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In todayβs podcast, Dr. Alex Jimenez and Dr. Mario Ruja discuss how chiropractic care can help individuals who have been involved in automobile accidents and the various functional treatments that can help the bodyβs overall wellbeing.
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[00:00:01]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Β Hey, Mario, you and I decided to call the podcast what Mario? Chiropractors exposed. The chiropractic exposΓ©.
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[00:00:14]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Weβre exposing the pain.
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[00:00:16]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β The differences between chiropractic and the design. And weβre going to be getting funky and deep with the technology and the knowledge.Β
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[00:00:24]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Itβs kind of scary. Iβm just going to tell you right now if you donβt have your seatbelts on. Strap in.
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[00:00:29]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Mario, today we decided to develop a significant component of our practice: personal injury. Personal injury is a type of practice where we deal with people who are injured from various issues, such as falls, slips, accidents, any nature, workers compensation, and auto accidents. A lot of things happen when youβre in personal injury dynamics. But being a doctor that deals with soft tissue issues, Mario and I have been doing this now for nearly, you know, for myself, almost thirty-two years. And Mario, youβve been doing about 25, 26 years almost now. Yeah. So weβve been doing it for a long time, and we have a lot to offer, and we do have a lot to say about the personal injury arena. In the beginning, when we first started understanding what happened, we didnβt ever really understand the complexities of an injury to the same level as what we do today because there is a tremendous amount of knowledge that has come about in the last two to three decades about injuries as well as injuries resulting in prolonged or chronic states that that affect people for their lives. But I also want to talk to Mario specifically more like an open forum today regarding the things that we have, we have seen when it comes to personal injury. How has that affected your practice per se in the last two decades?
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[00:01:58]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β The dynamics of personal injury are complex. But what I can say, Alex, with the outcomes and assessments and the goals of personal injury, itβs straightforward. Number one. There is a trauma, so thereβs a date of damage, you know, whether itβs a mountain biking accident or a car accident? A football injury. Soccer. You know, a slip and fall, you try to put the Christmas lights on and wipe out. All of those things, what it comes down to is this event. You have to start with the event, and that is the intro to the story of recovery. And what Iβve noticed is that a majority of the people minimize that event because weβve been trained to reduce injuries, period. You know, even if we do this consistently as little kids, people say youβre fine. Wipe it off. Run a lap. Be a big boy. Itβs not a big deal. I mean, I see this with kids on playgrounds. I mean, they wipe out. Iβm talking about they come off the slide, and the first thing that hits the ground is theyβre their coccyx, their backs. That is like trauma, like severe trauma. And again, itβs overlooked. And those types of patterns, my quarter of a century-plus of taking care of personal injuries. And again, on another side, the word personal injuries have a negative connotation.
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[00:04:07]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β So thatβs what it means.
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[00:04:09]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Yeah, itβs like most people look at it, and itβs fake. You know, itβs not real. People are trying to make something out of nothing. You see, theyβre trying to get paid and all that, that is not appropriate at all. And those types of conversations are conversations that show what in my mind, in my view, is no care. Like, you know, it doesnβt matter. You donβt count. Your health doesnβt matter. Wipe it off and quit whining about it. And youβre fine. Well, it begins at an early age like kids, and it goes to adolescents in sports. You know, I see so many personal injuries and in sports like between the ages of seven, 10, 12, 13, and theyβre misdiagnosed. Theyβre undertreated, and they become very chronic. Thereβs chronicity, Alex, in that. And as they grow up, you have these issues that stem back. And even my patients tell me, βOh, when I was 12 years old, I had this injury, and I twisted my ankle where I fell off of this. And since then, Iβve never been the same again.β
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[00:05:26]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Itβs so crucial to early diagnosis issue. When we assess a person, the worst thing is someone not paying attention to a personal injury. A hip injury can lately hang around and lead to a degenerative hip. Twenty years later, it was a neck injury. A football injury could lead to arthritis as time goes on. It took a long time for the surgeon general to come up with a sentence that smoking is hazardous for your health. We had known for literally 40 years, but we had known about arthritis as a disorder. Recently, in the last two decades, the surgeon general has said that arthritis is a disorder of biomechanical imbalance. But where did this biomechanical imbalance begin? Typically an injury in the past, and that people ignored an injury, a football injury, or fall, which causes trauma that is not dealt with, we have to assess the situation and bring some protocol to the individual to allow them to heal and will enable the body to heal like it usually should. Personal injuries are critical. They have striking issues that affect the whole body dynamics, such as an ankle injury. An ankle issue will affect the knee, the hip, the low back, the mid-pack, and the neck, and people just donβt get it. When Iβm saying people, insurance carriers, how a person who fell off a ladder and landed on a bum and hurt their lower back now has shoulder issues. You know, six months a year later or headaches?
