Care Team: Functional Med Chiropractor
It certainly feels like wandering in a maze when looking for help with a rare medical condition.
In the beginning, each specialist I visited offered a different theory and a different interpretation of the perplexing symptoms that I presented. It was a lot of uncertainty that left my head spinning and hoping for some semblance of order. Who would have thought that hand weakness and swallowing difficulties would be connected to the same rare disease? Unless a specialist in neuro-muscular diseases, not many doctors guessed. So I was glad to finally get a diagnosis. Then I set off to find complementary treatments that might be able to slow the progression of the disease. So far, we’ve talked about my psychologist, and today I’ll tell you the story of finding a new chiropractor.
I realized one day that I was getting very little out of the chiropractor I was going to. I never felt better for any length of time. So I decided to see if I could find a new chiropractor who would go beyond the usual “cracking.” Now, nothing against traditional chiropractors - I’ve used them for years for a variety of back and neck issues. But dealing with IBM was going to take something a bit more holistic, something that dove deeper. I started my search by including the term acupuncture since I knew I wanted to try it - it’s got quite a bit of support in the community. After filtering through the ones who wouldn’t give me a superbill to submit to my insurance, I finally found one that looked interesting: a functional medicine chiropractor.
The Institute for Functional Medicine defines functional medicine like this:
Functional medicine is a systems biology-based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be one of many contributing to an individual’s illness.
I made an appointment and filled out reams of questionnaires and forms as a new patient, which actually made me feel like maybe I’d made the right decision. None of the doctors I’d been to so far had asked me even half these questions about my lifestyle, my history, and my symptoms, so I knew they were starting with a pretty good picture of my situation. I arrived at a lovely small office for my appointment, finding no one in the waiting room and being taken back right away.
The doctor asked me even more questions and requested copies of my latest bloodwork, which I agreed to send him when I got home.
It is odd for me to get emotional when talking about IBM, but something about him and his kindness triggered it. I began to cry and had to stop answering until I got a grip. He said, “It is okay to cry.” I wish someone had told my mother that!
He did some mechanical testing and advised me, “You need to do some work on gut health and to take a supplement to help you get your energy back. Both are only a short program, but we might need to work on your diet for the long term.” He then asked me to eat no dairy, no red meat, and no gluten for a week to see if it made any difference to how I felt. I promised I would. It wasn't easy, but I accomplished it. I wondered how many more things he’d ask me to give up!
The doctor decided to make very limited adjustments that first visit, look at my bloodwork, and do some muscle testing when I returned the next week. I did feel better at his office, but that is not the test….the real test is: how long will it last?
It did help me for the first few days to have fewer headaches and to sleep better because my neck did not hurt. This doctor did know what myositis was but had not heard of IBM. His approach is to do what he can using diet and supplements to reduce all inflammation. That may or not help or slow down the IBM, but it will help my health in general.
At the next visit, he explained my blood test results that my primary physician never explained … none of them in the 70+ years I have been getting blood tests. The results didn’t tell me anything about IBM, but they did speak to nutrition needs that might help me feel better. I still had anemia in spite of taking iron for a month. My blood levels showed inflammation but did not say where it was. I wished we could just ask my body, “Where is the problem?” You and I know that never works. Even the pain could be coming from a place that is not the problem area; they just add to the mystery.
Functional physicians rely on different types of testing to tell them if there is a way to help the patient. This doctor did what he called muscle testing, during which he applied a force to one muscle or group of muscles and asked me to resist - for example, pushing down on my outstretched arm and telling me to resist him, then pushing up on it, telling me to resist that. At the same time, he put his other hand on several pressure points, and I could not resist as effectively when he did so.
What he found led him to talk to me about nutritional deficiencies and to ask me to try two supplements to see if we could make my digestion better, start absorbing the iron better, and get rid of some unhealthy microbes in my biome and replace them with healthier ones. I started taking them that night.
I took them as he prescribed, and my iron did go up, though I cannot be sure it was not for some other reason. I had also been constipated, which was relieved through the supplements, not to mention that they had ingredients known to soothe stomach ulcers, so all in all, I think it was good to take them. I think functional medicine has a strong reputation for lab interpretation, diagnosis, and preventative health practices. Muscle testing is a bit more here and there, but it’s not invasive and the advice that stemmed from it would make good sense for anyone.
On my next visit, I was emotional again. It seemed to me like I had been ready to cry the last few days, which is not typical for me, so I analyzed and overanalyzed it. I never did reach a conclusion, but I signed up for a massage for the next visit. I will blog about that later.
Modern medicine is quite young compared to more traditional medicine, and they both have strengths and weaknesses. Functional medicine is an interesting marriage of the two, and I plan to continue to see this chiropractor.
The optimist in me always looks for a positive solution, and although this is an up-and-down search for ways to regain and maintain my health, I intend to let the ups be longer than the downs. As I search for new (old) ideas, I sometimes find potential answers that contradict the other new (old) ideas I’ve come across, which can be challenging. It is up to me to cobble all the ideas together into a plan. My daughter warned me about this and suggested I choose a tradition (Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, naturopathy) and stick with it. But she also understands the drive to explore all options and would hate to leave a good solution off the table just because it came from another part of the world or from another specialty.
One thing I can say is that I am getting my diet and general health better with every new (old) treatment option/lifestyle framework I look into. I just need to advocate for myself, listen to my body, and hope for the best with the ones I choose.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
This blog post is based on personal experiences and is not meant to provide medical advice.
Always consult your healthcare professional for personalized guidance on your health journey.
