Dooley Noted: The Blogs

Patient: My buddy at the gym is a chiro and said it looked like I have a shoulder problem. He offered to treat me real quick. Can he do it? Dooley: You don’t have a shoulder problem, according to our assessments.  My intake is 15 pages. Each appointment takes one hour. My assessment and therapy are based on a doctorate education in chiropractic, a masters education in anatomy, and tireless time spent studying biomechanics, correctives, … Read more

Last night, I had the honor of trading services with the great Ari Harris. After assessing and correcting him, he asked to see my double swings and press.  He immediately saw my demeanor change, and he stopped me after a few swings. He asked, “What just happened? Where did you go?” I felt exactly what he saw.  Ari: “Dooley, you’re so confident when you work, when you teach. Just all the time – you’re Dooley. … Read more

Mamacita: I don’t know if I’m strong enough for this. Dooley: Of course you are.  Mamacita: I don’t feel strong. Dooley: It’s okay not to feel strong.  You can feel strong and not be strong. You can be strong and not feel strong. So, what is strength? Here’s the Dooley Noted definition. Strength is an exhibition of power on a platform that is mobile and stable in all the right places. To move but to … Read more

Someone just called me the Jerry Maguire of chiropractic, because I give so much personal attention. Good analogy – only I’ll never say, “You complete me.”  You complete yourself.  In my teens, I remember thinking: “If I only had someone to inspire me, I’d be better.” In my 20s, I started to understand that was the co-dependency anthem.  Men have come and gone in my life, but I’ve never been remiss. I’ve enjoyed their company, … Read more

Sometimes, it takes a simple goal to change. I find all goals to be pretty simple. My coach Ari Harris says, “Do work.” Do work, and you tend to get your goal. It’s not much more complicated. For my father to change, it took an oncologist telling him he had to stop his habits to survive.  That – it turns out – will do it. Knowing far too much anatomy to be comfortable at this … Read more

81.4% = the number of asymptomatic subjects with disc herniations, yet have NO BACK PAIN. Your structure on imaging is not a great predictor of your pain? So – you have a disc herniation? Fine. So – you have pain? Noted. Those two are separate entities in the vast majority of subjects. Is the disc innervated for pain? Sure – the recurrent meningeal nerve helps with that. But for chronicity? After 6 months of back … Read more

I get many questions asking how chiropractic works. This is followed by questions about how EVERYTHING works, from supplements, to acupuncture, to muscle testing, to herbs, to correctives. I love evidence-based care as much as the next guy. I also like reproducible results in an operating system.  But I’ll say this: we are not quite sure why manual therapy, acupuncture, and correctives work. We have hypotheses, and some are tested into theories. Most of the … Read more

Some practitioners might get freaked when they hear this from a patient: “I’ve been to everyone. I’ve tried everything.” This cannot put fear into a practitioner. While the findings of other doctors are interesting and acknowledged, we cannot find our objective assessment in the findings of others. Disc herniations may be present – but the patient still has to learn to move. Structural damage may have occurred – but the patient still must function. Structure … Read more

Yesterday, I saw a thing of beauty.  I saw a sea of people sitting in stiff, awkward postures awaiting their flights. This was NOT the thing of beauty. I saw this sea’s antithesis: 2 teenagers, who had fashioned a tennis court out of items from their luggage. They had drawn a line with shirts, and they used their shoes as rackets to play makeshift tennis. I thought: “THIS is what heaven looks like.” Fitness isn’t … Read more