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[00:07:12]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Exactly. Headaches, I mean, theyβre dealing with, you know, issues with chronic headaches, with dizziness. And, you know, the conversation you and I always have on a secondary level is like, Oh, this is not contributed to the injury. OK, so they fell, and somehow their whole body fell. But thereβs only one injury, and thatβs like the low back. And thatβs it, you know, like none of the body, this is whatβs so intriguing, and I laugh about it. I go, you know what, what colors the red bus? I donβt know; itβs pink today because we have more pink. No, you cannot have a whole body engaged in a traumatic acceleration, deceleration injury, or an impact. And someone can tell a patient or us that, by the way, the only part that you have injured is your low back or your neck. And thatβs it.
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[00:08:10]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β And you know, you were mentioning right there when acceleration-deceleration that those are terms that are used primarily for describing someone coming from a high velocity to a sudden stop. And itβs a general physics term in a prevalent one in the legal realm. And Iβm glad that you used it because weβre talking today about motor vehicle accidents, specifically auto accidents that cause injuries and leave people with problems many, many, many months later. You know, I know you know this, and from the time that I began my practice, the most common thing after a motor vehicle accident was someone that said, I donβt have anything that hurts. Right? Absolutely. And then how long does it take before the symptoms show up in your car?Β
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[00:08:57]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Realistically, Alex, I would say anywhere between three to four weeks, sometimes even longer. I have patients that refuse treatment, and they tell me this, you know like I was hit by a car from the back. Thatβs like real common. You know, nowadays, people pay more attention to their cell phones than whatβs in front of them or anywhere distractions, right? So for whatever reason, you know, you get hit from the back. I mean that that incident, I hear so many times patients come in, theyβre dealing with headaches, migraines, severe migraines where theyβre on heavy medications, have neck issues, chronic, and tell me Iβve never been the same. And it started two years ago when this happened. Well, what happened? That event was I got hit from the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they even tell me Iβve never been the same again. Iβve been damaged. You know what? And they refuse. And I tell them, Well, did you get any care? No, I didnβt get any care because I was OK. I felt fine. And, you know, I didnβt need it.
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[00:10:11]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Patients need to get evaluated after an auto accident. They do because you never know whatβs going on. And sometimes, the body has impressive capacities of hiding symptoms, literally. You can have a person who comes in your office that hurts my low back and says, I only have pain in my back and lower back. Then after a little quick assessment, we just kind of move the neck, and he goes, Oh, that my neck hurts. And I go, Well, did it hurt before? And they go, No. And itβs not that Iβm stimulating. Itβs that the pain in the low back camouflages other areas. Itβs almost like you hit get hit by a hammer, and all of a sudden on your toe, you suddenly donβt have back pain.
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[00:10:53]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Thatβs exactly it.
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[00:10:55]Β Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β The brain can come out and late the symptoms. And then later, two days later, two weeks later, after the carrier called you and said, Are you OK? Then you start, have a presentation of symptoms, and say, Well, I didnβt have anything on that day. You didnβt want to get checked out, and suddenly you have symptoms that you didnβt know about, which happens more often and more commonly when you get older. As people get older, they have these symptoms present. Weβve done studies we can show and NCBI studies where people have issues years later, from a soft tissue cervical injury that leads to chronic headaches, migraines, and mental disorders resulting from poor sleep, just chronic pain is horrible when it affects individuals. Therefore, itβs essential, and our goal today was to have an open forum of whether you should get the care and should get evaluated and what kind of treatment options we have? I mean, weβll have tons of podcasts where we can talk about the types of treatment protocols and their best efforts. But the bottom line is we have to start with people understanding that they need to be assessed. And itβs crucial that they do because if they donβt, guess what happens.
