- Email: [email protected]
Neurological course offers new perspectives
LETTERS
address below. What is happening in chiropractic at the moment is very exciting. I look forward to the challenges that registration will throw at us in the near future. It is up to all of us to be ready for anything that might be coming our way. We can no longer afford to hide our clinical responsibility behind the shroud of unaccepted alternative medicine. We are now registered, whether we like it or not, and it is our duty to be able to fulfil all the responsibilities that come with legal status. Yours sincerely, Gilbert Meal, DC, FCC. Wessex Area CPD Tutor Private Practice, Chirstchurch Christchurch Chiropractic Centre I, Twynham Avenue Christchurch BH23 IQU [email protected]
The British
Journal
of Chiropractic,
2000, Vol 4 No. 1
Neurological courseoffers newperspectives Sir: For some years now, a good friend of mine has been extolling the virtues of the clinical neurology course that he has been attending and how it had taken the mystery out of those often unpredictable “miracle cures” that chiropractors have been reporting from Harvey Lillard onwards. I listened but did nothing about it. I did the MSc course at the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic and that gave me more encouragement to further my neurology knowledge. For 20 years, I had neglected the pathways that keep our bodies functioning, other than to acknowledge nerve root supply to muscles and to recognise when a problem was appropriate for referral. I felt the need more and more to see what was happening now in the world of neurology - from the MSc I learned that it was expanding very fast, in fact the 90’s has been termed ‘The Decade of the Brain’. Although I have not quite finished the MSc, it is well under way and so, last September, when I received information about the Logan Diplomate Program in Chiropractic Neurology for October, 1999, I decided it was now or never. I was worried, I must admit. I had heard Dr Carrick’s lecture when he came to the BCA conference a few years ago he went so fast, he assumed a level of neurological knowledge that, as practitioners, I felt we should be expected to know but I was not alone in realising how much I had forgotten. However, as Dr Carrick is undertaking further research and writing, Logan College is using a variety of lecturers experienced in teaching the course in America and I could not imagine that anyone else could be so demanding. Off I went with a dozen cassette tapes and a ream of Ipaper. I was very pleasantly surprised. The lecturers were very knowledgeable but human and wanted to make sure that the information that they were imparting had actually gone in. They made us explain what we had learned to our neighbour, we applied testing practically. Yes, there was a lot of basic neurology that to my mind we should all, as chiropractors know inside out - for example the interaction between the autonomic nervous system and the brain, functions of various regions in the
brain and how these regions are affected by not just ablative lesions such as strokes, but how physiological lesions are responsible for many of the musculoskeletal problems that we treat. I had learned for example that the flexor system in the upper body is a) more likely to be stronger than the extensors and ’ b) that a physiological lesion would accentuate that flexor strength. Therefore, rather than giving general shoulder exercises, I should be concentrating more on strengthening the extensors. I tried it on myself - my neck related shoulder problem which had been treated by a colleague regularly without much improvement for weeks is so much better that I cannot believe it. I started to look at people anew-their eyes, their posture, their heart rate, their emotional reaction to the world. I saw nystagmus in a colleague - I had never seen it before, had I even looked properly? Clinical techniques specific to the areas we discussed were introduced. Two days later, I sat on the plane to come home feeling that I had been given a huge amount of information that I could apply in my clinic immediately and I felt more confident, even after a few hours, in my rationale for doing what I was already doing in practice. I started to think about a patient being a human being with an integrated system, rather than a patient who had a regional problem with maybe some vertebral involvement. I have started to examine the nervous system of every patient in more depth than I have ever done in the past. I am excited to imagine how the kick in the pants that I have had over one 25 hour period of lectures will be magnified into a system of thinking and practising during the next modules. Logan College Post Graduate Department has put together a thorough, entertaining and informative package. The diplomate course starts from the beginning in February 2000, in Amsterdam. I encourage any of you who feel neurologically challenged to try it all chiropractors should have the level of knowledge I think we will have attained by the end of it. Jan Krir, DC, FCC. Private Practice 76, Bedford Place Southampton Hants SO15 2DF
