A couple of weeks ago several of our office staff went to Clearwater, Florida for our almost monthly management workshop.  The workshop starts at 9:00 on Thursday morning after our flight arrives in Tampa at about 10:30 Wednesday night.  By the time we get our rental car and get to our hotel, check in and get to bed it is usually well past midnight and sometimes pushing 1:00 in the morning.  We most often get about 5 or 6 hours’ sleep the night before our Thursday morning workshops.  I don’t know about you, but I require no less than 7 hours’ sleep in order to function at full throttle the next day.  Without my normal amount of sleep I can have a tendency to be a little on the grumpy side, so on the occasions that I miss my usual 7-8 hours of blissful rest, I supplement my lack of energy with good strong coffee.

The Thursday morning a couple of weeks ago when I desperately needed my coffee the hotel restaurant made exceptionally weak coffee and I just could not get it down.  I went to a local jiffy mart and saw a wide array of energy drinks offered for sale.  I have seen these things at the stores around town before but haven’t paid much attention to them since I almost always have plenty of energy already, but this morning I was in dire need.  I settled on one made by SoBe which was called “No Fear” and was sugar free, of course.  I read the label and was satisfied that I had at least heard of all of the ingredients and none of them were lethal, so I drank it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it actually tasted very good.  It had a hint of passion fruit flavor and just the right amount of carbonation.  As the day progressed I did not feel the grumpy tiredness I usually feel after missing my precious rest and my mind remained sharp.  I was able to enjoy the workshop and did not get jittery at all, which I sometimes do if I overindulge in coffee.  I decided that maybe these energy drinks warranted a closer inspection.

I checked the main ingredients of the SoBe No Fear and was surprised that most of the supplements contained in it are actually good for you.  One of the main ingredients of this super energy drink is taurine and upon investigation I discovered that taurine is an amino acid derivative that shields the heart form harm.  It assists bile acids in clearing cholesterol from the body and can actually help to lower blood pressure.  I knew that taurine is an amino acid but I was not sure what it does.  I am pleased with these properties, so I moved on to the next one.  Inositol was the next ingredient, and this is simply a form of Niacin which I take anyway to assist in lowering cholesterol.  Creatine is also a major ingredient of No Fear, and it is a supplement which is taken by many exercise enthusiasts to assist them in building muscle.  I could use a little more muscle, so I like this one, too.  The next major ingredient listed was Panax Ginseng.  This form of ginseng is a popular energy tonic that has been used for revitalization for thousands of years by many people in Asian cultures.  Other things in this particular drink included vitamins B6, B12, C, folic acid and selenium.  All of these have beneficial effects on the body including powerful antioxidant functions.

Ingredients are listed on food labels in the order of highest concentration.  For example, in regular soft drinks the first ingredient is carbonated water and the second one is high fructose corn syrup (sugar).  These are the two main ingredients in regular sodas.  Everything else is coloring, preservatives and whatever flavoring is added with the exception of occasional caffeine.  The twelfth listed ingredient on the label of SoBe’s No Fear was caffeine and the twenty second listed ingredient (out of a total of 25 ingredients) was guarana seed extract.  These two can be detrimental if you tend to have hypertension or are sensitive to caffeine in other ways.  Both guarana and caffeine can excite the heart and raise arterial pressure, so if you have heart problems or hypertension you should avoid anything containing these items.  Indulge in the various energy drinks on the market but always read the labels first to see what it is you are putting into your body.

Nothing in the world can replace the proper amount of sleep, but there are occasions on which we cannot avoid coming up short on the snoozes.  I have managed before to bridge that gap with coffee and I suppose I could still continue to do that on those odd days.  But when I want something refreshing that has everything coffee has to offer and some bonus supplements that my body will be happy to have I will reach for one of the many available energy drinks.  Unfortunately for me, the SoBe No Fear Sugar Free is not available in Milledgeville.  I have looked everywhere.  Maybe I will become an importer from Florida.  Treat your body well.

It is amazing what misinformation will do to people.  Misperceptions about anything should always be met with education about it before irrational opinions are formed.  When I was a child I wouldn’t eat spinach because I thought it would make me look like Popeye the Sailorman.  I thought he was ugly and I didn’t want to look like him, so I wouldn’t eat spinach.  As a young adult I voted for people based on what other people said about them, rather than paying attention to their platforms and assessing what effect their decisions might have on my life.  My decisions in both cases were based on nothing solid and my conclusions were irrational until I educated myself and started to make my own decisions.  I now love spinach raw or just about any way you cook it and I am a huge advocate for people to exercise the right to vote if they are informed about the issues.

