The following articles have been extracted from The Health Connection, a quarterly newsletter which is published by Benner Chiropractic. • Adjusting the Chain • Do you really have a cold? • Health Alert • Kids and Chiropractic • More Health or Less Sickness? • Osteoporosis • The pH Test • What nutritional supplement does my body need? • What to do if you are in an auto accident. • What are the signs that you have an imbalance? • Why an adjustment doesn't "hold.   • Sharing Your Story     Adjusting the Chain In October of 1998 I attended a hands-on seminar on extremity adjusting conducted by Dr. Mark Charette, one of Chiropractic's leading authorities in extremity work. Extremity adjusting includes the wrist, elbow, shoulder girdle, foot, ankle, knees and hips. The clinical emphasis is on restoring function primarily to the joints, muscles and tendons. Since expanding my practice to include extremity work I have never seen better results. Patients receiving the knee adjustments have experienced the most dramatic improvement. Think of your leg as a chain that includes the low back, pelvis, tailbone, hip, knee, ankle and foot. Each of these joints is a link to the same chain. If any link is out of alignment the whole chain will be affected. I have seen patients' low back pain improve after I have adjusted their knees, and other patients whose knee pain improves after a low back adjustment. Similarly, by relieving tension in the shoulder blade, I have seen neck adjustments hold like never before. Foot neuromas, knee problems, carpal tunnel syndrome type problems, tennis elbow, and shoulder problems are typical scenarios that respond to this alternative natural approach to healing. If you or anyone you know is having difficulties in any of these areas, please give us a call at 602-870-3353. To Top of Page Do you Really Have a Cold? Sinus drainage, a runny nose, a sore throat are all early indications that you may have "caught a cold." What is really happening? Conventional thinking maintains that you came in contact with some virus and the virus is making you sick. What is the cause of your symptoms? Can you imagine taking a shower in coca-cola? If your body is to work well, it needs to be clean. You have two cleaning systems. The primary elimination system is your colon, liver and kidneys. Your secondary elimination system "back-up" is your sinuses, skin, uterus, prostate and lungs. Your body will only utilize the back up organs to eliminate unwanted chemicals if your primary system is backed up, overloaded, over stressed, etc. If your primary elimination system is chronically over stressed, coupled with not drinking enough water, your body will have to start draining unwanted chemicals out the sinuses, lungs, skin, etc. Most of the time this means your body has shifted into a cleanse. In other words, your body is now in a cleanse mode. What you have typically perceived to be a "cold" is in actuality your body's need to eliminate harmful chemicals for the sake of survival. Your body now has less energy for work and is working overtime to clean house. You haven't lost energy, your energy has been displaced. If your first symptom is fever, I might agree that your body is having to fight some type of bacteria or virus. Most of the time, however, your first symptom is a sinus drip, a cough or a sneeze. Of course, the best option is to prevent this process by not overdoing that which you "simply can't do without". . . your "only vice," etc. Once a cleanse has started, you need to help the body to process. Space does not permit what can be written in the way of helpful hints. A few of them are: hot bath with vinegar and Epsom salts, drink 10-12 cups of water daily, avoid or greatly reduce stimulants, drink 1 quart of carrot juice per day, drinking kali herbal tea, taking 1000 mg. of Vitamin C per hour until your body is saturated, etc. For an expanded version of this discussion, please attend one of our nutrition classes. To Top of Page Health Alert We are exposed to more chemical stress in our society than arguably any other society in human history. Most man-made chemicals with known side effects have been created and produced in the last 100 years. Although some chemicals have been helpful, especially in life threatening situations, many chemicals are used to preserve color, sweeten or stimulate. The more control we have with exposure to artificial and foreign chemicals the better. The following is a list of chemicals found in cosmetics, lotions, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc. Isopropyl alcohol (SD-40), Diethanolamyne (DEA, MEA & TEA), Imidazolidinyl (DMDM), FD&C color pigments, mineral oil, Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Propylene glycol (PG), Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), Triclosan. If you are experiencing skin irritation, rashes, nausea, mood swings, etc. you may need a break from a chemical that is irritating your body. Freelife is a company that makes products free of these chemicals. Trader Joe's and Wild Oats also have products that contain natural ingredients that are generally safe to use. We have more information available so please call us at 602-870-3353, if you have any