Beyond Symptoms: Rethinking How the Body Heals

Introduction and Healthcare Philosophy 0:00

Hey everybody, Dr. Rob Silverman here. I am with a luminary in chiropractic and health, dr. Peter Kvorkian. And I'm excited to have him. He has over 40 years experience in healthcare. he's going to without question share some knowledge bombs. Dr Kavorkin, my pleasure. It's an honor to be here, Rob. I'm happy that you were able to make it. Let's dig right in. With over 40 years of clinical practice, and now you're the president of one of the largest chiropractic colleges in the United States, what is wrong with our healthcare model?

Oh my God. Well, you got a few hours? I got all the time you need. You know, Rob, I think the fundamental crux of problem is that we're looking at a problem. The body is inherently designed to work right. And our work in our healthcare system or the focus of our health care system is looking at the body that it's inherently design to be flawed. We believe that the bodies is designed have problems and what we need to do as caregivers is fix the things that get broken. If we shift our perspective and recognize that human body's really designed and brilliant in a brilliant way to adapt to this world, to deal with the stressors of this and to do what's necessary for us to be vital, functionally, optimally.

Doing what the body needs to biochemically, psycho-emotionally spiritually, all those pieces all move us toward the fullest expression of the human potential. But we don't look in that direction. aches, pains and problems, we look at the diagnosis, and we're going to treat those conditions. And we make the assumption that if you don't have a condition, you're healthy and well. All of that basically lives in this place that the body is flawed, that it needs help from the outside, it doesn't know in and of itself how to function properly.

The fundamental philosophy of chiropractic says that there's an intelligence inside the human body that is striving to fully express itself, that it's designed for success. It's design to make every drug, every chemical, the body should ever need in a lifetime. And rather than us trying to force or manipulate the to do what we think it should be doing, let's step back and ask us the question is that what's interfering with life doing what it is designed to. What's interferring to the fullest expression of life within the body.

And in that shift of paradigm, you begin to make different decisions. So if you're gonna make a decision about nutrition, one way you look at it says, oh my goodness, this food is hurting me. The other way to look it is like, what can I put into my body that nourishes my and allows it to be, give it the best nutrients that it can absorb to turn into me? rather than focusing on what is the exact right thing for me to eat, what would optimize my body's ability to do that? So let's say you're having a meal and you have a choice of eating organic fruits and vegetables versus stuff that's been processed chemically or has had pesticides on it.

The thing without the pesticides is probably going to be healthier for my body, the thing that has chemicals on it. If I look at a package insert of ingredients, of something, whatever I'm going buy, and there are words on there I don't understand, most likely my bodies doesn't understood either. It's going be viewed as a toxin. So don t put those in your body. You know, movement is the same thing. Everybody wants the right exercise. Just more movement, anything good.

Stress, Adaptation, and the Nervous System 4:07

More, your body's gonna be better. The most pathogamonic sign of life is motion. You see something that's not moving, it's usually dead. So I think the attitudes that we have in healthcare has been much more focused in disease care than true healthcare. if we define health with optimal well-being. I love what you said, disease care, sick care. Right. Symptom-based. Not looking at root causes, not looking the systems. i agree with you, I think the body has an inherent ability to heal itself from the inside out.

And even inherent within that, we very often focus on symptoms and saying the symptom is the wrongness or the badness, the symptoms is just the noise, it's the bodies way to say pay attention. are like the cells of our body talking to us. A cell is crying. Okay. And sometimes you don't know why a baby cries. But the goal isn't to eliminate the crying, the gold is to do the best thing you can for a child. The goal is not to make a symptom go away. the goals are the thing for the body. So the symptom doesn't need to erupt.

It's a shift of the paradigm. If all you want to You can put on earmuffs. You could somehow suppress the sound. But that is an answer, right? And sometimes we don't know why a baby cries. And what do you do? You love him, you hug him. you feed him? you change him You do all the things you, the right thing to do as a parent. The symptom takes care of itself. Sometimes you don t know the same reason. Something in the body creates a symptom. Right. Why? But rather than focusing on the symptom, we need to say what does the Okay, what can I do to optimize its wellbeing?

