Chiropractors / spinal specialists australia



Dr. Hakan Bilal of St Albans in the state Victoria, Australia

I am an unashamed chiropractic advocate. I cannot help but invite others to share in what I have had for over six or more years. For Chiropractic care was a significant trigger to a profound and wonderful change in my life.

I am now 42 years old and I had been your classic sick kid. From the age of 15 months, I battled bronchitis and asthma. At the age of 5 I had a collapsed lung. Until the age of 12, I could not play sport because of a lack of strength and lung capacity. I remember most vividly many nights sleeping "upright" in bed, with mum at my side trying all sorts of natural remedies: Cold towel around the neck, steam pots, towels to cough into, until I got through an asthma attack and waited for the next one to strike like a stalking cat. This is not to mention going without anything with cows milk or sugar for most of that time. (I think the cows milk trick actually helped a lot, and to this day I don't think we like each other.)

A move overseas to a tropical climate brought very welcome relief from the asthma. "Ah ha!' we thought, "it was all to do with climate! Now I can get on with life!" Well, not quite.
I developed severe hay fever and other allergies started to plague me. But at least I started to gain some strength and develop physically. The drugs kept the hay fever at bay as well as most of the allergies, so in general, life was on an up for me. I became quite proficient at many sports and just loved to battle my older brother for supremacy. I hated to lose back then! After a sports injury, I started to occasionally suffer from lower back pain, but if I took it easy, it went away after a few days, and would not bother me again for months. But other than that, life was good.

When a return to Melbourne in my late teens brought with it a return of the old enemies, I was strong enough physically now to cope better, and it did not seem to be as bad as the childhood years. I moved through the end of High School, did three and a half years of college, started work, got married, and started a family.

Like many young guns, I threw a lot into my work, and after a few years started to develop pretty severe headaches. A trip to the optometrist seemed to help for a while, but eventually they came back, to the point where I suffered my first migraine collapse. From then on, it was 3 to 4 Panadol at a time, 3 or 4 times a day, to quell the pain when it hit, and the lower back pain got much worse, to the point that when it happened, I was in bed and unable to move for up to three days.

This went on for about 8 years. Then I decided to take up swimming on advice from some friends. I really got into it, and ended up doing a lot with my sons as well. But after 2 years, I had to stop. For some reason, it really flared my allergies, and I developed severe red itchy welts all over the body. I took prednisolone as directed by my doctor. That enabled me to sleep at night and stop scratching till I bled. A course of desensitisation injections (apparently I am allergic to dust mites and grass pollens) actually settled the skin problems for about two years (at a cost of about $1000). Meanwhile, the rest of the problems persisted.

Leading a busy lifestyle, like most people these days, I could never be bothered getting around to doing anything about it. The drugs kept me limping along. Until about 6 years ago. I was passing a stand in a shopping centre offering a free spinal check. What the heck right? I knew my spine was out. I had been to see a half dozen chiropractors in my lifetime, each of which was able to fix the pain I had at the time. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Something drew me in.

I was surprised at how thorough my initial visit was, being informed in brief, for the first time, what chiropractic was about, and how important nerve flow was to the overall health of the whole body. I really loved that everything was interconnected. Things made real sense. I was surprised indeed, to learn that there may even be hope for my allergies, my asthma, my hay fever, poor sleeping habits, feeling tired all the time, and on and on. It was quite freaky how he checked my body over, telling me what problems I was having; with a nod from me each time a problem was mentioned.

So together, my chiropractor and I set out to work on the immediate pain relief issues first, then depending on how that went, to look at what else I was willing to try. I was given exercises to both strengthen and make flexible. In fact, this was part of the bargain. He would only work on the spine if I agreed to look at other aspects of my life style. Otherwise, I was wasting my money. He was so right. I could hardly believe the results. My migraines virtually disappeared within weeks, and in four years, I have not had one incident of lower body collapse.

Given that success, I invited family members to follow my path, and then given that success, (my eldest son lost most of his headaches, my wife's lifelong battle with sciatic pain (due to one leg being 'diagnosed' as longer than the other as a young girl) all gone, I realised I wanted to keep this up. I felt more alive, healthier than I had ever been. That's the only way I could explain it at the time - ALIVE.

The big obstacle was the cost of course, so thankfully, and in consultation with my chiropractor (in fact, more prompting from him than me), a long term scheme was devised where I could get all the care I wanted and needed for my whole family. Needless to say, I jumped at it.

