01:05 How Dr Judy helped me walk and balance again, a stunning reality on the way to the bathroom
04:40 Different types of Cranial-sacral training
06:33 An osteopathic (and chiropractic) philosophy of medicine: the body possesses self-regulatory and self-healing mechanisms, and how those structures are working (or not) is deeply tied to its function (or dys-function)
10:43 Dr Judy’s journey through becoming a doctor, veteran, and clinician that noticed how much structure and movement mattered, and eventually a teacher of future doctors.
17:00 how hands-on doctors learn to feel… and when that may be vital
20:45 How do the bones in the skull fit together and why is that an amazing design? What is someone looking for when they feel the bones in your mouth? What else is there?
23:27 The lower half of the parasympathetic system. What does it affect?
24:29 What can happen to this all if I hit my head or land on my butt? What about birth trauma?
25:00 Please help my infant! Sleeping, nursing, digesting, and pooping.
27:00 This system and anxiety, fight/flight overdrive
33:00 Brain surgery, epidurals, etc, and how their potential effect on the fluid that bathes our nervous system. Dr Becca’s botched lumbar puncture and what actls like glue in the system
37:00 More to the story of bowel, bladder, prostate, and infertility issues. A surprising source of help!
38:22 Tethers in the system: a possible factor in willpower to continue on with life. A tender story from the treatment room, a conversation Dr Judy never wants to have, the very one Dr Becca needed.
44:11 Cerebral spinal fluid flow is vital for life. Can it also affect our emotional state? (YES!)
46:15 A milking stool, and the 3 legs of balance needed in our lives
52:33 A clinician’s observations in regard to COVID-19..did this affect the nervous system and its nourishing fluid?
55:51 Choosing a doctor who pays attention…”that’s just good healthcare.”
Resources:
cranialacademy.org
Rocky Vista Healthcenter, Ivins, UT 435-233-9500
01:05 How Dr Judy helped me walk and balance again, a stunning reality on the way to the bathroom
04:40 Different types of Cranial-sacral training
06:33 An osteopathic (and chiropractic) philosophy of medicine: the body possesses self-regulatory and self-healing mechanisms, and how those structures are working (or not) is deeply tied to its function (or dys-function)
10:43 Dr Judy’s journey through becoming a doctor, veteran, and clinician that noticed how much structure and movement mattered, and eventually a teacher of future doctors.
17:00 how hands-on doctors learn to feel… and when that may be vital
20:45 How do the bones in the skull fit together and why is that an amazing design? What is someone looking for when they feel the bones in your mouth? What else is there?
23:27 The lower half of the parasympathetic system. What does it affect?
24:29 What can happen to this all if I hit my head or land on my butt? What about birth trauma?
25:00 Please help my infant! Sleeping, nursing, digesting, and pooping.
27:00 This system and anxiety, fight/flight overdrive
33:00 Brain surgery, epidurals, etc, and how their potential effect on the fluid that bathes our nervous system. Dr Becca’s botched lumbar puncture and what actls like glue in the system
37:00 More to the story of bowel, bladder, prostate, and infertility issues. A surprising source of help!
38:22 Tethers in the system: a possible factor in willpower to continue on with life. A tender story from the treatment room, a conversation Dr Judy never wants to have, the very one Dr Becca needed.
44:11 Cerebral spinal fluid flow is vital for life. Can it also affect our emotional state? (YES!)
46:15 A milking stool, and the 3 legs of balance needed in our lives
52:33 A clinician’s observations in regard to COVID-19..did this affect the nervous system and its nourishing fluid?
55:51 Choosing a doctor who pays attention…”that’s just good healthcare.”
Resources:
cranialacademy.org
Rocky Vista Healthcenter, Ivins, UT 435-233-9500
Hello and welcome to the what really makes a difference podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Becca Whitaker. I've been a doctor of natural health care for over 20 years and a professional speaker on health and vitality, but everything I thought I knew about health. Was tested when my own health hit a landslide and I became a very sick patient I've learned that showing up for our own health and vitality is a step by step journey that we take for the rest of our lives and This podcast is about sharing some of the things that really make a difference on that journey with you So grab your Explorer's hat while we get ready to check out today's topic. My incredible guest network and I will be sharing some practical tools, current science and ancient wisdom that we all need, no matter what stage we are at in our health and vitality. I've already got my hat on and my hand out, so let's dive in and we can all start walking each other home.
Track 1:Hello. I am so grateful to be able to share my conversation today with the one and only Dr. Judy Caldwell I have already introduced her. bUt to tell you the real truth of why I'm bringing Dr. Judy on today is because I had an incredible miracle the first time that I met her. So I was having symptoms similar to peop what people have with concussions or with stroke. I had brain poisoning and I also had a lot of other neurologic and nervous systems symptoms going on. I had heard from Dr from other people that I really needed to see Dr. Judy because if you were having brain or balance issues, the type of work that she did was really helpful. At that point, I was happy to trust the people telling me who to see and what to do,'cause I was quite limited, but I came in. With unbelievable fatigue, really poor balance. I had to use a walk, a walking stick, and I had to hold onto the wall as often as I could. My eyes are mostly closed, or barely open, and I was just spinning and sick. It was difficult to think, it was difficult to balance. It was difficult to do everything. And I laid on, I told Dr. Judy what had happened. I laid on her table and she started to do some craniosacral work with me. That was so much different. I'm a pediatric chiropractor. I have done craniosacral work with, with babies, with infants and toddlers and with adults. I have seen other craniosacral therapists and mostly, when I see other people as an adult, it's like kind of like a relaxing experience where I just feel Calmer. This was not that she's grabbing my head. She knows what to move and bones, I can literally feel bones moving. Their position in my head wasn't a gentle suggestion. Dr. Judy is like, military hardened. Let's get in and fix this thing. Kind of Doctor And I was amazed when I, I had to go to the bathroom, so I sat up from the table, I got off the table and did a sort of like three quick steps to get me towards the door. And then I stopped and in shock, just sort of like turned back around to look at her like, what just happened? And realized I had turned around. So number one, in two years I hadn't moved quickly. For anything I couldn't. And I had taken three fast steps and I also hadn't been able to, for that whole time, be able to turn my head fast without literally falling over. And I was able to walk quickly to turn and look to keep my balance. I walked quickly all the way to the bathroom. I just, tears were just streaming down my face as I was walking back down the hall to her. So something is different, something is different about Dr. Judy. And in the subsequent visit, she trained other people to help me because she was traveling to my area. And we also got into some of the deeper aspects of healing some of the choice, and spirituality and kind of rode the covid ride together. Dr. Judy is just unparalleled. I'm so grateful for her in my life. It was a, a big step for me. So I'm so excited to be able to share her work with you. So, Dr. Judy, if you can you explain to us what craniosacral work is? How it works and, and why it makes such a difference?