What will allow the fullest expression of life inside that person? And sometimes the answer to the symptom has very little to do with the symptoms. I can tell you case after case, after cases of people who've came into my practice over the years, all complaining of, oh, I have a headache, or I haven't this problem or that problem. And if my focus was on treating the condition, I maybe the pain would have gone away or not. But sometimes the reason that pain was coming up is their marriage to the wrong person, or they're in a job that they shouldn't be, where their diet is less than optimal, whether they are putting so many stressors in their lives, and they've not given their body an opportunity to move.

So sometimes a symptom is nothing directly cause effect that we can figure out, but we got to do the right thing for our lives and for bodies. So I guess what I would implore the listeners to do is make the right decision. Most of us already know the things, right? You don't need a PhD in nutrition to figure out the food to eat. You know, simple answer. If it grows on the ground, it's probably better for you than if it was made in a building. So the more that we can get it from its natural source, the better it is for.

The less chemicals that have been put in, The better is outstanding. the colors you have on your plate. The better it is for you. It's just simple, simple ideas. It's not, it really isn't rocket science. If it's made from a plant, eat it. if it is made in a plan, leave it alone. I love what you said. You know, to reiterate what said, like there are words on a food label that you can't even pronounce and have never seen before. What kind of confusion does it cause the connection and the communication with the body when you ingest it?

I mean, that is a real takeaway. So if anybody's listening, they need to write that down. so basically we're discussing the idea of limiting stress. eating a good diet, inherently trying to have a health style, lifestyle, if you will, and without question, fixing the body from the inside out. That said, you wanted to add some more to it? Go for it. I did want to say, You can't eliminate stress. Stress is not all bad either. True. It's the stress of gravity that tells a plant which way to put the roots versus the tree.

You know, the stresses of our world are not the bad. They're not. The evil part. It's our ability to integrate and adapt to those stressors that if we place stress upon the body, if the That is what the challenges are. And that's really as a chiropractor, you know, this, the this phenomena that we take care of in the body, that that, we need to adjust. You know the spinal involvement is ultimately stressors that have come upon the, body that the. Body has an inability to integrate that is inability, to adapt to.

So it holds that within the structure of the Body. and it holds that stressor that's come into it, whether it's been from a fall or an accident or toxins in our world or stresses, emotional stresses in their life, when that is locked in the spine and has no opportunity to free itself, it is interfering with the expression of life. So what we do as chiropractors is to find those areas and give the body an opportunity, to let go of stuff that, at the moment that it occurred, may have been the most honouring thing that the bodies could do.

It couldn't adapt to the stress that holds it inside the neuro-skeleton. Right? So the stress in and of itself isn't bad. It's not to avoid stress, but find ways to adapt to stress and integrate that within our lives. The ability to adopt to stressed, hormesis, slight stress where our body produces heating, cold shock proteins. I agree, I love that analogy. So turn in the page a little bit. You've got about 40 years plus of practice experience. What do you think the disconnect? Because I get a complaints from patients all the time.

Who do I trust? What's right? And I go to the doctor, whether it's chiropractor, a PT, an orthopedist or primary care, there's no connection, I'm a number. What is the problem? A big question today, that's amplified. I have social media and Dr. Google and the AI now is at a whole new layer of stuff. And you don't know what you're listening to is true fact or somebody's made it up and just put it packaged in a real good way. You know, I firmly believe that we all, all human beings have an incredible ability to be introspective and to really trust that little voice on the inside.

