Mom has to fight to avoid C-section

Even when it is not in a mother's best interests, C-sections are often the method of choice by hospitals for births. Despite a much increased risk of morbidity and mortality for mother and baby, C-sections simply give the doctors complete control of the delivery, allowing most aspects of the birth to be managed. Many hospitals require women to have a C-section for subsequent births after she's already had one, preventing her from attempting a vaginal birth. This is called VBAC = vaginal birth after cesarian. They site that there is an increased risk for the mother as the reason for this mandate, but reality often shows quite the opposite. Here is a story of how one mother choice to fight for her right to have the birth she desired.

(CNN) -- Seven months into her pregnancy with her fourth child, Joy Szabo's obstetrician gave her some news she didn't want to hear: Because she'd had a previous Caesarean section, the hospital where she planned to deliver was insisting she have another one.
Szabo wanted a vaginal delivery, and argued with hospital executives, but they stood firm: They refused to do vaginal births after Caesareans (VBACs) because they have a slightly higher risk for complications.
After they lost that fight, Szabo and her husband, Jeff, made an unusual decision. About three weeks before her due date, Szabo moved nearly six hours away from their home in Page, Arizona, to Phoenix to give birth at a hospital that does permit women to have VBACs.
In the end, the Szabos got the birth they wanted. On December 5, their son Marcus Anthony was born in Phoenix via an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, weighing seven pounds and 13 ounces.
"It was such an easy birth," Szabo says. "I was in the pains of labor for about four or five hours, then I pushed once, and he popped out."

For more info about VBACs, Birth, or just info on Natural childbirth, CLICK HERE.

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Pregnancy and Vaccines? Leading to miscarriages?

Pregnant women are considered among the high risk market for vaccines, including all the new H1N1 vaccines. However, there is absolutely NO SAFETY RESEARCH DONE on pregnant women and these vaccines. It says it directly in the package insert. It might seem self evident, but we must remember that whatever the mom takes in (food, drug, beverage) the baby gets as well. Also, we must understand that the vaccine given to an adult is much more than a vaccine given to a child. Henceforth, an unborn baby is experiencing the dosage from mom's shot that's intended for an adult (let's say 150 lbs, not 6 lbs.). Not all, but about half of the new H1N1 vaccines contain some level of mercury (you can see specifically which ones here... and amazingly several will give you a dose of mercury or aluminum that is several times the safety limit set forth by the EPA for human ingestion). That's a problem, not only for the person getting that vaccine, but also for a fetus that weighs anywhere between 1-7 lbs. More and more reports of miscarriages are coming out after getting an H1N1 vaccine. Read articles here and here.

Women: What about Mammograms?

If you didn't hear it, you missed a great discussion about the new guidelines regarding routine mammograms on "Up To Date" with Steve Kraske of the KC Star, on NPR. Click Here for link and podcast but you'll now need to go to the ARCHIVES to find it...

Did you know, that the overall use of mammography has only decreased deaths from breast cancer 2% ( this number had believed to be as high 30%). Even so, 2% is still many mom's and grandma's and aunt's. However, there is concern for safety of repeated mammograms -- "According to the Dept of Energy, a typical mammogram applies 25 times the radiation of a standard chest x-ray." I would wonder how long it would take a 40 year-old women w/out breast cancer getting annual mammograms to develop breast cancer as a result? 10 years, 20 years, even 30? And according to Dr. David Bouda, of Menora Medical Center (one of the guests on the show), many of the types of cancers that could be detected by mammography, are not life threatening, and by diagnosing and undergoing a biopsy, etc... can just cause more problems than needed.

New guidelines for breast cancer screening are causing quite the commotion since the announcement last week that women should hold off getting annual mammograms by a decade. The new guidelines also recommend against teaching women to do self breast exams.

Today Steve Kraske talks with Dr. David Bouda, Medical Director, Midwest Cancer Care at Menorah Medical Center and Dr. Elizabeth Campbell, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist with the Avera Women's Clinic in Mitchell, SD. We'll discuss the debate for and against the new guidelines, how the guidelines might affect insurance, and why public opinion is largely against the change.

