Story at-a-glance

• Award winning documentary offers a fresh look at what’s behind the sharply polarized vaccine debate in the U.S., and offers the opportunity for a new, more rational discussion about how to create safer and more effective public health policies to help our children stay healthy
• Health officials insist vaccines are the best way to protect the health of individuals and the public.. As a result, the number of doses of vaccines included in the childhood vaccination schedule has tripled over the past 30 years, increasing from 23 doses of seven different vaccines to 69 doses of 16 different vaccines. At the same time there has been a rise in the numbers of vaccinations given to children, we’ve also seen a significant rise in the numbers of children suffering with chronic disease and disabilities
• According to Judicial Watch, 26 children died after receiving the HPV vaccine between September 1, 2010 and September 15, 2011. Other serious side effects reported during that time frame included paralysis, speech problems, memory loss, blindness, pancreatitis, ovarian cysts, and Guillain-Barre syndrome
• According to one of the world’s top experts on HPV, the HPV vaccine is associated with enough serious side effects that it could prove riskier than the cancer it is supposed to prevent in women, as cervical cancer is usually entirely curable when detected early enough through normal PAP screenings
• Rigidly maintaining the assumption that an ever increasing number of vaccines must be mandated “for the greater good” is a dangerous assumption that fails to take into account the possibility that one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies may be contributing to the rise in chronic disease and disablility among children

By Dr. Mercola

"THE GREATER GOOD looks behind the fear, hype and politics that have polarized the vaccine debate in America today.

The film re-frames the emotionally charged issue and offers, for the first time, the opportunity for a rational and scientific discussion on how to create a safer and more effective vaccine program."

This film recently received the 2nd annual "Koroni Award for a documentary feature addressing an issue of importance to public health" at the Sidewalk Film Festival.

It also received the Cinematic Vision Award at the 2011 Amsterdam Film Festival.

From my point of view, this film couldn't be more timely and if you have any interest in the vaccine controversy is a must see.

I sincerely hope you will share this article with family, close friends and social networks while free viewing of the film is still available, and urge everyone you know to take the time to watch it.

Barbara Loe Fisher summarizes the purpose of the film rather succinctly when she says that the issue of vaccines, "has become so polarized—you're either pro-vaccine or you're anti-vaccine.

When you take a centrist position, like the National Vaccine Information Center, you are automatically put into the category of being anti-vaccine.

But the truth is, we're just trying to make vaccine policies and vaccines safer."

Individual Rights versus Politics

The Greater Good "weaves together the stories of families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination," and shows how modern medicine, especially when driven by politics and big business, can rob you of some of your most basic rights. The results of such politically- and financially-driven policies can be devastating and one movie reviewer, who saw the groundbreaking  documentary, commented:

Dr. Mercola Recommends...

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"What's being said is staggering, especially if you don't know too much about the science of, and politics behind, vaccines." - LA Weekly

But this film is focused on analyzing what can be done to create positive change and reduce irrational fears so parents and doctors can work together to minimize vaccine risks vaccine risks to individuals and our population.

The film seeks to open the channels of communication between parents, doctors, and policy makers to listen and learn from each other in order to begin a rational discussion about vaccine safety. After all, don't all of us want our kids to be healthy and safe from unnecessary harm? In order to ensure the safety of as many children as possible, we cannot continue to ignore the signs that maybe we've taken vaccines as our primary disease prevention strategy too far; to the point that we're now seeing too many people being hurt.

Unlike many other TV programs and documentaries on this topic, The Greater Good takes care to acknowledge both doctors and scientists, who advocate for mass, mandatory vaccination policies as well as those, who question the science, policy and ethics of current vaccine policies.

From my point of view, there can be little doubt that we need to review the safety and effectiveness of the current vaccination program in the U.S., and this review needs to include methodologiclly sound investigative science. If we don't do that now, we may not be able to stop further damage to the health of future generations of children.

Incomplete Science Shapes US Vaccination Policies

Public health officials have long insisted that vaccines are the best way to protect the public health.  As a result, the number of doses of vaccines included in the childhood vaccination schedule has tripled over the past 30 years, from 23 doses of seven different vaccines in 1980 to 69 doses of 16 different vaccines in 2010.

However, alongside the rise in administered vaccines, we've also seen a significant rise in children with chronic disease and disabilities. For whatever reason, our kids are getting sicker. Infant mortality has also risen. In 1960, America ranked 12^th in infant mortality among all nations of the world. By 2005, we ranked 30^th. Furthermore, more full term babies die before their first birthday in the US than in most European countries, and the US gives its infants more vaccines than any other country in the world.

So, could it all be a coincidence?

The truth is, we don't know. 

No one has formally and independently studied the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children, and this is something that needs to be done not just for each individual vaccine, but also for multiple vaccine combinations.  The research is INCOMPLETE, and that is a major part of the problem.  How can you claim a pharmaceutical product like a vaccine is safe for everyone and that using multiple vaccines from day of birth throughout childhood is a wise public health policy when that policy has not been adequately studied? As a nation, the U.S. is gambling the health of its citizens on assumptions.