As a doctor of chiropractic I have discovered that many people form opinions about what we do based solely on hearsay and irrational fears.  When people who have never gone to a chiropractor think about going to a chiropractor, they sometimes envision the Terminator movies or Bruce Lee movies when villains’ necks are snapped around behind their heads and the sound effects are the most awful crunching noises.  Most times when I meet a new person in my office I learn that he or she has no true perception of what goes on here.   I hear horror stories about what they THINK might happen, but rarely is the thought based in reality.  The greatest fear of people who are misinformed about what we do is the fear of the “popping” sound that is produced often when an adjustment is delivered.  Three times in this past week I have addressed this issue with people and felt it was a good time to address it here for those of you who wonder but are afraid to ask.

The joints of the spine, like most other joints in the body, are surrounded with fluid which lubricates and nourishes them.  This is called synovial fluid, and it is a thick fluid which has some gas bubbles suspended in it.  The gas bubbles are mostly carbon dioxide with some nitrogen.  If a joint in the spine is fixated, it is not moving properly.  When it comes to joint health, motion is life, so a chiropractor removes the fixations and restores proper motion to the joint.  A specific chiropractic adjustment to the fixated joint accomplishes this feat. This requires a slight separation of the joint surfaces which results in shifting of the gases inside the joint capsule, and releasing pressure in the joint itself.  The pressure difference creates a slight vacuum in the joint and when the fluid quickly moves to fill the vacuum the gas bubbles are released, giving off a slight “popping” sound.  The bones are not actually rubbing against each other.  There are discs made of very tough cartilage fibers between them that prevent the spinal bones (vertebrae) from being in direct contact with each other. The sound produced is very similar to the one you might hear when someone “pops” his knuckles.

The noise which is often heard, however, is irrelevant.  An adjustment can take place without the noise.  Some techniques chiropractors use cause no noise at all in the joints but are perfectly adequate for making proper spinal adjustments.  The most powerful thing that happens when an adjustment is given is that at that moment there is a dynamic release of pressure from the spinal nerves, joints, and the spinal cord.  This releases positive healing chemicals which pave the way for an optimal healing environment in your entire body.  When there is interference in the nervous system, organs and tissues in the body might not be functioning properly and a host of conditions could result.

This was a long answer to the question I have been asked hundreds of times – “What was that noise?” I was discussing this very question with a colleague the other day and she laughed at how many times she has answered the same one.  People just don’t know the truth until they ask.  I was present at a health fair locally last Thursday and people still, in 2008, ask the question about the “popping” noise.  Chiropractors are given a bad rap by moviemakers and people who are uneducated about what we really do, but as I read last week about criticism:  “To avoid criticism, DO nothing, SAY nothing, BE nothing.”  Have a great day and treat your body well.

Last week was a strange week for me.  It was a very busy Monday at the office so I was definitely ready for my bedtime Monday night.  It was one of those nights when, as I have heard my mom say before, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.  I was awakened from a deep sleep by the telephone at 2:39 am.  I groped for the phone and could hardly hear the person on the other end so I found myself yelling asking her to speak up.  As soon as I realized that I was trying to talk into the back of the telephone receiver I turned it over and heard the operator from ADT telling me there was an alarm at my office and I needed to meet the police there as soon as possible. Adrenaline kicked in and I flew out of bed to put on sweats and drive the usual half hour it takes me to get to work.  I learned that at 80 miles per hour it takes me only eighteen minutes.  During my journey I wondered if there was a break-in or if this was just another false alarm.  Either way I needed to get there quickly because the police are always there waiting after an alarm.  I squealed into the parking lot at my office to see the very patient police officer sitting in her patrol car.  It was indeed another false alarm.  After she walked with me through the office to be absolutely sure everything was secure we locked up the building again and I headed home.  It was almost 4 am when I climbed back into bed to finish my much needed nap.  Of course, though, adrenaline was still at work and every leaf rustle sounded like thunder so I could not go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried.  The alarm at 5:30 gave me a reason to go ahead and get up.