CBS Reporter Blows the Lid Off the Swine Flu Media Hype and Hysteria

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter. She’s covered Capitol Hill since February 2006 and has been a Washington-based correspondent there since January 1995. She was also part of the CBS news team that received the Edward Murrow Award in 2005 for overall excellence. Additionally, she received an Outstanding Investigative Journalism Emmy in 2002 for a series on the Red Cross.

In case you didn't realize it, Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter behind the groundbreaking CBS News study that found H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared.

In fact, they’re barely on the radar screen.

How did this startling information come about, and why is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) painting a different picture entirely? I spoke directly with Sharyl Attkisson to find out.

Jim Carrey,Jenny McCarthy Larry King Live Vaccine/Autism Discussion

Good Interview w/ Banksy [graffiti artist]

Here's a good interview * out of some magazine w/ graffiti artist, Banksy, from England. I've seen some of his work on the internet, and also in a coffee-table book. He's political, satirical, and very, very creative. Check his work out - just google Banksy.

*some relatively moderate usage of 4-letter dirty words (whatever that means)

Music Commentary + Comedian = Funny

glumbert - Pachelbel's canon rant

*Just a caution for young ears --> a few minor verbal potty words

Music & Your Brain Video - w/ Bobby McFerrin

Bob McFerrin Hacks Your Brain -

See the entire video-lecture here at World Science Festival

Peace

nW

United HealthCare Fined Half a Million Dollars for Illegally Denying Chiropractic Claims

Copied from www.dailyhitblog.com

This is the reason that private health insurance companies must be regulated. Efforts to exempt them from state laws (which UHC violated in this case) without substituting federal regulations that are as strong or stronger, constitute a recipe for continued injustice.

A pair of St. Louis, Mo-based subsidiaries of UnitedHealthcare will pay $536,000 in fines and review 50,000 chiropractic claims it denied in 2004 in an agreement with Missouri regulators.

Through a settlement between the insurer and the Missouri Department of Insurance, UnitedHealthcare will reexamine the claims filed by chiropractors who treated the company’s policyholders after regulators determined the company violated state law by limiting coverage to 26 visits per year.

In other cases, the insurance department says UnitedHealthcare failed to evaluate the medical necessity of treatment before denying claims. For any chiropractic claims it finds were improperly denied, UnitedHealthcare must reimburse the specialists for those claims, plus interest and in some cases, consumers may have paid the bills, rather than their specialists.

Private sector insurers, if beholden to no one but their shareholders and bottom line, will continue to behave in this manner unless forced by law to do otherwise.

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Jonas Brothers Make Sure to Get Spines Adjusted Regularly

The above headline comes from the June 30, 2009 edition of MyCentralJersey.com. The article, written by staff writer Jeff Webber, reports that the pop stars are regular chiropractic patients. The author writes, "One of the most popular music groups right now, at least among the younger generation, is the Jonas Brothers. Since forming in 2005, the three brothers from Wyckoff have become a pop-music phenomenon, releasing four albums, touring all over the world and taking over The Disney Channel."

The article notes that their success is attributed to natural talent as well as good health practices. Part of the good health practices has meant regularly obtaining the services of their hometown chiropractor. Dr. Albert Wolyniec of New Jersey has been the family chiropractor for some time.

Dr. Wolyniec wrote in the Spring 2009 edition of The New Jersey Chiropractor, "They make sure they get their spines adjusted regularly, even if they have to fly me somewhere in the country just for the day. I have even done a coast-to-coast house call solely to maintain their spines free of nerve interference." The article notes that when playing at a local event in New Jersey, the Jonas Brothers and as many as 20 of their traveling party will receive chiropractic adjustments.

Dr. Wolyniec added, "They use chiropractic care not for pain, but to stay healthy. By keeping the nerve pathways open between the brain and the body, it keeps the pressure off the big heavy spinal nerves. When the vertebrae are kept in alignment, it translates into better health and better performance. They recognize this."

Don't Give In To The Swine Flu Vaccine!

