Stephen Dohoney, D.C., DAAPM

QUESTION:If a tree falls in the woods when no one is present, does it make a sound? COMMON RESPONSE LAY PERSON:Yes COMMON RESPONSE MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL:No DISCUSSION:All perceptions are cortical. The perception of sound is a cortical event. If no one is present, there is no cortex present, and therefore there is no sound. When a [..]

From the earliest moments of his life, Joe was an extremely active boy. He would attempt to climb up on to everything he could, often falling off: furniture, vehicles, rocks, trees, etc. When he began school, he was constantly involved in every sport available to him: football, baseball, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and more. Joe particularly [..]

Phases of Healing Improvements in Timing and Quality of Healing Problems and Residual CharacteristicsThere are many published journal articles and books pertaining to the topic of “Soft Tissue Injury and Repair.” My favorites include:Studies on development of connective tissue in transparent chambers in rabbit’s ear; American Journal of Anatomy; 1940.Orthopaedic Medicine, Diagnosis of Soft Tissue Lesions; 1982.Acute [..]

In this month's edition, we're going to discuss some "intrigue" that has plagued low back treatments—both conservative and aggressive—for many years now. The intrigue being "WHERE" exactly does the pain generate from? What structure? What neurological mechanism? And with some detective work I think we've uncovered some significant findings. The modern era in the understanding [..]

Pain perception and psychology are linked. As with the chicken-and-the-egg scenario, a question arises: what comes first?Does an abnormal psychological profile cause chronic pain?OrDoes chronic pain cause an abnormal psychological profile?The relationship between the link of pain perception and psychology is particularly important in cases where compensation is involved. It is known that pain afferents fire to the limbic system, affecting [..]

Upright posture is a first class lever mechanical system, such as a teeter-totter or seesaw (1, 2). The fulcrum of a first class lever is the place where the force is the greatest: if excessively heavy objects are placed on both ends of the teeter-totter, it will break in the middle, at the fulcrum. In the [..]

Pain is a brain cortical event. Pain does not exist in a back or neck or foot. Pain is perceived by brain cortical neurons. Any intervention that reduces pain is altering the electrical signal depolarization of brain cortical pain perceiving neurons. As stated by Drs. Heidi Haavik-Taylor and Bernadette Murphy in 2007 (8):“Spinal manipulation is [..]

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Degenerative Function Physiological Strategies to Improve and Preserve Brain FunctionOverviewFree radicals are atoms or molecules that have an unpaired set of electrons in their outer shell. Electrons, like shoes, function best in pairs. Free radicals, with their unpaired electrons, are unstable and can damage adjacent cell membranes, proteins, fats, and DNA.The primary source [..]

A Mechanical Model Involving the Spinal Dura Mater and the Suboccipital MusclesFor more than half a century respected authors, clinicians, and journals have claimed that various problems of the cervical spine can cause headaches. As an example, in 1958, Beverly Hills neurosurgeon Emil Seletz, MD, authors an article titled Headache of Extracranial Origin, published in the [..]

The public press and indexed journals have claimed that chiropractic adjustments to the cervical spine can injure the vertebral artery. Students in Chiropractic College are also taught about the vertebral artery injury risk. Specifically, in college, chiropractic students are taught about:The anatomy of the cervical spine and of the vertebral artery.The manipulative maneuvers that theoretically [..]