I can tell you that I am so glad that I did. Nothing major actually changed for a while after that - physically, just felt great after every adjustment (oh, and by the way, there were times in that first couple of years - and since - that I got lazy and didn't do the exercises, and it was amazing the difference it made).

The only thing that still amazes and is yet to tell, is that during the 3 rd year, I suddenly realised that perhaps I should risk dropping all the antihistamines that I was still pumping into the body for my skin rashes and allergies. I was waking up doped, my skin was almost numb, and I was starting to think that maybe I was actually causing damage to the nervous system with all the weird positions I would be left in during the nights, where I was so drugged I hardly moved.

So I stopped the nightly drug ritual, determined to see if I could find a better way. I was so stunned with the result I could hardly believe it. After only a week, the itches were about 70% better and since then, I have only occasionally got itchy wrists and hands.

It would appear I had been taking drugs simply out of fear. My body had been undergoing continual and gradual improvement and I had not even been letting it tell me about it! I could have even been slowing it down, who knows. I do know, however, that as it stands today asthma and hay fever are now only minor irritations that may require a does of antihistamine or a puff of Ventolin a few times a year, that lower back pain is a bad memory, that I sleep better and longer than I ever have (I used to wake up at least a dozen times a night), and that pain in general is there when I know I have done something silly to cause it. It is almost like a friend being there to say "stop it, don't do it that way or it will cause problems for you later!!"

In fact, I remember complaining in the early years about how often I seemed to notice pain now. "Why" I would ask, "if I am under constant chiropractic care, do I seem to notice pain more often? Surely the pain should be getting less frequent? Is this really working?" A look of sheer delight passed over my chiropractor's face, only tinged, it seemed to me, with a sense of compassion for my suffering. "Pain?" he exclaimed. "That's great news! Your body is really starting to work efficiently now!"

I was taken aback. Was he serious! He actually wanted me to suffer? What was this? "What do you mean? Pain is actually good? I thought we were meant to be avoiding pain? I am certainly not enjoying it!"

"No." he said. "We don't want you suffering. But in the past, your body was so shut down that it was taking ages for the body's signals to reach out to you. Pain," he explained, "is one of the last measures the body takes in sending you a signal that things are not as they should be. But it is a very efficient way of getting your attention.

The thing with pain is that if you ignore it, if you think it will go away eventually, or if you throw drugs at it to trick the mind into thinking it's not really there, the body will listen to you for a while. The pain will go away, giving up on that attempt. But if things persist in not being as they should be, if the body realises that damage is being done, the next time, it will send a stronger signal. And again until you do something about it. In many cases, chronic pain ensues, damage can be beyond repair. Depression, susceptibility to bugs, disease - life can get pretty bloody hard."

This was a revelation to me. Could this be true? Could it now be that because the blockages were now systematically being removed that I was getting many small signals. Experience held the answers. I tried putting the theory to the test. 'Be open to the experience and the evidence" I told myself. There was certainly nothing to lose.

I started to notice things about my lifestyle that brought about signals. Not just pain. Tiredness, irritability, lack of concentration. All these things started to become quite noticeable. I was starting to very quickly become aware of the cause and effect of day to day life. One wonders how I could have been so blind before. But I was. I am not so these days. At least, not as much!

So now I find myself in frequent reflection on where my life is and what chiropractic has meant to me. I think on the many conversations I have had with my chiropractor in getting to know myself better, the process of pain and healing, of living a healthier lifestyle and of the choices I make toward that each day.

I have become aware that for me, it has been not only a physical journey to wellness, but a mental and spiritual one as well. Indeed, I take that now as my greatest gift from Chiropractic - Awareness . I have become more aware of what my body is doing and telling me. I have become aware that all those trillions of cells have woken up. They are communicating with each other in a wonderful microcosmic example of real life. My chiropractor told me not once, but several times over the years, that healing happens from the inside out. For me, this is not only a reality, but I believe it goes even further.

The healing does not stop at the skin on its way "out". It keeps going, on and out into our perceived reality of life. I find myself more aware of life around me, of the joys and pains of those I meet each day. I see things from a new perspective. I see life full of constant reminders and rememberings. Of wonderful relationships, the fruits of which, in turn are received again and internalised. And so the cycle is complete, and starts anew.

Just like what is happening in me. All those little cells communicating as one. If you like, re-minding with each other - re-membering what they had forgotten simply because the messages were not getting through. The mind, I have come to believe, is not stored in the brain. It is the whole working as one. It is a joining, a re-membering of what it knows already. Healing therefore, cannot be a physical thing only, it is Mind and Body working as one. Chiropractic helps keep it that way.