Chiropractor teaches route to mind-body health

David Kennedy, Contributor/Jakarta

A pain in the neck can take on a whole new meaning if you visit Jakarta's newest chiropractic clinic.

You may find your pain and stiffness -- often caused by misalignments of bones in the neck from accidents, stress and bad posture -- is at the root of some other major challenges in your life.

Bad moods, temper, anger, anxiety, depression, insomnia and a host of behavioral and personality problems can have their origins in nerve irritations, according to Dr. Richard Kane, a Canadian chiropractor with 30 years experience in treating extreme cases of spine damage and misalignments.

While most patients come to the recently opened Canadian Chiropractic Clinic in search of relief from back pain, Dr. Kane's holistic mind and body approach is quickly earning him a reputation for healing a number of ailments.

"I was experiencing hallucinations and hearing voices when I met Dr. Kane at a neurologist's clinic," said "Dewi", a successful 45-year-old Jakarta lawyer.

She regularly hallucinated that demons were speaking to her and enticing her to kill herself, particularly when she was under pressure at work.

"He explained that the problem was not psychological but was due to physical damage in my neck. Once I started his treatment the symptoms disappeared pretty fast. The voices stopped. I think I trusted him because he understood my problem and he had so much faith in the treatment," she added in a cheerful voice.

While Dr. Kane uses the same quick, precise hand movements as other chiropractors to correct misalignments in a person's spine, his methods are unorthodox in some respects.

"He approaches the patient as a holistic being, looking at all aspects as one," said Dr. Brilliantono, an orthopedic surgeon with a private practice in Central Jakarta, explaining that spine problems can irritate nerves which in turn trigger hormones impacting on a person's organs, including their brain.

Kane explained that trapped nerves not only cause physical pain and bodily dysfunctions; when they occur in the neck, they can also influence thoughts and moods.

"The upper neck contains the brain stem, the primitive or reactive brain. When there are irritations here they alter a person's chemistry and you get changes in behavior," he explained.

People are happy and tranquil in their natural state, said Dr. Kane, but become unpredictable, somber, aggressive or fearful when their nervous system is imbalanced by physical damage and strains due to nerves creating altered biochemistry and body stress.

"I call it 'wounded tiger syndrome'. You can feel surrounded, set upon, as if everyone is in your face," he said. "It can cause you to snap aggressively at your partner for nothing at all. This same imbalance can cause depression, insomnia and, as in the case of one of my patients, it can even cause you to hear voices, and ultimately lose sanity."

Chiropractors -- like other complementary therapists -- tend to talk in terms of "the doctor within", claiming that the body must heal itself and that the therapist only creates the conditions for healing.

Sometimes this can be a convenient excuse for a clinic to take patients' money and not demonstrate any results for quite some time. The onus is on the patient to get better, not on the therapist to cure. Nothing is guaranteed; patients are often told that it will take as long as it takes.

Canadian Chiropractic promises to reimburse patients if they are not satisfied that they are getting better. However, there are no reports so far of patients putting the promise to the test.

"When you bring your car to the mechanic and pay him to fix it, you don't expect to drive away and find that the fault is still there," said Dr. Kane, adding that he focuses on the symptoms at first in order to give patients some relief from their pain. Within a few visits, he said, they will usually notice a difference.

Calling himself a "frame engineer", Kane has developed a number of specialized tools to help straighten a person's frame in a shorter time than usual, a technique he mastered while treating Olympic level athletes in southern Alberta, Canada.

A small instrument for pushing the spine is used with quick movements to train the body back into line. In extreme cases, such as scoliosis, where the spine has become a pronounced S- shape, patients are suspended at an angle or upside down to help the straightening process. A harness with thick elastic and a reel like a fishing rod is used to pull the body upright.

Amanda Dian, a 14-year-old living in North Jakarta fell down the stairs at home three years ago, rupturing a disk and causing her to develop extreme scoliosis. After numerous x-rays and inconclusive diagnosis from doctors her parents refused when the local hospital proposed exploratory surgery.

"I was in so much pain," said Amanda. "If I sat down in a chair I could not stand back up by myself. I couldn't do any sports. A friend of my mum recommended the chiropractor and after two months going there all the pain had gone."

Straightening a spine which -- when seen on an x-ray looks more like a sidewinder snake -- is a tall order and perhaps a little difficult to believe but Kane claimed to have straightened Amanda's spine by about 40 percent so far.

"If you can straighten teeth with braces then you can straighten the spine but it will push against you if you put a long term brace on it. That's why we move it by applying quick and precise pressure," said Kane with apparent relish for the results he has been able to demonstrate. His enthusiasm and attention to relieving patient's symptoms seems to be contributing to his growing popularity.

Another patient, Tridoyo, a 41-year-old business manager in Jakarta, recently went to Canadian Chiropractic with a broken back after a car accident. Within five weeks of twice weekly chiropractic adjustments he was walking, albeit with a back brace.

"I heard from relatives that there was a doctor who was good for healing bones. And you know, he gave me positive energy that he could heal me," said Tridoyo.

Patients at Canadian Chiropractic not only get assurances that they will feel better soon and will not be expected to hand over their cash indefinitely.

They also get what one patient called "pep talks" which help them deal with pain and dispel suspicions that they are naturally mad, sad or dangerous to know.

"Your body is like a powerful racehorse," explained Dr. Kane to a young female patient with neck strain, whom he guessed was currently prone to bouts of anger and impatience.

"You know there are two of you in there. Your body is like a powerful racehorse. Your soul is clinging to the racehorse's back and when you are in harmony you are peaceful and relaxed. But when the racehorse is irritated it gallops off out of control. That is the dysfunctional you and there is a constant struggle between the two."

So what should one do to keep the body and mind in relative harmony?

Apart from daily stretching, good diet and regular exercise, the doctor has some words of advice to those of us who regularly punish our spines through long hours of desk work.

"Take a look at yourself in the mirror when you wake up in the morning and see which of you is in control of that body -- the real you or the dysfunctional you? If it's the latter, then be wary of your own thinking!"

i-box

Canadian Chiropractic, Jl. Melawai Raya, Optik Melawai 2nd Floor, (Moving to new premises in Dharmawangsa Square in October) Tel: 021 70816995