Dr. Goodman's Practice

Examination/ Treatment from the Heart Center

2011-08-30T18:24:00.002-04:00

Today I saw SC, a five week old girl who was born to LC, a patient whom I cared for during her pregnancy. They are soon to return to their native land so there will not be any follow-up here.

SC is the first child I have examined from the heart center since I started to center myself this way when examining and treating patients.

As soon as I connected in this way I was overwhelmed with a totally clear mind, absolute peace, profound silence. Not Stillness but peace and silence. There was absolutely no ego, "I am" sense present.

I sat in this for about 15 minutes while I examined her. There was little to treat that I could discern. Only when I returned to the head center were some strains discernible. Otherwise, from the standpoint of the heart center, all was well.

Very, very profound and transforming.

It is obvious that this little spirit was still incarnating. Her ego was non-existent. Just pure being, spirit.

This changed my experience of the rest of the day.

What a gift.

Post-polio syndrome and osteopathy

2011-04-21T15:07:00.003-04:00

It is very common for patients who have had polio to suffer decades following recovery from the initial infection with what is termed post-polio syndrome. These people often have major fatigue, paralysis and muscle weakness. In 1977 it was estimated that there were over 250,000 such people in the US.

I was trained as a physiatrist ( specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation) during a three year post-graduate residency at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, DC. One of my mentors there was a specialist in this syndrome which he himself struggled with.

Osteopathy has much to offer such patients as I will now relate.

Today I had a visitor from Australia who is a polio survivor. She presented with very severe torso pain which had been aggravated by her long journey, packing and other factors. When I examined her I found that her entire body had been altered as a result of the polio years ago.

One leg was demonstrably longer than the other which adversely effected everything above it. In addition, her hip capsule on that side was so tight that her entire body appeared lopsided. Her diaphragm was in spasm since there are muscles (ex.psoas) which attach there and then go down to attachments in the hip. Much of this is also related to connective tissue continuity.

Her spine had been pulled over to one side which resulted in the ribs getting stuck.

All of this made her a sitting duck for neuromusculoskeletal pain which is what was brought her into the office.

She was treated with very gentle osteopathic manipulation which not only eliminated all of her complaints ( including pins and needles in her right arm) but also rearranged her body so that she no longer had such a leg length imbalance.

Osteopathy has much to offer such patients.

Coccidynia: Tailbone pain in a pregnant woman.

2011-03-03T13:23:00.003-05:00

She called to say that she had been in excruciating pain for some time following a fall on her back.

At the time we heard from her she could no longer sit due to the pain. Since she was also many months pregnant she feared for the pregnancy as well as complications with labor.

When the patient finally came in she was miserable. She stood until she could be examined and then when I probed in the effected area she let me know how uncomfortable she felt.

The problem was that her tailbone, coccyx, the tiny bone at the end of the sacrum, had been traumatized during the fall. This is a very common and horribly uncomfortable problem since this area is well endowed with sensory nerves. In addition, there is a collection of nerves, called a ganglion, that is in the coccyx which has an effect on much of the autonomic nervous system. The result of such a trauma is that the patient may suffer apparently unrelated symptoms and go from doctor to doctor without much relief.

Most physicians including osteopathic physicians who are unfamiliar with osteopathic manipulation and diagnosis as the mainstay of their practice ( ie. over 95% of all American DO's) are unaware of how to diagnose and truly treat this problem.

On exam I noted that the coccyx was being pulled sideways, toward the right. Its normal position is sticking straight down the midline. Many of the soft tissues ( muscles, connective tissues) were also being pulled ( strained) in dysfunctional ways which were bound to create havoc in the system.

I gave her an extended dose of the homeopathic remedy, Hypericum ( St. John's Wort), which is a specific for coccyx injuries. This helped a bit but the real treatment lay in getting rid of all the trauma to the area and getting things back to where they belonged in relation to the rest of the body.

At some point we began intra-rectal treatment.

The gloved finger of the physician is inserted into the rectum and against the coccyx. The diagnosis of tissue pull is then not only confirmed but, with the aid of external aid from another finger, the coccyx is released along with all the other parts of the system that have been compromised.

It took several visits for this to be accomplished in full.

Since the first time this work was done the patient has reported more and more relief. Today she said that she no longer has any problems sitting and feels about 3% of the pain that she formerly did.

I was a bit surprised over how much additional release of the entire area we got today during the treatment. This leads me to believe that she will have not only a lot more relief of the coccidynia but also for all the back pain that often accompanies pregnancy.

I believe that this and attendant work we are doing will make her pregnancy much easier as well as bring about a safer and shorter labor than she otherwise would have had.

We are both very happy with her progress.

This is yet another example of osteopathy in action.

Osteopathy makes for more successful surgery.

2011-02-17T19:19:00.004-05:00

Over the years I have had considerable experience in helping patients prepare for and recover from surgery.

As many of you know, I did a three year post-graduate residency at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, DC. This provided me with considerable expertise in supporting the rehabilitation of patients who had traumatic setbacks.

However, few physiatrists or rehabilitation specialists like myself, have the tools to work with the millions of patients who receive surgery.

As an osteopathic physician I can prepare the patient for surgery and after the procedure, aid in their recovery. The reason this is possible is that I am able, as a licensed physician and surgeon, to anticipate the trauma that surgery will create and, afterwards, alleviate the dysfunction to the system which it caused.

Example:

Recently a patient came to me and said, " I want you to perform a miracle."

I thought, " OK. Here we go. I wonder what she wants me to do now."

" I have been diagnosed with colon cancer and want a holistic approach to helping myself."

I told her, " OK. The most holistic approach I know of for your condition is for you to get surgery, as soon as possible."

" I was afraid you would say that," she replied.

" I am a physician and a surgeon. It is my responsibility to do the best thing to support you. This is not a religion. I am not against drugs and surgery. I oppose unnecessary drugs and surgery. This is absolutely necessary. If you don't get surgery soon there is a good chance that the tumor, if it already has not done so, may metasticize, spread elsewhere in the body, and then you will need even more destructive therapies to stop it. You could very well die if it spreads."