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[00:12:12]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Well Alex, let me interrupt you for a second and let me say this question number one, and I know, you know the answer, and I hear it all the time, but I want you to kind of like tackle that one as they say, OK, number one, how many patients have you had that walk-in in the past 20, 30 years of your practice that say, βOh? Dr. Jimenez, you know what, Iβve already been checked out. I went to E.R. I got checked out. They did some X-rays, told me I was OK. Gave me a, you know what, 800 milligrams of ibuprofen. You know, and give me a muscle relaxant, some flex real or whatever. Iβm fine. A lot, Mario. How many times? A lot. Or they go to their family practitioner, and itβs the same conversation. Youβre fine. Come back in 30 days, and I ask them, and you ask them, and what else did you do? Nothing. What is your opinion? You know, we deal with sports injuries. We deal with football players getting hit for up from the back, tackled, and all of that. Those kids weigh no more than 200 pounds. OK? I mean, weβre talking about high school. Not not the pros. A car weighs a ton.
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[00:13:38]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Β Ten thousand pounds traveling at 60 miles an hour as hundreds of thousands of pounds of machinery.
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[00:13:44]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β So now, how many times in your practice career have you heard? No, I already got checked out, and they said I was OK.
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[00:13:57]Β Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: A lot. Mario, I remember when I first met you, we had a clinical case. Remember the German? Yeah, Iβm fine. I went to Vista Hills Hospital, right? And they told me I was OK. He had a compelling accent. The guy came in the briefcase.
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[00:14:20]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Β The guy came in to be a briefcase. How much do you weigh?
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[00:14:21]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β I think it was about 40 pounds? Yeah. All right. And what happened is he started to lean forward. And the first protocol we do if youβre in, and first of all, the clinical history was that he flipped the car and hit his head on the top of the vehicle. So as he flipped it, they took him to the hospital, and then they took an X-ray, and sure enough, they let him go. Right? Well, he said he couldnβt move around. And if you remember, he was saying, βI cannot move on this; I have these two briefcases holding me down,β and you could see that it was pulling him forward. And I remember we took the X-rays and looked at how it was broken; the neck was broken.
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[00:15:01]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β What part of it was broken?
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[00:15:03]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β The cervical spine, the lower circle around the T-one, was hidden behind the shoulder on the X-ray right. And what we did was we did a swim shot, and we saw the neck. And Iβll never forget what happened. I go, βMario, look at this,β and he goes, βOh wow,β and I told Mr. So-and-so. I forgot his name, and we told him, βWe got to talk to you about your X-rays, and you got a broken neck,β and then he goes, βWhat? They did not tell me.β All right. Well, what I did was I went, βThis was too complex for even my practice.β My point being is, is that it was something that needed to be assessed. I sent him over to Dr. Thomas Al-Awsat, a great local surgeon, and I got to tell you, I think, the helicopter that landed by his office. He calls me back, saying, βHey, man, why did you send that to me?β And I go, βWell, youβre the orthopedic surgeon.β Then he goes, βDude, that is beyond my abilities.β He sent it over to Dr. Meissenhammer, the spinal practitioner, and heβs smarter than I am.
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[00:16:03]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β And Dr. Al-Awsat is extremity.Β
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[00:16:07]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Iβm going like that was crazy. We sat him down and called the helicopters to airship them. To that point, my point is that thereβs a lot of things that are missed many times. We have a lot of great doctors in the city that can come together, and we integrate our practices with neurologists. I know you work with neurologists, pain specialists, chronic pain specialist doctors, physical medicine doctors, which we are. We need to understand that after an injury, there is trauma. You know, sometimes the carriers defy you and say, thatβs a garden of the mill injury. Itβs not that way. We have to evaluate those things through our history. Weβve seen atrocities, wrongdoings that could have been avoided by a simple assessment, a simple orthopedic assessment, and a neurological evaluation with all the tools that we have in modern science today to be able to come up with a protocol to determine if there is a problem or there isnβt. It seems kind of crazy that we could leave a person, a young girl whoβs at the age of 18 has a neck injury and then look at her later on a 50, and sheβs got massive arthritis in her neck when we could have done something.
