and neither do their Health Care Professionals.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Since I was a young teenager, I had always wanted to be a "doctor". I was fortunate in that my wish was granted. Several years later, in 1967, I graduated from the University of Missouri School of Medicine. When I finished my internship in 1968, I went into the Navy as a Flight surgeon, where I served for two and one-half years. After the Navy, I joined a small, general practice community clinic in east Redwood City, California. One and a half years later, I left the clinic and began to study acupuncture, because I was beginning to feel frustrated and dissatisfied with my practice. I realized that western medicine was successful at treating many acute diseases and successful at treating surgical problems. But, western medicine did not have a very high success rate with chronic medical diseases, including many common, painful conditions, such as headaches, bursitis and back pain, to name a few.
For these problems, the patient had to take prescription medication, which often needed to be regularly refilled. This method was not only quite expensive, but would often result in side effects for the patient. These side effects were sometimes worse than the condition for which the patient took the medication in the first place. Many times, the patient would need another drug to combat the side effects caused by the original medication.
I began to feel as if I were working more for the drug companies than for the patient. So, I started to look around for an "alternative" method that would, perhaps, allow me to treat people effectively and, at the same time, more safely. I wasn't abandoning western medicine by any means. I have always felt good about much of what western medicine has accomplished. However, I wanted to explore and expand my medical horizons to see what else was out there that worked well. Acupuncture came first into view.
In 1972, there were no acupuncture schools in this country. I learned acupuncture as an apprentice to a woman named Miriam Lee, who lived in Palo Alto, California. In the evenings, she had a small acupuncture practice in her home. She had studied acupuncture in her native China and had also learned from her uncle, who was an acupuncturist in Taiwan. I studied and practiced with her until 1974.
Soon, my practice consisted primarily of Western medicine and acupuncture. In 1977, my family and I moved to Oregon, where I began to build a medical practice. I was invited to become a member of the Acupuncture Committee of the Board of Medical Examiners of the State of Oregon. The job of this committee was to examine prospective candidates for acupuncture licensure and to suggest legislation concerning acupuncture to the Board of Medical Examiners. I was a member of the Acupuncture Committee for approximately five years before resigning due to the increasing demands of my practice.
In the early 1980's, I was involved in a motor vehicle accident and sustained a whiplash injury to my neck. Three months after the accident, I began to have bad headaches. Since I was unable to treat myself with acupuncture for a whiplash injury of the neck, one of my patients suggested that I go to a chiropractor that she knew and liked. I had never been to a chiropractor before and, although I was a little nervous, I finally called the chiropractor's office to set up an appointment. I was so impressed by the positive results of the chiropractic treatment that I asked him if I could stop by his office from time to time to observe his work with his patients. Dr. McBride and I became good friends and I learned a great deal from him about the benefits of chiropractic manipulation. Unfortunately, a few years later, Dr. McBride became ill and died.
I missed him a great deal, not only because he was my friend, but also because he had helped so many of my patients that I had referred to him. He had such a positive influence on me that, a few years after his death, I decided that I wanted to learn how to do manipulation of the spine and extremities. In 1989, I enrolled in the continuing medical education programs at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Over the next three years, I took over 400 hours of continuing medical education courses in many aspects of manual medicine (manipulation of the spine and extremities). By the early 1990's my practice consisted of western medicine, Chinese medicine and manual medicine.
In my practice, the majority of patients I currently treat have acute or chronic pain of many types. I also treat lots of people with unusual medical problems (non-painful) that have not responded satisfactorily to western medical therapies. Whereas, many western physicians do not enjoy treating patients with chronic pain because of the frustrations involved in the long-term management of pain medication, I welcome patients with chronic pain because I have a few more tools in my bag.
