Dr Seth Is GONE…And Dr Scot Is All Alone

So the day has finally come for Dr Seth and Dr Scot to go separate ways. Since we have come up to Marion from Columbus back in June of 2004, it has been quite a ride. We have had our ups and downs, but all in all I am glad to be where I am at now…and Dr Seth is as well. Many of you may have received the letter that Dr Seth sent out explaining that he is leaving and what he will be doing. Just in case you did not see the letter, I will give you some quick details. (If you have already read the letter go ahead and skip this part).

Off To North Carolina…

Dr Seth has been presented an opportunity to work with one of our friends that we practiced with in Louisville, KY back in 2003-2004. Dr Brian Seymore is no longer in KY, but in Baltimore, MD. (this could get confusing so try to stay with me). Dr Seth has moved to North Carolina where he will be obtaining a neurology certification with which he will be able to assist Dr Seymore in a more powerful way in his Chiropractic practice called the Maryland Spine Institute. He should be practicing there by early to mid 2009. This was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up…

So That Just Leaves Me…

Now, as for me and my practice here in Marion I am thrilled to be taking over! I am ready for a clean and fresh start! Many of you know that I was injured back in early 2007 (tore a rib away from my sternum during an adjustment) which caused me to be unable to practice/adjust patients. I am excited that I have completely healed now and am back in action again. My recovery came at the perfect time allowing me to take over all of your adjustments and care. I am now celebrating my independence and the freedom to run the practice just I would have it…to Educate and Adjust as Many Families As Possible in Our Community!

I Want To Thank All of YOU!

I do not know where to begin with all of YOU, our wonderful patients! You have made this past four years a joy for me. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to help so many of you have less pain in your lives! I have dreamed about the opportunity to help people since I was very young…6 to be exact. I am just living a dream…especially now that I get to help you all myself (that may be a little selfish, but this is what I love to do)! I don’t know how to extend my appreciation except through a big THANK YOU! Another way is going to be through a Re-Grand Opening where all of our present and past patients can get a FREE adjustment, FREE food, as well as many other fun things for the kids. In order to make this happen in an orderly manner we will have to have appointments set ahead of time. Check the insert for the date, time, and how to reserve your adjustment!

P.S. Any of you that are not patients in our office will be able to get consultations, examinations, and x-rays at no charge on this day as well. Appointments limited on this day.

Wellness Workshop!

The Center For Disease Control noted in the 2005 National Vital Statistics Report that 2,576 people between the ages of 1 and 24 died in 2005 alone due to accidental poisonings…do you know what poisons are in your house?  The most important enviroment that you should be concerned with is your home.  You are in it more than any other location…and it is usually not very well ventilated.

Do you know what chemicals, and products that you need to be aware of…in detergents, bathroom and floor cleaners?

We are providing the opportunity to learn about how YOU can “detoxify” your most important enviroment…YOUR HOUSE!  The Wellness Experts from our office will be putting on a Wellness “School” this week on Thursday at 7pm as well as Saturday at 10am or 2pm.  Call our office at 740-386-6580 to reserve your seat today.

The seminar will take place at our office, across from the Southland Mall, next to Kroger in Marion, Ohio.

Marion Health Fair 2008

The Marion Health Fair Extravaganza of 2008 was a big hit!  We had a great time this past Saturday as many residence of Marion and surrounding areas came out and learned how they can keep their families healthy.  We are very thankful to all of those who participated and look forward to next year’s 2nd annual health fair.

Here are a couple pictures from Saturday…

Marion Community Health Fair Extravaganza 2008!!!

We are very excited to be putting on the biggest health fair of the year, here in Marion. We are blessed that so many businesses are so passionate to help us get the word out about how to be healthy!

CLICK ON THE RED WORDS “new-flyer” TO GET YOUR FLYER: new-flyer

PS: remember if you want the neck or back pain examination, call our office now at 740-386-6580

Get Connected to Dr Gray at LinkedIn

Click on the Link above to view my profile and connect with me!

Are You Being Fooled…?

Are These Diet Companies Playing April Fools On You?