Tuesday was just as busy as Monday and after only 4 hours’ sleep the night before I was exhausted by the time I got to bed on Tuesday night.  I worked just as feverishly on Tuesday as I usually do, but I was working on borrowed energy.  I woke up Wednesday morning after a normal 7 or 7 and a half hours’ sleep but something was not quite right.  I was hot and nauseated.  I kept up my morning routine and exercised, sweating profusely.  At one point I started to quit but kept pushing myself.  I dressed for work and started the drive into town.  At the halfway point, I knew I had to turn around and go back home.  I had fever, chills, body aches, and I was about to throw up.  For the first time in over twelve years, I stayed home for the day.  I did not want to endanger my patients nor could I have worked if I had to.  All day Wednesday I spent in misery, managing to keep down only a Fresca and a cup of chicken soup by 8 that night.  Thursday was no better.  I thought for a short time that I was never going to recover.  I lost my second productive day in years on Thursday, fighting fever and nausea almost the whole day.  Something happened in the late afternoon and I felt as if a shroud had been lifted.  While I was still weak, the nausea left me as quickly as it came.  By Friday morning I was as good as new.

I have since talked to a few people who have gotten similar bugs but have stayed sick for much longer.  They all wanted to know what made the difference for me and how I got rid of my plague so quickly.  The first instinct for many people who get a fever is to take something to bring it down.  The body operates at its optimum temperature 99.9 percent of the time.  When some foreign virus or bacteria invades your body, your body innately raises its temperature to a point where the offender cannot survive.  If you bring your temperature down as soon as it goes up, many times you prolong your illness because you make the environment just right for the virus or bacteria to propagate and live longer.  A fever is a sign in many cases that your body is doing just what it was designed to do.  Some exceptions to the rule that you should just let a fever fight infection naturally are mostly for children.  Lower a temperature if you have an infant under 8 weeks old with a fever greater than 100.4 degrees, a skin rash accompanies the fever, or if you have a child whose core temperature is above 102.2 degrees.  Otherwise it is perfectly safe to let the body fight with slightly elevated temperature, according to pediatric researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

The same principle applies to having nausea and throwing up.  Throwing up must be one of the most unpleasant events one ever has to experience.  However, the body uses it as a way to rid the system of whatever is causing it to be unwell.  I would much prefer to go ahead and get rid of the offender than to let it stew in my body by taking anti-nausea medications. If the body needs to get rid of something that is making it sick by throwing up and you take something to keep you from throwing up, you might be prolonging the illness.  Most people get into trouble from throwing up because they allow themselves to become dehydrated.  As difficult as it might be it is essential to keep fluids going into your body to replace what is going out.  Water and any sports drink that is electrolyte-rich will do the trick.  Once you allow the body to do what it has to do for a day or so without interrupting its natural self-healing, self-regulating cycles you should be all right, barring any severe illness or complications.

Being used to having an ironclad immune system, I was miserable last week.  I hold the theory that if I had been well-rested and not working on borrowed energy and adrenaline I would not have gotten sick in the first place.  By listening to my body and allowing it to use its built-in self healing mechanisms I was well in less than 48 hours.  I am back at work, going strong, and sassy as ever.  Have a great week and treat your body well.

Mondays are exceptionally interesting days in our office.  In addition to our regularly scheduled patients, we invariably see a string of souls who have gone out into the yard over the weekend and decided to re-landscape in two days.  There are also those who haven’t swung a golf club in fifteen years but decided since the weather was so nice and all and Tiger did so well at The Masters that maybe Sunday would be a good day to play 27 holes or so.  Then there are the ones who made the mistake of going bathing suit shopping on Saturday and decided to start a new workout regime on Sunday and did the entire Pilates tape after Sweating to the Oldies.  You get the picture.  We affectionately refer to this wonderfully entertaining group as our Weekend Warriors, and this week’s column is dedicated to them.

The fabulous weather we are enjoying is enough to inspire anyone to get moving, but for those of us who aren’t staying in shape regularly it isn’t wise to tackle the entire universe in a fit of spring fever.  The first bit of advice is to take it slowly.  If getting out and getting busy is at the top of your list, take small steps.  Instead of re-landscaping the entire yard, choose one or two yard projects for the weekend and pace yourself.  Mowing the lawn hasn’t been a priority for several months, so do it in small increments.  Mow a bit then rest a bit.  Make certain that the muscle groups you are now about to begin using again become re-acquainted with the idea of work.  Often we see lower back strain and hamstring strain after a day of pushing the mower and pulling weeds.  Take a moment to stretch before going out into the yard and don’t overdo it.  As soon as your body begins to feel fatigued, stop.  Fatigue is a warning signal and should not be ignored.  Don’t worry.  The stamina will return and you’ll be able to do as much as you were last year, but don’t rush yourself.  If you’ve been sedentary over the winter take the time to build your strength again.  You’ll be glad you did.