questions. To Top of Page Kids and Chiropractic Children are wonderful to work with. They respond exceptionally well to care because their bodies heal quickly and are regenerating more so than degenerating. To help a child get out of pain or discomfort and to help them function better is very rewarding. Children's health difficulties often start at birth. The birthing process can be very traumatic for the mother and child and is known to cause spinal injuries. The infant may only turn its head to one side or breast feed on one side. Less subtle signs will typically go unnoticed by the parent. A very young child will fall on its buttocks 140 times per day while learning to walk. Perhaps one or both feet flair in or out while walking. An injury to the low back may make sitting in the car seat difficult. Worse yet, symptoms may not develop for years following an injury, which can cause a spinal condition to develop unnoticed. A child will have experienced approximately 2500 traumas, most of which involve the spine, before the age of five. The neck of a child is unable to support the weight of the head before age six. Children experience whiplash trauma frequently, most of which is seldom witnessed by the parent. Add to this the sports injuries, dietary stresses, peer pressures, recreational traumas, etc. These accumulated stresses and injuries, left untreated, will eventually manifest symptomatically as headaches, restlessness, neck and back pain. Most of the time I only need to use soft tissue work for children. Children are so receptive to gentle hands-on chiropractic care that they usually get on the table by themselves by the age of 18 months. Their little nervous systems get tight and build pressure just like ours and they appreciate feeling the relief that follows an adjustment. Their little hugs are definitely the most special to me. To Top of Page More Health or Less Sickness? Doc, I am here because I feel great!" "This is the best I've felt in years, and I don't want it to stop." "I'm enjoying my life again and I want to understand how this works!" How many of these comments describe your reason for going to see your doctor? Approximately 50% of the patients we see in our clinic on any given day are simply being checked to determine how balanced their bodies are and where unnecessary stress and tension is accumulating. Essentially, these patients want more health vs. less sickness. Most new patients, on the other hand, are in our office because they are in a state of pain or a state of crisis. Something isn't working right and their health concern is not going away on its own. Why do most Americans seek help only after the crisis has occurred? Simply stated, because they have been told to. They have been told not to worry until the pain comes; that when it does we should take a pill and wait for the "miracle" of medicine to work. Life itself is the miracle. The healer lives within us, not outside of us like a genie in a bottle waiting to be set free. Heroic medicine, crisis-care-intervention has dominated the American media for the past 100 years. Offering pharmaceutical medication/drugs and surgery, the medical profession has primarily focused on changing the symptoms/effects instead of handling or addressing the cause. While this approach can be life saving under emergency situations, it often fails to address the cause of our crisis. That is why for the past 10 years, more than half of Americans have chosen an alternative to traditional medical care for their health concerns. They are willing to pay out of their own pockets, despite having insurance that covers drugs or surgery. Over 100,000 people will die this year due to a reaction to a properly prescribed medication? Americans are now aware that health doesn't come in a bottle. The days of thinking that your lifestyle has nothing to do with your symptoms; thinking that you can go ahead, live it up, and just take a pill to heal, are over. Our bodies are magnificent creations, self-healing, self-regulating, self-regenerating. The idea that health is the absence of pain and health care is what must be done to keep us out of pain is something we have all been told to accept as reality. This has led us to the place of waiting to feel the pain before acting on our health. Waiting to be told what to take to make the pain go away. Waiting to be told what to take next when the pain doesn't go away as we had hoped. Did you know that all cancer forms without any symptoms? By the time you have any symptoms associated with cancer it is too late. Did you know that 80% of all heart attack patients felt no symptoms before the attack? A chiropractor typically hears a history that sounds like this: "Doc, I didn't do anything. I just reached for the waste basket and now I can't straighten up." Inevitably, in the very next breath this patient will state, "You know, before today my back was fine. I didn't have any pain." Your state of health is not measured merely be the absence of symptoms. Yet, most people are truly unaware of what is going on with their body. Your success in your quest for health is dependent upon your participation, your life style, and your environment. Your goal needs to be normal