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[00:17:20]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β And what I would say is we need to honor each patient as though they are our children or our parents. You know, if we have those standards of care. We would care more, do more, be a little more patient and not as fast to judge or tell the patient youβre fine. And I understand many traumas, many other issues are more pressing, and often thatβs the case. And we all do our best. You know, Alex, I always tell people everyone does their best when they are, you know, and for myself, I look at those cases, the injuries as very, very important cases because they delineate the rest of your life. So the better you take care of that car accident. And the reason weβre talking about cars is that the impact is enormous. And some of these cars, you may not see the effect. And thatβs another conversation that I think is important because people think, oh, itβs a scratch, you know, and then the older the car, this is one thing that Iβve noticed, the older the vehicle. I mean, weβre talking about bumpers that are made out of steel. Yeah, I mean, that thing is not going to bend. But Iβll tell you what, that force will vibrate through the whole car to impact you more.
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[00:19:06]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β You know, as you mentioned that we learned in physics plastic deformation. Thatβs what it is plastic. It absorbs the energy. Todayβs cars are designed to absorb energy, and the old cars were more complex. So that energy, itβs almost like when people know I can imagine driving your car on and no tires, no rubber. You feel the impact when youβre on an older car, pre the 60s and 70s. That thing hurt, man. That thing was not an energy-absorbing kind of structure. There are cars out there that absorb energy better. But what weβve learned is that position the impact, velocity, angles, and vectors all come into place, and itβs essential to understand the individualβs age.
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[00:19:54]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β The preexisting. I can tell you someone, someone thatβs in their 20s and someone who is in their 60s. Same situation, same impact. Different care, totally other symptoms, totally different outcome. Why preexisting issues, secondary morbidities, you know, all of those things are considered, and those patients have had other problems before. But the point that I always reflect and share with the patient wherever you are. The particular impact escalated and amplified the concerns you had prior, which is vital to clarify again. Often, you know, those issues are not created, and the verbiage thatβs used is itβs preexisting because, you know, you have arthritis. Yeah, I understand that. But the question is, did that impact make my arthritis and the situation better or worse? Iβm sorry but letβs be straightforward.
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[00:21:02]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Is it their fault that they are 60? Is it their fault that they have arthritis? Is it their fault that they have a back prior existing issue with rods in their spine from a previous situation? No, itβs not. When the impact happens, it lights those things. Yeah, whatever you have predisposed, it lights it up, and it makes it worse. Youβre right.
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[00:21:20]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Preexisting and those are conversations that need to be clarified and answered for the patients, mainly because itβs not their fault, you know, theyβre the ones that didnβt wake up in the morning and go, You know what? Let me see if I can hit a tree today. Yeah, so I can, you know, just kind of stimulate my neck so I can move better? No, thatβs the point. The point is that we need to meet each patient where they are. The fact is we need to meet them where they are. And if you are at that point in your life where you have high blood pressure diabetes, I mean, weβre talking about a conversation that we had a week ago was metabolic syndrome where you have type two diabetes. Now, Alex, tell me about your experience; Iβll let you answer this. How does a patient with diabetes differ in their recovery? The speed, the time of their recovery? With one who doesnβt have diabetes?
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[00:22:22]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Using that example, you can first of all, when you have diabetes, by definition, itβs the sugar imbalance issues the bodyβs more inflammatory. It just basically cuts down to inflammation. It affects the kidneys. And if theyβre pre-diabetic, they may be through growing metabolic disorder, where inflammation and blood sugar issues are going haywire. Well, itβs inflamed. Itβs a predisposed inflammatory structure dynamic being. Now you get that person, and you hit him with a shovel that weighs one hundred thousand pounds in the back, right? Right. You light up the whole body, and youβve taken someone who had a kind of a silent form of inflammation. You put that body through an inflammatory state that cascades to the point where the person literally their blood sugar. How many times after that did you have an accident where the people just complained their blood sugars off? Everything. Their diabetes has gone haywire. They werenβt the same. Did it take months even to stabilize the blood sugar?
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[00:23:24]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β The recovery again, as you, as you mentioned, because of all these secondary issues is much longer and again due to the cascade effect of an injury, amplifying not only the symptoms but amplifying and putting so much talk on the metabolic process that that that person is already in. Theyβre already in a high state of inflammation. Now we just lit the whole body into the second phase of that. And actually, and thatβs where I would like everyone to understand that there needs to be a higher level of care for those cases. And many times, itβs a more extended level. So this is not just one month, you know, weβre done thank you very much and have a nice day. Now, this is something that needs to be very well managed. The word is managed, very well cared for. So this is not like a little drive-through, you know, program, and therefore, we minimize those types of secondary issues and become even more chronic and impact the functional aspect of their long-term life.