As stated in the film:

"The certainty is not scientific."

Vaccines are currently approved based on the research submitted to the government by the drug companies that have developed the new vaccine and funded the pre-licensure studies. Many of the studies drug companies conduct do not use true placebos and have only a few hundred or a few thousand healthy people enrolled, who do not match the health profile of the millions of people told to get the vaccine after it is licensed. The safety of vaccine policies are primarily based on the word of the companies that produce and profit from vaccines and enjoy a liability shield from vaccine injury lawsuits in civil court that was given to them by Congress and the Supreme Court.

Is this wise?

Furthermore, the mass vaccination program takes a one-size-fits-all strategy approach. It does not acknowledge that we are all individuals with different predispositions and health status, which  can play a significant role in how we react to vaccines or prescription drugs. For example, research by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride indicates that children with compromised gut flora are particularly prone to vaccine damage.

Currently there is almost no individual screening done by most doctors to assess whether an individual is at high risk for having a vaccine reaction that can end in serious health problems or even death. Wouldn't it make sense to do everything possible to minimize vaccine risks?  After all, while increasing numbers of parents opt to delay vaccinations or opt out of vaccines for their children, there are many parents who want to vaccinate their children and they deserve to have confidence that everything possible is being done to minimize vaccine risks for their child..

Being able to easily and inexpensively decrease a child's chances of experiencing an adverse reaction should be embraced and encouraged by all health officials and doctors rather than conveniently dismissing the legitimate vaccine safety concerns of parents as "anti-vaccine" and "anti-establisment."

Why We Should Urge Our Daughters to Be One Less Victim of Gardasil

In 2006, Merck released Gardasil, a vaccine designed to protect young girls and women against being infected with four strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). The idea was that if HPV infection , which is cleared asymptomatically within two years by more than 90 percent of those who get it, is that HPV associated cervical cancers in women would be prevented.

 One of the three vaccine injury cases featured in The Greater Good movie is that of Gabi Swank, a 15-year-old honor student who decided to get the Gardasil vaccine after seeing a "Be One Less" Gardasil vaccine advertisement on TV. Like so many young girls, she wasn't warned about any possible side effects when she got the shots, which are given as a series of three injections.

Gabi is now a Gardasil injury statistic, a young girl permanently disabled by the vaccine.

At the time the documentary was filmed, she had already suffered two strokes and experienced partial paralysis.   She also lost part of her vision and today suffers frequent seizures. When she was in high school, many days she had to use a wheelchair to get around school due to muscle pain and chronic fatigue.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, recently issued an update on adverse reaction reports relating to Gardasil. The documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) detail 26 new deaths reported following HPV vaccination between September 1, 2010 and September 15, 2011. That's 26 deaths of young, previously healthy, girls in just one year.

Other serious side effects reported during that time frame included:

Between May 2009 and September 2010, 16 deaths occurred after Gardasil vaccination. For that timeframe there were also 789 reports of "serious" adverse reactions, of which 213 resulted in permanent disability and 25 resulting in a diagnosis of Guillain Barre Syndrome, Judicial Watch reported.

When Politics and Vaccine Safety Collide… You Usually Lose

According to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:

"These reports raise additional concerns about Gardasil's questionable safety and provide ample reason to end the push to give it young girls and boys. And the CDC's continued caginess on reported deaths is disturbing. Federal, state, and local officials need to stop promoting this vaccine for children."

Unfortunately, many elected officials are doing just the opposite. Texas Governor Rick Perry is a perfect example. In 2007, he signed an Executive Order mandating all 11- and 12-year-old girls in Texas to get the HPV vaccine. Fortunately, the law was overturned two months later, after a firestorm of opposition. Many have now connected the dots and exposed his too-cozy ties to Merck, the maker of Gardasil More recently, Calfornia Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing minors to be given Gardasil vaccine (and other vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases) without their parents' knowledge or informed consent..

Annual PAP Test Now Discouraged. Why?

According to recently updated guidelines by the federal Preventive Services Task Force, women over 21 are now to be dissuaded from annual PAP smears. Instead the panel recommends that women between 21 and 65 get a PAP smear test every three years, stating that "evidence is still insufficient to weigh harms and benefits of tests screening for human papillomavirus (HPV)."

Other cancer groups agree. As reported by Reuters:

"Everybody agrees on almost everything: Let's get rid of regular annual Pap testing, let's get rid of teenage screenings, let's screen women who aren't getting screened," said Debbie Saslow, the American Cancer Society's director of breast and gynecologic cancer.

