This time I'm sending you practical health newsletter. While I generally write about health concerns and what you can do about them, sometimes you just need help.  This is particularly true when you have injuries due to an auto accident.  Most injuries occur at what I call - normal human speeds of 2-4 mph.  Lifting and twisting injuries, slips and falls, computer tension, and the like all happen at speeds that still allow for some degree of your protective reflexes to come into play.  While muscle strains are common in everyday life, we rarely experience ligament tearing.

Automobile accidents tend to occur at speeds much faster than human speeds.  Our body gets thrown forcibly around at speeds that overwhelm our joint protective reflexes and allow for much deeper damage, often involving the ligaments and tendons.  Simple muscle strains only take a couple weeks to heal, but ligament and tendon injuries can take months and months - if they ever heal at all.  Ligament and tendon injuries in the spine are particularly a problem because there are so many of them and there is no way to stop using these joints.  Healing these kinds of injuries is difficult.

These kinds of injuries need help to heal properly.  Your body constantly makes fibrous scar tissue all the time.  The normal motion of the muscles and joints tear this unneeded tissue away day to day.  If you have an injury to a muscle or tendon, this fibrous tissue builds up to knit together the damaged tissue.  Unfortunately this tissue does not care what position everything is or if the joints are aligned to move and function properly.  Scar tissue just glues everything down wherever it is.  This is an emergency response the body is making and it does not concern itself with how well you will function in the future.

This is where I come in as a Chiropractor.  My job is to realign the joints and keep them aligned while this process takes place.  If this is not done, then the joints will end up permanently misaligned causing chronic pain and early degeneration due to the abnormal motion taking place.  Because of the poor blood supply to these types of tissues, this alignment process has to be done frequently for many weeks to months while the healing occurs.  Where it usually only takes 1 to 3 visits with me to correct most "human speed" minor injuries, auto accident injuries frequently take 20 to 30 visits over several months.  Even then, complete recovery is sometimes not possible because of the degree of injury.

Auto injury recovery can become expensive.  Having the right kind of auto injury insurance is essential to provide for your care.  Normal healthcare insurance is good for normal healthcare needs, but it usually does not cover you for your recovery needs with a Chiropractor.  Auto Med Pay does cover your recovery needs.  Med Pay is the cheapest health insurance you can buy.  It is assessed per car.  Ellen and I have $5000 in Med Pay and the cost per year runs $22 for one car and $52 for the other.  This is not Bodily Injury Liability, so don't confuse it.  You have to specifically ask for Med Pay as it is not required. Insurance companies won't routinely include it as they don't make any money off of it.  It operates like a loan advance that you don't have to pay back. Your insurance company can get the money back from the other insurance company, if you are not at fault in the accident.  You will also want to ask that the Med Pay is not subrogated to your health insurance.  That means that they will only pay if your personal health insurance first refuses payment of the claim.  We have had problems in the past with this one when the patient's personal health insurance was Kaiser. We could never get Kaiser to send a refusal to pay statement, even though they refused to pay.  Without that, the patient's Med Pay insurance would not kick in.

I feel $5000 is about the right amount for this purpose as it easily covers Chiropractic care, massage, and rehab needs.  If your injuries are more extensive than that, it means you probably ended up in the hospital with more serious injuries that would be covered by your personal health insurance.

Something to understand about any health insurance in today's health environment is that insurance no longer sees it as their job to cover you for the elimination of pain.  Even though pain is our main concern, it is considered to be too subjective.  The idea is that if you can't measure it, then you can't prove it is there.  They see their job as only to restore function and mobility to the injured area, and any pain that is relieved is a bonus.  They are only willing to pay for measurable results.  They also only pay for progressive improvement; so now they want re-exams every month.  They do not pay for treatment needed to maintain function and mobility.  So if you hit a plateau in your recovery process, they stop paying.  It is understood that recovery involves flare-ups and that is ok as long as improvement resumes.

This becomes difficult when there are injuries to ligaments that involve complete tears.  This leaves the joints involved permanently destabilized.  There is no real way to reattach these little ligaments in the spine, so we end up with either a bunch of scar tissue that locks the area up or the area becomes loose and a source of chronic pain.  In these cases the patient needs regular care for years.  These situations are precisely what the insurance companies will no longer cover.  They like a claim to be wrapped up and put to bed within a few months.  They hate cases that drag out for years.

The big message for this newsletter is to check and be sure you have Med Pay coverage on your auto insurance.

While we are on the subject of insurance, let me mention an important point about Workers Compensation.  Several years ago Chiropractic was practically eliminated from workers comp.  Now there are only two ways to get care right after a work injury: a referral from your primary care MD after seeing them for the work comp injury or a pre-designated Chiropractor form given to your employer.  If you have a special form filled out pre-designating a specific Chiropractor you want to see in the event of an injury, well before any injury takes place, then you can go directly to your Chiropractor if you are hurt at work.  We have these forms in the office if you need one.

I have always found insurance issues annoying to deal with.  However, having the appropriate coverage for your care is just as important as eating right and getting your exercise.  Accidents happen, and when they do your financial health is as important to your recovery as your physical health.  Getting the care you need is vital when you need it.  It is a form of self love when you take care of yourself - including securing any care you might need from others.

Think of Med Pay as special auto insurance vitamins.

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david@fairoakshealth.com

High-Carb Diets Associated with 89 Percent Increased Risk for Dementia

89% - wow, that is a huge percentage!  The same study found a 44% decreased chance of dementia for people on a high fat diet.  That's right - high fat - saturated fat.  It is precisely the completely wrong advice the FDA has been giving us for the last 50 years - to avoid saturated fat and eat more "wholesome grains" that is causing a major part of the current epidemic of Alzheimer's and dementia.  The latest meta-analysis of over 600,000 people from 18 countries shows that saturated fats have NO adverse effects on health.  High carbs and grains specifically are showing up as prime culprits and causal agents in brain disease. 

 

High carb diets

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"If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?"
~ Milton Berle
 

About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

2 ½ cups room temp Avocado oil
1 tsp. Salt - heaping
3 tsp. Dry mustard
1 tsp. Dr Dave 2x sugar
¼ cup Distilled vinegar
1 Tbs. Lemon juice
2 large room temp Eggs
Possibly ¼ tsp. Fish sauce

Put everything into a Mason Jar.
Using the blender blade on the Bamix Wand Blender, put the Bamix into the jar to the bottom and hold there on low speed for 12 seconds to thoroughly beat the egg sitting on the bottom.  Then slowly raise the Bamix to incorporate the oil into the mixture (still on low speed).  That's it.