Many diets are ridiculous, ineffective, and even dangerous.  RNCentral.com has compiled 25 such diets ranging from those that merely don’t work, to those that are somewhat effective but deceptively advertised, to those that can cause you physical harm.  Are these diets below serious or April fools?

You can decide from the following:

1. The Tapeworm Diet: This one involves swallowing cysts that you’ve dissected out of beef carcass. You allow the tapeworm to live in you for up to 10 weeks. One of the most dangerous diets, it requires you to swallow a parasite and encourages unhealthy eating habits.

2. “The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About”: The “cure” consists of ingesting the urine of pregnant women. Whether or not this is effective, there are simply better ways to lose weight.

3. The Wu-Yi Tea Diet: Wu-Yi tea is simply oolong tea, offering no more benefits than the tea you can pick up at your grocery store.

4. The Subway Diet: Eating at Subway for all of your meals is not inherently healthy; it depends on what you order. Plus, this diet is useless because you can just as easily make your own sandwich and take a walk.

5. The Cabbage Soup Diet: Eating a low-calorie cabbage soup for one week has been purported to help you lose up to 10 pounds. However, there’s the problem of high sodium content, extremely low protein, feelings of weakness and increased flatulence.

6. The Low-Fat Diet: Low-fat products aren’t any healthier than regular products, as they typically trade fat for more sugar, sodium or calories. Meanwhile, serving sizes are often skewed to make unhealthy food seem healthier.

7. Slim Fast: You may lose weight drinking Slim Fast shakes, but the products are not satisfying enough to subsist on long-term. This diet offers nothing more than ineffective substitutions.

8. Russian Air Force Diet: This diet allows you to put all kinds of herbs, sauces and spices on your meals, but the “meals” are incredibly tiny, leaving you hovering near starvation.

For 17 more silly diets, go to www.RNCentral.com.

 

If you have been a student of natural health and pay attention to the latest research, you will instantly recognize the foolishness of the diet options listed above.

Nearly anyone can host a parasite in your gut that will share your food with you to help you lose weight — although I am sure that there are a few of you out there that could actually gain weight doing this as well. But is this something that you want to do for the rest of your life? Of course not (nor would it sustain you from a nutritional perspective).

But the idea of losing weight quickly is an enticing one that coerces otherwise logical people into subsisting on diet shakes, apple cider vinegar, ‘Jared’s’ sub-sandwiches and a host of even crazier diet foods and “tools” like tapeworms and urine from pregnant women.

Let’s be honest, most people need and want to lose weight, so these approaches do have great appeal. In 2007 alone, a report by the International Food Information Council found, up to 70 percent of Americans altered their diets in some shape or form to help them lose weight.

Yet, whether or not these changes made them healthier is another story.

As the survey found, the top priority of Americans is not whether or not the food is healthy. What is? For 88 percent of Americans, taste, and for another 72 percent, price. Only after that does the health factor come in. Yes, the health aspect of the diet choice placed a distant third for most people.

Yet, as I said, the majority of people in this country want to lose weight (it’s always among the top New Year’s Resolutions). But not one of the diets mentioned above, nor the popular Atkins diet or South Beach diet, will help you to shed pounds in a healthy way — and then keep them off.

 

If you would like more information on how to lose weight the healthy way you can register on Dr Gray’s priority notification list at www.BiggestLoserOhio.com for his next weight loss seminar…which will show you the 5 secrets to permanent weight loss.  The healthy way!

Weight Loss Seminar/Program Release Q & A

In the last few days we have gotten all kinds of questions
about our upcoming Weight Loss Program. In fact, it’s safe to
say that we have NEVER had this much interest in one of our
seminars BEFORE IT WAS EVEN RELEASED.

In any case, rather than sending you a super-long email, I
thought I would put this on the blog…

Question: There’s a lot of information out there about
weight loss, what makes this program unique?

Answer: After teaching hundreds of patients over the
years… the thing I keep hearing from people is that they
want a step-by-step system for shedding the pounds. And they are
sick of going on diet’s only to end up heavier after the diet
than when they started.

So I sat down to build the perfect system to overcome these
two issues.

