Christian's Blog

Hey NUHS, 

As always, hope everyone had a great week. The last weekend featured a nice seminar from Dr. David Renner, the 3rd seminar in the 100-hr AK certification. The seminar went over neurological disorganization, acupuncture, thyroid, cranial faults, and a few others. I highly recommend all new NUHS students to come check out AK club and see if it's something for you! Shameless Plug: I'll be teaching next trimester (along with Jordan Bray if he can swing it from clinic shift). AK material I've learned in seminars is completely unique and different from what is taught at this school and has completely changed the way I practice and given me extra confidence to treat literally anything that walks through my door. 

Getting back to my routine trimester review. If you've been reading the blog for a while you know I have generally taken an objective look back at the trimester and tried to figure out what I did well and what I stunk it up at! I give myself self-imposed 'grades' for each section. 

Classes (Grade: C+) 

This trimester was a little daunting class-wise for a couple reasons. Heading into final exams I have Bs in all my classes except Chest which I bombed the midterm. I have to do really well on the final (which is supposed to be a lot easier) to pass Chest. I'm not too worried though. The tough part has been that by the time you get to the end of Trimester 7, you're body has been beaten through literally years of exams, tests, practicals, research, and papers. It's a grind folks, and you'll find the majority of classmates saying, "I just want to pass" by this trimester and "get me to clinic." For incoming students, don't be alarmed, you are becoming DOCTORS, not technicians or undergraduate bachelor's, you have someone's health in your hands post-NUHS so I'm glad at the same time we get inundated with education. My tip for the faculty and the administration is: CUT OUT THE CRAP and POLITICS and ADD in some more passion (and faster Internet)! But I digress.

Seminars (Grade: A-) 

I attended the Spine 2 seminar taught by the incredible, Dr. Tim Francis. Dr. Francis is truly a ray of light and an entirely rare and unique type of doctor. The guy fixes all sorts of conditions that typical chiropractors and MDs don't even fix or manage well. I loved all the material he presented and learned a ton for my own skills. The reason it's not an A is that there were some 100-hr AK seminars I wanted to attend but didn't have enough money for, so I stayed home and studied the material they were being taught on my own and got the notes. Remember, kids, there's always more than one way to skin a cat and even if you don't have the money you should still be hunting down the people that have taken the seminar and get their notes to learn! I did this with my friends that took TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) golf certification and got the notes to a $900 seminar. Does that mean I'm certified? No. Does that mean I know how to treat golfers much better now? Yes. 

I'm sorry if this post sounded like I'm exhausted, I am. I cannot wait for break. I'll be back in full force and energy after break for an epic summer session. I've got some really fun material pumping out for you that includes How to Learn to Play Guitar! 

Peace out until Summer Session! 

Christian

Hey National, 

Hope the week is going well. I often get asked about supplements, which ones are great, and what amounts should be dosed. 

In clinical nutrition class, we have to memorize popular and effective supplements and the doses that the research has deemed efficacious. It's taught by one of the leading nutritional experts in the States, Dr. David Seaman. I love Dr. Seaman's anti-inflammatory diet and supplemental approach to disease, prevention and health promotion. The new integrated/functional MDs are catching on that most disease processes, such as the biggest killers in America (heart disease, stroke, some cancers, Alzheimer's, hypertension, etc., etc.) are rooted in chronic inflammatory processes! 

The three biggest physiological disruptions in a person in a chronic inflammatory state are: 

1. Excess Pro-Inflammatory Chemicals (TNF, IL1, etc.)
2. Decreased ATP production (mineral/vitamin def)
3. Increased Oxidative Stress (Free radicals >> antioxidants) 

Dr. Seaman recommends his 'Basic' Supplemental Suggestions: 

1. Multi Vitamin
2. EPA/DHA 1-3g/day
3. Vitamin D 1000-10,000 IU
4. Cal Mag (1:1 and 400-1000mg/day)
5. Probiotics 

The general supplemental guidelines we have to memorize for the quiz this week: 

1. Multi Vitamin
2. Mag 400-1000mg/day
3. Calcium 1:1 cal:mag
4. EPA/DHA 1-3 g/day
5. CoQ10 >=100mg/day
6. GLA 200-500mg/day
7. ALA 2 gr/day
8. Vitamin D 1000-10,000IU
9. Lipoic Acid 200mg BID
10. Acetyl-L-Carnitine 500mg BID
11. Ginger 2-6 g/day
12. Turmeric 1-2g/day
13. Garlic 1g/day (5mg allicin)
14. Proteolytic Enzymes
15. Bacteria
16. Fiber >10-15 g/day
17. White Willow  1-4g/day
18. Glutamine  4-8g/day
19. Hydroxyapitate 1000mg
20. Glucosamine Sulfate 1500mg/day
21. Chondroitin Sulfate  1200mg/day
22. MSM
23. Vitamin C  500-1000mg/day
24. Vitamin E 400-800mg/day
25. Citrus Bioflavanoids  2000mg/day
26. Proanthocyanids/GT extract 1-2 caps/day
27. Cayenne  300-600mg/day
28. Gingko 120 mg/day
29. Ginseng 200 mg TID
30. Saw Palmetto 160 mg BID
31. Valerian Root 150-300 mg/ b bed

Whew...that was a lot! Obviously you SHOULD NOT TAKE ALL THESE SUPPLEMENTS, but if you're interested in taking a few, here's a cool research for what sort of dosage you'd be looking at.

