Hearing God Laugh:  February 1^st 1997 was a monumental day in my life.  Very early that morning Joanna woke me at with the words “I’m having frequent contractions, the baby’s coming, it’s time to go”. We were ready.  We had the five P’s down (prior planning prevents poor performance).  It was simply now a matter of executing that plan.  I was in my last year of chiropractic school; we had completed our Bradley Classes; we had a written birthing plan, we had all the doctors up to speed with our plans. Then God Laughed.

A Defining Experience:  Initially it was going according to plan. The contractions were moving closer in an organized manner. Joanna was doing great. She was fully dilated. The room was a birthing suite that resembled a Hilton much more than a hospital, our birthing coach was there. We were beyond ready. The pushing began.  And continued for one hour then two hours and did not stop for the next 3.5 hours. Without hyperbole, my wife looked like a prize fighter after a 15 round championship bout. The blood vessels around her eyes broke. She was swollen and beyond tired. (We have the pictures but she wouldn’t let me include them). Joanna was great, she was steadfast.  She was beautiful.  She was my hero.  In what would be many Life lessons that day she delivered my son, Colin. Life lessons which revealed that when allowed to express itself fully, Life will not merely find a way, it will deliver beyond our greatest expectations.

Complications:  Colin’s arrival produced a crisis.  He swallowed so much fluid that his system became overwhelmed.  In battle station proficiency the pleasant Hilton birthing suite became a technology filled hospital room. Colin was aspirated and quickly rushed to the NICU.  At the NICU his condition stabilized.  He was placed in a crib with a machine overhead that looked like a big air duct which was blowing oxygen into his environment.  Colin also had a monitor on his toe that measured the amount of oxygen in his blood. Although stabilized his numbers were still several percentage points below normal.

Releasing Life:  Joanna and I were in the NICU with the mixed emotions of happiness, fatigue and concern.  Our child was not fully well.  Joanna had been receiving consistent care from our Chiropractor, Dr. Cheryl Langley and we had a new born check-up scheduled with Dr. Cheryl for the next day.  However we knew we wouldn’t be leaving the hospital anytime soon. I called Dr. Cheryl at her office and without hesitation she offered to come to the hospital.  She arrived within two hours and immediately came into the NICU to be with us.  I lifted Colin out of his crib and away from his oxygen system and placed him with Joanna.  He was crying and fussy as Joanna held him to see if he would nurse.  After a couple of failed attempts Joanna simply cradled him allowing Dr. Cheryl to stand behind him and place one finger each along the side of his first vertebrae (his Atlas).  Colin instantly began screaming.  Now I was a Dad for only a few hours but instinctively you know the difference between a cry of physical pain and a cry of need. I was a near Chiropractor (9 months to graduation).  Dr.  Cheryl was my chiropractor, she was Joanna’s chiropractor, and I had personally seen her adjust numerous children.  BUT this was different, this was screaming and this was my child.  For what seemed much longer then the two – three seconds it lasted, Dr. Cheryl sustained her chiropractic contact on Colin’s Atlas vertebrae. Dr. Cheryl stated “I got it” and Colin immediately sopped crying and screaming.  What Dr. Cheryl meant by “I got it” was that vertebrae moved back into position. Yes, Colin sopped crying but a literal alarm had taken the place of his cry. An audible alarm on the oxygen machine began piercing through the NICU.  I hurriedly placed Colin back into the crib as a pair of nurses came purposely moving to his station.  They diligently looked at Colin, looked at his numbers on the machine, looked at the oxygen machine itself, found person and machine to be functioning properly and promptly hit the restart button on the oxygen machine.  Hitting the restart button not only silenced the alarm it revealed the cause of the alarm.

Two Paths: Very quickly the machine rebooted. What it revealed was truly amazing.  The oxygen levels were substantially elevated and not simply greater then prior to the adjustment.  Colin’s oxygen levels were now, not merely normal, they were above normal. Colin’s Nervous System, now interference free, immediately assessed his body chemistry’s specific needs and adapted appropriately. Appropriate for a human being is not mediocrity it is wellness.  The intelligence that created him from two cells was still there at 100% (it didn’t leave at his birth) and was waiting to be released. And once released our intelligence doesn’t settle for mediocrity it strives for sustained performance – That is why his body innately and intelligently began to “make-up” for the previous oxygen deficit.

That adjustment, delivered with the intent to restore nervous system functioning returned Colin to the path of his innate potential.  Colin’s oxygen levels probably would have settled at the low end of normal and he would have been released to go home.  With levels at the low end of normal what would be different about him in six weeks, six month or six years?  I don’t know and I am thankful to God that I don’t know.  I do know however that Colin is not mediocre.  Currently at age 15 he has never had ear infections, allergies, asthma, sustained colds, learning issues or susceptibility to anything.  He has had broken bones, stitches and all kinds of other boy things.  There are two paths.  The first is, at best, mediocrity.   The second is a life full of freedom, performance, and realized potential.  We live in a country where Wellness and realized potential is possible.  Choose wisely. Choose the Chiropractic Wellness Lifestyle.

On the wall of my Visioneering Room is my business purpose statement.  It reads “To create and steward premiere wellness centers that provide individual and families with exceptional Lifestyle Wellness Care”.   This statement was written in 2011, my 13^th year of business. I have had other mission/vision/purpose statements; however this statement genuinely represents an accumulation of experiences and clarity. Experiences and clarity for what is desperately needed for our society to achieve authentic health care.