First of all, I created a complete end-to-end curriculum
that walks your through the exact system I have used to
create lasting weight loss results in several patients.

And the delivery of the course is truly unique -it’s in
the final stages of development right now.

Of course, we will provide you with a bunch of supporting
material… but the “meat” of the course is going to be
delivered in a quite unique way.

And the bottom line is that this isn’t a scatter-shot
approach like so many other programs. It’s completely step-
by-step, both in the content and the delivery.

And to MAKE SURE that you complete the program, I have a HUGE
graduation gift planned for you when you “graduate” from the
program.

Question: When is the program going to be released?

Answer: The release date is going to be on a Saturday,
but which one is not yet confirmed. The release of the
weight loss program will come through an information
packed seminar that shows you how to lose inches in
just weeks.

We have an amazing list of bonuses for you, but they will be
limited both in quantity and time. In other words, you will
want to act quickly if you want to qualify for the best
bonus package.

Question: Why don’t you just release it now?

Answer: We are still putting a few finishing touches on it,
and more importantly - we want to give everyone a fair
warning so they have a fair chance at reserving a seat
for the seminar where the program will be revealed.

Question: How much will the seminar cost?

Answer: The seminar will be completely FREE. You
will be able to get a ton of ideas on how you can
create rapid results in shedding the pounds off.

And it’s going to have all kinds of extra bonuses you
don’t get with those diet’s and other plans - you
will be able to study and watch this seminar over
and over, at your leisure, in your home or office.

Studies have shown that for optimal learning, we
need to “hear” material more than once. You just
don’t get that in a live seminar setting. The way
we have structured this course all but forces you
to truly master the material… so that you have
the same step-by-step weight loss formula that Dr
Seth and I use over and over and over.

I will have more updates and answer more questions
in the next couple of days… so keep an eye on
this blog.

Sciatica

“Thou cold sciatica, cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt as lamely as their manners.” – William Shakespeare 1564.

As you can see from the Shakespearian quote above, sciatica has been torturing mankind for hundreds if not thousands of years. In fact, there has even been biblical mention of this disease!

Sciatica is a term which refers to a burning, stinging, and/or numbing pain that is felt in the buttock, thigh, leg, and/or foot; it may or may not be associated with low back pain.

Eliminating the medical mumbo-jumbo, sciatica is caused by a pinching and/or irritation of one of the three lowest lumbar nerve roots that make up the giant sciatic nerve. Any pinching and/or irritation of these delicate nerve roots may cause lower back pain but may also ignite the entire sciatica nerve into a pain state!

Not all lower extremity pain is classified as ‘true sciatica’: Sciatic pain may be classified as radicular pain (true sciatica) - pain radiating from the low back, past the knee, and into the feet and toes of the affected lumbar nerve root; or as non-radicular pain - pain radiating in the lower limb in a non-specific pattern. Bogduk (a famous researcher on sciatic and back pain) defines radicular pain as a burning and/or numbing pain that presents in a band-like specific pattern below the knee.

THE CAUSES OF SCIATICA:

Disc Herniation, The Conundrum, Discogenic, Chemical Radiculopathy, and Autoimmune Attack.

Now that we know what sciatica is, it’s time to try and explain why it occurs–a task easier said than done!

As I see it, there are three possible “causes” of acute sciatica–excluding the more exotic forms: (1) disc herniation induced sciatica; that is, the rear section of the disc herniates into the closest sciatica nerve root, which in turn physically compresses and irritates that nerve root into a painful state; (2) a grade 5 tear in the disc (annular rings) induced sciatica; that is, the disc rips open and allows biochemical substances (cytokines) to leak out and soak the nearest sciatica nerve root(s), which in turn inflames the sciatic nerve root into a painful state; and (3) discogenic sciatica; that is, the patient may experience a “referred” pain (that often is in a specific pattern) down the lower limb from severe irritation of the tiny sensory nerve fibers (sinuvertebral nerve) that live within the outer 1/3 of the disc. This is NOT an irritation of the actual sciatic nerve but simply the patient’s perception of sciatic nerve irritation–like the left arm pain felt by someone suffering a heart attack.