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Thank you for having me. Um, I think part of it is to differentiate between, uh, Dr up ledger's, cranial sacral and osteopathic cial manipulation. Dr. Up Ledger was a osteopathic physician, and at the time he was practicing, he saw tremendous benefits from the cranial manipulation. Unfortunately, it was a time when the I osteopathic profession was still doing the, the me too, getting licensed in all the states. They, they hadn't completed that yet. So the profession didn't support his desire to, increased the number of people that were doing it. So he developed the up ledger foundation and it's, grown now to international over 150,000 people trained in more than 110 countries,
Track 1:That's not bad for a life's work,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:right, right. And the foundation is still going strong. Originally he was teaching parents how to do some work to help their kids with ADHD and autism. In order to do that, he had to develop very simplified. Treatments because the pa people didn't have any anatomy and physiology. iT's like, how do you teach somebody to do something and make it safe? I think it was brilliant that he came that. Um, and then he went on to, teach massage therapist and, and physical therapy. I think there's several, of professions that have benefited from his work. As it grew, it went off more into an energy type of treatment and it's still taught in many massage schools, around the country as well as in his foundation worldwide. osteopathic, manipulation is very anatomically based, structure and function. The osteopathic profession does have a. Philosophy of medicine. And in that philosophy we're looking at, the body as a unit. The body possesses self-regulatory mechanisms to be able for self-healing and self-maintenance structure and function are reciprocally related, and rational treatment is based on these principles. So all students of osteopathic medicine are taught that. once we get on into our clinical training and residencies and whatnot, then we're, back in the medical model of, symptom relief only.
Track 1:Can I say this is so similar to chiropractic as well. We are taught those very same principles and that the life force within us regulates our self-healing, that we're self-healing and self-regulating organisms. Which is true. I mean, don't, I don't logically know how to seal a cut on my arm, but my arm which is amazing. But then again, once you try to get reimbursement, once you try to deal with insurance, once you go into clinical things, like we had to be very trained in medical procedures as well. And there's just a big debate in chiropractic in general, if we are staying with that traditional structure equals function, life force, neurology based stuff, or if we are going in the medical model and that medical model is, has a big draw, money status, feeling like you're a real doctor, all that kind of stuff.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Well, and that's where the money is. In procedures. okay, Yes. Where, where, why, why are we doing this?
Track 1:We laugh, but I know some people in nursing homes that I visit, one was put, she was on 13 different medications, and the medications were causing so many problems when she had a new doctor and they took her down to two, almost every symptom went away. I mean, I'm
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yeah. And unfortunately that's probably the norm in our elderly population.
Track 1:yeah.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Do some hospice work and, sometimes people want to get off all their medicine when they go on hospice, and we've had more than one person that has, gotten well enough to be discharged from hospice by that. And it's sad It is sad, But so most doss that, so a doctor of osteopathy is a do and they many are incorporated in a, in a traditional medical model, some do medical model and then also have some more of the structured natural based medicine as well. Right. Correct, correct. I would think in most clinical practice you couldn't tell the difference between an MD and a do. sOmetimes I hear patients say, well, the do, listened to me more, the do, Examined me more thoroughly. So there may be those subtle differences that we see. but to the general population, I don't think they can see any, any difference unless the physician has made a concrete decision to practice the principles and really get to the cause of things.
Track 1:So Judy, that seems like you,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yeah.
Track 1:so tell me what led that story? What, what, how did you begin and how did you end up being a craniosacral specialist? That seems like it must have had a journey.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yeah, it, it does. Like how far back you wanna go,
Track 1:maybe succinct, but I'm really interested because it takes bravery. It takes sincere bravery to say, actually, I do this. I'm not gonna try to add up and be everybody's everything. I do this and this is why I do this. Everyone I know that that makes that decision has a story. That's why I became a pediatric chiropractor.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:That's why I became a lot of things. right, right. your story. Well, I always wanted to be a doctor from when I could remember. My mom says maybe about five years old. She remembers me telling her that. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know what that looked like. I didn't even know how to do that. I just, you know, did coursework and in school and I knew I had to get good grades and those kind of things. And then, the military came to the high school and said, if you serve for four years, you get four years of college paid for. I knew my family couldn't help me with college, and I knew college was expensive and I knew I'd need a lot of it. So that seemed like a really good option. And I had the opportunity to be in the medical field as a hospital corpsman in the Navy, so I knew I would be getting some other kinds of training. Um, and that all is medical model stuff. Triage a lot of emergency medicine. I had the opportunity to work in a shot clinic for a while. I did hearing tests, just all kinds of different things. I flew surgeon and rescue. I was with the Marines at Coneo. I was on a ship auto Pearl Harbor. So lots of different kinds of medicine environments. Um, Just from, you know, just exposure to different things. Once I got into osteo osteopathic medical school, one of the things that resonated very well with me was the philosophy. It's like somewhere along the line, I had already kind of gotten that like, you know, the, the the body knows what it needs. To do. We just need to support that. But I didn't know what that meant back then. I really liked the manipulation techniques that we were learning as students. We don't get all of them. We just get a good introduction to them, um, basic type things. aNd then I had the opportunity to do a, an, manipulation teaching fellowship. So I extended medical school an extra year to be able to do that. So we got to teach the manipulation to first and second year students. So that also, I think, increased my skill as far as being able to do things and then as well as to perform the techniques. And early on I, I saw results. Things like I would do something that would be some dumb thing we learned in school and the person didn't have to take their pain medicine. It's like, oh
Track 1:Yes.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:wow, this like more powerful than I, I realized, yes. And if anyone knows someone that has gone through the rounds of coming off pain medication or medication addiction, I'm like, anything that can help us keep our ability to, to function well without pain medication, I'm like, yes. Especially if it's less expensive and more effective and safer. yes.