You may hear something that's perfectly logical, that is based in facts, you know, this is what's supposed to happen, and this what the data shows, but inside your gut says, no, I'm not going to do that. honor my patients listening to that more than anything else. And not the mind can get so confused with things. But when somebody listens to their insides, and follows that gut sense, intuition, I believe that that is as much a powerful tool that human beings have as cognition, calculation, language, respiration, digestion, that our intuitive senses is a physiological process of phenomena that we all have,

Trusting Intuition and the Gut-Brain Connection 11:16

and to really listen to that. So lots of times it can get clouded, but the more that can tune in and look at our insides, does this feel like the right thing to do? There have been times in my life, people say, oh, you should take these supplements. And just I take the supplements and I might take them. But the next time it's like, as I move it into my body, just like if you sense, I don't know if I really want to put that in there. You should always listen to that. The same thing is true regarding, you know, smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol.

If you really pay attention to it, does my buddy really what this is, is it really nurturing myself? Same thing as true in a relationship, a job is this right place for me to be. Does that person really kind of trust that? Can I be vulnerable with that, person to really listen to your insides? So I, it's not an answer that very often doctors want to honor because we supposedly have the knowledge, the training, we know what people are supposed to do. But the greatest honoring thing that we can do is to, honor the wisdom of life inside of that.

And part of, that is a person's own intuition. that intuition, that gut feeling that you speak about, men usually say gut-feeling, women say intuition. That's called neuroception, and to speak exactly to what you're talking about. Exactly right. We're taking about the concept of the enteric nervous system having that uncanny sense of what's going on. Largest nervous systems in the body which coats the gut, speaks to the vagus nerve, which speaks the brain, what speaks through the central nervous.

You are a nervous-system caveat expert without question. So now we're talking about the nervous system combining and interconnecting. I think we just bridged our gaps. That's exactly right. Exactly right, so that doesn't mean you don't listen to the data and the facts and recommendations of caregivers. Of course you do, but you really listen your insights and you have the questions you ask. Does this bring joy to my life? Does it bring me to peace? This is enlarge my breath. This me feel more whole and those are the question that we need to ask and I believe caregivers But chiropractors, medical physicians, naturopaths, massage therapists, it's less about telling a person, this is what you need.

It's to inspire that person to become more conscious within themselves, to listen to their own intuition, their gut, and create an environment that nurtures that. That was really the motivation for me to be here in this role now. That was not a thing in practice I did not absolutely love. My home, my office, and my staff, everything. But to leave that and to feel like I could influence the future generation of not just chiropractors, but I believe that our world needs to redefine how we prepare the next generation leaders in healthcare.

And I felt like I could contribute a major part to begin to shift the paradigm within healthcare and training of healthcare professionals. And yes, keeping competent, excellent chiropractors doing our art. Yes. Chiropractors that understand the philosophical roots of the profession, be able to articulate that, but to ultimately come in connection with another person. That we're not going to connect this way. We're going connect to this. Eye to eye, soul to soul. realize that I can inspire you to be a better version of you.

And that's my job as a caregiver. It's not to fix a problem, but to give you tools and empower you, to maximize the expression of life in your body. The young 25, 26 year old chiropractor. just finishing chiropractic school, coming out into the world and says, I want to go into practice. Where do I start? What do we do? Dr. Kovorky, give me three tenants that I need to adhere to. I believe the success of a practitioner fundamentalizes success in life. And I would tell people that, that the magic formula to success is first, always tell the truth, the whole truth.

Nothing but the Okay, don't ever try to lie, deceive, coerce, manipulate. Just tell the truth, live in your truth. Second rule, close corollary to that, look at everybody like family. Talk to people and care for people as though they were your mom or your dad, your grandma, you grandpa, or you own child. You will never make the wrong decision, okay? The next thing for a chiropractor is particularly, I'm gonna say, be affordable and available. We created a system that has become something that does not support and nurture self-responsibility.

That we think that something outside of us is responsible for paying for health care. You know, that you need to have insurance for the federal government. And in my opinion, we need create a means of exchange. that's affordable for people to receive chiropractic care in your office. That's just where I live. Outstanding. So if you want to take care of it, in my world, everybody deserves to have chiopratic care from your first breath to the last breath you take on planet Earth. Everybody deserves that.