Have a great healthy week,
CC

Hey National, 

Hope everyone's week is going well. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens for their Super Bowl win, I don't enjoy typing that as a Patriots fan, but give respect where respect is due. 

2013 is flying by so far and Midterms will be starting next week. I'm trying to get into Midterm mode but I've been heavily distracted outside of NUHS activities and I need to get down to the grind. 

In case you're a new or prospective student to NUHS, they offer a few businesses classes built into the curriculum. Why is that important? Well, as a future DC you will wear multiple hats. One, as a doctor, and one as a businessperson. The best doctor in the world who doesn't know how to run an office or get a business loan will never treat patients! Most people hate the business classes because they didn't choose to go to business school; they chose medical school. Sooner or later, they come to their senses, and most likely later will thank NUHS for at least teaching basic business groundwork. 

I'm currently in Tri 7's Business Planning Class. This class has a host of speakers (so far) who lecture us on various aspects of running a DC office: Insurance coverage, financial statements, your practice "vision" and how to work that backwards, how to approach a bank with a business plan and get a loan, etc.

Over the coming weeks we have a business plan project assignment and we will have to do exactly what we as future private practice owners will have to go through. In other words, if we take it seriously we could have a great leg up on what we hope to do in real life--a truly valuable experience, and one that will undoubtedly help us weed out the mistakes as a student when they don't matter as much!

Be Well,
Christian

Hey National!

Break

Hope everyone had a great and relaxing break with your loved ones. I spent the break back in my hometown (just outside Boston) with family and high school friends, and overall had a fantastic break. I got to spend a lot of time with my siblings (3), which means a lot to me because I'm always away and I'm the oldest one. I enjoy seeing what they are up to and how they've grown and if I can help them in any way I can. This included a bunch of high-speed mobilizations. ;) 

Tri 7

After going full track for the last 4 trimesters and 15 seminars I was burning out a bit and decided to drop 2 classes below full load to give myself a break this trimester and stretch 7th and 8th trimester into 3 trimesters so I can focus on more seminar information and implementing that into my treatment skills heading into clinic. I dropped PT Modalities and Advanced Diagnosis, which were 6.5 credits total. I'm currently taking all 7th Tri classes at 21.5 credits. The Good News: After 6th Trimester, you've made it through all the hard classes!! From my understanding, 7th Trimester is just a ton of paper work but the actual difficulty of material is behind you, so it is a different animal.

For Fun

Over break I was re-reading the Four Hour Work Week  by Timothy Ferriss and how to calculate the monthly income needed to live your dream lifestyle. Ferriss insists you can live an incredible life with an unremarkable income as long as you plan accordingly. Tim describes some of his most incredible adventures like yabusame (horseback archery in Japan), world class tango dancing, skydiving, and driving a Aston Martin can all be done on an average income. Of course, the book talks about making a 'muse' business or a business that can be set up (preferably on the web) to run automatically and ideally generate enough revenue to offset the costs of your incredible adventures. I've been working on some side projects to one day to be able to do this simply because I enjoy entrepreneurship and expanding my brainpower.

How does this relate to you as a chiro? Well, we can calculate how much we need to make to live however we want!

Lifestyle Exercise: 10 mins

First print out this template: http://fourhourworkweek.com/dreamline.pdf

After Med School Graduation I Dream of: 

A: Having… (Cost/Month or One Time Cost*)

1. Ipad ($600*)
2. A golf course membership ($2500*)
3. 350 Z Nissan Coupe ($400/month)
4. Mountain Bike ($700*)

B: Being… (Steps) 

1. A great doc
   (Go to advanced seminars. Contact local docs and get mastermind group to meet on a bi-weekly basis to bounce ideas and refine clinical skills.)
2. Break even par on the golf course
   (Track my golf scores and identify weakest areas. Contact the head golf pro at my golf course and ask for some tips. Practice on areas as needed.)
3. Play Guitar
   (Search a bunch of guitar playing ebooks and identify the best practices to start for a beginner and then spend consistent 30 min a night to decompress after work.)
4. Top Blogger
   (Develop great content for things I'm interested in and reach out to top blogs for guest posts and start building a subscriber list. Read some top books on writing well. Interview bloggers that have done it before.)