Track 1:Let's do that.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So then I got to, to practice more during residency. But during, you know, training and residency, it's like you gotta almost put those kind of things aside so that you can learn what it is they're trying to teach you to be successful. know, they don't call it internship and residency because you're just sitting around doing nothing. You know, I had the opportunity to be at San Bernardino County. It's one of the biggest counties in the country, and it was a trauma center. So we got to see a lot of medical Things and a lot of medical intervention of things. And it was really fun learning all of those different kind of procedures, central lines and thoracentesis, paracentesis, all these different clinical procedures. And it's like, oh, these are really fun. And then I was in private practice and I had privileges at a hospital and all of the admissions came in the middle of the night and it's like, okay, I gotta be up in the middle of the night to admit somebody and then go to clinic all day. It's like, okay, this is not gonna work.
Track 1:No, not well
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:And back then, that's when the hospitalist program started. So I was able to, to work with some other docs to be able to take care of my patients while they were in the hospital if they needed it. So that worked really well. I Was recruited to teach I. maNipulation at Turo, Nevada. Did that for a few years and then had the opportunity to move to Mississippi to help start a school out there. We did the clinical medicine as well as the manipulation, and then there are too many bugs back there, and had the opportunity to move out to St. George to help start the school out in Ivans.
Track 1:You are not kidding about the bugs. We did a, we did a road trip through there and we drove through. It was like a cloud of bugs came up. I could not believe we couldn't see out our windshield from That was wild. Yeah. St. George has many fewer
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yes. Yeah,
Track 1:Desert High Mountain desert.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:right? It was I mean, great people. It's so fun to see the students and, you know, they're finishing the residencies and in practice and all of that. So it's fun to see them all be successful. So then the school out here in Ivans I worked with them for a few years before we found out that the, the, the clinic was gonna be delayed. And it's like, I gotta get out and see people. I need to practice So I, had the opportunity to, go back into practice. And I knew I wanted to do more manipulation instead of medicine. anD then had the opportunity to meet a lady that was a, that is a naturopath, and she recruited me to, to commute to Cedar City and to Hilldale to see people for, and did that for a couple years. And now I'm just here in St. George. I Think how the manipulation has changed over the years is in application and sensitivity of skill. So, you know, we in school we learn the basics. You know, first you gotta figure out how to feel a transverse process, and a spinal process, and kind of feel the difference. Oh, it's tighter here, it's looser over there. So that tissue texture. And I think as first and second year students learning those palpatory skills helps them in clinical diagnosing also where they can, uh, palpate the abdomen a little bit better palpate a joint to be able to come up with a solution.
Track 1:Yeah, we, that was a massive part of chiropractic school as well. I remember we, my husband and I were going to chiropractic school at the same time, so we would come home and do drills. We had to prepare for tests, like the black box test was one of our tests where you have to put your hand in a black box and feel what bone it is, and you have to be able to identify what bone, what side of the body. It's on each protuberance, like either each little bump on the bone and what it is. And I remember I got one of the wrist bones. so
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Oh, there's eight, of'em.
Track 1:eight and eight on each side and they're small.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yeah.
Track 1:was like, oh my gosh. Think Kevin and I have practiced every little bit. We used to see how many pages of the phone book I'd, I'd put one of my hairs in the phone book and. We would see how many pages we could fill that hair through
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:right. We did that too.
Track 1:Yes, yes. But I remember first trying to feel what is happening in a body under the skin and the fat and the muscle and the inflammation. Feels like you have the stumbles weird fingers, and this is all just squish and I don't know what I'm doing.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:And it is a clinical sensitivity skill that you can feel Yep. To get those layers figure out, okay, there's the skin, there's the fa, there's the fascia, there's the muscle going through all of those layers. So those are things that I think have, Sensitivity that has grown over the years. Definitely. With the different areas of the body. Yeah.
Track 1:the reason that's important is because if you're seeing someone that hasn't practiced a lot of that or hasn't kept it up, then it's harder for them to to tell. But. If you are working and working and working with your hands, they become a another set of eyes. Truthfully, I think
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things that was interesting with my time in Mississippi, it was after Katrina, but it was a few years after, but it was still pretty fresh in people's mind. And one of the things that the physicians had told us is that they had a lot of people that volunteered to come and help them af right after medical people. bUt they weren't of any use because they only knew how to practice medicine with labs and x-rays.
Track 1:Yeah.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So one of the things that we sort of made as our mission was that the students that graduated from that school were going to have excellent palpatory skill. And we spent a lot more time, um, working on that. And it was interesting to think that the palpatory skill, just even in clinical medical diagnosing had sort of gone by the wayside.
Track 1:Yeah. Yeah.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:and I often hear people go to a specialist and the specialist doesn't even touch them. And it's like, it's all labs and, and imaging and that's how they're doing medicine.
Track 1:Wow. So explain to me, so when I laid down and you felt what was happening you felt my skull, the skull is like a spherical jigsaw puzzle? You were testing how those bones were working. By filling, I mean, you feel inside the mouth, you feel around the nose. Can you tell me what you're feeling?