Sports injuries happen to people who are in exceptional shape and play every day, so imagine the chance a  Weekend Warrior has at being injured.  The chance is about 100 percent unless some precautions are taken.  First make sure you know what you are doing.  If someone decides to take up golf on a whim without some skilled instruction, a disc injury in the lower back is inevitable.  I decided to do some ski jumping on the slopes in North Carolina in the spring of 1988 without proper instruction, and a devastating knee injury changed my life permanently.  Next, learn how to stretch and warm up.  Engaging in sports without proper muscle warm-up and stretching is absolutely foolish.   The most important aspect of becoming involved in any type of physical activity is conditioning.  Part of conditioning is stretching.  Regardless of what level of athleticism is involved, stretching is essential if you want to avoid injury.  I took three of my nephews to an Atlanta Braves game a couple of weeks ago, and the first half hour of their time on the field prior to batting practice was spent doing stretching exercises.  There must be something to this theory.

A simple stretch that is important to do in order to save your lower back is done every morning before your feet hit the floor for the first time.  As soon as you awake, pull one knee to your chest and hold it there for twenty seconds.  Then pull the other knee to your chest and hold for twenty seconds.  Finally pull both knees simultaneously to your chest and rock back and forth slowly.  This one minute added to your morning routine will save you many hours of suffering from strained lower back muscles.   I encourage all of my patients to perform this stretch every day.  You will be very happy with the results.

Hopefully this will help the Weekend Warriors prior to Monday morning.  As for the bathing suit shoppers, I’ll meet you at aerobics class.  I tried to buy a suit myself last week and am still recovering from the Pilates tape.  Treat your body well.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about several people who were involved in automobile accidents in this area.  One of them is a patient of mine who was forced to run off the side of the road and as a result rolled his truck several times.  To make a long story short, he was sent home to nurse his wounds and his wife brought him to me at his request for care.  As I performed an examination on him it became clear to me that he had neurological damage from the trauma to his head so I instructed her to watch him overnight and if there was no change for the better, she was to call me the next morning.  There was no change for the better, so I referred him to a neurologist who promptly sent him to Atlanta for specialized care.  As it turns out, it could be up to a year before his life is back to normal if it is at all.  A grueling regimen of therapy lies ahead for this patient and things we all take for granted, such as being able to walk, must be painstakingly re-learned.   Not only is his life affected by this incident, but his wife is forced to be away from the family business and his job is definitely halted as he tries to recover.

For this person an unfortunate accident that he couldn’t avoid caused the head injury.  There are many instances when people can prevent injuries which are life-changing but throwing caution to the wind becomes somehow more important.  I hear stories every Monday of how weekends were spent with friends doing this or that but the most disturbing one I hear is that of people who ride four-wheelers without helmets.   I personally have never ridden a four-wheeler, but if I did I would do so with a helmet on.  This column is a solemn request for those of you who do ride to consider yourself and the lives of the family members who would care for you in the event of a tragedy and put on a helmet.  It is very difficult to learn the alphabet the second time around, and putting on a helmet can save your life.  I have had the experience of seeing first-hand what head injuries do to people, and lives are stolen by head trauma in the blink of an eye.  Consider the story of a friend of mine from Savannah who decided one day to ride without her helmet.

Leigh was a pretty young girl with a promising career as a personal trainer well under way.  Her fiancé was a physician’s assistant with a well-respected orthopedic surgeon at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah.  One Sunday afternoon the two of them went for a ride on their four-wheelers and Leigh decided she wouldn’t use her helmet since they were going to be in the country and she could feel the breeze in her hair.  Nothing was unusual about the day other than the fact that they were going to a friend’s place outside of town to ride on some rare hills.  When Leigh went up one of the hills, she was moving faster than she thought and the vehicle flipped over backwards and she was thrown off, hitting her head hard on a rock.  She lost consciousness immediately.  Her boyfriend was right behind her and saw it all happen.  He did everything he knew to help her and quickly phoned for paramedics to rush her to the ER.  She suffered massive head trauma and compressed two vertebrae in her neck.

For a while the doctors weren’t sure if Leigh was going to live, but she did.  The last time I was in Savannah this past March several friends held an oyster roast and silent auction to raise enough funds to buy an electric wheelchair and ramp for the van in which she is driven everywhere.  She cannot do anything now without assistance because she is a quadriplegic.  She cannot feed herself nor go the bathroom without help.  There is no fiancé anymore because he couldn’t take the drastic change in their lives and was not prepared to care for a vegetable at home.  Their plans changed suddenly as a result of her decision not to use a helmet.  Was it worth it?  Certainly not.