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[00:24:49]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β You know, the word today that didnβt exist 20 years ago was functional medicine. A person whoβs in a car accident isnβt just hurt on their knee. Is it just hurt on their neck? Their whole bodies have gone through a slamming potentiation, or an energy field has gone through their body. It affects every organ. It involves the mind, the brain, the skull, brain matter, the intestinal organs. It affects everything and puts everything into chaos. If someone has a susceptibility and gets hit in an auto accident, it brings out a lot of the disorders that were just silent. Now theyβre present, and we have to hit a functional approach. When we assess someone, we have to evaluate how itβs affected their mind. When I started practicing Mario, you know, PTSD wasnβt even though it was considered part of the DSM three-book; even the veterans didnβt qualify it as a diagnosis. It was in our tenure over the last 20 years that people understand the impact of the mind, how it gets altered in a motor vehicle accident, the mind, the way the cognition, the what they call cognitive dissidence the brain has in effect as a result of an impact. And how many times do you get a patient that says, You know what? I got hit in a car accident, and Iβm afraid, Iβm scared. I donβt know what to to do when I cross an intersection; theyβre hurting mind-wise. So not only is the mind affected but the physiology of their whole bodies are affected.
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[00:26:35]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Talking about mind, let me do this. This is the word that is very important for all of us. Concussions. So now, after all these years, even in the game of football. After a very well-documented movie called Concussion. It was almost like a documentary. This is real. So from multiple impacts in football, people are getting depressed. Suicide is connected with it. Anger management, addiction, Alex.
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[00:27:27]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Wait for a second, Mario? Addiction? Tell me all about that. Letβs talk about that because this is a whole thing.
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[00:27:33]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β No, thatβs I donβt. Oh, itβs the only accident. No. Itβs not connected. Itβs only just the low back and neck. And letβs leave it alone. No, youβre exactly right. Weβve got to address this. We need to put it up front and direct to everyone. Because let me tell you, if a football injury can cause concussions, which has a cascade effect towards depression, suicide addiction patterns, then let me ask you this. Is it too crazy to say that maybe car accidents have a similar effect?
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[00:28:11]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Oh, absolutely. Itβs crazy. You know what? First of all, our awareness of concussions was very different. You know, 20, 30 years ago, it was the stinger.Β
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[00:28:24]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Yeah, rub it out.
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[00:28:27]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β The legs going the wrong way to sting or walk it off. You got knocked down on their back, you know, a stinger. We now know the complications of the inflammatory cascade resulting from a football impact, that these things affect peopleβs brains. When they start affecting their brains, it affects their emotions. Youβre right, and suicide is a complication of concussion. And when people get involved in motor vehicle accidents, they often do get subconcussive, pre concussive, and real concussive situations.
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[00:28:58]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β And are they OK? Letβs talk about this. Are they assessed? Are they addressed?
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[00:29:07]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Β No, not all the time. An excellent qualified doctor will do an orthopedic, neurological assessment, and all of the other tools and canons that they use to figure out whatβs wrong with this individual. As you said, when that patient equals one, each person has its dynamics. You cannot state that everyone involved in a 30 mile an hour impact has a two-week injury. This is ridiculous. You know, doctors would laugh at that, but this is the standard. The guideline says a sprain strain of the neck. And letβs classify that. But there are different levels. There are complications. We need to make sure we diagnose, treat, and put together a team of individuals supporting wrap ourselves around this patient to give them the treatment protocols they need. This is very important because if we donβt Mario, that person 20 years from now will be affected. And we all know that if it involves an individual in their 20s and 20 years later, heβs 40, it has affected the whole family.
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[00:30:14]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Absolutely. It affects everybody. It does, Alex. I will say this from personal experience. It affects everyone because we all go through it; the rule is that when one goes through it, we all go through it. Because the dynamics of that family changes immediately, the energy changes in the house, everything change. Yeah, the weekly routine changes. Now we have to take mom or dad, or we have to do this, or we canβt do these other things. We canβt go to football practice imaginable because now we have to go to therapy and some other things. And the other question that I want to throw out is very sensitive, like I donβt want to throw it out at you and make sure you donβt fumble this one, right? So let me tell you why it is so easy to get your car fixed but not your body? Now I want to throw it to you quickly. This isnβt a fastball, all right. Why is it that we take care of these things? We donβt go; thatβs not it. You know that scratch was there before. Now weβre not fixing your car. Why is it that itβs so easy to fix material things? Right? And we never look at we never say this. This car was like three years old or four years old, you know, and weβre not going to pay for it. Weβre just going to spend like like maybe half because itβs already old. Why is it that car material things are paid for in full, Alex, and people are not? Why is it? You know, Iβm really curious.