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So all the bones in the skull, just like every other bone in the body, has a range of motion. It has an axis of rotation and it has that range of motion. And when I'm palpating the, the head, I'm looking for the bony motion, but I'm also looking for the cerebral spinal fluid motion. wE also will address the blood flow in the scalp also, or in the, in the head,
Track 1:So I'm gonna pause you for a moment because many people are taught that the skull is one bone. Like it starts as smaller bones when we are growing and then it fuses together and it doesn't do anything. I've heard that as a way to discount the need for craniosacral work, when you are used to feeling flow and movement, you absolutely can feel those bones move or not move.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Right. And if the bones were fused, they would be sort of stitched together and be solid so we wouldn't see those inter articulations
Track 1:Yeah, it's like they look kind of like the teeth of a comb, two combs kind of
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:put together one of the things that I think if the skull, if all the skull bones were fused, much like epi seal plates get fused, we would have a solid structure and if we would hit our heads, it will crack open like a egg.
Track 1:Hmm.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Those sutures are the give in the system. So when we get hit, even though they might jam in different places, they're still give in the system so that it doesn't break.
Track 1:That's beautiful
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:the other thing we're looking at is the fascial membranes inside the head. The fall reia, the tentorium of how Many of the cranial nerves go through the bones or through that fascia. So if there's restriction emotion, then there can be compromised on those structures also,
Track 1:And that will affect things like sensation in your face, the way that your tongue works, the way your swallow mechanism works, the way your eyes move. I mean, all, all of that expression,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Right. Well, and the vagus is everything from the chin down to the splenic flexor. So kidney, liver, heart, lungs, spleen,
Track 1:and biggest nerve is everything that has to do with relaxation, with sex, digestion, calm. So
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So when I think of about what I'm doing in the head, that's only half of the system, right? That's the parasympathetic system, which is our rest system. Opposite of that is the sympathetic system, which is our flight or flight system where we're running away from the cyber tooth tag tiger. We're always on edge. So the parasympathetic system is the head and the sacrum that's two ends of that parasympathetic system. So we have the cranial nerves. In the head and then in the pelvis we have the pelvic splenic nerves. So those nerves are parasympathetic to the colon from the splenic flexor to the outside the urinary bladder and the reproductive organs like the uterus and prostate. What's really interesting is both ends of the system have to be coordinated for us to have adequate function, whether it's the kidneys and the bladder, the ovaries and the uterus, the digestion in the stomach, and the evacuation of the bowel. It's like it's all got to be coordinated and, um, the pelvis gets jammed if we fall and land on our butt too much. The head gets compressed from any kind of head injury. I see a lot of head issues related to birth trauma. The occiput bones getting jammed into the temporal bone there, and that occipital mastoid suture has cranial nerves. Nine, 10, and 11. Nine is the glossopharyngeal. 10 is vagus, and 11 is the accessory. So that gives us all of our newborn symptoms of spitting up colic, the trouble latching and swallowing, and the torticollis just in that one suture.
Track 1:Yeah. When I have worked with craniosacral therapists. When I'm working with infants, because I will adjust using chiropractic techniques, which are really similar. The neck and then how the occiput, which is the very base of the skull, how that connects. You can see, you know, a baby's head be stuck to the side in torticollis or whatever, but I, but I noticed that sometimes I would adjust and it wouldn't fix it all, or they were still having problems with tongue thrust or with nursing, either sucking too hard or inappropriately and making the mom have all kinds of wounds and scabbing and cut, like bleeding nipples, terrible, or not being able to nurse. And that was when I was, I started taking some more craniosacral classes and then found a craniosacral therapist that also could work with pediatrics. And Wow. The, the marriage between adjusting the bones in the neck and how the head sits on the neck, but then up into the head to correct those nerves. I just, I wish I could shout it to every mom and dad. That has an infant that is not nursing or per, or pooping or sleeping It's, it is powerful.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:I've been getting a lately I've had babies that are very agitated. It's, it's almost like they're, they can't be consult. They are, they're not sleeping. They're irritable. They've gotta be rocked all the time, or walked all the time in order to be soothed. Needless to say, that's quite a burden for the family.
Track 1:Yes.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:And one treatment and all that's gone because we've we've adjusted the nervous system and the nervous system no longer is restricted.
Track 1:and that, that adjusts the whole family's nervous system. What you can do by helping a mom recover and a baby recover. I mean,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yeah, but it isn't just the little ones. I had a, a young lady that was having trouble tremendous anxiety with going to school and it's like every morning was a battle for the whole family to get her motivated, to get her going, get going and whatnot. And she was just living in that sympathetic overdrive. Fight or flight, always on edge, irritable trouble concentrating, trouble sleeping, and one treatment.
Track 1:Wow. Wow. How I was, how I kind of think about it is, so I know the craniosacral fluid bathes the brain and the spinal cord in nutrients and oxygen that it needs. And the, the movement of the cranial bones and the sacral bones create kind of like a pump that moves that craniosacral fluid from top to bottom. And. How I think about it, how it feels to me when I have my hands on a patient is if something is, is not moving correctly at the top of that system or the bottom of that system. It's kind of like I play string instruments, a few of'em, and they have tuners on the top and they have tuners on the bottom. And so I picture if I'm tuning that string instrument and on the top I slide something out of tune, it sounds terrible and it feels terrible to play. Or on the bottom, if I slide it out of tune, it sounds terrible and feels terrible to play. And I feel like when we go in and adjust the top or the bottom, we're kind of tuning that nervous system back to reality. So we aren't stuck in that fight or flight
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:right and it, part of that is, is, the cerebral spinal fluid, the blood flow, the nerve function, it, all of, all of that is part of that.