It might surprise some of you to know, at least the younger among you, but the Swine Flu Pandemic scare isn't a new thing. This very thing happened in 1976 and the gov't used the same scare tactics to protect everyone by using vaccination. However, the same adverse effects, including death, that occur on a daily basis now, occurred then as well.

In this 1979 episode of 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace talks to President Ford and others about the Swine Flu vaccine of 1976. Note the admitted lack of safety and informed consent, even as TV ads frightened American citizens into getting a shot. Do you think anything has changed today?The doctor states that they knew quite well that the vaccine caused neurological damage (and still does today). However, the spokesman did not find that necessary to tell the American public. Not much has changed in 30 years.

However the above video isn't available anymore, another regarding the Swine Flue Vaccine is below...

Gotta love Proprioception!

Weird Lesson in Chicken Biology - Watch more Funny Videos

'Church' Costumes Make me laugh...Father?

How Our Medical System is the 3rd Leading Cause of Death in America

Cancer and heart disease are the top 2 killers in the US. Is it surprising that the 3rd is not a disease? According to research in the Journal of the American Medical Assoc (JAMA) and from the Institute of Medicine, our own medical system kills upward of 225,000 people every year.

The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and she desribes how the US health care system may contribute to poor health.

ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
* 12,000 -- due to unnecessary surgery
* 7,000 -- due to medication errors in hospitals
* 20,000 -- due to other errors in hospitals
* 80,000 -- due to infections in hospitals
* 106,000 -- due to non-error, negative effects of drugs

These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!! (Iatrogenic is defined as induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a complication of treatment).

<> Click below for links to this article and others:

Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Killing 225,000 People Every Year

Medical Mistakes Kill 100,000 Americans A Year


The incidence and severity of adverse events affecting patients after discharge from the hospital


US Health System Most Expensive in World

Swine Flu Vaccine: Will We Have A Choice?

An Update on the current status of our government and public policy with regard to the Swine Flu Vaccine. It will likely be added to the already long list of mandatory vaccines for children to attend public school, daycares, etc.. As with all vaccines, parents need to become very well versed in the dangers that come with injecting these chemicals into the human body, especially that of a child. Please take the time to become informed.

nW

Vaccines Being Experimented on US Soldiers

A Short video. Please check it out. Kids in public schools aren't the only one's being forced to take vaccines.

-nW

The FDA Protects Animals from Mercury but Not Humans

A good way for Dr. Hamburg (FDA’s new Commissioner) to begin would be to reverse years of FDA inaction on mercury amalgam – a step she assured Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) she would take in response to his question during the confirmation process. Inexplicably, the FDA zealously protects animals from mercury exposure, while taking almost a laissez-faire approach to human exposure to mercury.

In 2002, the agency pulled from the market a mercury-containing ointment for horses, and proclaimed zero tolerance for mercury in any product used to treat an animal. The FDA ruled that mercury is so toxic to mammals, it had no duty to prove its presence actually harms horses.

When it comes to mercury-containing products marketed to the humans however the FDA’s zeal evaporates. The FDA requires mercury critics to prove actual and widespread harm -- the shocking opposite of its position on protecting animals. Interestingly, the FDA policies ignore warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency that one in seven American women of childbearing age has so much mercury she is at risk of having a brain-damaged child.

Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have 3X Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu

The above headline comes from Science Daily on May 20, 2009. The ensuing article reports on research presented at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society that stated that children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than those children who do not.

In this study researchers followed 263 children ages 6 months to 18 years, who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic and had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The researchers determined who received the flu vaccine and who did not. They then looked at their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. The records were reviewed for each child with influenza-related illness to see if they had the flu vaccination preceding the illness and if they required hospitalization during that illness.

The researchers found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine.

Avni Joshi, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, responded in the Science Daily article by noting, "The concerns that vaccination may be associated with asthma exacerbations have been disproved with multiple studies in the past, but the vaccine's effectiveness has not been well-established." Dr. Joshi, continued, "This study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the TIV (vaccine) in children overall, as well as the children with asthma, to prevent influenza-related hospitalization." He continued by explaining that this study does not mean that the cause of the hospitalizations was the vaccine, "While these findings do raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, they do not in fact implicate it as a cause of hospitalizations."