In a general sense, disc herniation and/or stenosis are by far the most frequent causes of compressive sciatica, there are, however, other more exotic causes of sciatica; such as, Spondylolisthesis, Piriformis Syndrome, Obturator Syndrome, Far-Out Syndrome, Synovial Cysts, Hypertrophied Epidural Vessels, Gas-containing Ganglion cysts, and Tumors. These rare causes are beyond the scope of this paper.

Treatment

The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and Alf Nachemson – who is the number one spine researcher in the world - recommends the following conditions be met before decompressive surgery is offered:

#1	Functional incapacitating pain in the leg, extending below the knee with a nerve root distribution.
#2	Nerve root tension signs (positive straight leg raising test) with or without neurologic abnormalities, fitting the radiculopathy.
#3	Failure of clinical improvement after 4-8 weeks of conservative treatment,
#4	Confirming imaging study: abnormal myelogram, computed tomogram (CT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) correlated to the physical signs and distribution of the pain.

 

The only ABSOLUTE indication for surgical intervention, however, is if the patient develops a loss of bowl or bladder control (cauda equina syndrome); if the patient develops severe progressive loss of muscle control in the lower limbs, such as foot-drop; or if the patients has severe debilitating pain.

 

If you would like to know all of the treatments available for Sciatica pain, Dr Scot Gray, D.C. will be presenting the 7 Treatment options available at his Neck & Back Pain Discovery Day on Saturday, March 22^nd from 10 AM to 11:30 AM.  The seminar will take place at The Ohio Neck & Back Pain Relief Centers (across from the Southland Mall, next to Kroger).  The seminar is almost full right now (limit of 20 seats).  If you would like to reserve a seat, call the 24-hour, toll free phone number 1-800-350-3464 or go www.BackBrothers.com.

Disc Herniation and Disc Bulge

How I Beat My Disc Herniation! 

As we head into the month of March and ice-skate past the blizzard of 2008, we are longing for those warm days again.  It will soon be time to go outside and work in the garden, play sports with our kids, and maybe even go on a family vacation down south.  That is unless of course you have been diagnosed with a disc herniation and are suffering from severe neck or back pain.

 

This was the situation for Marylin DesJardin just a year ago.  In Marylin’s words,  “I could hardly get out of my car at the end of my work day!  I had a bulging disc and I felt like I was ninety years old!  I could not even turn over in bed at night without moaning in pain.  I thought I was going to have to change my job due to the physical nature of my job, and I could feel myself getting worse and worse.”

 

Marylin had tried all of the typical medical treatments for back pain, but none of them seemed to work.  She did eventually find one that did work, but we’ll get to that a little bit later.  The reason that she was not responding was due to her bulging disc.  Degenerated, bulging, and herniated disc’s are some of the most complicated cases to correct back to health.

 

     You will have a good idea if you have a bulging disc by the symptoms that you feel.  If you have a bulging disc in your neck you will typically suffer from: Neck Pain or Stiffness, Headaches or Migraines, Arm or Hand Pain, and Numbness.  Now if you have a bulging disc in your low back, you will suffer from: Low Back Pain or Stiffness, Sciatica (Pain in the back of the leg) or Foot pain, Foot and/or Leg numbness.

 

     In your spine you have 24 moveable bones.  In between each bone is a disc that provides a cushion, like a pillow.  When those cushions degenerate, bulge, and herniate, they become very painful.  Unfortunately your disc’s do not have any blood supply which means that they will not heal very well.  This is why it is so difficult to heal the disc after it herniates, degenerates, and bulges.

 

     It doesn’t take a lot to herniate a disc.  Although it is possible to injure your disc in a slip, fall, or accident…typically it comes from wear & tear (repetitive motions) over a period of time.  This injury will cause the disc (the cushion) to flatten out which decreases mobility as well as decrease the nutrients that go to your disc to heal the damaged areas.  So, if you ignore these problems, or mask them with drugs…well, you can probably guess what will happen.