Track 1:And I can see why we act as though we're in fight or flight because that is an emergency for the body. There's the master system is your brain and your spinal cord. If that's in trouble, if it's being impinged, if it doesn't have the blood flow or the nutrients that it needs, that is an emergency. So our emergency is coming from the inside. And when people are telling us to calm down, I think the body's like, no, no, no, no, no. I used to, I I, I was taught that sometimes the infants, like when they are trying to self-correct. And they're moving their head like against the floor, or sometimes kids are banging their head. Almost always when I stop, I, when, when a parent says that, I stop and I ask them how the child is doing it. Every time I've ever asked, and the parent knows they are moving on a restriction, like they're trying to get it to move. And I think in a way that's kind of like us doing CPR to get the heart to move, like we're trying from the outside in to, to get those nutrients because we are trying to solve an emergency in our body.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:That's that innate intelligence of the body being to do what it, it knows it needs.
Track 1:So when, so you're feeling these area where the nerves are maybe compromised or the blood flow or the cranial sacral fluid, and then how do you adjust that? Because you do it different than just holding and moving the energy and For me it was a miracle.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:If we look at bone, the bony sutures are jammed, so it would be very similar to a, like an a sprained ankle where one of the bones just is off alignment. And They have techniques to be able to disengage those restrictions and restore the normal range of motion of that bone.
Track 1:Mm-Hmm.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So, you know, we've got big bones that carry most of the work, but then there are little wounds that contribute to some of the function. a Lot of people get hit on the, on their chin growing up or land on their face. So we're looking at the, how the mandible connects to the head. The vulner bone is a little tiny bone that runs midline behind the nose. It helps pump our nasal sinuses and those bones can be jammed from those falls. Dental procedures.
Track 1:Clenching your teeth too, right?
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yeah. Yeah. yoU're talking about the, the nervous system. So when we look at the autonomic nervous system, that's our parasympathetic sympathetic that we were talking about. The, if the system is free to do what it needs to do, it balances itself out when we need to rest. Then the parasympathetic system goes in when we need to out and do our work. The sympathetic system goes up and they're, they're modulating each other back and forth. EER system is restricted, then that. Mechanism doesn't happen where you don't have that balance. I had one guy that took two hours to unwind every night in order to get his sympathetic system down enough so he could sleep. That that's how restricted his parasympathetic system was. It couldn't respond like it we expect it to. So when I'm looking at the body, I operate from the, the perspective, the design is perfect, and if something's not working, either there's pain, something's not working, range of motion wise or not functioning. I know there's a structural component somewhere that's contributing. Now I could just look at the symptom of whatever's causing it. But I have learned that there's often a. Structural cause of what's going on. And it, like you said, it can be from the top or the bottom. It, you know, we think about anchors being on the bottom, but the head being compressed can be an anchor from the top.
Track 1:Yeah, yeah.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Recently, what I've been looking at, you know, we, we were just taught container stuff, so bone, fascia, blood flow kind of stuff. Uh, I've been looking a little bit more at the brain tissue itself and finding some bruising. And I've had a couple people that have had brain surgery. So the fascial strains around that brain tissue has been really interesting to feel the, the difference things like the brainstem being tethered, uh, fascially down into the cervical spine, you know, just Looking a little bit differently at the, the structures, and you were talking about that cerebral spinal fluid flow. What I found is that there are some people that have had epidural anesthesia, and what that has done is the lining of the spinal cord and the canal are getting glued together from that inflammation. So it's not allowing that spinal cord to slide in the canal. And I think it's even decreasing the amount of cerebral spinal fluid that can move around in the system.
Track 1:both of those things you found on me. So when you say lately I've been finding, I think thank you, Judy. Keep exploring I two experience that really blew my mind on your table, which I'll share in case other people have felt that. So I had, not an epidural, but I had a lumbar puncture done to test'cause when my, when I lost the function of my arms and legs we were wondering if it was MS or something like that. And so in the emergency room they did a lumbar puncture, but the tech that did the lumbar puncture has been having a bad day And it was not a great puncture. And it ended up giving me a tear in my in my spinal cord covering in the dura mater. And it just caused so many problems for me. The headaches, I just cannot. Even explain those headaches, it felt like the worst brain freeze you've ever had, but over your entire brain that encompasses everything that you, you cannot do anything but endure through. And it, what I noticed was it was also just it, my back from that point forward just felt glued together at that point. Like the di I was getting symptoms in my discs, but it just felt always tight and always stuck. And I think about scar tissue, it's important that we form scar tissue. It's the way we knit tissue together. But it can act kind of like, I think of it like dots of glue that can get tackier and tackier and make it so that it can't flow. When I was on your table, I remember you feeling at my sacrum and then moving your hand right up to where that was. And I was surprised at how my system ramped when it was even just touched, like, not, not because it was, tender from the outside or even bruised. You couldn't see anything from the outside. But once you got the movement to start moving in there, I remember it feeling scary. My system was anxious about being touched, but getting it to gently be able to start to flow and move again, gave the lower half of my body much more control, much more of a chance to be integrated. So I think we, we like to think about like in the low back, okay, my discs are having a problem. I have these herniated discs, or I need this surgery. Or, oh, this is just the muscle. But really, man, there's muscle, there's disc, there's fascia, there's scar tissue, there's all these things, and there's stuff that can be done to help that. So it doesn't feel like you're such a stuck mess. I mean, even if you have some discs that are herniated, that pressure gradient will be more likely to herniate and have trouble if you don't have the natural flow that you have. So I think wow, within the context of even just. Back pain or post epidural or post lumbar puncture or anything like that. I think it's fantastic news that you're finding a way to help that scar tissue get more malleable again and with what is there. Give us the most function that we can have.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:You are right on that, that it's, Inside out, outside in kind of thing. But then the other, the other component of that is how that affect the autonomic nervous system.
Track 1:Yes.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:that. that's the other piece of the, the puzzle. Because we often just look locally at where the problem is and it's like, okay, that lumbar area was restricted, which made the par, the sacrum be restricted, which makes the, sacral plexus nerves inefficient, which goes to the organs being inefficient. And it Feeds on itself. I wouldn't be surprised if some of our well, our urinary incontinence, the bowel function, even some of the infertility, prostate issues can be traced back. To some of those procedures.