I couldn't resist...

Dueling Banjos Played With Hands Only - Watch more Funny Videos

Harvard Medical Students Rebel Against Pharma-Ties

Two hundred Harvard Medical School students are confronting the school’s administration, demanding an end to pharmaceutical industry influence in the classroom.

The students worry that pharmaceutical industry scandals in recent years, including criminal convictions, billions of dollars in fines, proof of bias in research and publishing and false marketing claims, have cast a bad light on the medical profession. The students have criticized Harvard as being less vigilant than other leading medical schools in monitoring potential financial conflicts by faculty members.

Harvard received the lowest possible grade, an “F,” from the American Medical Student Association, a national group that rates how well medical schools monitor and control drug industry money.
The students were joined by Dr. Marcia Angell, a faculty member and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, who has vigorously advocated for an end to liaisons between academia and Big Pharma. [Read more]


And from The New York Times, an article, "Harvard Medical School in Ethics Quandary" --

BOSTON — In a first-year pharmacology class at Harvard Medical School, Matt Zerden grew wary as the professor promoted the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects.

Mr. Zerden later discovered something by searching online that he began sharing with his classmates. The professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments.

“I felt really violated,” Mr. Zerden, now a fourth-year student, recently recalled. “Here we have 160 open minds trying to learn the basics in a protected space, and the information he was giving wasn’t as pure as I think it should be.”

Mr. Zerden’s minor stir four years ago has lately grown into a full-blown movement by more than 200 Harvard Medical School students and sympathetic faculty, intent on exposing and curtailing the industry influence in their classrooms and laboratories, as well as in Harvard’s 17 affiliated teaching hospitals and institutes. [Read More]

Research Article from the journal, ALLERGY, 2009

Topic: Prebiotics May Reduce Risk of Allergies in Infants
Keywords:
ALLERGIES, ALLERGY, ATOPY, ATOPIC DERMATITIS, IMMUNITY - Prebiotics, Short-chain Galacto-Oligosaccharides, Long-chain Fructo-Oligosaccharides, Breast Milk

Reference: "A specific mixture of short-chain galacto-oligosaccharides and long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides induces a beneficial immunoglobulin profile in infants at high risk for allergy," van Hoffen E, Ruiter B, et al, Allergy, 2009; 64(3): 484-7. (Address: Dr J. Garssen, Numico Research, Bosrandweg 20, 6704 PH Wageningen, the Netherlands).

Summary:
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving infants at high risk for allergy, supplementation with a hypoallergenic whey formula containing 8 g/l GOS/FOS in a 9:1 ratio for a period of 6 months was found to significantly reduce plasma levels of total IgE, IgG1, IgG2, and IgG3, suggesting a beneficial effect on the antibody profile and the immune response. Moreover, supplementation with GOS/FOS did not interfere with the response to vaccination (infants were vaccinated with Hexavac against a.o. diphtheria, tetanus, and polio at 3 months of age). The authors conclude supplementation with GOS/FOS is "a safe method to restrain the atopic march."

NICK's Comments-- This is a great example of the benefit of probiotics. The introduction of 'good' bacteria to the gastro-intestinal tract helps to establish a healthy balance of gut flora. This is important because upward of 60% of immune system function is affected here. This is also why for a baby under 1 year old, they have a 3-times greater chance of getting ASTHMA/ALLERGIES after only ONE DOSE OF ANTIBIOTICS. Also, as the article mentioned at the header about Atopic Dermatitis, most people don't realize that ECXEMA is not a skin problem. The symptom presents itself on the skin, but the problem is, for the lack of better words, on the inside. Nutrition should be the first area to be considered. Putting topical creams and such on the skin may help deal with the itch, etc., but it's not addressing the actual problem.

Waterbirth Lecture Tonight

I just wanted to jot down a few notes from tonights lecture with Barbara Harper, RN,CD,CCE and founder of Waterbirth International. She is in town leading a workshop/certification on waterbirth, and led a free public lecture tonight at the Mercy and Truth Medical Center in KCK. Her talk was entitled, "Do Our Birth Choices Matter?" Here are some random points that I wanted to remember...