I’m  sure there are tons of people out there who have ridden for years without helmets and have done so without incident, but it takes only one time and no one can predict when that will be.  Use your head and wear a helmet.  Treat your body well.

I don’t know what it is about springtime that brings out the haphazard ways of everyone but accidents are happening all over the place and we all need to pay better attention to what we are doing.  I am specifically concerned with children at play and the adults who are driving too fast to see where they are.  Three separate incidents in the past week, one of which involved me, have given me the wake up call and I am passing it on to you.

Last Monday a frantic call came from one of the caretakers of my 6 year old nephew who was riding his bicycle at home.  He has been told countless times to stay out of the road but of course the moment no one is watching he takes his bicycle immediately into the street.  Thankfully a kind man was driving by very slowly and was able to stop in time to allow Jordan to get out of the way, but had a driver been less cautious I shudder to think what might have happened.  It shook the man up enough that he went to the door of the house to report the almost accident.  Jordan lost his allowance and bicycle privileges for two weeks and thinks that is unfair.  We are thankful we didn’t lose Jordan.

On Saturday morning my partner, Dr. Tracy Green, got a telephone call from her sister in Charleston, South Carolina, to report that her 13 year old nephew had not been quite so lucky.  It seems that Zachary was riding his bicycle on the quiet street of his own neighborhood and was hit by a car.  The driver was not paying attention and neither was Zach, so the car struck him.  Lucky for him and all of his family he escaped with some minor bumps and abrasions but will be fine in a short time. He wore his bicycle helmet and his head was kept safe, but he did bet banged up a little bit along his legs and shoulders. Their family will not suffer any long term loss as a result of this mishap, but it could have been much worse.

Just this past Sunday morning, after a nice weekend in Atlanta doing museum hopping I was checking out of the Marriott Suites in Midtown on 14^th Street and was maneuvering out of the very tight confines of the parking garage.  Thankfully there was a car that was double-parked as its owner was either loading or unloading a huge cart of luggage and I had to drive very deliberately not to strike any of the concrete walls to get around them.  If I had been traveling at a normal 5 or 10 miles an hour to navigate the parking garage a young boy who was about 9 or 10 years old would be seriously injured or worse.  Out of the clear blue this little boy literally ran into my car as he flew on his skateboard down one of the ramps in the garage directly into me.  I don’t know where his parents were but I let him know how dangerous the situation was and that he could have been killed.  I was shaken for the rest of the afternoon as I drove home looking everywhere for children who might be playing where they have no business.  I crept across parking lots at the BP station and at Kroger like I was a 90 year old driver because I was certain that at any moment a child was going to dart in front of me.

We all know on an intellectual level that children have no business driving their bicycles or riding their skateboards in places where cars usually are.  We also know on a practical level that they will always be where they don’t belong because most of us did the same things when we were children.  No matter what our brains might think the responsibility of looking out for the safety of our children lies with us – the adults who have been entrusted with caring for and setting examples for them.  As parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and other responsible caretakers it is our job to teach our children how to keep themselves safe while they are at play.  As drivers we must keep children in mind all the time as we travel our roads, parking lots and parking garages as these forbidden playgrounds are sometimes too alluring for children to resist.  As taxpayers we might just need to request that bicycle lanes be made a part of future road planning not only for our children to use but also as a route for some people who might use a bicycle as an alternative to paying a king’s ransom for a gallon of gasoline.  Other civilized areas have done this with great success and bicycles are more readily utilized.  Check out areas of Atlanta and Savannah in close proximity to colleges and universities and you will certainly see bicycle friendly streets.

My eyes and ears have definitely been opened this week to the increase in traffic from children at play.  Please watch out for them as spring lights the way for summer, when children will be at home more and on their own wheels in places where you ordinarily might least expect to see them.  Treat your body well.

One of the greatest gifts that democracy has to offer us is the right to vote.  The ability to choose our leaders is one that is envied by many in other types of societies and one that many of us take for granted.  When I turned 18 I could not wait to go to the polls for the first time and cast my vote for the candidates I thought would do the best job for us.  Many of my friends at that time were completely oblivious to the importance of the right to vote and had an attitude that was complacent.  Even today I hear some people saying things like, “What difference does one more vote make anyway?’ and “It doesn’t matter what I think.  The government will keep on running without my input.”  “Voting is a waste of time.”  These same people are the very ones to complain about higher taxes, too many social programs, not enough social programs, lousy infrastructure, or just about anything else that comes to mind.