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[00:32:09]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Iβll answer it.
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[00:32:10]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Yeah, please.
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[00:32:11]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β It is called ignorance, Mario. It is ignorance of the fact of what will happen to that individual, and I cannot tell you that I have treated a lot of patients in my life, some of them were adjusters, that terrorized my patients in the early 90s that stated, you donβt have a problem. X-Y-Z. Every time they say the person was involved in an accident, they donβt have a problem. They are just blanket statements. They donβt have any issues and would create devastation with the patient and the treatments they need. Guess what? I had one that I remember our first one, and letβs call her Karen Peoples, and she worked for an insurance company with a P on it. And she remembers. And I remember her voice, she had a unique voice, and one day I had that voice in my office. And that same Karen from that insurance company says I was involved in an accident with my daughter and I go with you that Karen from that insurance a long time ago. And she goes, Yes, I was the head adjuster. And I say to her, βYou know, you created a lot of devastation for a lot of my patients, not understanding what was going on with them.β She goes, βI never knew. I never knew that an impact with such little force of 20 to 30 miles an hour could leave my daughter in such devastating pain and me because I didnβt know and I didnβt know,β and I go, βBut you continuously created havoc for these patients,β and she goes, βI live with that every day. I live with the bitterness of getting divorced. I had the protocols that were in place.β I donβt know what it was, but you know, she led me to believe that it was her job. But the bottom line was that she realized then that an injury that now was a small relative that she would have brushed off and made someone feel worth nothing or had no value for care has now affected her life and her daughter. It affected them that they were always being treated in the office for about a good three to four months, and they appreciated it for the first time. So to answer your question Mario, itβs just ignorance to understanding. Because we live in a culture, I donβt have time to take care of my body. I donβt have time to give myself the care that I do. We treat nurses. You and I treat nurses. These are the top echelon nurse practitioners, the top end. By the time they retired, theyβre broken. These are the people that took care of themselves but didnβt take care of themselves. They took care of other people, but not themselves. All right. So the whole idea of why just people tend to believe that itβll be gone tomorrow? They still think theyβre 15. But once you cross 25, 30 years old, the body takes longer to heal. The body dynamics are altered. And as that happens, things take a much more logical approach to consider what we need to do to recover a person. So as we do these things, the answer is we believe that cars, though they are more important in terms of the present to get me here and there, they donβt see the distance and the how long and how it affects them when theyβre seventy years old and canβt walk because of an old injury back in the day. So we need to establish norms, and N equals one patient-doctor equals one. We understand we assess; we determine whatβs going on with the patient. And when we do that, you and I do a great service to our patients and their families and for the future generation. I cannot tell you that anxiety stays with you. No anxiety. If youβre a very anxious and irritable person, I can ask you whoβs there? Was the irritable person anxious in your family? Well, thereβs my mom, and who was that behind? That was my grandmother. Right? So if we give chronic pain to an individual? Have you ever seen children of an individual who has chronic pain not affect the children in some capacity? It does. So when we kind of blow-off pain and that it doesnβt need to be, you know, whatever. Here is a couple of hundred dollars here. Take Motrin out the door. You take some flexible risk of yourself becoming addicted to certain medications because it happens. And thereβs a place for things. And when thereβs a need for medication, you and I are very aware weβre open to that. But when the consequence leads to a lifetime and not only a lifetime, but a legacy of perpetual issues for a future generation? Oh, it was just because we didnβt know Mario. We didnβt know they didnβt know the distant consequences of trauma. I have people that I hate to say this, but itβs ridiculous. But the anxious anxiety that is so deeply embedded in some of my patients leads back to the Civil War. I mean, back to their families when they were trying to survive during the depression and that that that same mental state follows them through. Well, an auto accident can do the same. I mean, if it traumatizes them, it gives them an injury, and they canβt walk around, and now their neck doesnβt move. And they used to be a car mechanic, and now they donβt have a job. And all of a sudden, they canβt bring the bacon home. What happens?