- Article from ACOG (American College of Obstetrics/Gynecology) with regard to 'Evidence-Based practice' guidelines - - stated from an OBGYN that much of what is done in obstetrics and childbirth is not 'Evidenced-Based medicine,' meaning that there is no evidence in research that the methods being employed are helpful or even safe. (As I've noted numerous times, much of the protocol in our hospital obstetrics has nothing to do with what's best for mother or baby, but what is best for the doctor/hospital, i.e. eating/drinking while in labor, mother position, repeated vaginal exams during labor, induction, immediate umbilical cord cutting, just to name a few...) and I would add, it seriously questions the overall safety of a hospital birth due to that fact.

- With regard to mother positioning, a Mother delivering in the upright position, such as squatting, is better at opening the pelvis than on her back, as is customary in the hospital setting... (it opens the pelvis 28% more when standing than lying supine)

- The importance of a vaginal delivery due to the introduction of bacteria, etc. to the baby while on his/her way out! It's an important part of the development and foundation of the child's immune system.

- The need to get that baby immediately to the mom's chest, or 'Habitat,' as Barbara called it :-) Regardless of the outcome of the delivery, the next step (immediate breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact with mom) can significantly affect the baby's new arrival to the outside world. She told us about how her 2nd child didn't leave her 'habitat' for about 2 days (he pooped, pee'd, and it didn't matter!)... that's the importance of skin-to-skin contact.

That's all for now, it's late. For more info, see Barbara's book "Gentle Birth Choices."

Interesting Quotes...

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds that adverse drug reactions are a major cause of deaths among hospital patients. The study estimates that somewhere between 76,000 and 137,000 hospital patients die each year from an adverse drug reaction. That would make it one of the leading causes of death in this country.

And these are just from drugs that are correctly given. Wow! (and this study is from 10 years ago...)

Don Miller

check out the video for the future movie about the book, Blue Like Jazz. Don is a great writer and thinker, and one who addresses some great issues in the evangelical church. Also, here are a few short clips from Don talking about the Democratic party, and also the prayer he led at the Democratic National Convention

Happy watching.

Nick

The Real Truth Behind Flu Shots -- And Why So Few People Get the Flu During The Summer

*Click Here To Watch This Video and to know how to prevent yourself from getting the flu naturally!

Close to 150 million doses of flu vaccine have been produced this year, which is the highest number ever available. Yet, the chances of a flu shot being effective in any given year are about as high as your chances of pulling a needle from a haystack. This is because flu shots only protect against certain strains of the flu virus. These strains mutate rapidly, and scientists can only make educated guesses about which strains will be most prevalent this year.

As you might suspect, often they are way off base. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states:

“In some years when vaccine and circulating strains were not well-matched, no vaccine effectiveness can be demonstrated in some studies, even in healthy adults. It is not possible in advance of the influenza season to predict how well the vaccine and circulating strains will be matched, and how that match may affect the degree of vaccine effectiveness.”

This does not bode well for the millions of Americans who are being lulled into a false sense of security that getting a flu shot is all they need to do to prevent the flu.

Flu Shots’ Poor Rates of Effectiveness:

It really amazes me how effective the drug companies have been at manipulating the culture to actually let them sell these toxic, ineffective and expensive options in pharmacies, airports, college campuses, grocery stores and countless other outlets.

The truth is that:

• Giving young children flu shots appeared to have no impact on flu-related doctor visits or hospitalizations during two recent flu seasons, according to a study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

• The flu vaccine is no more effective for children than a placebo, according to a large-scale, systematic review of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

• No studies have conclusively proven that flu shots prevent flu-related deaths among the elderly.

• A study published in the Lancet just found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people. Why is this important? Because 35,000 of the 36,000 “flu” deaths the government claims happen each year are actually caused by diseases like pneumonia, and NOT the flu.

• Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine also confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia, despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now.

I can’t imagine anyone signing up to receive this vaccine even if they were paid to do it, yet tens of millions are conned into thinking money spent on this shot is worthwhile! If people only understood the facts, I doubt many would rationally decide to receive this shot.