body function, not merely feeling better. To feel good all the time is not realistic. Your level of health is influenced by the six essentials: What you eat, what you drink, how you exercise, how you rest, what you breathe and what you think. When your body is functioning 100% and you are fully expressing your genetic potential, it feels great. For many people, however, if you take away the soda, caffeine, chocolate, nicotine, aspirin, ibuprofen, fast food, or whatever vice is actually keeping you from being aware of your body, it doesn't feel so great. It's as if you play this symptom-avoidance game just to feel okay. The unfortunate cost is your health. The bulk of the confusion as to when, for what, and why a person goes to a doctor is because sickness-care-crisis intervention is actually called health care by the media and health care emphasizing function improvement is called alternative care. But, what is really the alternative here? Please remember that pain is simply a signal that something is out of sync. When the cause is changed, the effect or symptom must change. If the oil light in your automobile were flashing, you wouldn't cut the wire that goes to the indicator light. You cannot treat the effect (symptom) as if it is the cause. If you have treated the effect, (i.e., your headache with an aspirin) the survival priorities of the body have simply changed, making the symptom less intense. Although we are not opposed to treating a symptom in this manner, from time to time, because we all have to work, handle our families, etc., we are absolutely opposed to treating the symptoms or effects day after day, year after year without treating the underlying cause. The unfortunate consequence will be your diminished health. Hopefully by now you have realized that health isn't merely the absence of symptoms. The choice is clearly yours. More health or less sickness? We encourage you to choose more health as opposed to less sickness. Use the B.E.S.T. procedure regularly to stay balanced as opposed to waiting until your body is in a crisis to act. Health care is affordable, sickness care is unaffordable. Be the best you can be and enjoy more health. To Top of Page Osteoporosis What is it any way? Who gets it? Do I have it? How do I fight it? These important questions and more will be our focus. Osteoporosis. It's a complicated sounding word that simply means loss of bone mass -- a condition of the "passing" of bone. When you lose more minerals from your bone matrix than are being absorbed, you're on the road to osteoporosis. You will first lose minerals from the bone, teeth, hair and nails, than from the blood. That is because the blood chemistry balance is a top priority for survival. So how does this imbalance come about in the first place? The inorganic (non-living) minerals in the soil are absorbed through the plant roots and converted or personalized into organic (living) minerals. Organic minerals are the only bio-available minerals that benefit our body. The sodium for instance in table salt (inorganic) is not the same sodium in celery (organic). Organic minerals from the plant kingdom, clean water and air, are the most important ingredients for our physical body. When we eat fruits and vegetables, our digestive system must process the food so these minerals, enzymes, vitamins, starches, sugars and amino acids can be absorbed into the blood stream. But even in the blood stream, these new nutrients are still foreign to the body. They must be absorbed into the individual cells where they are actually put to work (personalized). Once in the cell you now have minerals that are readily available for your body to use for the purpose of survival. REMEMBER EVERY DECISION THE BODY MAKES IS FOR ITS SURVIVAL. A diet that is 75% fruit and vegetables is necessary to maintain an adequate alkaline mineral reserve. The sources of acid-producing chemicals that drain our alkaline mineral reserves are found in animal protein, cooked foods, refined and processed foods, and stimulants (like coffee, certain teas, tobacco, alcohol and chocolate). Examples of processed foods are white flour, sugar, hydrogenated oils and sodas. Also found in these foods are artificial, man-made chemicals, consisting of colors, dyes and preservatives. When the body is being worked or stressed you are also producing metabolic acid by-products, such as lactic acid, malic acid, carbonic acid, etc., and these acids must be neutralized as well with personalized organic minerals. These all deplete your organic mineral bank account. If you keep withdrawing minerals long enough from the bones to neutralize all these acids and chemicals without sufficiently replenishing them you will develop osteoporosis. The number one cause of excess acid for the body is nerve-muscle tension patterns due to timing imbalances. The number two cause is acid-producing chemicals from what you eat, drink, breathe, or absorb through the skin. So, who is most at risk for osteoporosis? Anyone whose diet is not primarily fruits and vegetables, whose lifestyle is too sedentary, who exposes their body to excessive chemical stresses and who has excessive stress and anxiety in their life. Does this sound familiar? This