"What I propose is for me to prepare you for surgery using homeopathy and osteopathic treatment so that your system can withstand the trauma of surgery. Afterwards, as soon as you can get back here, I will offer you personalized osteopathic and homeopathic treatment to ensure fast and natural healing without any side-effects. You surgeon will be astounded at your progress and success with both the surgery and your recovery."

She agreed to this and went through with the surgery.

The procedure went very well. The surgeons and physicians were surprised that she did so well.

Shortly after the surgery she came to the office. It was hard for her to get into and out of bed, go to the bathroom, move in certain ways, etc. Within a single visit she had improved so much that she was able to operate a car and prepare meals for her family as well to greatly reduce her pain medications.

After the second visit she was totally off all pain medications and back to most of her ADLs ( activities of daily living - bathing, lifting, etc.).

After two weeks post-op, two visits a week, no one could tell she had had major surgery that removed part of her colon.

As one who had a similar operation for the same diagnosis many years ago I can well appreciate the benefits of osteopathy and homeopathy in the hands of a well-trained physician and surgeon in supporting patients who get surgery. The same applies to women with difficult labor and delivery.

Beware of the 2010 Flu Shot

2010-12-06T18:03:00.002-05:00

Today my secretary told me that after she and her husband both got flu shots they became very ill. She got so ill that she told her daughter she was afraid she would die the reaction was so severe.

My partner got the flu shot recently and became very ill. His symptoms lasted about a week.

His best friend in Florida also got very sick after the injection.

There is an unprecedented number of patients reporting adverse reactions this year.

And yet, as many of my patients have reported, their physicians are telling them that this is a normal response.

It is not a normal response.

It is a severe reaction, in many cases,that can sicken and even kill someone who has it.

The pharmaceutical companies that make this product and are paid literally billions of dollars from the US government have zero liability.

Yes, you read that right.

Under George W. Bush, a law was passed which made it impossible for them to be held accountable for the adverse effects of their vaccine products.

Obama has continued this policy.

The victims of this law are those who get the vacccinations and suffer the consequences.

The companies claim that if they are to be held responsible for the ill effects of their vaccines they would lose money, money that they want to go to their investors.

Do not get the flu shot.

You have been warned.

Rapid ligament injury relief.

2010-08-28T11:51:00.007-04:00

For twenty years I have been treating patients with torn and injured ligaments. I have never done surgery on them though I am a licensed physician and surgeon and could easily do so.

The reason these patients do so well and get back into life so quickly is that the real problem is addressed. This is not the case with surgery in many cases.

Recently the baseball player, Stephen Strasburg, a 22 year old rookie pitcher for the Washington Nationals, has been receiving a lot of media attention after he injured ligaments in his elbow while pitching.

According to the Washington Post, he will receive surgery in Los Angeles and then spend one to one and a half years in rehabilitation before he is capable of returning to pitching and baseball.

This is very sad since he could easily be back playing baseball in about thirty days or so if he was treated by people trained in my work.

In addition to being a trained osteopathic physician, I went through a complete post-graduate residency at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, DC and am also a specialist in rehabilitation medicine. I know how such physicians do rehab and understand quite well the care that Stephen Strasburg will be receiving. It will be done by physical therapists and occupational therapists based on orders from a physician. It will essentially prolong his recovery from the trauma of surgery.

What do I do with such patients?

I examine them in a way that allows me to understand exactly what is the nature of their injury, how it has effected the entire body, and the best way to reverse the process.

In twenty years of practice I have never sent such patients for surgery. They not only didn't need it but would have been harmed by it since no treatment is without side effects. I have care for many patients who after surgery felt better, though not always, but later on developed other problems due to the response of the entire body to the surgery and the scar tissue which it produced.

The problem is essentially one of connective tissue disfunction. That is, parts of the connective tissue system, which is a part of the largest system in the body, the musculoskeletal system ( over 60& of the body), are injured. They respond to this injury by compensation. The entire body compensates to avoid further stress on the injured area. Surgery never addresses this issue. It will later come back to haunt the patient. However, since they have no idea that such a thing exists, surgeons never consider this and, ironically, may do more surgery to treat the resultant problems.

I use very gentle osteopathic manipulation using my hands to correct the strain and sprain in the connective tissues ( ligament, tendon, fascia, dural membranes, etc.) throughout the entire body.

We must treat the entire body since the entire body responded to the injury.

One of the first things that was changed was the patient's breathing. At the time of any injury the patient is stunned. They inhale. No one ever exhales at the time of an injury! So the spasm of the diaphragm, the major muscle of resperation, must be released. Without this the recovery is limited. No one in the medical field, the rehabilitation area or other related fields is competent to diagnose and treat this.
They lack the training and, in most cases, even the awareness that it exists.

After an injury how many times did your doctor examine your breathing?

The gentle osteopathic treatment may be followed up, in cases of extreme injury where the tendon or ligament has truly been badly torn ( most are micro-tears), with injections of a sclerosing agent. This is called sclerotherapy or prolotherapy. It lays down a tiny area of scar tissue between the tendon and the bone to which it attaches. It help the tendon to be more stable and completely avoids surgery. The healing from this is very short.

I also do other things which make it so that the patient is quickly pain-free and returned to what they really want to do; living and enjoying their lives instead of endless visits to doctors and therapists.

Stephen Strasburg is unfortunately, at age 22, becoming a pawn in medical politics. Like most politics, it pits the rich and the famous against those without power or a real education as to how to best deal with their situations.

Millions more like him must suffer, miss work, and, in the end, deal with many more problems due to their treatment.

In medical school we were taught that over 20% of all problems that patients would present with are iatrogenic (Greek: iatros= medical, genesis= beginning). Actually, the percentage is a lot higher when we consider all the wrong diagnoses out there, the bogus and unnecessary treatments, the treatments that went wrong, the side-effects of treatments ( medications, surgery, chiropractic, etc.) and on an on. Twenty percent is very, very low from what I have seen.

My patients do not have to wait 12 to 18 months to feel fantastic after a ligament injury.

And neither should Stephen Strasburg.

If he ever discovers how he was duped his minders may have a major lawsuit on their hands.

But they can sleep OK.

He will never find out.

Newborn treatment

2010-07-28T19:34:00.006-04:00

Recently I have been treating a lot of newborn babies.

For the most part, the children were having problems with colic, excessive spitting up, problems nursing, sleep issues, misshapen heads, torticollis ( head deviated to one side) and other common neonatal problems.

