Wk 12, Day 54 - Friday

We had our end of the Trimester party on Friday night at a local bar called Hotshots located in Manchester, MO so, I stayed with a classmate and her husband who live across the street from the bar so I wouldn't have to do any driving.  It was really nice being out in the area and so close to school.  I was just a quick 10 minutes away so I was able to spend some extra time in the cadaver lab.  

I've got a plethora of thoughts in my head and might do well to categorize these thoughts;

My first blog follower - Dr. Michael G Rehme, DDS, CCN

Political philosophy

Semantics ...

Politically I'm thinking of the judgemental hypocrisy I seem to be swimming in via everything from the Student Doctor's Council (SDC) at school to members of my own family.  Both sects seem to be selectively perceptive when it comes to the evils of the world, basically if it's an evil they indulge in then it's OK but for anything they don't indulge in then it's a sin and needs to be stricken from the face of the earth.  

Soda seems to be one of those great evils unless of course, you add alcohol to it then it no longer seems to be spoken poorly about.   Coffee seems to be another evil unless maybe you add Bailey's Irish Cream to it then it's not criticised anymore - where does this hypocrisy come from?  I think it was just two weeks ago when a police officer was driving drunk in Manchester and ended up killing four people.  

We had a couple high school groups in our cadaver lab today and I heard one of the teachers comment that 100% of people who smoke die of heart disease - please, can we get any more stupid?  Does that mean if I smoke I never have to worry about getting in an automobile accident and losing my life that way?  I suppose nobody in the world trade center that died on September 11th were smokers because smokers only die from heart disease.  

From basic organic chemistry I believe we learned alcohol was broken down in the body into acetaldehyde which is, in fact, a toxic compound in the human body.  Maybe the SDC at Logan has forgotten all this which is why they give so much alcohol away for free at so many of their events.  But, since so many of the students drink alcohol then I suppose it's easy to overlook - it all depends what's popular and unpopular.  

Basically, as long as you're like "them" then you'll get along fine.  A couple of immutable facts keep crossing my mind in terms of governing bodies - One - just because an organization can do something doesn't mean they should and Two - just because an ideology is popular doesn't make it right.  

Are all these hypocritical judgemental people ignorant of the likes of people like Hitler?  He was immensely popular among his people and was able to make all kinds of changes - like erradicating and murdering over 6 million people.  

There seems to be another truism in that part of history in that whenever we can place blame we can ellicit a following.  

Why does this intrusive desire for a super race still persist?  Why does genuine caring seem to be limited by some only to others who are just like them?

I seem to have a knack for finding relationships among various things which may not seem relateable at first glance but, talking of Hitler actually does have a link to dentistry.  

From what I've read, one of the ways Hitler wanted to help control his people was through the use of fluorine in the drinking water which was the first time I ever saw that fluoride might not be good for us.  I've always just looked at the differences in teeth between people in the US and people over in Europe and noticed Americans generally had better teeth.  

Anyway, I was excited to find a Dentist who is also a Certified Clinical Nutritionist following my blog.  I've provided a link to the Doctor's website at the begining of this blog.  Dr. Rehme advocates holistic dentistry and on his web page you'll find a bullet list of what he does and does not provide and one of the things he does not provide (or promote) is the use of fluoride treatments.  This makes me think Dr. Rehme is way ahead of the curve in terms of health care as he's been a dentist since 1983 and became a mercury-free dentist in 1992.

For people not familiar with the notion of adverse side effects from fluoride they might be interested in this somewhat popular articles called Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb.  It is interesting to note that the first lawsuits against the Atomic Bomb program in the US wasn't over radiatoin but over fluoride damage.  

Now, I don't want to be irresponsible here and suggest fluoride should be totally eliminated but, like a lot of substances that are essential to life and good health fluoride is just another thing that can be toxic in excessive quantities.  Other substances which would fall in that category are salt, iron, vitamins A and D, chlorine, oxygen and even baking soda and water for that matter.  

With Semantics I've been pondering over Blue-Cross' decision to eliminate chiropractors from being referred to as physicians.  You would think that between MDs, DOs and DCs that the one with the most amount of schooling pertaining to the human body would be the one most apt to be labled a physician but, that doesn't seem to be the case with Blue Cross/Blue Sheild.

I've registered a URL called www.tripledocs.com for which I'm still awaiting hosting but I was thinking of the maxim most associated  with the hypocratic oath, namely, "Do No Harm" and I'm thinking to myself - what's less harmfull than a chiropractor?

MDs generally have malpractice insurance cost in the $50-70,000 range.  I know of an OBGYN who pays $106,000 per year and have heard of neurologist who pay over $200,000 per year.  

Insurance companies measure risk so which doctor/physician are you taking the greater risk with - one that pays anywhere from 50 to 200 thousand dollars a year in malpractice insurance or one that pays less than $2,000 per year?

And as far as the education goes - I learned this past weekend that not only does Logan College of Chiropractic use the same pathology book as Washington University, we have the same teacher as well.  

Chiropractors are hurting themselves due to their lack of political organization.  I'd imagine most all MDs belong to the AMA and I know physcal therapist are very well organized but of the 70,000 or so chiropractors in the US, only about 16,000 of them belong to any organizing body - not only that but we have the ACA (American Chiropractic Council) as well as the ICA (International Chiropractic Association) and from what I can tell in the cheap seats, it's not so much philosophy which differentiates the two organizations as much as it is ego.  

That in itself does a great disservice to the public.  Studies on insurance companies have shown that the average cost per patient is less for insurance companies which offer chiropractic care.  Other studies have shown health care cost have been reduced anywhere from 40-60% when a chiropractor is used as the primary health care physician.

Think about this - if you were living back 200 years ago then who would you wanted to have treating you, a chiropractor who wasn't going to use you as some kind of experimental laboratory or a traditional physician?  I guess back then we didn't really have a choice between medical doctors because either you were a doctor or you weren't.  DCs and ODs didn't exist back then.  

I'm not saying MDs are bad - I think they are a vital component to our society but one must consider the magnitude of the tools they have at their disposal and like I said before - when the only tool you have is a hammer then everything starts looking like a nail.  

And - if the philosophy of MDs was truly to "Do No Harm" then I would think they should be some of the biggest advocates of chiropractors especially since the side effect rate of chiropractic care lies somewhere between 1 out of a million and 1 out of 10 million.  

I would hasten to guess that there isn't a drug prescribed or a surfery performed with such a low side effect rate.  

That thinking lead me to registering the URL tripledocs.com - I'm still waiting for hosting to be completed and maybe I'm way ahead of what I should be focusing on considering I still have 9 semesters of school left but in terms of physicians I was thinking there should be a more symbiotic relationship.  I was thinking the care of the patient should come before the ego of the doctor and the axiom of "Do No Harm" was paramount.  

At first I was just thinking in terms of MDs, ODs and DCs and is why I registered the name tripledocs but, after registering the name I jotted some ideas down on a notecard and added Dentist and Podiatrist.  Then I was also thinking in terms of massage therapist, physical therapist and even personal trainers.  

From what I've been learning so far, it seems that chiropractors are trained pretty well in knowing what to refer elsewhere or to a medical type doctor in particular but I don't think MDs and ODs are schooled very well as to when to refer patients to a chiropractor.