is consistent with the American lifestyle! More Americans suffer with this problem than any other people in the world. The groups at highest risk are females over forty and males over fifty. Due to the importance of hormonal imbalance as it relates to bone formation, women are at a three times higher risk than men. How do I find out if I am at risk? The definitive test is called a bone density scan. It's the "gold standard" for determining the presence of bone loss. The test takes only five minutes, is painless, and you remain fully clothed at all times. The test usually costs between $100. to $400. To Top of Page The pH Test We use pH paper to help you determine if your diet or lifestyle is over-stressing your body. We use pH paper that has a 5.5-8.0 range. When the paper becomes wet it may turn color indicating if the fluid is acid (5.5-6.9), neutral (7.0) or alkaline (7.1-9.0). Your saliva and urine are the easiest fluids to test. The Acid Food Challenge For two days only eat acid producing foods, i.e. meat, chicken, fish, grains, dairy; ABSOLUTELY NO FRUITS OR VEGETABLES. Collect a small cup of urine on the third day, first void and then test the pH of the urine sample by dipping the end of a piece of the pH paper into the urine. Compare the color of the paper to the color chart. What the Numbers Mean If the urine pH is 5.5-5.8, your alkaline reserve is adequate. Your body has enough alkalizing minerals to handle a concentrated load of dietary acid. Go back to your regular diet and after two days re-test the first morning urine sample. If the pH number is 6.2 or below, you are eating too much acid food. Reducing dietary protein will be necessary to avoid depletion of your alkaline mineral reserve. If, after the acid food challenge, your urine pH is 6.0-6.6 it is not good, but not horrible. Your alkaline reserve is running low. At this point you have probably noticed some signs and symptoms like morning stiffness, aches and pains that improve as the day progresses. This is not "getting older." You are speeding up the aging process with too much dietary protein. Reducing dietary protein, increasing your vegetables and proper supplementation will be necessary to build up your low alkaline reserve. If the numbers are 6.8-8.0 after the acid food challenge, your body is headed for trouble. Your available alkaline mineral reserve is virtually exhausted and depleted. Instead of alkalizing minerals neutralizing the excess of dietary protein, ammonia is doing the job. Your ability to handle stress has been greatly compromised. You may be frequently ill, have a chronic illness, sore muscles and joints, usually tired, urine has ammonia odor and possible burning on urination. The more acidic your body becomes, the less energy you will have and the longer it will take to heal from injury or illness. Immediate dietary change and whole food mineral rich supplementation are absolutely necessary. Gradually changing your diet to more alkaline foods (fruits and vegetables) is always wise. Eventually converting your diet to 70% fruits and vegetables is necessary for maintaining good alkaline mineral reserve. Alka-Green and Trace Minerals are essential supplements to take especially if your pH numbers are above 5.8. Unfortunately, most American farming soil is mineral depleted. If you grow your own fruits and vegetables on mineral-rich, composted soil, you will be able to get all of the minerals you need from the food you eat. Otherwise supplementation is necessary to maintain ideal body function. If you are eating well, a high alkaline diet, but you are not feeling well and your numbers aren't where they should be, you need to test your saliva pH. Remember to eat healthy! More About Your pH There are essentially three modes of operation your body experiences everyday. Stress mode, digestion mode and rest mode. If your nervous system gets stuck in stress mode you will tend to have tight muscles, restlessness, hyperactivity, elevated blood pressure, hyperactive reflexes, etc. If your nervous system gets stuck in digestion mode you will have symptoms like diarrhea, gas, excess stomach acid, excess saliva, hypoactive reflexes, etc. A person stuck in rest mode can essentially fall asleep sitting up. How well you move in and out of these three modes is an indication of your overall state of health. The purpose of testing your saliva is to understand how your body is handling stress. The strong acid of a lemon is a substantial stress to your digestive system. Essentially you are forcing your body into digestion mode. Ideally, throughout the day, your saliva pH should be green, 6.8, and when you eat a meal it should turn the paper blue or 8.0. Testing your saliva pH is a simple procedure. You need pH paper, a slice of lemon or a teaspoon of lemon juice, a pencil and paper to record your results. The pH paper measures from 5.5 to 8.0. To simplify, 5.5-6.0 is yellow, 6.0-6.8 is green, and 7.0-8.0 is blue. Don't put anything in your mouth for two hours prior to the test, like toothpaste, gum, breath mints, food, juice or cigarettes. Make sure you have some saliva in your mouth and soak the end of the pH paper, compare the color of the paper to the chart that comes with the pH paper and record the number. Put a slice of lemon or the lemon juice in your mouth and let it sit, for approximately 10-15 seconds. Do not chew the lemon. You should feel saliva production during this procedure. Take the lemon out of your mouth, swallow four times to rinse, recheck your saliva pH and record the second number. Now you have two numbers and three possibilities for change. 