Every one of these children presented with severe strains when I put my hands on them.

What is a strain?

It's a pull in the internal tissues of the body.

When the connective tissue, which is everywhere in the body, is twisted or pulled, the nerves, blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels ( ie. the vessels which suck up all the crud in the body and get rid of it) are unable to function normally.

The child will then get sick, be irritable, have many health problems.

So I take out the strains with very gently osteopathic treatment and the children get well.

I don't try to get the child to calm down or just get rid of the symptom.

I get rid of the reason for the symptom, the problem.

Then the child is well.

It doesn't take very long for this to happen.

If it does, I know that I am missing something important.

I also use homeopathic medicines to help the children if I believe they will be helpful.

The nice thing is that these children often do very well for many years.

Because these underlying problems in their bodies were treated early on, they tend to be a lot healthier than other kids.

There is no greater investment than getting all the problems worked out for the child when they are very young.

Life is fluid.

2010-06-05T18:53:00.002-04:00

Life is fluid.

We all know what a fluid is. Water, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph, blood, urine are all examples of fluid.

But what defines something that we call a fluid?

One of the things that define it is that it is always shifting, constantly finding a new relation to the whole. It is not static, never fixed.

So often when approaching patients a physician will see the patient as suffering from some disease which often has a name or diagnosis.

Such a label is fixed.

Whatever may happen with the patient, the label remains unchanged.

In so many ways, this is not helpful if the person wishes to heal.

Our reality is never fixed.

When we approach others and ourselves in this way, using a fixed, unwavering lens of perception, we do ourselves a tremendous disservice.

In fact, we live a lie.

We are not fixed, never static.

We are alive. We are the manifestation of the life force which is totipotent, all powerful, omnipresent, and omniscient.

We are life incarnate.

We are fluid in nature.

Life is fluid in nature.

This is how to approach a patient.

This is the osteopathic vision of the man who discovered the art and science of osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still, MD.

Anyone who approaches themselves or another as static is a liar.

They may be a well-meaning liar and a really nice person ( most of them are) but they are living a lie.

Open to your reality, the truth of your fluid nature.

Fear, depression, anxiety will disappear for they cannot withstand the light of the Divine which is who and what you are.

When we deny this, we effectively deny ourselves and all that is good and holy in life.

Don't accept anything less.

Life is fluid.

Live your dream.

2010-01-30T13:40:00.001-05:00

Today I received an e mail from a man who watched a video interview between me and another doctor. He had sought me out and asked to record an interview. It is on the net and occasionally I hear from people who watched it.

My practice here is a small one compared to almost every other medical practice in the Washington, DC area. It consists of one part-time secretary and me. A couple of exam/treatment tables, a few desks and chairs, some lights, not much else.

I have been doing this for 18 years at this point.

Over that time I have gone through a lot in my life; cancer, heart attack, etc. etc. If I had known I had to go through it I don't know if I would have been able to. Thank God, I don't know what happens next.

As I look back I really am amazed that I have made it to this point. I never realized that I was as strong as I have been. I have gone through the fire, been tempered and am here to live on another day.

I always wanted to do something worthwhile with my life.

Something that would make this a better place than I found it.

However, I had to deal with my own private demons and those of the people around me. It wasn't easy for me to trust and find peace here in this world. The alternative was so much harder that I just forced myself to keep going.

I am not really sure of what will come next. There is a part of me that craves some structure and security but life does not seem to work that way.

My work is very personal.

I want to be the doctor that I would want for me.

The one who listens, who cries with the patient, the one who does whatever is necessary to help.

I want to make a difference for each of you.

When I walk into the room I never know what to expect. I have no treatment plan or agenda. I just want to be real because, in my experience, that is our only hope for real healing.

And we all desperately need real healing.

I wrote this because I need to.

Maybe it will be helpful to someone.

I sincerely hope so.

Contact

2010-01-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

E mail

hrpharold (at) gmail (dot) com

Phone

301.565.2494
(Leave message if no one answers. Speak your name and phone number slowly and clearly and we will phone you back.)

Address

8609 Second Ave., Suite 405-B, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

A missing link.

2010-01-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

Several years ago I saw a patient with debilitating low back pain. Since he had previously had surgery his insurance required that I contact his neurosurgeon to get permission to treat him.

The neurosurgeon was very pleasant and readily agreed for me to treat the man. " If you can help him then I have many more people I can refer to you." It was then that I learned that over 50% of patients receiving back surgery are actually worse following the procedure. In addition, of those who do get relief from the surgery, a very high percentage find that the pain later returns.

What did the surgery accomplish if the majority of the patients ended up with more pain? The "problem" was corrected, right? So why are they in pain?

All physicians have patients who seem to not respond to apparently well indicated treatment. This is a given in medicine. I certainly have had my share over the years. I often wonder why they didn't get better or, if they did improve, why the improvement was not long lasting.

Obviously, something is being missed.

All of us carry years and years of unresolved emotions, things that we basically push out of our consciousness because they are just too enormous to even deal with. This is true even of many people who, on the surface, seem at peace, who rarely get angry and appear quite optimistic.

However, on some level, things remain enormously unresolved.

We lead lives where we need, for very practical purposes, to function . There is simply no room for all this repressed baggage to emerge. As the years go by the situation of the unconscious becomes more and more untenable. There is no where for these bubbling emotions to go. They have become repressed.

We are a unified whole. No part is a solitary part unaffected by the rest of what is going on. Even though we do separate the mind and the body, for practical purposes, this is not the way things work. It is like trying to separate two sides of a coin.

Who and what we are is a process, a living, physiologic reality which, moment to moment is seeking balance.

And it has a lot to balance.

The more stress there is in our life, the more extreme the balancing act.

At some point, the unconscious can no longer be simply repressed. The maelstrom that it is must, for the safety of the entire system, manifest in some way.

One way, a very common way, this occurs is via physical symptoms.

We have feelings. The way we feel is via our body. The body is where the physical symptoms of the unconscious appear.

Back and neck pain. Pain in the nervous and connective tissue system. Pain and problems in the muscles of the various organs.

These various pains and other symptoms are never erased for too long by medical and other treatments if they are in any way a compensation for what is going on in the unconscious.