Track 1:yes. Valid. Plus I would add hormone imbalance to that
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Mm-Hmm.
Track 1:creating some of our hormones from our ovaries. And the nerves that go to our ovaries are filling, compromised. I mean, the body can do so many amazing things, but if it's restricted or limited and not able to do those things, then yeah, it can cause problems all through there. The other thing I wanted to talk about before I skip it is you were talking about having tethers at the top. That was another spot that you found of mine at a, at a later appointment. And it's an experience I will never forget. I wasn't sure if I was gonna share it publicly, but I just decided that I am.'cause it was so powerful for me. So your brain is housed in your skull and then it kind of forms a cone as it comes down and forms your spinal cord and it goes through a hole in the bottom of your skull and then your top bone in the neck is shaped like a donut hole. It goes through the donut hole and then down through your spine. But you had your hands up where that hole in my skull was between that and the donut hole bone and you lifted and I felt pressure come off of, I will not say, just come off of the bones. It was like how I felt at that time was always, always, I felt this heavy pressure at the base of my skull. I mentioned it to every doctor, I mentioned it to every massage therapist I, and what I learned is I would have episodes of paralysis. and that heavy feeling in my skull and in the back of my mouth, that was a, indicator to me that I needed to find somewhere to sit down because I was about to not be able to walk. And people were, you know, looking around. We did MRIs, we were trying to find out if maybe, you know, the way the cranial fluid was, if it was being blocked, if I had a tumor, if I had whatever I had, we, we checked all kinds of things and no one could find anything. And when you put your hands there and found those tethers and moved it a certain way, the pressure released and it was like my whole system felt like it had released. I felt like this is how I used to feel when I walked around, when I ran, when I played period, not just sports, when I just played And you held that and you said, okay. What I'm noticing, Becca, is when a body feels like this and when there's tethers like this, this is always seems to be tied with indecision about whether one wants to live or not. I mean, when we're talking about what really creates health problems, there is structure, there is also emotion. There is a whole gamut of energetic things happening behind. And at the time I was really tired. I was really tired of living in a body that felt this way and of not knowing what was gonna happen or what I was gonna do, or if I was really gonna have much life left in my life. You held it up and I remembered what it was like to live you said this is your decision and we can help this. But if you don't dec, if you decide you don't wanna live, this is, this is going to come back. If you decide you want to live, I'm gonna help you to open this up. But this only stays with decision. I thought as a provider that was very brave of you to say, and I know as a provider sometimes we can sense underlying things happening with people. I wanna thank you for your kindness for saying that. And it was true. And I closed my eyes and I really was thinking about if I wanted to continue or not. And my decision was, I wanna continue, but with joy, I wanna continue, but with life in my life. And I remember telling you my decision and you holding and you saying, okay, we're gonna lift it this way, and then I'm gonna let it drop. And when you let it drop the first time and I felt it slide back down, like literally almost into paralysis. Like I couldn't I could barely speak. I couldn't really move my arms or my legs. And then you lifted it back up and we worked again on the tethers and it just held better and better and better every time I've thought of that so often because sometimes I think it comes to structure and sometimes it comes to a deeper reason. If we, if we aren't sure that we want to hold, we might not hold. And for me it was like remembering what life actually felt like was part of my decision to decide to stay really firmly in the game and not just, you know, give up So anyway, very impactful for me.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:It is one of those conversations I don't like to have, and the body says to me, this person doesn't wanna be here. This person is suicidal. And it's like, I don't wanna talk about that. It's too sad.
Track 1:No, and I'll say I wasn't actively suicidal, but I was so tired.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Well, I, I see it from, with people that have undergone anesthesia and they come back and, you know, I think they kill us when we're under anesthesia, right? And they bring us back. when you're on the other side, it's really nice. And sometimes this world is very difficult. And, you know, just like the, we think about the heartbeat as being a central part of life. You know, once the heart stops, then life ends. There's a component of the cerebral spinal fluid that is similar to that, that if that fluid is not, responding, not, not vital, it can, lead that way also.
Track 1:Yeah, I mean, I think of how many things affect how we feel, right? I mean, if your blood pressure is crazy high or crazy low, it affects how we feel. If your Marriage or your relationship with your kids or your relationship with your friends is often affects how we feel. If your relationship with spirituality is thriving or not, it affects how we feel. And some of the things about I feel terrible. I feel tired, I feel anxious, I can't sleep. I like all these things, how we feel affect our quality of life, our vibrancy and our vitality in life. But I think the amazing news that I learned when you had your hands on my skull in that way was tethers, like really tethers that are pulling my brain down are affecting this incredible heaviness in my body and my decision about if I'm gonna stay in it, in not to stay in it, not like end my, my experience purposefully, but have the fight in it. You know what I mean? Like not May and maybe it wasn't even just the fight, but the the will to continue. to see what I could do to check who had one piece of the pie and then another piece of the pie that takes vitality. It takes support, it takes energy, and sometimes it takes a person taking pain off and helping you remember, and then helping you know how to guide your body to heal itself. The amazing news is that it can be tethers in your spine and in your brain, in the fascia, in the flow that can be making it so things feel so hard and it can, like you said, with an infant, be one time. It was one time for me to be able to walk and balance and turn, and it was only a few more times until we got to, I'm gonna make a decision to keep my vital force in the fight and, and to continue. I mean, that's amazing. That's amazing
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:in school, they talked to us about an old fashioned milking stool that had three legs. anD each one leg was body, one was mine and one was spirit. And all three needed to be balanced for the stool to be And I don't think most of us are trained in any spirituality. And you know, we were told 50% of our patients were probably depressed. Uh, it's probably higher than than that. And then you have the physical things. So it's like all three of those have to be together for wellness.