This past weekend several members of our office staff were in Philadelphia for a conference.  Our downtown hotel was about a 15 minute taxi ride from the remote conference site, so we got the opportunity to meet 8 or 10 taxi drivers, none of whom were from the United States.  I simply cannot bear to ride silently in a taxi, so I always strike up a conversation with the driver.  I like to know where they are from and what brought them here.  The subject of the upcoming election was a popular one for this trip, so I took an informal poll.  With the exception of one, the foreign taxi drivers had planned who they were voting for and had very strong opinions about their chosen candidates.  Regardless of how one might feel about foreign workers making a living in this country, these workers had strong beliefs about what is going on in our country as opposed to the governments in their homelands and were definitely planning to cast their votes on November second.  These people were informed and had deeply rooted reasons for their choices.  Not a single one said that he was voting for a candidate because everyone else is or because his minister said it was a good idea or because he flipped a coin.   All of them knew who they were voting for and why.

Last Sunday morning I was channel surfing in a hotel looking for a local station to give me the weather so that I could plan what to wear for the day.  No fewer than five televangelists were on at the same time and every single one of them were talking about the upcoming election.  Isn’t there supposed to be some rule about the separation of Church and State?  Anyway, these guys were basically telling their congregants who they wanted them to cast their votes for.  What is that about?  Are we not people with the gift of free will and the ultimate choice to do what we think is right and not necessarily what someone dictates to us?

There have been 4 debates.  Three of them involved the presidential candidates and one was between the vice-presidential hopefuls.  Locally we have had forums where questions were asked of the candidates that we are to support at our own level.  Information is available from this newspaper outlining what the candidates had to say for themselves.  Plenty of issues were discussed and enough information was exchanged to give us ideas about which side is the right one for us.  How have you been served by the incumbents?   What have their records been like in years past? Do the ideas and plans of opposing candidates sound as if they will serve you better?  What principles are they willing to fight to defend and which ones are unimportant to them?  How does this match your own life and how will the candidates’ decisions protect your future?  These are just some of the questions to ask yourself before you cast your vote.

There is a saying that if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.  That is very true.  I actually heard someone say last week that an incumbent was doing a good job but that her vote was going to the challenger whose spouse knew someone she knew and liked.  Come on, now.  We should all do our duty and exercise our right to vote, but don’t vote just to vote. If you vote because someone knows the spouse of someone who knows a candidate, that might not be a good reason to vote.  If you vote for a person because someone else told you to, it might not be a good reason to vote.  If you vote for someone because they are paying for you to get a ride to the polls, that too might not be a good reason to vote.  Please vote, but make an informed choice for the candidates which most closely match your own personal convictions.  Find out what is going on in the world.  It affects all of us.  Treat your fellow Americans well.

I can remember being about 19 years old and looking at Milledgeville in the rear-view mirror of my Toyota as I headed up 441 to go to work in sales somewhere, or at that time, ANYWHERE else.  I felt that Milledgeville squelched my ability to grow and express myself.  I needed to find out who I really was and I didn’t think I could do that here.  I felt that I didn’t belong at all in any groups at school, my first attempt at college didn’t reveal all of life’s secrets to me, and I had no idea how I was going to support the dreams I had of being someone with something to offer others.  I set out alone and eventually found myself living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Corpus Christi, Texas, Drums, Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Helen, Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, and Orlando, Florida.  Different sales positions had a way of finding me, and I was recruited by Marriott Corporation while I was working in Helen.

I moved to Orlando and that’s where my life changed.  I suffered from migraine headaches and a friend of mine introduced me to his chiropractor.  That chiropractor got rid of my headaches and I knew then that I was destined to be a chiropractor.  If this guy could do that for me, I had to know what he did and how to help others with it myself.  For the first time in my life, I had a burning desire to find my true purpose for being on this planet.  I had spent many years wandering around and running from myself in a futile attempt to make it in a world in which I wasn’t very comfortable when I was finally shown what I was meant to do.  Once I listened to the inner-directed part of me the universe basically aligned for me and the way to become a chiropractor was mapped out.  I sold my Marriott stock, horrified my family with my announcement, and went to Atlanta to go to school.  I was 29 years old before I found my purpose in life, but was it ever worth it!!

School was very difficult but rewarding at the same time.  I worked hard and soaked up every bit that I possibly could.  I went to different technique workshops to learn different creative ways to adjust the joints of the body and I was amazed every time I learned a new thing that the body could do.  I graduated magna cum laude as a result of all of my hard work, and I remember the day I turned my tassel with the rest of my classmates.  I cried for hours bursting with pride.  I had completed what I knew was the preparation for my life’s work.  The real work was about to begin, but I could only be grateful at that moment for actually accomplishing a lifelong goal.