The patients wander from physician to physician without any real relief or resolution.

Naturally, they become desperate. Their lives begin to fall apart.

What has occurred is that the balanced relationship which the system craves has become seriously unhinged.

Things are out of control.

And we all know how much we like control.

Some of the cases that present to physicians are caused by serious disorders like cancer which must be ruled out before it is assumed that the pain is due to suppressed emotions of the unconscious.

When that is accomplished appropriate care may begin.

The first step in this care is for the patient to realize that there is nothing physically wrong with them.

This, in spite of the many lab tests, imaging studies and other evidence that they have a real physical problem, is the foundation for recovery.

However, this is very challenging for most patients to accept. Everyone is telling them that, for example, you have a ruptured disc and you need surgery. The fact that the majority of all people walking the streets of the USA have ruptured and bulging discs but are without any symptoms is rarely revealed to these patients.

In spite of all the medical evidence of physical illness, the only hope is to understand that they are not sick. There is nothing wrong at all.

The system is doing what it needs to do under the circumstances. It needs to blow off steam from the unconscious, so to speak. It is doing this by creating physical symptoms.

Patients rightfully resent the implication that "it is all in your head". This is not what I am saying at all. That implies, in my experience, that the clinician is saying that the patient is making it all up.

These patients are in pain, often very severe and long standing pain. The pain is very real. They are not making anything up.

However, the basis of the pain can be traced back to the system's need for balance. There is a very real reservoir of unresolved, unconscious emotions. They need not be resolved for the pain to disappear.

Rather, the role of the unconscious and the system's need for balance simply needs to be acknowledged. That is the cure.

I know it sounds simple but, believe me, for those patients who make the connection it is a life-changing matter.

Many years ago, John Sarno, MD, a rehabilitation medicine specialist at NYU Medical Center, began to discover that if he educated his pain patients to understand what was actually happening that the majority of them found that their pain would simply disappear.

He has written several books. My favorite is The Mindbody Prescription. It contains virtually everything you need to know about these matters from his standpoint.

I, too, have discovered similar states in many of my patients.

Long ago, a woman who had suffered with years of back pain, came to me. She mentioned that years before, she had journeyed from Washington, DC to NYC to watch Dr. Sarno lecture on what he referred to as TMS ( tension myositis syndrome). Following the lecture, during which she had an epiphany about her situation, all her pain disappeared. This lasted for several years.

What happens is that a light bulb goes on. You suddenly realize what is really going on. You suddenly have an ah-ha moment. You get it.

Nothing is wrong. It was all a misunderstanding based on years and years of believing that they had a physical problem which needed to be fixed by physical means. Now they know that, actually, the mind-body was simply doing its balancing act.

Once this understanding occurs the pain resolves.

For me, a totally new relationship emerges between us ( conscious mind) and the unconscious.

It is like suddenly awakening from a dream or, in this case, a nightmare.

A physician can facilitate this process. That is my role.

If I believe that a patient has what Dr. Sarno terms TMS ( tension myositis syndrome) then it is my duty as a physician to support them in getting better with a treatment that will actually address this condition, a condition of a fundamentally skewed relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind.

When this is successfully accomplished then the pain usually disappears.

Caveat

Dr. Sarno teaches that almost all pain and a myriad of other conditions fall into the category of this conscious/ unconscious balancing act.

However, not all of the TMS diagnosed patients, by his own admission, respond to this approach. The vast majority seem to respond but, like anything in medicine, this is not a panacea. I believe that the diagnosis of these patients needs to be carefully arrived at as a diagnosis of exclusion.

That being said, I am also convinced that this approach to helping patients needs to become a central feature of medical training and practice. I find a psychosomatic component in most conditions. The degree needs to be established in order to truly help the patient. I look forward to the day when the repressed emotional component of suffering will become one of the first and not the last thing to be addressed.

It's all about function.

2009-12-14T18:36:00.000-05:00

Over the years I have come to a better understanding of what my real job is.

Physiology is the science of how biological systems do what they do, how they work or function. The osteopathic approach is to access the functioning of the system via its form or anatomy.

My job is not to make the symptoms disappear though, of course, I realize that this is why the patient comes to me and I, too, want this outcome for them.

However, as an osteopath I understand that the way to accomplish this is to concentrate on the way the system is actually functioning. This is also a lot more satisfying for me since it liberates me from the tyranny of the disease and diagnostic labels which the patient shows up with like so much heavy baggage. A label is carved in stone. It allows for little change. We can all do net searches or read the medical literature and learn all about the label and how the medical profession views it and its certain history. Often this is rather depressing. Patients frequently become overwhelmed, to use a word that one person mentioned recently, with all that they read about their label. In addition, they often discover that many clinicians differ in what their most appropriate label is. That brings in even more confusion and frustration.

All of this robs them of the little energy that they have, energy which is desperately needed for their healing journey.

By concentrating on function, on how the system is doing what it does, I am able to keep from getting sucked into this black hole. If I concentrate on the label then I enter into a co-dependent relationship with the patient and I don't find that helpful.

Also, quite frankly, some of the symptoms and labels are packed with such horrendous cultural and scientific baggage that it brings up many of my own fears and feelings of inadequacy. This is just a huge impediment if I am to be of any use to the person who has come to me for help.

So I am delighted to concentrate on what the body is doing in this moment, how it is choosing to function, and to track the changes in this physiology. I can tell when it is going toward health or not. This is a very honest relationship for me.

I know my job. It is to promote normalized physiology, improved systemic function.

When I stick to this then things go well.

I can always promote better systemic and localized function.

That is very satisfying for me.

I take refuge in this.

Organs have range of motion.

2009-11-09T21:32:00.001-05:00

Every structure in the body has its own specific range of motion.

We learn in medical school that this is true of joints. However, few physicians understand that this is true of all the body's organs as well.

The practical application of this fact of nature is that just as a limitation in joint motion translates into a limitation in the function of that joint, since motion is the key function of the joint, so, too, does limitation of internal organ motion have a negative effect on the function of that organ.

A few recent examples from my practice:

Bladder:
A patient arrived with a lot of bladder pain following a procedure with a well-known university urologist. The procedure was done to help him with a very dysfunctional bladder. While the procedure was judged successful the patient was absolutely miserable. The doctor had counseled him to just tough it out and that eventually he would feel better.