Track 1:Yeah. What are some of the things you have seen really make a difference in people getting their vitality back and balancing those legs of the stool? So you've seen people across the gamut of illness from,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:right. And I don't have all the answers. No. I, people need to go to spiritual base, you know, whatever that is. Some people have totally turned their back on their religion and haven't found a, a spirituality that gives them hope for the future. a Lot of people are just stuck in their head in the, the mental aspect of things. Sometimes they need counseling, sometimes we use medication. Short time, you know, there, there's lots of pathways to get to those, three legs I think a lot of the things we do with symptom treatment doesn't support that.
Track 1:Yeah, so it's really for, for me, and instead of feeling overwhelming, I've learned to. Find the empowerment in that. It's like, okay, if you're experiencing problem with this thing or that thing, or that thing, right? And feeling frustrated because you have searched for all the answers. I'm thinking of a patient that I had once, that had had migraines, solid migraines, I mean, for four days out of the week, at least every week for the last 10 years. And I just thought, oh, And she's like, I've tried everything. I'm like, I mean, I believe you. I believe you. And I said, but this is your first time in a chiropractor's office. So, and, and that can help migraines a ton. I, I talked to her about cranial work and she hadn't tried that, but she had tried every medicine and every medication and she thought that was everything or
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:procedures too.
Track 1:Or procedures. Right. And I think when you're looking at it like three legs of a stool or pieces of a pie, I think, you know, we try something and we see if it works and it might help with some, but if it doesn't help with anything, that doesn't mean we're stuck. It means try working on another leg. And I think what really makes a difference is going in to the things like, Hey, do I have a spiritual practice that helps me feel connection and hope, regardless of, of what is happening? That helps me know, you know, I'm grounded and that I have some connection. I think spirituality is so much about connection. And if I don't, what can I do to go into that today instead of running from it? Or is, are there things that are causing me a lot of mental stress? I mean, stress in itself is not bad for us, but an overabundance. Yeah. Or you know. Is there a way I can go into the trauma or the feelings instead of taking a medicine to try to make them go away or just jumping behind my positive thinking only, or my whatever it is that we do to run out. Like go in. You don't fix a stool by pretending the stool isn't broken, and you don't fix it by just only ever paying attention to one leg or just trying to balance on it.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Well, and I think a lot of healthcare just focuses on that physical component. And there's just so much more, when I think about approaching illness, it's like, oh, or, or people's wellbeing. It's like, okay, Is there something that needs to, be added? You know, are we looking at hydration? Are we looking at nutrition? Are we looking at particular supplements that might Aid, you know, hormones or different things, or does something need to be removed? And I think from the manipulation standpoint, removing the blocks have allowed the function to resume in a lot of different areas.
Track 1:yeah.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:thing I'm learning a little bit about is parasites and, uh, overload of viruses and bacteria that, and molds. People have a lot of mold and surprised
Track 1:Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the parasites and the unhealthy bacteria, they all secrete toxins and chemicals into our body, and they can have a massive effect on brain function, on feeling like the way that you feel if they affect your levels of neurotransmitters. If, I mean, if your body's fighting a fight internally that you don't know about,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Right. Well, it and then this is kind of silly, but they say that the parasites get frisky during a full moon
Track 1:Oh.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:get maybe secreting, adrenaline. So that interferes with people sleeping. It's like, well, when you match, match your, your symptoms with the, the mood, sometimes it can be a problem.
Track 1:I used to think it was wives tales that we follow moon cycles, but I only thought that until I started seeing a lot of pregnant women. Let me tell you what they, they follow moon cycles. And I have also noticed a lot of emotional anxiety, stress kind of seems to happen. We just finished, I don't know, I don't know the specifics, but it was like a super moon and some other kind of moon and then the solar eclipse. And then just this weekend the lunar eclipse people were struggling.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Yep. So, A lot of people know about the, just the regular full moon. A lot of babies are born, the emergency room tends to be a little bit more busy with physical and mental issues. And this month we've had all of that ramped up with the eclipses.
Track 1:I think it's so fascinating. Just as we wrap up, I love talking to you because when I talk with you, we end up talking about what you're noticing in clinical practice, and I think that is the, an aspect of medicine that when it is done well, is so valuable, is watching the patterns or habits and what people are doing. I'm curious, and this is not a, a political sort of thing about, you know, covid yeses or nos, but I know you noticed quite a few things happening around the time that Covid was rampant after vaccinations and then. In the repair, in, you know, the time after with people's cardiovascular systems and with their nervous systems. You tell me some things that you noticed and ways that you noticed were helping the recovery or the symptoms, or
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So one of the things that I noticed e even with Covid is worse with the vaccine, is that the, venous sinuses, which are the blood systems in the head that I was working with, got really thick, chunky thick. normally If a head is insufficient, I expect dry blood, kind of like dried honey. And this was chunky, really chunky blood,
Track 1:meaning when you're feeling it, instead of it feeling like a gentle flow of fluid, it feels thick, like it's not moving.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:So I could get it moving, but I couldn't get it to stay moving until we added in a blood thinner. We experimented and got up to a 3 25 aspirin a day was enough to keep it thin enough. And there are equivalents that people have use with turmeric, garlic cayenne, um, clary sage, some, some other herbal things that we were able to titrate up to get the blood thin enough. And what I don't know for sure, my suspicion is the spike protein was contributing to that thickness and we needed to do the blood thinner for somewhere between six and 12 weeks in order to have the body remove whatever was making it thick.
Track 1:And what were people feeling or what were their symptoms when
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:A lot of
Track 1:were feeling it?
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Lot of headaches. Um, and then, we know there was people were having heart attacks and strokes and I think I have one guy, I'm pretty sure he had clots in his kidney. He presented like a, a kidney stone kind of person, but the all of the evaluation for the stones was negative. But the pain was pretty significant. so I'm pretty
Track 1:Wow.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:he had clots there. Lot of respiratory issues. Some of the steroids work for a lot of them. Um, but the prolonged asthma, like reactive airway disease didn't seem to respond as well to the, the steroids. Albuterol inhalers helped a little bit, but then we found that the nebulizing, nanos silver, really helped a lot of that bronchospasm related to the, to the chronic coughing and the, the wheezing.