address below. What is happening in chiropractic at the moment is very exciting. I look forward to the challenges that registration will throw at us in the near future. It is up to all of us to be ready for anything that might be coming our way. We can no longer afford to hide our clinical responsibility behind the shroud of unaccepted alternative medicine. We are now registered, whether we like it or not, and it is our duty to be able to fulfil all the responsibilities that come with legal status. Yours sincerely, Gilbert Meal, DC, FCC. Wessex Area CPD Tutor Private Practice, Chirstchurch Christchurch Chiropractic Centre I, Twynham Avenue Christchurch BH23 IQU [email protected]
The British
Journal
of Chiropractic,
2000, Vol 4 No. 1
Neurological courseoffers newperspectives Sir: For some years now, a good friend of mine has been extolling the virtues of the clinical neurology course that he has been attending and how it had taken the mystery out of those often unpredictable “miracle cures” that chiropractors have been reporting from Harvey Lillard onwards. I listened but did nothing about it. I did the MSc course at the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic and that gave me more encouragement to further my neurology knowledge. For 20 years, I had neglected the pathways that keep our bodies functioning, other than to acknowledge nerve root supply to muscles and to recognise when a problem was appropriate for referral. I felt the need more and more to see what was happening now in the world of neurology - from the MSc I learned that it was expanding very fast, in fact the 90’s has been termed ‘The Decade of the Brain’. Although I have not quite finished the MSc, it is well under way and so, last September, when I received information about the Logan Diplomate Program in Chiropractic Neurology for October, 1999, I decided it was now or never. I was worried, I must admit. I had heard Dr Carrick’s lecture when he came to the BCA conference a few years ago he went so fast, he assumed a level of neurological knowledge that, as practitioners, I felt we should be expected to know but I was not alone in realising how much I had forgotten. However, as Dr Carrick is undertaking further research and writing, Logan College is using a variety of lecturers experienced in teaching the course in America and I could not imagine that anyone else could be so demanding. Off I went with a dozen cassette tapes and a ream of Ipaper. I was very pleasantly surprised. The lecturers were very knowledgeable but human and wanted to make sure that the information that they were imparting had actually gone in. They made us explain what we had learned to our neighbour, we applied testing practically. Yes, there was a lot of basic neurology that to my mind we should all, as chiropractors know inside out - for example the interaction between the autonomic nervous system and the brain, functions of various regions in the
brain and how these regions are affected by not just ablative lesions such as strokes, but how physiological lesions are responsible for many of the musculoskeletal problems that we treat. I had learned for example that the flexor system in the upper body is a) more likely to be stronger than the extensors and ’ b) that a physiological lesion would accentuate that flexor strength. Therefore, rather than giving general shoulder exercises, I should be concentrating more on strengthening the extensors. I tried it on myself - my neck related shoulder problem which had been treated by a colleague regularly without much improvement for weeks is so much better that I cannot believe it. I started to look at people anew-their eyes, their posture, their heart rate, their emotional reaction to the world. I saw nystagmus in a colleague - I had never seen it before, had I even looked properly? Clinical techniques specific to the areas we discussed were introduced. Two days later, I sat on the plane to come home feeling that I had been given a huge amount of information that I could apply in my clinic immediately and I felt more confident, even after a few hours, in my rationale for doing what I was already doing in practice. I started to think about a patient being a human being with an integrated system, rather than a patient who had a regional problem with maybe some vertebral involvement. I have started to examine the nervous system of every patient in more depth than I have ever done in the past. I am excited to imagine how the kick in the pants that I have had over one 25 hour period of lectures will be magnified into a system of thinking and practising during the next modules. Logan College Post Graduate Department has put together a thorough, entertaining and informative package. The diplomate course starts from the beginning in February 2000, in Amsterdam. I encourage any of you who feel neurologically challenged to try it all chiropractors should have the level of knowledge I think we will have attained by the end of it. Jan Krir, DC, FCC. Private Practice 76, Bedford Place Southampton Hants SO15 2DF