The word eventually was left undefined.

I examined him and found that his pelvic floor was very unbalanced with the muscles on the left in spasm. In addition, the left side of the bladder was very irritated.

However, not unexpectedly, the bladder itself and the ureter were both moving in an abnormal range of motion.

When the above issues were corrected by gentle osteopathic treatment he got better.

Immediately.

He had no more pain following the treatment.

Heart:

A patient had a heart attack and received open heart surgery.
Besides feeling very weak which is natural for a while after this surgery, he also had a lot of chest pain. His breathing was compromised as was his ability to move about.

The heart range of motion was very limited. This is not something that physicians know of and even if they did how would they measure and treat it?

I released the rib heads which were jammed into his back and spine when the sternum was cracked open. I also treated his thoracic diaphragm which was in spasm.

However, the most dramatic thing was to restore the range of motion of the heart.
He was able to visit his extended family for the first time following this and is now doing much better. He is fully ambulatory and able to pretty much take care of himself, drive a car, etc.
Best of all, his entire body is functioning better than it did even before the heart attack.

I am convinced that correction of range of motion of organs can spare us all problems with those very same structures in the future.

Swine Flu hysteria.

2009-09-02T21:13:00.000-04:00

Many people are asking me what to do about Swine Flu.

Start by getting a life.

Maybe take up knitting.

Become a Jehovah's Witness, sell magazines, get to travel and have doors slammed in your face.

Go on a hike.

Fast for world peace.

Collect Bolivian postage stamps.

Just do anything except concern yourself with the latest media/ governmental health hysteria.

Some simple facts.

In my opinion,the Swine Flu is no more horrible than the regular flu.

I know many people who have had it. They went through a day or two of feeling like they had the flu and then got back to the business of life, whatever that is. A clinician friend says that it can be much worse than the regular flu.

1976.

The two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the USA.
The year that the government went totally nuts and decided that something really bad would happen if we didn't all take the Swine Flu vaccine.

One man, a soldier, died from what doctors called Swine Flu. Some of his friends got it but recovered.

Subsequently, President Ford was urged to vaccinate every American.

Over 48 million Americans were vaccinated.

The first day, three elderly people died after receiving the vaccine.
Between 500-1,000 people who were vaccinated came down with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Basically, you are paralyzed. No cure. Over 25 of these died from being suffocated when their respiratory muscles no longer functioned.

More people died from the vaccination than from the Swine Flu itself.

I have seen many people in my practice over the years who came down with medical problems following vaccination. Every single case of autism that I have traced in my practice over 17 years has a history of problems after vaccination. I was hospitalized and nearly died after being vaccinated as a child.

A local MD homeopath annually has a pharmacist produce a homeopathic flu-prevention remedy. Each year, over many years, he takes the government flu vaccine and creates a homeopathic remedy from it. This remedy is then added to all the flu vaccine remedies of previous years. It also includes the 1918 flu pandemic virus. So you are getting lots of flu viral exposures on a homeopathic level; no side effects and those who take it appear to build immunity from what I can tell.

No one in my and two other local medical practices who has taken this over the years has gotten the flu.

I really am not worried about the Swine Flu.

I suggest that you, too, not worry about it.

I am not recommending that anyone get vaccinated for the Swine Flu.

Osteopathy and Autism

2009-08-23T15:01:00.000-04:00

There is so much that osteopathy has to offer the autistic spectrum patient.

I am currently treating a 21 year old man who has been labeled autistic for much of his life.

He did not use words when I first met him.

Most of his actions are disjointed and spirited with a lot of jumping, chewing, self-mutilation, rapid and loud outbursts as well as seemingly constant tension.

Off and on over the last eighteen years I have had patients who had been given the label autism.

They had little in common once I began to dig beneath the surface.

However, they all seem to have major issues in communication.

My impression is that they communicate quite well.

Unfortunately, many of the people in their lives don't realize this.

Their caregivers seem to believe that if the person labeled autistic doesn't communicate like they do then they don't communicate.

This is absolutely wrong.

If a Chinese speaker can't communicate in English must we conclude that they can't communicate?

If a deaf person can't speak as others do, is it appropriate to assume that they not only can't communicate but, as many formerly concluded, that they are actually dimwitted?

For example, the languages created by deaf people to communicate amongst themselves, the various sign languages, have proven to be highly complex ways of interchange which, in many cases, go way beyond the possibilities inherent in spoken languages.

It is the same with the so-called autistic people.

How do I know this?

I just asked my patient.

His family is very concerned for his well being. They truly love him and he loves them, too. It is quite obvious to anyone who spends even minimal time with them.

After a hiatus of seven years he returned as a patient.

During those seven years a lot of major changes had occurred in my life.

As a result, my entire approach to working and communicating with my patients is different.

I love to see some of the patients who haven't come in for many years. It is like seeing an entirely new patient, someone whom I have never met before.

Indeed, I never had met the person who is now standing before me asking for help.

How do you communicate with a neonate who can't speak?

What would you do to really understand their needs?

It has been repeatedly stated that over 94% of our communication is non-verbal.

Much of this is completely non-physical.

Have you ever been in a room and become aware while you were engaged in speaking with someone that someone else had entered the room?

You hadn't seen or heard the newcomer; you just knew that something had changed, that someone was in the room who hadn't been there before.

There is a part of our awareness that is beyond our everyday consciousness. It is from this awareness that we can track or tune into these phenomena.

Hunters use it. Aborigines do so. And we can,too.

I have a way of using this so that I am able to ask and receive information from patients without verbal speaking.

I asked my patient what he most wanted.

He replied, " To be acknowledged as a human being, as I am."

I asked him if there was some way we, his care givers, could support him in this.

" Just treat me as one of you. Whatever you do, don't treat me like damaged goods, like someone with a problem. I don't have a problem; I am just very different in some ways than you. My frustration is that I am trying, in the only way I know, to be with you. This is not acknowledged or welcomed. I feel very, very isolated and alone. You can't imagine my frustration. I feel lost."

I worked during that visit to support him according to the feedback he was providing me with.

He noticeably calmed down. His parents remarked on this.