The Genesis Of A Purpose:  It begins with me as a 23yo Marine Second Lieutenant who was one month away from embarking upon a ship with his infantry battalion to do what America’s Marines are trained to do. The middle of this story sees this Marine develop a debilitating back condition.  A condition where the muscular spasms are so severe that my hips and shoulders are literally going in opposite directions. Gutting it out through stretching, exercise and rest does nothing. The medical interventions of pills, potions and lotions also do nothing. Finally I am referred for a surgical consult during which time the referring provider states that I most likely have a significant disc issue which my ears translate as “I won’t be on that ship with my Marines”.

An Out Of The Comfort Zone Encounter:  Fully depressed I head home to enjoy my leave. The next day as I am walking outside to retrieve mail, my next door neighbor eyes over my frankly scary posture and asks if I would like to go to his Chiropractor.  My response, in complete candor was, “Maybe. do they know anything about backs?”.  My previous experiences with Chiropractors where merely business signage that I had only noticed since being stationed in southern California.  In my mind Chiropractors were a ‘California thing’ and ‘California things’ weren’t for me. My neighbor’s response was, (and as I write this I wonder for the first time what he went through to share his knowledge with me. I wasn’t the most approachable person on a good day let alone a day  in which I was in debilitating pain) words to the effect that “yea, they know about backs, knucklehead”. So I took the business card and I went to see Dr. Mike.

A Life Changed:  My initial impression of Dr. Mike was holy cow this is a big dude. He was a man’s man, body builder, Harley rider, not at all what I had stereotyped the profession as.  The first encounter with Dr. Mike was a short, highly focused, intense consult during which he shared with me the Chiropractic Premise of Vitalism.  I do not remember what Dr. Mike’s words were but I do remember that the simple truth of Vitalism changed my life. Since then I have heard the premise he shared with me many times but what sticks in my heart deepest is the eloquent phrasing:

I Can Not Address What Is Wrong With You. I Can Only Address What Is Right Inside You.  You Can Not Fight Dis-ease; You Can Only Turn On Life.

From the moment we were conceived, every single aspect of our life has been dependent on body chemistry. Our bodies depend on different chemicals to wake us up in the morning, to allow us to rest and renew at night, to express happiness, to experience sadness, to remember, to digest food, to contract muscles and even to process cognitive thought.

When just one of these chemicals is absent or out of proportion or released at the wrong time, our bodies fail to function optimally.  This is why one person in a household can be well and the other three people in the household ‘catch’ a cold.  This is why at reunions some people look very old and others exactly the way we remember them. This is why geneticists believe that most cancers are lifestyle related not genetic flaws.

Our bodies have within them a level of intelligence that is literally incomprehensible.  We have in excess of six trillion cells. Each cell has within it twenty to twenty five thousand genes. Our bodies regulate hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions every millisecond of every day – at precise times, in precise quantities, and in millions of different combinations. The dominant emerging theory of genetics is not predetermined outcomes.  It is rather Epigenetics, which states that the expression of health or dis-ease is dependent on which genes are speaking loudest at specific times. Let’s be honest. We don’t even know what we don’t know.

What do we know?

We have the innate knowledge to coordinate and control every one of our six trillion cells, the twenty to twenty five thousand genes within each cell and the chemical reactions necessary to produce optimal health. This innate knowledge was ‘good’ enough to take one sperm cell and one egg cell and in 40 weeks produce human life. This innate knowledge of life does not leave us when we leave the womb. It is with us in full potential as long as we have life. Our intelligence needs no help, it simply requires no interference.

Look Within.

The conduit for this knowledge is our nervous system. When our nervous system is interfered with from stress (physical stress, bio-chemical stress, and emotional stress) it no longer accurately conveys our vast intelligence to our cells. Chiropractors call this a Subluxation. This interference caused by the Subluxation then causes accumulating dysfunction to the chemical processes of life.  The accumulating dysfunction can be stopped only when the nerve interference is removed and the lifestyle actions that are causing the Subluxations are changed.  The frequency of the removal (care frequency) is related to the accumulated intensity of the stresses and the discipline of your lifestyle.  The duration of the removal is regulated only by how long you desire to remain well. Medicines mantra of better health through better chemistry is correct; it is the application that’s wrong.

Thank You For Trusting Us For Your Sustained Achievement

This Friday (October 28th, 2011) at 6pm, we will be presenting another wellness topic at the office on stress until 7pm, then will be heading next door to Mateos for appetizers and wellness conversations.

I have been very busy, but busy with purpose; spreading the message of wellness through Chiropractic to our awesome community.  If you know of any groups that could benefit from having a wellness oriented presentation, please contact me at the office.

Yours in Wellness,

Dr. Ben Hopsicker

In Wellness,

Dr. Scott

Dr. Scott at Lake Anna Olympic Distance Triathlon

We were Born 2B Healthy.  Each one of us. God doesn’t do medicrocity.  This is posted with a prayer of inspiration for your ‘game’.  If your game of life needs changing then change it, if it needs a challnge so that you actualize your potential then Do it.

For a safe gentle and effective chiropractor in Dumfries, VA call Core Chiropractic 703-580-8388 or visit our website lifetimefamilywellness.com