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[00:37:49]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Thatβs an excellent point. Thatβs a very valid point, Alex. And I see this with athletes when an event happens to where it alters their function because their function is their identity. You follow me. So all of a sudden, itβs like, hereβs a wrestler with an injury he canβt wrestle more. Hereβs a football player. He has to retire early. Here, here is a, letβs say, mechanic. He cannot do his job anymore. So again, in our culture, our function is our identity. Would you say that? So, thatβs where itβs so important that we honor functional medicine.
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[00:38:45]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know, let me kind of mention something because you said, we arenβt we are the thing that we do. In Spanish, there is a word that rides on insult. It is inutile. Youβre not worthy of something. If you break apart the word you notice, like when someone calls with someone inutile, itβs like youβre insulting me. Like, Iβm not helpful. Well, the word is in without utility. Without utility function, without function, you hurt yourself; you become inutile. So the answer to it is when youβre hurt. Whatβs the big bravo thing? You donβt want to tell people youβre hurt because you donβt want to be inutile.
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[00:39:27]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Thatβs psychological. I love that. I love that connection because here is the 360, which is where it all comes around. Identity function, chronicity. And this is where we disconnect. When we disconnect, we say, no, Iβm fine. How many times do you hear people say Iβm fine.
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[00:39:49]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Iβm fine. Busted leg. Iβm fine.Β
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[00:39:53]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β And you look at him, you go, βDude, youβre not fine.β
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[00:39:57]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Youβre not fine. No, we got to check you out, and we got to figure out and come up with a plan.
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[00:40:01]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β I see so many people that instead of, you know, again, the conversation is in car accidents and all that. Oh, theyβre amplifying it there. You know what? Thatβs very rare. OK. You know what most working, society, a working force like in El Paso, we love to work. Thatβs our identity. We donβt want to stop working. I have so many people to say, no, I need to go back to work. I want to.
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[00:40:29]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Β I got to tell you, I grew up in a world where people walked around with neck braces, and we knew it. Now, today we donβt use oneβs neck braces as much or belts everywhere. You know what? People do not come to my office faking it; they donβt. I mean, it doesnβt happen. Itβs not like they are hurting their jobs. I am a very fair guy in terms of, look, this is something real. And as soon as we treat and weβre done with them and be on your way and be happy, but if youβre not given the opportunity, then the healing and repair process or what we call the fibrosis of repair or scar tissue doesnβt allow itself to heal appropriately, let alone thatβs the physical component. But as we talked about and people donβt understand the consequence of these thingsβ emotional effect. You know, a girl gets raped, a man watches his best friend, gets his head blown off in a war, right? A person drops in an elevator, 40 floors. They make it. They survive. Each one of these people looks normal to you. They look normal. But are they different now? They have been altered. They have been changed. These things happen even though they look present and say, You know, thereβs nothing wrong with you. You know, do you know she was raped? Do you know that he saw a friend? Do you know that he was in an accident where nobody survived? And Iβve seen accidents. Ridiculously, everyone dies except one person. Yes, right. One person survives, and how did that happen? Well, the forces are such that, you know, it clipped when a certain energy force and it took out a certain group of people and some people are fine. Sometimes you have eight or nine people in the car, and no one gets hurt, and one person gets paralyzed. How does that happen?
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[00:42:17]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β And this is where you know the statements and the examples. These are like very high-end statements, you know, right? Yeah. Now the majority of them, letβs say 80 percent of them exactly fit into that conversation. Because why? You look at them, and they look fine. There are no contusions, no broken bones, and nothing like that, so they look fine. And a lot of them, even in my practice, they come in, theyβre like, βNo, Iβm fine, you know, itβs not that bad. I, you know, came in because so-and-so, one of my family members told me to go inβ or, βYou know what? Oh, I have just a little like, you know, just a little quick in my neck and, you know, when I wake up, and thatβs it.β So they like point one thing. But itβs how we evaluate by the time we do a spinal surface EMG electrical monograph. I mean, this is data. This is pre and post. You look at muscle balance. You look at vectors. By the time we do that, we say, by the way, what about these areas? βOh yeah. You know what? I do have that. And all of a sudden, after 30 minutes to 45 minutes of digging in and looking into it, then they say, βYou know what? Iβm so glad that you looked into it because I didnβt think it was that bad.β
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[00:43:39]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β Mario, you and I, thatβs where we realized that weβre at that weβre so comfortable with ourselves that we bring in other talents. We have top radiologists that work with us. Top MRI specialist CAT scans, ultrasoundsβ¦
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[00:43:56]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Β Top orthopedics. Again, thatβs the problem.