They're spying checked by a chioropractor, adjusted if needed on a regular basis. In my word, weekly, that what I prefer. And the less people that are involved in making that decision, the better. It should be a decision for the person's self, for their children and shouldn't be dependent upon a third party saying, oh, yes, you do or don't need care. That works in the disease care model. that works. In a sick care, model would you have clear boundaries on it? I'm trying to maximize people, health and wellbeing.

So I want to support and nurture that. And then tell people what you're doing and explain the services you can offer that maximize the wellbeing of the person. Tell them what it is to be good at doing it. and just be the absolute best chiropractor delivering the goods, being able to analyze and adjust the spine. You know, it's funny, you said, always tell the truth, which goes to, who can they trust? Because they just don't think that they feel that the doctors are telling them the the, truth. Number two, look at, treat everybody like you would your mom.

That's one of my mantras. Three, affordable and available. It's great. I mean, hey, I made a call. Like I get to see the specialist in five and a half months at 7 a.m. in the morning. And I've got to travel four hours to do that. You I agree. you know I'm gonna add one. My dad, At graduation, he pulled me aside and he didn't know what a chiropractor really did. He was wondering if we actually did blood pressure and stuff like that. Kind of funny, right? And he said, just remember that you're dealing with human beings, with the human condition.

Why Chiropractic Matters 18:18

Make sure you have a moment to be human with them. So what would you suggest for somebody picking an alternative school now? So we've got PT, acupuncture, chiropractic, master's in nutrition, something non-medical, if you will. Why should they pick chiropractic? Well, I'm obviously going to be biased. I am a chirapractor. Everything, everything, that happens to the human body is processed and integrated through the thing that we call the brain and the nervous system. Everything that happens does happen because the brain and nervous system directs and controls everything that occurs.

I'm moving my hand. It's my brain that's controlling that. We're breathing right now. That's the Brain controlling it. My body is able to handle the things in the environment, germs, bacteria and viruses that are all around me and controlling and coordinating my immune system so that I can be here and be vital and thriving and healthy. is that master control over everything that happens within our bodies. It is always striving to do the very, very best thing for our lives at any moment in time. Things can happen within out lives that can place a stress upon the body that the bodies unable to adapt to and can put that nervous system under a degree of torsion, less than optimal function, holding that experience that may have been appropriate at that moment in time to some point in the future.

And it's sort of like a pebble in your shoe, metaphorically, or a slightly dimmed light bulb. That doesn't allow the person to be as free to express the brilliance and beauty of who they are. When those things occur within the nervous system, it affects not just a person's symptom, but affects everything within physiology. Body chemistry, immune function, digestive processes, cognitive processes. a person even being connected to their own intuition, all of those things can be affected when there's damage that gets stored within the nervous system.

The goal of a chiropractor is to put a very specific force into the system that allows the body to come into a state of ease, better adaptability, more breath, and more internal peace, so that it can resonate and do the things that is needs to at a given moment in time with its greatest amount of resources. So the goal for a Chiropractor is very, very different. goal of an acupuncture than other practitioners. The goal is very often is to treat conditions utilizing acupunture meters. Nothing wrong with it, a very honouring thing to do, but that isn't taking away an interference to the nervous system.

A nutritionist can work out the best foods and the nutrients that your body needs to best give your body the building blocks for you to be healthy and strong. But if their nervous system has subluxations in it, if there's interference on that system that the chiropractor is looking for, the body can't absorb the nutrients that you're giving it. If the nervous is under torsional distress, it can absorb nutrients, even if you give everybody the best nutrients. It can not absorb them because of injuries that may be stored within that nervous that chirapractic will be looking.

A massage therapist very often is a great way to relax and to tune into yourself. But again, if there's interference in the nervous system, that nervous systems holding a pattern that is less than optimal to stressors that it couldn't integrate, the massage is not going to be able to clear that. So not the massages bad, I think it's awesome. I do it regularly myself, but in and of itself is cannot do what a chiropractor does. so I believe that the chriopractic profession is a leader at optimizing health well-being by removing interference of the nerve system.