I had always wanted to live in coastal Georgia, and Savannah seemed like a great place to me, so that’s where I decided to move after graduation.  I did not know a soul down there, but that had never stopped me from moving to a strange town.  At least I was in Georgia this time.  My clinic partner in school, Tracy Green, and I decided to move there together and pool our resources to start our first practice.  We bought a dilapidated old Victorian house near downtown and rolled up our sleeves to renovate it on our shoestring budget.  We did all of the work ourselves and three months later opened for business.  The experience was enriching, but we were in an area where we had to dig the crack baggies out of our flower beds and run the vagrants off our front porch before we could open for business.  It was a challenge.  I found myself driving back and forth to Milledgeville often to visit my family and after two years in Savannah got the idea that this would be a good place to practice if I could talk my practice partner into it. I managed to talk her into it.  We opened our practice in Milledgeville on May 18, 2001, and it has been a roaring success for us. I now appreciate Milledgeville for its beauty, history, small town flavor, and proximity to everything else Georgia has to offer.  I get to water ski in the warm months and can easily access the cultural offerings of larger cities when I feel the need to go there.  Like many other people who have left Milledgeville only to return with a new appreciation for it, I am making my home here.  There is something about this place that gets in your blood.

Part of my education was that I was running from my own victim mentality my whole life.  My father was absent for practically all of my life, I came from a working-class family where a silver spoon was nowhere to be found, and I spent most of my life blaming others for my failures to succeed.  When I finally realized that the only way out of a private hell is to take responsibility for your own life and get busy building it, all of the reasons for me not to make it seemed to disappear.  Gandhi was once quoted as saying that we must be the change we want to see.  I have spent every day since I heard that profound statement being the change I always searched for in my life.  Success is possible for anyone who really wants it.  The change is not geographic and it is not one that comes from the outside.  The only thing that has ever changed to improve my life is me.  I will be forever grateful for that.

Last Wednesday started out like any other Wednesday except that I became acutely aware that I was celebrating having been on Earth for 40 years.  I expected to have a meltdown or to develop sudden blindness and new wrinkles on my already sun-drenched face.  I was prepared for my abdomen to fall to the floor or a sudden cynicism to take over my usually bright disposition.  None of that happened.  Many people had waned me that “all hell breaks loose” when you turn 40. There is nothing of the sort to report here.  As a matter of fact, I had so much fun turning 40 that I think I might do it every year!!  I received an incredible outpouring of love and well-wishing from countless people all day long.  People brought me everything from inspirational bookmarks and magnets to an enormous pound cake covered with chocolate butter cream frosting with flowers and candies sprinkled throughout the day.  I got my favorite perfume and a collection of shirts, hats, and water bottles with the “Life Is Good” slogan (my all-time favorite) emblazoned on them.  There were bottles of champagne and Merlot with chocolate-dipped strawberries to surprise me.  Then there were the childhood pictures of me in the newspaper.  That’s OK.  My little sister will turn 40 soon enough!  I know where her baby pictures are.  My birthday was one of the best days of my life, and I truly enjoyed all of it.  I kept waiting for the downer to hit me, but it didn’t and hasn’t.  This week, as a matter of fact, many people have told me that 40 was the best age for them and that the 40’s in general were the heyday.

So why is it that some people absolutely adore the middle of life and others say that turning 40 was the beginning of a downhill slide for them?  There is a wisdom that comes as a gift at middle life that should be granted as soon as one graduates from high school.  I could have saved myself multitudes of heartaches and a lot of anguish had the wisdom that leads me now been imbedded in me when I was 18.  Physical agility, elasticity, flexibility and stamina are the ultimate cost for this wisdom.  How fabulous would it be to have the eighteen-year-old body with the 40-year-old mentality?  That is my next quest.  I suppose that if it weren’t for all of the heartaches and anguish the wisdom wouldn’t have come.  So in that light I am also grateful for the rough times.

I think many people suffer when they hit mid-life because they are full of regrets.  Trips not taken, words not spoken, things planned but not done pile up after a while and the mountain of regrets seems insurmountable.  It becomes easier to focus on the lack in life than it is to focus on how to change that lack into absolute abundance.  Believe me when I tell you that your body detects where your focus is.  If you focus on aches and pains, guess what?  You get more.  If you focus on emptiness, the emptiness grows.  Filling the voids should be the primary thoughts once you see that time is precious and youth is too.  There really is no virtue in self-denial for most of us, and it is all right to pursue what makes you happy.  A good friend told me last week that life is too short to do something you don’t want to do.  How true that is.  It is not too late for anyone to change his or her consciousness into one of abundance and to make a pact with yourself to have no regrets.  Whatever it is that you have always wanted to do, wherever it is you have always wanted to go, whatever it is you have always wanted to have, do it, go there, and get it.  The best is truly yet to come if that’s the way you choose to look at your life.