1.) The first number may be higher than the second. 2.) The first number may be lower than the second. 3.) The numbers may be the same. If the numbers go up: 6.8-8.0, green to blue, is the preferred response. It means that internally you are handling stress well and your alkaline mineral reserve is adequate. Yellow to green is not the best but still okay. It means that your body is stuck in stress mode most of the time and it is difficult shifting gears and moving into digestion mode. You still have alkalizing minerals so diet change is not as important as balancing the nervous system. This is accomplished with a B.E.S.T. adjustment. If the numbers go down: Blue to green or green to yellow means your body is moving in the wrong direction. Your body is stuck in digestion mode. Green to yellow means it has been like that for a long time and your body is starting to become exhausted and fatigued. The nervous system needs to be balanced A.S.A. P. and diet change may be necessary for the green to yellow. If the numbers don't change: Blue-blue is not desirable. It also means the digestive system is stuck wide open and diet is not the problem. Balancing the nervous system is essential. Green-green is less desirable. You have mineral reserve but it is running low. The nervous system is stuck in stress mode and unable to shift into digestion mode. Body balancing is essential, diet change to rebuild alkaline mineral reserve is important. Yellow-yellow means serious problems. People who are seriously ill are yellow-yellow. But not all people who are yellow-yellow are seriously ill. Regardless of their current state of health, their diets and attitudes need to be restructured immediately. Their alkaline mineral reserve is essentially exhausted, and their nervous system is stuck in stress mode. They think that they relax when they sleep but they are just as tired as when they get up in the morning. Balancing the nervous system and diet change is long overdue. This group is truly in trouble and needs help immediately. This is a brief overview of how to monitor your nervous system and how well it is responding to stress. The booklet titled, pH Your Potential for Health, is a more in-depth overview of how to understand pH numbers. This is an excellent tool for you and your family. Get informed and stay healthy. To Top of Page What nutritional supplement does my body need? The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared our farming soil depleted of minerals in 1939. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved. Due to commercial farming, the quality of fruits and vegetables has been sacrificed for quantity. The produce in the average supermarket is lacking many vitamins and minerals. Less than one percent of people living in the city grows fruits and vegetables in mineral-rich, composted soil. Additionally, refined foods rob your body of what few vitamins and minerals are available. This is the primary reason people don't have the energy they think they should. Americans will spend in excess of five billion dollars this year on nutritional supplements with little understanding of what they need, what they are buying and how long they need to take the products they have purchased. Consuming a multivitamin, or "a little bit of everything," has become a popular approach. Often times the result of this approach is maintaining deficiencies because you are not getting   enough of what your body needs, and you are creating excesses by giving your body what it does not need. To Top of Page What to do if you are in an auto accident Research has proven that the damage to a car has little or no relationship to personal injury or soft tissue damage. I have seen cars completely totaled where the passengers received very mild spinal injuries; and conversely, I have managed cases with permanent soft tissue damage when there was little or no damage to the car. Spinal injury in a rear-end impact will occur with as little as 2.5 M.P.H. of impact speed. The neck is the most vulnerable part of your body primarily because it is very flexible and it supports the head, which on average weighs 12 pounds. Key factors that increase the likelihood of injury include: rear-end collision, wet road surface, being hit by a larger vehicle, being unaware on impact (this makes children extremely vulnerable to injury), head turned to the right or left, head positioned away from the headrest more than 1 inch, foot off the brake, vehicular displacement, etc. Like twisting an ankle, automobile accidents cause ligament damage to the joints of the spine. Unfortunately, damaged ligament tissue doesn't heal with new ligament tissue, it heals with scar tissue. Moreover, an accident victim is usually so shaky because of the adrenaline "rush," he or she may not feel any pain or discomfort for days or weeks following an automobile accident. It is important to have your spine completely examined following an automobile accident. A functional assessment of the spinal joints will help you determine what the accident did or did not cause. A lot of people have been bullied into thinking that if there is little or no damage to the car, they can't be hurt.   