole lives from the day of conception (or possible conception) out of love  to the be the best for their children as possible. This is parenting. This is love and sacrifice from day one. Healthcare professionals tend to want to focus on objective parameters, and that is great! Generally, though, we aim to impose the statistical norms and that takes the control out of mama and daddy's hands, and places them in an algorithm. I am a huge fan of Improvingbirth.org. I want the birth world to be over flowing with research! But at the end of the day, if a mom is comfortable birthing at home, she should, unless absolutely unavoidable circumstances arise, be at home. If a mom is comfortable in a hospital, with every monitor and doo-hicky attached to her, she should be there.

 We can not turn birth in to a race. We can't turn it into a talent show where someone loses. When we do that, competition and self-depreciation become the name of the game and no one, especially that new family unit, will benefit. No matter where a woman labors and delivers, when she meets the eyes of her little one, there should be no room for anything but absolute adulation. The target should be that look. The target is that smile, or sob, or throwing heads back, or hugs, or whatever, but it should be ideal in the eyes of mom and dad. Ideal doesn't mean without a hitch, it doesn't mean a baby born in the caul in a tranquil water birth, it doesn't mean sans stretch mark, it doesn't mean measuring exactly 35 cm at 35 weeks. It means, at the end of the day, Mom and dad (insert any birth partner and their relationship to mom), know that they have done what was best from their own knowledge base.




Harvard business Review article about the work-a-holic-millennials

The Guiding Principle

The guiding principle for all that I do is this: Your body is a self healing organism. Our existence depends on our ability to break down and create new cells, organs, and tissues (with the exception of a few) on a regular basis.

 This principle is dependent on a good communication between the central command, your brain, and the end organ. When everything is clearly heard and understood, the body is functioning at its peak, and this is what we would call health. Anything less than this ideal performance is not ok.

If the communication is compromised by a vertebral subluxation*, or misalignment, then those normal cycles of break down and creation are negatively impacted. When this happens your body is not able to do what it was designed to do, and chaos ensues.

Chiropractic restores order in that chaos, and supports your body's ability to regulate cell, tissue, and organ function on it's own.

When you come in to our office, unless we are old pals, we are looking at your life purely in the information provided from exams, tests, and story that you provide us; this means that as we move through your health and history we are painting a picture of what today looks like for your body. Often this painting gives us a glance at what we can expect from your health ten, or twenty years from now. It is my goal in practice to empower families to be as active and present with each other as possible, to build strong units that adapt to whatever life may throw at them. To me, this means making sure that mom and dad are set up to play, provide, and connect, and that baby is eating, pooping, sleeping, and growing to the best of their ability. Being a parent is basically like being an athlete,..except there's no off season...or sweet endorsement deals. Most notably; it is not easy all the time. Some phases are easier than others, some situations are easier than others. If we have that clear line of communication between the brain and the body and we have a little more of that organization in the chaos, then we have good foundation for that family to grow and develop like it was meant to.

I look forward to getting to know all of you a lot better as I not only re-integrate into the Central Coast culture, but also as I join the Beacon Clinic.


*More on this later :)