Chiropractor teaches route to mind-body health

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!"

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