CHECKLIST Checklist to keep in your vehicle in the event of an accident. 1. With few exceptions, contact the police. 2. Avoid moving your vehicle if at all possible. 3. Make sure you have the other driver's license number and insurance information. 4. Take pictures, if possible. 5. Find out if there were any witnesses. 6. Reluctance by the other party to follow these steps is always a red flag. 7. Be examined by a licensed health-care professional specifically trained in musculo-skeletal diagnosis. This is simply not true. Research has also proven that to avoid permanent problems, an injured joint needs to be restored to normal function as soon as possible. This is why chiropractic care shines with this type of injury. If you know anyone who has been in an accident and hasn't done anything about it please encourage them to be checked immediately. Finally, it is very difficult to think of what needs to be done when an accident occurs. The above checklist covers the basics. Drive safely. To Top of Page "But, Doctor, Yesterday I Was Feeling Fine." Does this sound familiar to you? You wake up, everything "feels" fine, then you bend over to tie your shoes and suddenly you can't straighten back up again. Or, how about, "Doc, I just bent over to pick up a piece of paper and now I can't move. I didn't have any pain before that." Or maybe, "Doc, I just reached over to turn off the alarm clock this morning and now I can't move my neck." Can you relate to any of these classic descriptions? I am constantly amazed at how much stress and tension can accumulate in our bodies without obvious symptoms. We are usually unaware of the beginning stages of timing imbalance. By the time we have symptoms, we're in the crisis. How it works is like this: First, the body becomes imbalanced. Then stress and tension start to accumulate. Later tissues or organs become fatigued to the point of exhaustion. Finally symptoms appear. By the time you feel the symptoms you're four to five steps removed from the cause. In order for you to optimize your health and express your God-given genetic potential, you must develop the habit of identifying when your body goes out of balance. There are a number of signs and symptoms associated with being out of balance. We have compiled a list of the most common ones (see right column). We may have missed some, so let us know if your symptoms didn't make the list. You can drive a Volkswagon or a Ferrari and if the timing is off you won't be getting up those hills very well. By becoming more sensitive to the signs that your body is out of balance, you will be in a better position to understand the cause of the imbalance. Generally speaking, the three causes of imbalance are trauma, toxicity and thoughts. If after a night's rest the sign or symptoms didn't change, get assistance by being checked. Stay balanced. Stay well. To Top of Page Signs you are out of balance: • Trouble with sleep • Headaches • Lack of energy • Nervousness • Soreness upon awakening • Shoulders up around your ears • Trouble concentrating • Overwhelming anxiety • Inability to sit still • Irritability • Lack proper coordination • Excessive crying in children • Indigestion • Excessive appetite • Restless legs • Shortness of breath • Mood swings • Non-appetite • Ear infections in infants • Excessive gas following eating • Sudden anger • Excessive perspiration • Constipation/diarrhea • Mind wanders • Teeth clenched/ grinding • Excessive eye movement • Hyperactivity • Mouth is often dry • TMJ -- tightness • Dizziness • Restricted range of motion • Visual focus is irregular • Heart palpitations • Ringing in the ears • Foot flare with walking • Mouth is excessively wet • Changes in visual field • Pain needs to be relieved with heat • Uneven shoe wear • Inconsistent field of vision • Menopausal Distress • Hot Flashes Why an adjustment doesn't "hold." Have you ever had an adjustment that only lasted as long as it took to get to your car? Has it ever seemed that your body needs the same adjustment time after time? Has your body ever felt too tight to receive an adjustment? Most people who have received chiropractic care can relate to these questions. These questions are characteristic of some popular concerns the public currently expresses regarding chiropractic care. I believe that there are two simple answers, which is why I practice Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique (B.E.S.T.) A six essential imbalance, or a cause, has not been identified and neutralized. What you eat, what you drink, what you breathe, what you think, how you rest and how you exercise, play a large role in how you will respond to chiropractic care. Any imbalance in the six essentials will only serve as a constant source of distraction. I only get to work on you for approximately 10 minutes. The rest of the time your health is up to