C: Doing... (Cost/Steps to Complete) 

1. Start a successful Practice
   (Put together a serious business plan while in school. I'm doing this right now in 7th tri! Modify it and refine it through your clinic trimesters before graduation. Estimated $35,000 to start.)
2. Skydiving ($500)
3. Network with and meet super interesting people (Start reaching out to people with business, practices that are successful, and set up mastermind group or invite for coffee, interview, drinks, etc).
4. Visit Europe ($100 in fees after I redeem the miles on my travel card. Plus say $2,000 in travel and living and eating expenses.) 

Now, you can take this as a ridiculous exercise or a serious one. Basically it's designed to give you an idea that you can really live the life you want. All the things that would make me incredibly excited and fulfilled can be achieved for this example (all things added up) = $71,400 or $5,950 a month! 

That number is highly exaggerated, too, because that includes buying a sports car, start costs of a private practice, and vacationing 2 weeks in Europe, along with skydiving, golf membership, and a top tier mountain bike all in one year.

Obviously, you don't have to start a practice and buy a car every year! If this was an ongoing year it might be closer to $1,100 a month! Plus rent/mortgage, food, bills.

The exercise is just to get you to say, "What if I could…"

That means a much more interesting life :)

Peace,
CC

Season's Greetings, NUHS! 

This is my last post before the end of the world! Ha ha, what a joke. It's not going to end; I'm 99.9999% positive! Kidding aside, let's review Trimester 6 and take an annual look at the progress through school.   

A Tri 6 Look in the Mirror

• Passed Part 1 board (see previous posts for how I did that in 10 days of studying)
• Got over a few health problems
• Took 4 seminars
• Found and learned to build a website on the side for some random business ideas and my future practice website 

Learned a lot in school, but I am totally ready to be done with this trimester. I've really enjoyed the 6th trimester classes with Phys Dx and functional rehab being my favorites. Tumors, the evil class of Tri 6, is kicking our whole tris' butts. Half the class is failing a 2-credit class that most of us won't be doing. I think there's a disconnect in the curriculum with this class. I think we absolutely should know this information but most of the class shouldn't fail especially because we aren't oncologists or expected to be. If we see the weird masses on X-ray, you can bet your change purse I'm calling someone who does cancer for a living to get a second opinion. From what I've heard from recent grads, just being trained well enough and smart enough to do that usually puts us in a good professional position with the MDs, which is ultimately the goal of this school's president. I digress.

Our bonfire in the backyard, a little red wine, and study break before finals. :)

My Annual Report Card

This is the second one I've done on this blog! 

School: Grade: B-

This was about my average grade here at National over the past year. It's no all-star but I'm learning the information that is important and getting by on the stuff that is "luxury knowledge."

Outside Fun: Grade: A-

We don't get too many opportunities to go into the city, but when I've gotten the chance with friends, it's been an absolute blast. Jet skiing in Lake Michigan and overlooking the city skyline probably top my fun list.

Seminars: Grade: A

I have definitely benefited greatly from seminars, to the tune that it seems like every post I write. I hope my readers don't hate reading it but--you NEEEEEDDDD TO GOOOO TOOO SEMINARS TO BE A GOOD CHIROPRACTOR. National literally doesn't teach you enough about being a chiropractor in the real world. The seminars give you extra skills, techniques, and put it all together for you so that you're not lost to how to put together progression of treatments for patients past just "getting them out of pain." National is going to give you a phenomenal base and a degree but like most things in life, academia can't do everything for you; you have to strive to be better if you want your clinical batting average to be high! And who spends 150k and 4 years of their life to just be "a pretty good doc." I digress again!

2013 and Beyond

I've been thinking extremely hard about the decision to stay full track in Phase 2 of clinical. I've done full tris in 5 and 6, and I'm exhausted from the workload and 9 seminars. I'm signed up for 6 seminars next trimester. I literally don't think I can do 6 seminars and a full track 7th trimester and still pass all my classes with the knowledge I hope to absorb from each class/seminar. So, I think this might be my official announcement I'll be slowing down just a tad.

Why? At the end of the day you have to look at what's right for you and what you want. I want to open a practice right after graduation, so I've prepared through school differently from the rest of the student body that plans on starting with seminars after they graduate and then working for someone else for a few years. When I graduate, it's literally just me on my own so I've tried to go to as many seminars and take the time to figure out how to treat everything and anything that walks into my office. I owe a huge thank you to Tim Francis, DC, and his 100-hr+ AK seminar training. That course literally changed my view of medicine and changed my life for the better. Thank you, Dr. Francis, for showing me what's possible in this profession with our hands. :)

Slowing down has also opened a few opportunities that I've been planning on for a while but have had no time to extrapolate them. One is a supplement idea I've been working on, and another is tutoring adjusting and putting together mini seminars on Saturdays for younger students looking to learn more.

I also am really excited about working with my friend, Kim, who's turning pro as a golfer and has had bad back pain. She said if I fix her, she will tell her tour friends. That's like a dream come true for a golf fanatic like me! Ha ha.

The world is full of fun and possibilities!

Stay Passionate,
CC