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[00:44:01]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*:Β We will find the problem if there is one, and we will determine, and we will be fair, and we do not want to abuse any system. But what weβre trying to do is to let people know that they should get evaluated, they should be treated, they should be. If they need it, they should get it. If they donβt, well, then we send them in the same way. Many of my patients that come in; theyβre not hurt. Iβve many times eight or nine people come in, and theyβre all in the same car, and I only treat two people right. Thatβs fine because you only treat that, which has issues. And we have to assess the problem correctly. And that is what many of those who have the power do not think they should have those benefits for free and available. Thatβs just itβs ludicrous. And when we present that stuff, you know what, you and I go to court all the time. We go in depositions. We stand up for our patients. We represent. We are their voice to bring a clinical point of view to a physiological change. And when we do that, many times people understand, and Iβve got to tell you, when youβre talking to 12 people in a jury, there is most likely three or four of those people that have been jacked up in a car accident at one time, and the chronic chronicity result after something like that could occur, if not them, theyβve seen it in their family. So todayβs day is not to turn our back on people we have to assess, and thatβs what we plan on doing, you and me. With our expertise, we have a lot of a book to learn how to ride bicycles. But until you get on a bike, you will never, ever learn how to ride a bike. You and I have been in clinical practice literally for over 50 years combined. We have ridden the bicycle, understand the truth, know the dynamics, and willingly tell everybody about an issue with one of our patients. And weβre proud of that. And I know that youβve been very accurate, and I have been very faithful to our patients, and we call it like it is. And I look forward to talking to more about this because it is an area, though itβs general talk right now, we can go into any route of these for days and hours and get into the nitty-gritty and get nasty with the science more. You and I, what are we going to do? Weβre going to expose what we do. Weβre going to uncover the stories. And as we do that kind of stuff and tell people about that, weβre going to bring awareness that has never been in, at least in the forums, to develop without a time or saying youβve got four minutes to say something. It takes a long time to kind of set an idea.
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[00:47:02]Β Dr. Mario Ruja DC*:Β Yeah. And I also want to share the word is results, OK. In all of the environments and the places and ecosystems that I work with and am part of. Itβs about results, Alex. Itβs about results. Before and after, what are the results? Am I better? Am I stronger? Can I move better? Am I able to get back to the function that I was before? And you know what, Alex? Itβs called functional medicine. Itβs called results. Itβs called chiropractic. Itβs called integrative care. What that means is that that we are a team. I am not all to everyone and all my patients, and neither are you. And we realize and honor that it takes a village to raise a child, but also it takes many professionals to take care and give the best care and the best results to a patient in need of the results that they deserve.
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[00:48:19]Β Dr. Alex Jimenez DC:*Β The care and N-equals one, guys. Weβre going to bring it, and weβre going to stop it there. Weβre going to continue these conversations. And Mario, thank you for being the voice you have always been because we have a lot to say about what is going on. And weβre going to try to bring out the awareness to our community and teach about what we do and let people know what their options are and have the result, as you said. So weβll leave it there. And God bless.
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Professional Scope of Practice *
The information herein on "Exposing Auto Accidents With Dr. Ruja | El Paso, TX (2021)" is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.
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Our information scope is limited to Chiropractic, musculoskeletal, acupuncture, physical medicines, wellness, contributing etiological viscerosomatic disturbances within clinical presentations, associated somatovisceral reflex clinical dynamics, subluxation complexes, sensitive health issues, and/or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions.
We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from various disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
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Our office has reasonably attempted to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.
We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, or contact us at 915-850-0900.
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Blessings
Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN*, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*
email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com
Licensed as a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) in Texas & New Mexico*
Texas DC License # TX5807, New Mexico DC License # NM-DC2182
Licensed as a Registered Nurse (RN*) in Florida
Florida License RN License # RN9617241 (Control No. 3558029)
Compact Status: Multi-State License: Authorized to Practice in 40 States*
Presently Matriculated: ICHS: MSN* FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner Program)
Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN* CIFM*, IFMCP*, ATN*, CCST
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