Sadly, throwing away the money spent on the flu vaccine is the least of your worries, should you decide to get a flu shot.

What Exactly is in a Flu Shot?

Before you decide to get vaccinated, it would serve you well to find out.

According to Dr. Donald Miller, MD, two-thirds of this year’s flu vaccines contain 25 micrograms of thimerosal. Thimerosal is 49 percent mercury by weight.

Each dose of these flu vaccines contains more than 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury.

By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year. This is just inexcusable.

In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other hazardous ingredients like:

• Formaldehyde -- a known cancer-causing agent
• Aluminum -- a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease
• Triton X-100 -- a detergent
• Phenol (carbolic acid)
• Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
• Various antibiotics: neomycin, streptomycin, gentamicin -- which can cause allergic reactions in some people

How many people do you think would knowingly sit down and allow themselves, or their children, to be injected with:

• Formaldehyde?

• Aluminum?

• Mercury?

• Antifreeze?

It’s time word got out that if you got a flu shot, you did exactly that. And for what? Even if you get a flu shot, you can still get the flu, or flu-like symptoms, because it’s anyone’s guess which flu viruses will be in your area.

The powers that be have done an excellent job of instilling fear into the population so they believe that they must get a shot to stay healthy, but the simple reality is it’s doing you and your family more harm than good.

Exercise only takes 3 minutes!

Surge Training, or Burst Training, as we refer to and teach in Maximized Living, has finally made the medical research. It's about time.

This article, "Brief but Intense Exercise May Thwart Diabetes," describes a study that showed doing brief 3 minute high-intense exercises significantly improves measures dealing w/ Diabetes.

Over the course of 2 weeks, the participants completed 6 sessions of supervised high-intensity interval training. Each session consisted of four-to-six 30-second sprints on a stationary bicycle.

Type-2 Diabetes is completely reversible! Sadly, the medical profession doesn't typically 'advertise' it this way. The RX drug ads on TV aim more to help you 'live' with diabetes well. That is ethically wrong and pretty much a big middle finger to everybody purchasing their drugs. So, what does this exercise look like...

Monday, Wednesday, Friday --
20 seconds sprints on stat. bike/ or running in place

20 sec. rest

20 seconds sprints on stat. bike/ or running in place

20 sec. rest

20 seconds sprints on stat. bike/ or running in place

--> and repeat 1 time. That's it. You can also replace any exercise you want to, as long as you are doing it INTENSELY! Squat thrusts, push ups, crunches, whatever!

'Rock The Casaba' meets Chiropractic!

Punk Rocker Moves from Successful Musician to Chiropractic Career

Terry Chimes was a founding member of the 70's hit punk rock group, The Clash. This band was famous for hit songs such as "Rock the Casaba". Years later Chimes now rocks spines as a Doctor of Chiropractic in London. An article on his journey to a career in chiropractic appeared in the December 27, 2008 issue of the United Kingdom publication The Times Online. (Image right of Chimes from Fiona McWilliams in Times article)

The Times Online article noted that Chimes background was that he came from a family of musicians. However, even at an early age he had different ideas. "As a child I was obsessed with nature and it was expected that I'd become a doctor or a vet,” says Chimes, “and then at 16, I discovered girls and realized that to attract them I needed to be a footballer or a musician.”

Chimes joined the band the Clash at 19 years of age. After leaving the Clash he would later play with Hanoi Rocks, Billy Idol and Black Sabbath, before training to be a chiropractor and acupuncturist in the mid-1980s. During his years of performing, he began to realize that there was a better way to health. He commented in the Times article, "the natural way of healing was far better than pumping people full of medicines.” He continued, "Most people go one way or the other - healthy or berserk,” Chimes maintains. “There's no middle line; I knew lots of people who died, including Sid Vicious, but was never really into the self-destruction thing myself.”

Many of the people Dr. Chimes now sees in his clinic are musicians themselves. He feels that he may understand their situation better. "Perhaps there's a feeling that I understand something of their condition. Most people involved in healing have experienced damage in some way, as have many musicians."