Our philosophy of chiropractic is to really begin to move people away from a symptom orientation or disease orientation, optimizing well-being. And the whole philosophy or the profession is built upon that ideology, to, move the body into a healthier state. allow the nervous system to function optimally, adapt to the world as best as possible, so they can absorb the nutrients and have you maximize your performance with whatever you're doing. If you have a job working at a computer or you are an Olympic athlete, the Nervous System is what allows you to do all of that.

By taking interference away from it, you will be the best you can be, physically, mentally, emotionally, within your life. So you picked up that I was from New York before. We were talking a little off camera. So let's do something like I like to refer to in a New-York Minute or less. Let's a do a Little True and False. How does that sound? You ready? It's dropped in. You got your crash helmet? Great. Here we go. Chiropractic is the most effective. and cheapest costing alternative healthcare system.

That's true. Yeah, easy, right? That was easy. There's a study that came out 10 years ago that said two chiropractic adjustments, which you and I both agree is not over access or over adjusting too much in a 98 period decreases the use of opiates over 50%. I believe that's true. There you go. Chiropractors are typically allowed to do in addition to chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture if they're trained, nutrition, physical or physiotherapy, and soft tissue massage therapy. chiopractor could do lots and lots of things besides adjust the spine and take care of the definitely improve human health and function.

But chiropractic is the analysis and adjustment of the spine. So it is a unique service, but chiropractors may choose to use a whole lot of other things that the law allows them to do. That is awesome. Chiropractic as its service to the world is to optimize the well-being of nervous system. Thank you for that clarity. So here's a softball for you. I apologize. It's big. You're going to see, you're gonna swing, and you gonna crash it. Are you ready? Chiropractors, are they allowed to perform diagnostics?

Well, yes, of course they are. Chiropractors are trained at being able to fit within the existing healthcare system. The goal of chiropractic is not to diagnose and treat disease. Is to do a specific analysis of the spine to where is there an interference to that nervous system? That's what they're going to focus their attention on. And very often, as we adjust or care for those areas of the spine that have become involved, that diagnosis takes care of itself. But it's not a direct treatment of those diagnosed conditions.

Medically, it is, but in the chiropractic world, we're trying to maximize the well-being of that nervous system.

Rapid-Fire Chiropractic Q&A 24:58

When that happens, the body is functioning better. Conditions go away as president of a chiropractic university slash college to charypractors spend more time in class than medical doctors in the first four years of their education, you know, I I've heard that said that cherypractor spend More time In the classroom than a medical doctor does and the honest truth is I have not looked at the hours As they exist today. It's probably true What I do know is that the amount of hours that a chiropractor spends learning their art form and being proficient at being able to analyze and adjust the spine is more hours than any medical physician has relative to the treatment of conditions with pharmaceuticals.

That I can assure you that more ours are spent understanding very specifically how the chirapractic can be a unique service to people that they're going to see. As a chiropractor, speaking to another chiopracter, which five conditions, and I know we hate to talk conditions because it's all about health and wellness, et cetera, performance, Which are the big five? Conditions? If someone is listening to the podcast, they just seek a Chiropractor out right now. Yesterday. You know, that's a difficult question to answer because I've seen the litany of conditions walk into my office.

Um, I'm going to say anything that you, any condition, ANY condition that want to maximize your body's ability to figure out how to best handle that condition deserves, that body deserves to have chiropractic care. So I am not going limit it to top five. I can say, anything, and it can be anything from, from a headaches and back pain to asthma and colitis to bedwetting or tongue tie, diabetes or cancer. If you want, we don't treat any of those things. What we do is allow the body to function better, allow that body, to adapt to the world better.

And very often figures out how to deal with many of these conditions. I believe that we're going to be the leaders in healthcare. Uh, I believed that the, the word is ready now more than ever to create health rather than focusing on the condition, treatment of conditions and diseases. COVID was a huge gift for that. We spent so much energy trying to be focused on a virus and trying the rid the world or our experience of being exposed to a. And spent virtually no time and energy focusing on how do we make a healthier body?

