Click on image: hyperextended knees (Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology by Clippinger)

When to call a doctor

I go when I feel a SHARP pain or I just don't get better. Sharp pain suggests that you didn't just pull something. It suggests torn soft tissue or broken bones. Not fun. That is what doctors can do for you. They are also the only ones that can give you a prescription and help you with major sicknesses like pneumonia and strep throat.

So if you wonder if it's bad enough to brave the doctor ask yourself is this a sharp pain or a dull ache?  Is it going away or is it getting worse?  If it's a muscle with a dull it's really not that hard to stretch or better still Ice (for 20 min or less - see hydro link).

(Naturally, I am not a doctor. So, you should consult your favorite medical expert and not take my advice as law. Be smart.)

There are many amazing practitioners I love to remind clients about:

Osteopaths & Chiropractors

Dieticians/Nutritionists

Physical Therapists/Occupational Therapists

Rapid Eye Therapists

Theta Healers

Acupressurists (I don't like needles so I prefer the pressure)

Reflexologists

NAET specialists 

Rolfers/Structural Integrators

Alexander certified instructors

Cranial Sacral Therapists

My personal favorite?  Licensed Massage Therapists who do a combination of many things and can modify their bodywork according to each client.

Most of you know that I don't have an affinity to doctors.

You probably ask why? I went to doctors for years and they said that my foot problem could be taken care of by stopping what I love...dance. My doctors tried to figure out if I was anemic, low in Vitamin B12, or simply allergic to the dirt in the air. One doctor was too embarrassed to tell me what my symptoms would be if I were Lactose intolerant, (I probably projected my own embarrassment on him and he was trying to be senstive), so I was guessing for 7 years.

Well, my Dance therapist, Ronald Nuttal at BYU, is the one who figured out I probably have hypoglycemia. Afterward, I spoke to a doctor, explained my symptoms, then received a "he's probably right but it's very difficult and expensive to truly diagnose."  I'm glad.  I don't want a diagnosis; I want a prognosis of how to deal with my tendency to high insulin levels.

I am the one who figured out that I am allergic to Soy, (not milk, although many cows eat soy meal which means fatty milk bothers me some), raw onions, Brazil nut protein, and Peanuts (after I birthed my first child). So he was right the intolerance was making me sick. He was just wrong about the allergy.  

I have since learned how to work with acupressure and remove my allergies.  Before this they were very real and very dangerous to my very existence.  Be careful with allergies and autoimmune diseases.

Ron also explained how to treat my Tendonitis and Fasciatis that had made it so I couldn't walk for two weeks. Now I simply have to treat occassional Fasciatis. My "Tendonitis" is completely gone.

90% of injuries are preventable by stretching? Yup. That's what Ron taught us in a Conditioning course at BYU. I learned how to address and fix injuries not from doctors, but from my dance trainers and professors; however, I am grateful for what I have learned from some doctors.