Track 1:That's what I love about real clinical paying attention. I mean, you start with the things that you've been taught work, and then if there's some crazy thing happening, then try other things. Like,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Whoa. And.
Track 1:know. Let's try nanos silver. Let's try, how can we get this in the
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Well, and that's where I think I, I, you know, the population of people that I'm seeing, you know, a lot of people don't wanna take medicines and they've been raised with, uh, more natural things and they know those natural things way better than I do. And they're working equivalently to what I can do as a prescription, and they're not having as many side effects. You know, things like the nano silver. It doesn't make you hyper like the albuterol inhalers do. So people can take that before they go to bed. The albuterol, you take it, you may be up for a couple of hours. So It is been interesting learning how powerful some of these will be considered non-traditional treatments are, and you know, the naturopath and herbal, herbal herbology people have been using them for years. I just didn't have any exposure to it before.
Track 1:I think it's so powerful to hear you say that it's the patients who are telling you things and then you trying and seeing and comparing. That to me is just good healthcare. I have learned, I I, I use that as a guide when I am seeing a doc. I, I used to not see. I outside doctors very much until I got really sick. And now I'm like, okay, if you are a doctor that I can tell you this is what I know in this body works well, but I need help with this part. If that doctor will listen to me and roll with what I already know about my child or about me, and we find a solution that works that maybe I don't wanna do one type of treatment, but I do need this outcome. And I know that a doctor that is willing to learn from patients as we're all willing to learn from each other, just that's so much positive momentum. If I see a doctor that has to be in charge that doesn't want to hear what I have to say, I, I think of that like, let's move on. I we're past the arrogant stage in my life.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Well, if I think I have all the answers, then I know I'm in trouble.
Track 1:Yeah,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:But I do know what, I know that's true.
Track 1:yeah,
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:and things that work and you know, balancing the nervous system is definitely a huge part of helping people to, to be well, especially these people that are living in that sympathetic fight or flight. They are, their adrenal glands are shot. They aren't sleeping. It's just so miserable.
Track 1:That is exactly who I want to speak to. So I guess the cliff notes from this conversation would be, would be if you feel like you are stuck in a kind of stress driven, can't drop it fight or flight or freeze kind of situation, there can be some other options. And cranial sacral work is, is a really great one. Mm-Hmm. Wonderful. So that's if they wanted to see a practitioner or to see you for craniosacral work. Other cliff notes that I'm, that I am highlighting would be, make sure that you are thinking of the stool analogy of that the structure can equal the function, the, the alignment of the body, the way that the body is working and functioning is super important. As well as the mental health aspect, as well as the spiritual health aspect. I, I have seen that in my own practice, in my own life, as well as balancing those three together. So Judy, how would people work with you or with other people if they can get to Southern Utah or people that are trained in the same way that you practice? What are some options?
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:I have a link to the, the osteopathic cranial academy that I'll give you, and then I'll give you a list of people that are locally here that I refer to for treatment as well as my office. The office phone number where you can leave a message for me is 4 3 5 7 0 3 9 4 9 9. That's a message number. I'm usually busy with patients, so I don't answer the phone directly.
Track 1:Wonderful. Doctor Judy, I am so grateful for my time with you today and I'm thankful for so many people in my life that I know that you've helped, but a heartfelt. Gratitude for the peace of my life that you gave back to me through this amazingly powerful work. I'm grateful for all of the learning you have done that brought you to that point in that room with me. But I'm also just grateful for you being a voice for options that that people have. There can be more help than vitality in your life, and that alignment can make such a difference. Thank you for what you do.
dr-judy_2_10-30-2023_112235:Thank you.
Track 1:Until next time, thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time.
I'm so glad I got to share that episode with you. I would say my three top takeaways would be one, the body is a self healing organism and the structure of that body is one of the things that can affect the function or the emotional state or the will and vitality that we feel. Number two would be we can throw off the structure by bumping it out of alignment, and that includes things like birth, surgeries, epidurals, hitting your head, or landing on your bum. And it can affect us, and then we get symptoms in those areas, like For difficult births can be having a hard time nursing, or sleeping, or getting issues with your jaw, or headaches when you're older, problems with bowel, bladder, infertility, anywhere those nerves go to, whatever organs they innervate, is how we say it in chiropractic, And the third takeaway for me would be her advice of remembering the milking stool. That each leg of a three legged milking stool would be mind, body, and spirit. And Maintaining and caring for each of those legs of the stool is a big part of wellness and balance. So a big thanks to Dr. Judy Caldwell for teaching and sharing with us. I hope you felt a little bit like you were in a doctorate school class because that's what it feels like minus all the giggling. I'm so glad to share with you our next episode. I get to talk to the one and only Jonathan Romney and D I have a lot of respect for him. He's helped with my own journey in my health kind of run as a point man for me collaborating with. different ideas. And he always has a deeper wisdom that comes with, yes, the supplement will help, but also this mindset will help. So he's a perfect helper on the show. He talks about his own journey from knowing that he wanted to help people through deciding to become a naturopathic physician and what. That really is. And we talk about the basics of stress, the good, bad, and ugly, how stress is not always bad for you, but what hormones are released when we're under chronic stress and what they start to affect in the body. And some of the things might surprise you. I know stress is not a new topic, but this was an interesting conversation and I think you'll find it insightful. It became a two part conversation because we were having a good time basically. And this is an important one for you to listen to because in part two, we build off of the, because in part two, we use part one as a basis to launch into how all this whole mess affects hormones. So if you are interested in hormone treatments. In what hormones do in what you can do. If you know yours or someone in your life's are a little out of balance, then stay tuned. We'll see you in episodes three and four with Dr. John Romney until next time.