 

     The best way to handle a disc herniation is just like Marylin did.  Here is what she had to say after she decided to do a new therapy called spinal decompression:  “Everything has changed.  After Spinal Decompression therapy, I feel 100% better, I’ve gotten rid of the awful pain, and I guess I’ll be at my job for another eighteen years!”

 

     Marylin is just one of thousands that have benefited from spinal decompression therapy.  Although spinal decompression is not for everyone, Dr Gray is opening up his clinic on Saturday, March 22^nd for a reservation only FREE Decompression Discovery Day where you can find out if you qualify for this new therapy.  Dr Gray can only have 20 guest’s at his Decompression Discovery Day, therefore it is a first come, first serve basis.

 

     You can secure your reservation by:

1. Calling a 24 FREE recorded message for details at: 800-350-3464, or by going to the internet at:
2. www.backbrothers.com (more testimonials on webpage)

Osteoporosis

Advertising and promotional experts are cashing in on healthy women’s fears of osteoporosis generated by carefully planned marketing. And it IS working! Bone-sparing drugs raked in $1 billion in 1999 and over $2 billion by 2002—for drugs that are potent, even dangerous, and have minimal (in some cases nonexistent) bone-sparing or anti-fracture evidence to justify their use.

Thanks to the pharmaceutical industry, osteoporosis is now at the height of American awareness. The National Osteoporosis Foundation claims that one in two women will have an osteoporosis-related fracture. They claim the epidemic is spreading to Asia, Africa, and South America—even though these women have the lowest incidence of osteoporosis fractures on Earth.

Osteoporosis is a dreadful disease. Yet fractures from weak bones are rare in healthy women. Nonetheless, the frightening non-statistics trumpeted to women daily are making patients out of healthy women in their 50s and 60s.

The real truth behind the osteoporosis epidemic is tht most women can maintain healthy skeletons if they use a minimum of prescription drugs, eat a healthy diet of whole foods, exercise regularly (including resistance exercises or weight lifting), and consume some supplementation if they are at risk for or actually have osteoporosis.

If most women with a deteriorating skeleton simply followed the osteoporosis protocol (as I outline in my seminar), their condition would be normalized in one to two years. You can get more facts by purchasing the books: Osteoporosis: The Silent Epidemic, and The China Study.

If you know how to heal bones, you know how to heal osteoporosis. And it is not just a matter of taking 2,000 mgs of calcium. Rather, your body must be able to digest, metabolize, and utilize the calcium and other minerals your bones need to stay strong. To accomplish this you need:

• A good source of dietary calcium and minerals. (I’m not talking about dairy as a source of calcium either) Click Here for information on dairy and osteoporosis.
• Adequate hormonal function (you may have to evaluate some of the prescription drugs you are taking).
• Adequate digestion capacity with sufficient stomach acid and enzymes.
• Adequate ancillary nutrients necessary to deliver calcium and minerals to the bones.
• Exercise.

If you’re thinking that this will not work for you because you have had a hysterectomy and are on HRT, you’ve been on thyroid medication for years, you take antacids regularly (which can cause osteoporosis), your diet is a mess, you are nutritionally deficient, you’re taking 5 prescription medications and 3 more to counter-act the side effects, and you would rather poke needles in your eyes than exercise, take heart. You can still stop and reverse osteoporosis. Unfortunately it will take more than HRT, medications, and calcium.

Osteoporosis is an epidemic in America for the reasons stated above. If you follow simple guidelines as I will lay out at the Osteoporosis Seminar on Monday, March 10^th, you can beat it. And understand fully that osteoporosis is at the root cause of all kinds of other problems, such as arthritis, loose teeth, chronic back pain, chronic joint pain, kidney stones, weak muscles, chronic balance problems, problem with walking and getting around, and on and on. Don’t let the framework of your body break down and crumble. Fix it right.

In our FREE Osteoporosis Seminar this week I will be going into detail on how YOU can completely eliminate the worry of fracturing a hip or arm in your life. Go ahead and reserve your seat right now at this popular seminar by calling 1-800-715-6679 or by signing up online at www.ohiobackpain.com. Come and see how you can regain the incredible feeling of living stress-free in a stressful world!