When I next saw him his father mentioned repeatedly that he had never seen his son so calm, responding to cues and commands so well. In addition, he had said his first word.

He said, " Hi."

It was a long and drawn out, " Hi". He looked directly into my eyes when he said it. He was smiling.

I use my osteopathic skills to reduce the tremendous stress in the dural membranes of the cranium which I often find in these patients.

I have also started the father and another caregiver in the use of baby sign language to speak with him. We are just using a few signs for now. When these are assimilated we shall build on them. Many of my pediatric patients have greatly benefited from this approach,too.

However, the mainstay of my work is building meaningful communication with him.

I am very excited about this breakthrough.

It sure is hard to treat a label.

2009-05-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Today I treated a man whom I had treated a few years ago for symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. His symptoms went away for a few years and just started to return. They were all on the left side.

Boy, was I surprised and shocked to find his left sacro-iliac joint, left diaphragm, left temporal bone, left atlanto-occipital joint, left shoulder, clavicle and other joints all with major problems.

Notice a pattern here??

He talked at length about MS. I told him that I find what the body is doing that could cause this and treat it. I don't try to treat the disease; it's just a label, which is something we often forget.

You can't treat a label , though many physicians still haven't figured this out apparently.

It's a lot easier to treat the body than a label. Well, at least that's my experience.

Treatment of pregnant women.

2009-02-27T15:15:00.000-05:00

I love treating pregnant women.

Osteopathy has so much to offer someone who is going through pregnancy. Imagine such an experience minus back pain, morning sickness, depression, and a myriad number of other things which make pregnancy unpleasant.

In addition, by balancing the entire system and restoring normal pelvic function, labor and delivery become much easier.

One of the best things about this treatment is that the child gets treated in utero. This often results in a happy, healthy neonate and avoids a lifetime of possible problems. I also turn babies who are not facing in the best position for delivery.

For moms who have had problem pregnancies in the past such as premature delivery, pregnancy related hypertension, etc., the osteopathic treatment not only normalizes things and permits the mother to reach successful termination of the pregnancy at or near their due date but also ends the cycle of problem pregnancies.

Midwives and obstetricians often remark at the ease of delivery with women treated osteopathically.

The post-partum time is also much easier.

Since newborns are very amenable to treatment designed to improve their function, I routinely offer the mothers whom I treat during pregnancy a free initial visit for the neonate in order to get the newborn started in the very best way. A child treated in utero as well as soon after delivery stands out as an unusually healthy child.

As an example of what can be done for neonates we can take the example of a newborn who has trouble latching onto the mom's breast for feeding. Osteopathic treatment of the sub-occipital area to free up the hypoglossal and other cranial nerves associated with breast feeding leads to remarkable and rapid changes.

Osteopathy has so much to offer the pregnant mom and her child.

Update.

2008-09-20T21:21:00.000-04:00

Update.

I am now accepting new patients.

The initial appointment is 9:15 am and the last one in the early afternoon.

Patients of all ages are welcome; neonatal, pediatric, adolescent, adults, older patients and those who are ageless, as well.

Just contact me if you have any questions about my practice. See the e mail contact below.

Double vision after trauma

2008-03-27T13:56:00.000-04:00

An eleven year old girl recently came in with double vision. It followed an episode in May, 2007, where she fell six feet off of a cliff and smashed the left side of her face against a tree trunk. Many of the facial bones were fractured. She was treated at a local children's hospital where she received plastic surgery.

After an interval of over nine months during which her double vision continued and the swelling of the face didn't change too much, she was brought to me. I examined her and noticed that the original trauma to the fascial and fluid systems ( strains) had not been addressed.

In particular, I found that the geometric angle of her optic chiasma (the place in the head where the optic nerve from each eye crosses over the other) was quite distorted. The bony orbit in which the eye resides consists of seven bones. Each is formed in membrane and remains internally connected to membrane which is continuous with the rest of the cranium and body.

Gentle treatment of these strains resulted in a major improvement in her vision which was noticed by her optometrist as well.

Judicious use of homeopathic Arnica and osteopathy also reduced most of the swelling.

She continues to do well.

E mail contact

2007-07-25T05:58:00.000-04:00

I welcome your comments:

Best to contact me at: hrpharold (at) gmail {dot} com . Remove the brackets, parenthesis and use @ for at, . for dot.

Contact
me by email.

How I treat asthma

2007-04-21T10:28:00.001-04:00

One of the conditions which I love to treat is asthma. Why? Because traditional medicine considers this a chronic, life long problem which can never be cured. It can only be held in bay with medicines. These medicines, essentially different varieties of steroids, are administered via nebulizers and many other ways. They help keep things from getting out of hand.

An asthmatic attack is frightening for everyone involved. The patient is gasping. They can't breathe. They feel like they are suffocating. It's horrible.

Recently, I had a child brought in who was a few months old. The wheezing could be heard across the room. When they left the wheezing was no longer to be heard. I had a medical student with me. We both listened with a stethoscope. No more wheezing. The child had also been pulling at one of its ears. Examination revealed a nasty ear infection. At the end of the treatment - no more ear pulling.

How can osteopthy not only help but actually cure conditions like asthma? What I did was carefully examine the child. Besides the regular exam that any well trained physician would perform, I also do a detailed osteopathic exam. I put my hands on the patient and feel for how the body is actually, at the moment of examination, functioning. If there is a problem in function I can often spot it. If you have read my earlier post on sprained ankles you will be familiar with the reality of sprains and strains which, unless removed, really limit the way the body functions. They are present in 100% of asthmatic patients whom I have examined. The same can be said for all of my patients with ear infections.

I remove the strain and the symptoms are gone. This after untold time on nebulizers, inhalers, etc. At some point the patient no longer needs these medical crutches. The problem is solved. There is no nebulizer in the world that can remove a strain. There is no blood test or X ray, CT, MRI in the world that can detect what the skilled hands of an osteopathic physician specializing in osteopathy in the cranial field can uncover - and successfully treat.

So, people get better. The patient is not only free of symptoms, they feel better overall. More vitality, more energy.

For me, it's a no brainer. Osteopathy is my love. I also practice acupuncture, I am trained and licensed in traditional medicine and surgery. I am board certified in homeopathy. However, I am an osteopath in my bones ( no pun intended). After 17 years of treating thousands of patients I know what works. I only wish that more people knew that such an option is not only available but covered by most insurance. People just don't need to suffer from asthma and other so-called chronic respiratory diseases.