Nobody talked about elevating the immune system, the adaptability of the human organism. We were all focused. On a and either trying treat that virus or avoid that. And I'm not saying that's wrong or it's a bad thing, but we put no energy in terms of trying to build and create a healthier body. So it knew how to deal with viruses. I don't believe that it is logical to try to rid the world of viruses that have existed on this planet since before humanity was here. It's our job to be in symbiosis with our environment and creating those relationships with virus and everything that is out there.

And we're going to do that by creating a healthy body, create healthy your body Is is the focus of what we do. I am not making the practice of medicine or people who choose to treat things as wrong. It just we already have a sick care disease care system that does that. And I believe the world is so ready now more than ever. to do the things necessary to create a healthier body. Today, there are more people taking yoga classes than ever before. There are people doing self-help seminars, taking meditation classes, going to a dentist regularly, not just for a drill and fill, but to maximize the well-being of their teeth and their gums.

I think the world is readier now than they've ever been to creating healthier people in this world. You're so right about COVID because I was so disenchanted with the lack of discussion of immune system. I wrote the book Immuniboot, which came out in November of 2022. So you are preaching to the choir, if you will. In the idea of still rapid fire, how old should I be when I first go see a chiropractor, another gimme? Well, other than my own children, my youngest patient was six hours old. And my oldest patient was 102. Literally from your first breath till your last breath.

I believe that in the ideal world, people should be able to avail themselves of chiropractic care for their entire lifetime. And having said that, if I said you only had 20 years to take care of somebody, I would see people doing the first 20 of their life. We've created a healthier being. Some of the worst traumas that impact into the body, into nervous system, and the mechanics of spine happen from birth to 20 years of age. Allow me to create a person, spine free of interference during that period of time, we have created a healthier person being able to adapt to the world better.

Ideally, they stay under care beyond that. But I had the opportunity to take care of, I have a few patients where I took care for generations. So baby, mom, grandma, grandpa, All four generations coming in for care. It's magic. There's a magic and healthy spine. That's fabulous. So I always like to end with something that my buddy in Geneva can take away. He's got a knee pain, he's getting PRP, He loves his physical therapist.

Closing Thoughts and Event Invitation 30:38

And yes, I'm a chiropractor. he has yet to see a Chiropractor. Help me out! Convince my friend that he needs Chiropractic. Well, let's put it the other way. I am not going to convince anybody of anything. but I believe that everybody deserves to have a nervous system free of interference. Everybody. And it's like, everybody deserve to be loved. everybody deserved to feel significant. Everyone deserves that clean water, clean air. everyone deserves have spine free interference and I can't promise you anything other than you can have healthier body and healthier life.

And there may be reasons that you choose not to do that. And the same reason you may choose, not be loved. You may chose to eat toxic foods, you make choose to not get the appropriate exposure to clean air and clean water. I said, those are all your choices. you can choose a nervous system with interference. As I care about you, I love you. and I really want you to have a nerve system free of interference, what can I do to support you in that? Love it. I love it, Dr. Peter Kevorkian, the president of Life West College.

Did I say that correct? Well, Life Carpenter College West. Okay, I stand corrected, as always. Life west is fine. And you have the wave? I'm excited because I am going to come, listen, and I will wave at you. The wave is the first full weekend of August, 7th and 8th. of August, we invite everybody to come, and we have a mini-wave. We call it the Nexus Conference at our Omaha campus. we do that the Saturday of Super Bowl weekend. That's clever. Yeah, so that's in Omaha, Nebraska, also an exciting program that that is happening the first part of February.

Well, look, this has been great. I appreciate your time. You're a busy guy. Your on the circuit right now. Doing all sorts of great things, spreading the word health without question. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes. By the way, I love the enthusiasm. Finally. Yes. Awesome, Dr. Rob. Guess me up.