[originally published in KCN, June 2015]
“Sublata Causa Tollitur Effectus” occupies my office whiteboard. While some mistake it for a Harry Potter magic spell, it’s just a Latin phrase I found in a book that — while not “magical” — has the potential, if understood correctly, to be truly transformational: “The effect will leave when the cause is removed.”
Simple. Succinct. And, in my opinion, brilliant. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, February 2015]
One of the most exciting aspects of health and the human body is change. Your body, and therefore your health, is constantly changing. Either it’s getting a little bit stronger, or a little bit weaker. There is no Switzerland. There is no neutral. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, December 2014]
I stood at the clinical white sink and depressed the pedal with my right foot. Hot water streamed from the spigot and hit my hands. I began scrubbing. Three minutes to be exact — all the way up to the elbows. I was being watched. This is the protocol here at the hospital where my newborn is currently receiving care.
As I settled into a comfortable washing rhythm I began thinking about how this very procedure — washing hands — was once scoffed and ridiculed. And, yet, now it is completely accepted. It’s common sense. And in this case, required. Dr. Semmelweis would have been proud. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, May 2014]
I ran across this quote from late fitness expert Jack LaLanne. It resonated with me because it’s such a true statement. People are living longer lives, but in their latter decades, they’re not truly living. Instead, they fall into what I call a “dimmer switch life” — taking years to slowly fade into their graves. It shouldn’t be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, March 2014]
Scribbled on my office white board with mathematical symbols was the equation: Chiropractic does not equal health. My patients were stunned. Surely this was a heretical chiropractic proclamation!
“How can you say that Dr. Lamar? Isn’t that the whole point of chiropractic?” went their puzzled queries.
“Nope,” was my response every time. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, February 2014]
Safety pins. They’ve been around for more than 150 years and have seemingly endless uses, not the least of which is the reason we chiropractors like to use them.
Sounds odd, I agree. To be more accurate, most chiropractors of today don’t use them at all, which is a shame.
No, it’s not an old school style of adjusting — unless adjusting “between the ears” counts. Rather from as far back as 1927, chiropractors of yesteryear have used safety pins as a way of explaining what they did. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, January 2014]
“Deliver your message to Garcia” is hardly what you’d expect to read on a bathroom wall, but it is precisely what was scribed above the faculty toilet at the Palmer School of Chiropractic a century ago. BJ Palmer, our profession’s developer, was known for making the walls of his learning institution “speak” — even if the wall happened to be in the bathroom. No square inch was safe from his sign-like display of painted epigrams. The school was covered with thousands of these short, pithy, thought-provoking sayings. They were designed to not only spark interest, but reflection, and over time, action.
While many were self-explanatory, like “Keep Smiling,” some were not. “Deliver your message to Garcia” may be nonsensical to us today, but it had great meaning and cultural popularity in the first part of the twentieth century. (more…)
[originally published in KCN, March 2013 and Spizz Magazine Vol 2 Iss 2 2013]
I have many a tale to tell from behind our Spinal Column Radio microphones. In the past, I’ve told of groupies braving the rain to take in a show, and how we podcasted atop the nearly forgotten grave of Harvey Lillard — the once deaf janitor who holds a place in chiropractic history as its first patient. But I’ve never shared how this legend in chiropractic was responsible for bringing us a fan. (more…)
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