If the beginning of the 50^th decade of my life is any indication, I am in for the time of my life.  My body will have some shaping up to do to keep up with me, but it is definitely possible.  Don’t worry about what everyone else thinks as you pursue the life of your dreams.  Some people will think you are nuts (yes, a few have thought that about me and my feverish pace), but they will be left behind to ponder the things they regret.  The front office manager at our practice, Amy Brown, gave me a quote last week that really says it for me.  I’ll close this pontification with it: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body; but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow!  What a ride!”  Thank you to all who love me.  Treat your body and your spirit well.

Our office has been planning a spa weekend for a couple of months.  We work long hours and we decided to reward ourselves with a weekend at Lake Lanier that included massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, scrumptious foods, general pampering, and for me a round of golf on the beautiful Pine Isle course.  Everyone was excited.  Babysitters were arranged for the weekend and husbands’ menus were set out for them.  The girls were taking off early Friday morning for the ultimate hen party.  I woke up early after being up late packing and getting kids’ things ready to go and I got a huge shock.   I could not put my right foot on the floor without a horrible stabbing pain in my heel that brought me to my knees.  I thought at first that I grew an instant heel spur overnight, but when I came to my senses I realized that sciatic pain was the culprit.  I was relieved since I knew that I could get adjusted as soon as I got to the office to meet the rest of the gang.  I got myself together and got to the office.  After my adjustment I expected to feel instantly back to normal.  That did not happen.  My heel felt a little better but the pain wasn’t gone.  I knew then that the reason I still felt pain was that I had a trigger point in a muscle that was causing my sciatic nerve to be irritated.  My golf game had been planned for weeks, and I couldn’t let anything stop me.  All the way from Milledgeville to Lake Lanier, I stretched, prodded, and poked my own muscles so that I would be able to play.  By the time we reached the resort, I could at least walk without screaming and I was able to play golf Friday as planned.  The pain returned Saturday morning and I knew I needed someone else to do the muscle work on me.  I went down to the massage therapist and hired her to work my trigger points for the next hour.  After her expert hands finished with me the heel pain was gone and I was able to enjoy the rest of the weekend without being miserable.

Trigger points are muscle fibers that become over stimulated most often as a result of being overworked and become ischemic, or blood-deficient.  Muscles which are working properly act like tiny pumps which circulate blood throughout the muscle.  This pumping action takes much-needed oxygen to the muscle and removes the byproducts of muscle contraction, especially lactic acid, from the muscle tissue.  When a muscle fiber becomes overworked it sometimes holds a contraction, squeezing out blood and stopping its circulation altogether in that area.  This results in oxygen starvation for that particular muscle and allows the buildup of metabolic waste in the fibers.  The muscle then sends out pain signals to the brain and the trigger point is born.  These trigger points can be remedied easily if one knows where they are and how to apply the proper amounts of pressure to the right places.  Once the trigger points are massaged the circulation of blood increases and the tissue can relax and perform normally again.  Mechanical stimulation is the only way to remove muscle trigger points effectively.  Often people take medications in an attempt to free themselves of trigger point pain and it simply does not work.  Pain medications work in the brain and are not site-specific.  There is no way to take a medication that is only for a pain that is specifically in your foot, for example.

Many trigger points, however, cause referred pain, or pain that occurs somewhere other than where the trigger points are located.  A case in point is that of my heel pain.  The trigger points were actually located in my lower back and gluteal muscles and not in my heel.  Had I not known about the trigger point issue I might have gone through any number of dead-end gates trying to get to the root of the problem.  I see people like this every day who have been around the block looking for a solution to some odd pain that no one can seem to help.  When we take a look at trigger points we often eliminate chronic problems in very short order.  Trigger points have been known to cause headaches, jaw pain, heel pain, sciatica, lower back pain, carpal tunnel-like pain, and many other pain syndromes.

The possible causes of pain in the body are varied.  They range from very serious causes to simple trigger points.  Once you have eliminated the serious possible diagnoses as causes for your pain, consider trigger point work.  Most chiropractors and many massage therapists are trained to locate and eliminate them.  Don’t go around in pain any longer than you have to.  It tends to cut down on the quality of time you spend on this great planet, and that is just a flicker.  Treat your body and your spirit well.