It all started with a sprained ankle

2007-04-21T09:19:00.000-04:00

Sprained ankles are very common. You step the wrong way and twist the ankle. Then it swells up, may get warm ( both signs of inflammation), and is painful to stand or walk on. So far, nothing unusual. What all of us know or have heard is that once you have sprained an ankle it is likely that you will sprain it again.

The typical medical advice is to keep the ankle raised, iced, wrapped or compressed and to rest it, keep off of it. Hence, the large number of people hobbling around on crutches.

Why is it that the same ankle is prone to further sprain?

To be very blunt, the reason is that the original trauma, the sprain or strained connective tissues, ligaments, tendons, fascia ( a type of connective tissue) has never been treated. The above mentioned measures do not treat the trauma. They treat the symptoms of the trauma, the inflammation.

In order to treat the trauma the actual strain pattern in the tissues must be diagnosed and removed. Only osteopathy does this.

I have had people limp into my office on crutches from a recent strain (often young men) and walk out pain free without crutches and not prone to future restraining of the tissues. I have learned how to identify and remove the strain in the tissues.

If I were present at a football game and one of the players sprained their ankle I could have them back in the game, playing within 20 minutes. This is rarely the case with team physicians or sports medicine doctors. Also, the player would be less likely to resprain the same ankle.

I mention this because someone recently told me that a car ran over their foot. They have been receiving acupuncture for some time ( I am a licensed medical acupuncturist, so I believe I am qualified to speak about acupuncture) but were still in quite a bit of pain.

I told them that I often treat such problems with a lot of success. I treat the strain and the symptoms ( read: pain) go away. It is really quite simple and logical. Strains will not show up on imaging studies ( X rays, MRI, CT, etc.). The patient is given the same instructions mentioned above, anti inflammatory medications, and, if they are still complaining, sent to a physical therapist. The problem, the strain, is never treated.

I treat strains. I find them in almost every patient including babies. They result from traumas to the system. How can a new born have a trauma? Being born is quite traumatic. The neonate must travel through a passage which is not large enough to accomodate the body.They have to twist around to get through, their head gets squished which is why it is still soft in parts when the child is born. This is natures way of dealing with the trauma of birth. If the child is large the birth can be even more traumatic. Many obstetricians routinely do an episiotomy where they will cut the muscles so that there will be more give in the mother's tissues to accomodate the child. If this were not done then the muscles might be torn as the large mass ( the neonate) emerges from the relatively small canal. Labor is not called labor for nothing.

People come in with back pain, neck pain, numbness, tingling in their arms or legs, headaches, eye problems, jaw pain, infections, asthma, and so many other problems. In every case I find strains. The strains are removed and the symptoms disappear. It's a no brainer but, unfortunately, something which is not taught and virtually unappreciated outside the community of osteopathic physicians who practice osteopathy in the cranial field.

Incidentally, this is not taught to cranio-sacral therapists, chiropractors and message therapists all of whom receive good training and help many people in need. How do I know they don't receive this training? Because I treat them and they are fascinated to learn what I am doing.

If you have a question on this or anything related to my work, don't hesitate to contact me. I am always happy to answer questions.

Chronic ear infections in children

2007-03-24T22:07:00.000-04:00

About 30% of my patients are children. Since I treat a lot of pregnant women to get them through pregnancy with a minimum or absence of problems ( back pain, morning sickness, premature labor, etc.) I have long offered a free first visit for the newborn to get the child started off on the right foot. Often this first visit reveals many structural and functional problems ( feeding issues, irritability, reflux and spitting up, asymmetrically shaped heads, asthma and other respiratory problems, etc. etc.) which can be easily treated and quickly reversed.

As the children age they may display delayed development, frequent infections and other common pediatric problems which osteopathic and homeopathic treatment can solve. There are two local pediatricians who have been referring such children to me for many years. Also, word of mouth among moms has been one of my best means of letting people know what osteopathy has to offer these young ones.

By far, the most common pediatric issue I see is the child who suffers from serous otitis media or ear infections. These children receive many rounds of antibiotics and may or may not improve but inevitably come down with yet another infection. At some point the parents are told that the child must receive tubes. This is often when I see the child.

Usually I find that the base of the cranium and especially one or more of the temporal bone are malfunctioning. This impairs normal drainage of the inner ear via the eustachian tube which, in turn, renders the child vulnerable to infections. Hence the ineffectiveness of antibiotics. This is a structural problem which must be treated structurally and will not be cured with a biochemical ( antibiotic) approach.

Often it takes just a few treatments for the pediatrician to notice that the ears look clear. The parents, especially if the child has been in pain, pulling or boring its ear or complaining, will notice earlier. I am able to then discharge these patients. They usually don't require much further treatment unless there is an additional problem.

In 2003 The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, an MD journal published by the AMA, did a study on osteopathic treatment of ear infections.
This is the link which you can paste into your browser to examine:
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/157/9/852
The authors concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between children who received osteopathic treatment for ear infections and the subsequent improvement in their health. This was welcome news indeed since I realize many people rely on such sources for their knowledge of medicine.

It was also reassuring that such a study appeared in a prominent MD specialty journal. This lends additional credibility to what many osteopathic physicians witness on a daily basis; osteopathy ( and, I would add, homeopathy) are a veritable God-send to a sick child.

What I regularly have witnessed over the years is that children treated in this way are healthier overall, develop better than their peers, and need far fewer doctor visits. It is the most valuable foundation that can be given them for future health.

We have a saying in osteopathy. As the twig is bent so grows the tree. Imagine a small sapling that is bent over. When the twig is small there is not much to notice. When it grows into a tall tree its "bentness" becomes more obvious. However, then it is harder to reverse what formerly could be treated in just a few visits. The earlier we can get to these bent twigs the easier will their lives be. There are few investments with such enormous and long term benefits.

How a head injury can lead to abdominal problems

2007-03-22T21:18:00.000-04:00

Did you ever see a spider web? They are actually quite intricate in design. Starting from one point the spider creates an enormous mosaic of crafted spittle. Sit and contemplate the web. It is really a work of art. These insects build them to catch other insects.