you. Start with one or two changes for a week or so. Perhaps an apple a day, a 20 minute walk per day, 30 deep breathing exercises, a five minute stretch routine, a salad every day for lunch, more water and less coffee, etc. Keep your goal simple, attainable To Top of Page and write it down on paper. Finally, update your goal and add a new goal before you have reached the old one. For example, eat one serving of raw carrots for one week. Health is not a state of being, it is a state of becoming. In 1895, Dr. D.D. Palmer, the founder of Chiropractic, said that a bone being slightly out of alignment, putting pressure on surrounding tissues is caused by trauma, toxicity, or thoughts. I have seen spinal misalignments on X-rays improve with no manipulation and I have seen no improve- ments on X-ray findings after 40 or more spinal manipulations. After experiencing over 50 different chiropractic techniques and applying what I have learned to thousands of patients in over 18 years of practice, I am convinced that most of the time a bone out of alignment is an effect, not a cause. B.E.S.T. is a non-force, soft tissue, body-balancing technique that effectively helps me identify cause for the patient. A body will heal unless there is a distraction. Remove the distraction and healing will always occur. Cause of body imbalance and the six essentials of life are discussed in detail at our in-office workshops as well as on the Educational/ Workshop Page of this web site. Sharing Your Story   Let's pretend that you have had migraine headaches for the past 20 years.  They get so intense that you have to turn off all the light, sound, etc...because anything that comes your way makes the pain worse. You have tried "everything" to solve this problem and after your first or second adjustment you got complete relief.  What has been the cost to you in trying to solve this puzzle?  Calculate all of the missed days of work, domestic duties that went on hold, Doctor appointments, insurance premium increases, co-payments, out of pocket fees for services or products; all this added over a 20 year period.  Not to mention the pain and suffering and what that meant to you. But now your life has changed since the pain has gone and you know the pattern has changed. What is that worth to you now? If only you had known about this procedure 20 years ago. Imagine the difference that would have made in your life. What really matters now is the fact that someone shared his or her story with you and that influenced you to try something different. What is your story today? How has your life been changed since you've received a B.E.S.T. adjustment? Perhaps your blood pressure has stabilized, maybe you sleep well again, your digestion is working, your teeth don't clinch, the ankle pain you thought you would have to live with for the rest of your life is completely gone. Whatever the change you have experienced, you have a story to tell. I encourage you to share your story. Those around you want to know your truth and they need to know that there's more than one kind of Chiropractor. Please, remember Doctors don't fix bodies, bodies heal. The power that made your body is the power that did, and will do, the healing.  There are qualified B.E.S.T. practitioners across the country, so people you know can get help just about anywhere. Call 1-800-874-1478 to find a B.E.S.T. practioner. Thank you for sharing in our concern for others. Following are stories our patients have shared: To Top of Page   "I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at age six. After suffering for 7 years with uncontrollable bleeding, they removed my large intestines. Bleeding stopped, but food continued to pass through my body undigested. I had additional surgeries and tried a variety of therapies and treatments but none relieved the colitis at all. I eventually found Dr. Benner and the B.E.S.T. procedure and in 3 short months the colitis changed. My bowels formed and my nerves were settling down. This is the most normal and relaxed my nervous system has been since age six (now 39)." Dean C. "I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 1996. I was unable to work, had no energy, lived in a constant state of exhaustion and every morning felt like I had been run over by a truck. As soon as I started getting balanced and started taking Alka Green, I didn't need to rest as often. I now go most days without resting, my sleep has improved, and the chronic pain has lessened considerably. My body is more balanced, I am now exercising and resting better and am feeding my body healthier food. As a result, I was also able to stop my blood pressure and cholesterol medication." Barbara B. "I came to this office for help with my balance. I had been falling for no apparent reason to me several times a day. I could stand up and fall right back down. I have not lost my balance since my 1st B.E.S.T. adjustment 6 weeks ago!" Iris D I began treatment for hormonal problems. After my first B.E.S.T. adjustment I got the first cycle I have had in 10 years. They have been regular and consistent ever since, and it has been almost 1 year. I was also able to discontinue all prescribed hormones within 1 month of care!" Deanna E.