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Dr. Gurutrang Singh Khalsa : Continuing Education
I have done a lot of post-graduate studies. In 1987, I said to myself, “self, I would like to be a comprehensive wellness chiropractor and be able to help people with a lot of health problems through natural methods, not only chiropractic, but also:
- nutrition
- herbs
- homeopathy
- acupuncture and others.
So, I meet this great doctor, Dr. Mike Cessna, now retired with his wife Alma out in Tuscon, AZ, but back then practicing in Rogers, Arkansas. He has a great story. Besides being super bright, he was the valedictorian of his chiropractic class in the late Fifties or early Sixties. He told us, his students, at weekend seminars that while most of his fellow classmates were only looking at skeletons and the spine, he was also looking into eyes with the opthalmascope, listening to hearts with a stethoscope, and avidly learning other internal diagnostic, clinical procedures. You have to understand, this was the Sixties and there was not much in the way of natural medicine practice here in the US. It was taboo. Now it’s the norm. So he went into practice as a great chiropractor, a pioneer, not only with a great understanding of the spine and orthopedics, but also mastering nutrition, natural remedies and lifestyle modifications, based upon clinical diagnostic testing, careful physical examination and laboratory diagnostics. He was unique in his day and in 1987, I had the privilege to study with him for several years, 300 hours, and received my Diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Internists, DABCI. That was not an easy task to accomplish in the midst of a busy practice, but I did it, and to this day, I incorporate what I learned to help my patients achieve the best care possible.
Acupuncture
And then there’s acupuncture. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, acupuncture was not even allowed by the Board of Medicine until the year 2,000, only eleven years ago. Yet, acupuncture has been part and parcel with chiropractic ever since the beginning in 1895. Interestingly, the founder of chiropractic, Dr. D.D. Palmer traveled to China six times by steamship before introducing his science to the world and Tuina, the Chinese science of manual medicine had been around for over 3,000 years. Although he never admitted it, many chiropractors who practice acupuncture believe Palmer was well aware of the science of acupuncture and perhaps even learned the art and science of chiropractic over there in the form of Tuina, and then introducing it as “chiropractic” in the West.
In 1964, Dr. George Goodheart, genius chiropractor and founder of Applied Kinesiology (AK), introduced the five factors of the inter-vertebral foramen, including the nerve, the vasculature, the cerebral spinal fluid, the neuro-lymphatics and finally the acupuncture meridian connector, to the chiropractic world. He said that all of these functions may have a relationship with blockages in the body and need to be assessed and corrected if so. Back in chiropractic school at LACC in 1977, many of us were doing AK and along with adjusting the spine, were working on the acupuncture points and meridians with manual therapy.
In Virginia, like many other chiropractors and even acupuncturists, I was chomping at the bit for years, since the early Eighties, hoping that the laws would open up and allow the practice of acupuncture and finally, it did. I do 200 hours of training to fine-tune what twenty years in practice had already taught me about acupuncture and became qualified to practice. To this day, I blend the adjustment of the spine with the balancing of the acupuncture meridians for the best effect and although I am licensed to use acupuncture needles, my favorite form of acupuncture is without needles, with lasers or electrical stimulation and treating the 300+ points on the external ear gently and safely without puncture called Auriculotherapy.