The web must be of a certain size. Some are quite large. It must have a great degree of bounce. If a fly crashes into it the web must not break. It must absorb the kinetic energy generated by the impact and deftly imprison the hapless fly. The fly must be trapped, unable to escape. The web is designed with all of this in mind. For what it does it functions perfectly.

Consider the human body as a vast spider web. If you pull on a part of the web the entire web responds. It will conform to the impact and absorb it. The web, if pulled at one point, will change shape to accommodate itself to the deformation. Say you grab one piece and gently shift it around in space. The entire web rearranges itself. Every single piece of the web shifts. It works as a single unit.

This is exactly how the human body functions. The body is actually a vast web. The various pieces of the web have many shapes and different tissues. However, they are all part of the same web. If one piece is shifted, every part is shifted no matter how far away from the point of impact or seemingly unrelated.

A blow to the head effects the membranes which make up the skull. Originally, the skull is membranous. The outer layer of membrane becomes bone. The inner layers remain membrane. They have the consistency of shoe leather. They can be bent, twisted, and moved about. They cannot be stretched without tearing which really takes an enormous amount of force. So, in the normal course of life, the membranes get twisted and strained a lot. We call this cranial membranous strain or sprain. It is like a sprained ankle ( which remains vulnerable to reinjury even after the swelling, pain, and other acute symptoms are gone) . You can have these membranous or tissue strains anywhere in the body. They always are accompanied by body dysfunction.

So, again, imagine the spider web. If one piece is twisted upon itself or pulled asymmetrically the entire web mirrors and compensates for this. It's health in action, always finding a perfectly balanced response to the stressor.

The cranium is struck. The membranes in the gut follow suit. The person, sooner or later, experiences gastrointestinal and pelvic problems. No one but a trained-osteopath realizes the connection. No one but a classical osteopath is trained to think, diagnose and treat in this way.

I have seen hundreds of such cases over the last seventeen years. It just reaffirms the intrinsic somatic - visceral connection for me. The body works like a big spider web. Tweak one part, everything else responds.

HOW TO GET TO MY OFFICE

2007-03-21T13:46:00.000-04:00

My office is located at 8609 Second Ave., Suite 405-B, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20910.
Our phone is 301.565.2494. If you leave a message always leave your current phone even if you think we have it. Of course, tell us your name. Speak slowly and clearly so we can be absolutely sure who you are and what all of the numbers are.

COMING FROM DC OR VIRGINIA

If you're coming from DC or Virginia get on 16th St. and take it North. When you go around the traffic circle continue North past 410 until the next light. That's Spring. Make a right and then another right at the next light on Second Ave. I'm across from the post office. See directions below for entering the building.

COMING FROM MARYLAND

Get to Silver Spring. You can come around the beltway (495) and get off at the Silver Spring/Georgia Ave. exit going South until you come to Spring and then take a right, go to next light and take a left at Second Ave. and follow directions below for parking.

You can also get here by 16th st (see above) or if you're coming from East Montgomery County (Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville) you could take EastWest Highway make a left at 16 St and follow directions above.

You could also do MapQuest or just call us at 301.565.2494. We'll make sure you get here somehow.

THE HARDEST PART - GETTING FROM THE STREET TO OUR OFFICE

OK. You have actually gotten to our building. It's a red-brick courtyard maze across from the post office. When you stand ( or lie) in front of the building you will see three entrances. The middle one has the number 8609 over it. Walk under that number until you arrive at a starway on the left. Take it up two flights. You will then be almost in front of our office, number 405-B. Just come right on in and say Hello. You made it!

There is also an elevator across from the stairway. Should you take it, press 4. Then find the office when you get out. I recommend the stairs ( come on, we all can use the exercise).

PARKING

You may either park (put in more money than you will be here - I may not be on time! and no one is here to feed your meter) at one of the parking meters on Second Ave or on Spring St or continue on to the pubic parking garage further along Second Ave. (it's on your left). You will have to prepay when you leave your car. Park on one of the upper floors ( more time) and put in more time than you think you need.
Never park in the post office lot across from us. You will be towed (it has happened every time). Also, don't park under our building.

VERY IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU PARK IN THE PUBLIC GARAGE.
How to work the public parking garage machine

Because of numerous complaints about the public parking garage automated pay machines ( corner Second Ave and Cameron) I spent some time with the local go-to person, Scott Reinmann, 301.585.9470, to better understand the system.

Park your car above level two ( these are long term spaces).

Remember the space number.

When you get to the machine type in the space number. Press OK.

Insert bills or coins.

At present, the machines will only allow you to insert money in increments of one hour.
So, if you want to park for two hours, put in, say $2. The screen will give you one hour =60 cents, and offer the option of extending the expiration time. The machine will accept bills up to $20 and coins.

If you want to extend the time PRESS THE BUTTON NEAREST THE LINE ON THE SCREEN THAT READS EXTEND.

THESE LINES DO NOT EQUAL THE LABELS NEXT TO THE BUTTONS! ( I KNOW IT'S CRAZY. JUST FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS.)

YOU WILL NOW SEE THE TIME INCREASE FOR YOUR SPACE.

If you still want more time, do the above over again. You will be credited with another hour if you put in enough money.

When you are happy with the time (put in at least two hours in case we don't get started on time) then press OK. You will receive a receipt.

PRINT THIS OUT AND TAKE IT WITH YOU FOR REFERENCE.

Dr. Goodman's Practice

Examination/ Treatment from the Heart Center

Post-polio syndrome and osteopathy

Coccidynia: Tailbone pain in a pregnant woman.

Osteopathy makes for more successful surgery.

Beware of the 2010 Flu Shot

Rapid ligament injury relief.

Newborn treatment

Life is fluid.

Live your dream.

Contact

A missing link.

It's all about function.

Organs have range of motion.

Swine Flu hysteria.

Osteopathy and Autism

It sure is hard to treat a label.

Treatment of pregnant women.

Update.

Double vision after trauma

E mail contact

I welcome your comments:

Contactme by email.

How I treat asthma

It all started with a sprained ankle

Chronic ear infections in children

How a head injury can lead to abdominal problems

HOW TO GET TO MY OFFICE

Contact
me by email.