The problem with this stance is that PAP smears prevent cervical cancer deaths far more effectively than the HPV vaccine ever will. And it's hard to compare the potential side effects of the HPV vaccine with the potential side effects of PAP tests. I've never heard of anyone dying or becoming paralyzed from a PAP smear…

Now, I don't necessarily disagree with their recommendation to reduce the frequency of PAP testing, but I question the double standard that is so readily visible here. Why are cancer groups recommending getting rid of a safe and effective screening method, which we know saves lives, while vigorously advocating the clearly risky HPV vaccine? For example, the National Cervical Cancer Coalition offers the following response to the question about Gardasil's safety:

"The FDA has licensed the vaccine as safe and effective. This vaccine has been tested in thousands of females (9 to 26 years of age) around the world. These studies have shown no serious side effects. The most common side effect is brief soreness at the injection site."

It does not even hint at the many thousands of serious adverse events reported after Gardasil vaccinations to the government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) since its approval, including 26 deaths in the past 12 months alone!  

Furthermore, the death rate from cervical cancer in the United States is a mere 3 per 100,000. Your daughter has a much higher risk of dying in a car accident than she does dying from cervical cancer. Cervical cancer rates are even lower in some European countries. The reason why the mortality rate is so low is because the immune system's of the vast majority of women is usually strong enough to clear up this kind of infection on its own, and does so in more than 90 percent of all cases. The CDC even admits to this fact on their website.

For the "Greater Good"—At What Price?

Rigidly maintaining the assumption that one-size-fits-all mass-vaccinations are necessary and "for the greater good" fails to take into account the possibility that there is harm being done to an increasing number of people, who are not being counted when vaccine benefit and risk calculations are done by health officials.

Keep in mind that to this day, we have NO reliable data indicating just how many children are truly being harmed by any particular vaccine, as adverse event reporting is completely voluntary. Many people are still unaware that the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) even exists, or that you can file a report yourself if your doctor fails to make a report..

The CDC itself admits that only a small fraction of hospitalization, injuries and deaths after vaccination are ever reported. In one 1993 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler estimated that fewer than one percent of all doctors report injuries and deaths following the administration of prescription drugs. This estimate may be even lower for vaccines. According to Barbara Loe Fisher, one survey conducted by the NVIC in New York in 1994 revealed that only one doctor in 40 reported to VAERS.

In an ideal world scenario, any and all adverse events would be reported following vaccination, and health outcomes would be evaluated long-term. Today, many doctors and health authorities simply dismiss adverse events as "unrelated" to the vaccine.

But on what do they base their conclusions?

I urge you to take the time to watch The Greater Good, and start to think about  some of the profound questions raised in the film.  What we need is an open, intelligent, civil dialogue about how we can ensure the health and well-being of our children, and that doesn't mean it has to be all or nothing! Everyone should be allowed to exercise voluntary, informed consent to vaccination and that means you should be able to use every recommended vaccine, some vaccines or no vaccines at all. We should all have the legal right to make informed, voluntary decision about any drug or vaccine or medical procedure that carries risk to our health or the health of our children.

When our government recommends doctors give children 69 doses of vaccines and many of those vaccines are mandated,  safety MUST become the FIRST priority for public health officials, and doctors giving vaccines.  It is essential that the appropriate studies be done to find out if the current vaccine schedule is doing far more harm than good.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand vaccine exemptions, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.

Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org not only gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don't let them forget you!

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what's really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down.  Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

• NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
• If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
• Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or  government officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want,  I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

A few years ago while running the Vancouver Sun Run I had an interesting conversation with a medical doctor.  When I told her that I am a Naturopathic Physician she commented, "In the ER, everyone who sees a naturopath says they are allergic to wheat.  Let me guess?  You're going to tell me I have to stop eating wheat now too? Not quite, eliminating just wheat doesn't cut it.  Gluten is the real bad guy.

There is a paradigm difference between conventional medicine and naturopathic medicine in their understanding of dietary allergies and intolerances.  Often, naturopathic doctors will suggest patients remove gluten containing foods from their diets in an effort to determine whether it is the reason someone might be suffering from what can be a vast array of symptoms.  These symptoms can look like migraines, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal bloating, muscle pain, skin rashes, infertility, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and a whole host of other symptoms.  Gluten intolerance is a chameleon.  It can look like almost any other disease because it's effects in the body are far reaching beyond our digestion and can be both insidious and acute, specific or vague, and mild to severe.  Because of the nature of gluten intolerance it is not difficult to see why many health practitioners would recommend removing it from the diet to simply ensure it is not the culprit.

In a percentage of our population, gluten promotes a sometimes measurable immune reaction that damages the lining of the intestines called Celiac Disease.  This is responsible for much of the digestive symptoms that accompany the disease.  In an effort to manage the gluten reactivity in our guts, our immune system can mistakenly target our own cells throughout the body.  In a case of mistaken identity our immune system might think our joints, glands, or other tissues are part of the problem and try to create inflammation or other processes to control the disease.  Instead, this reaction creates more disease hence the great diversity in symptoms from individual to individual who all may have gluten intolerance.  Eliminating gluten containing foods like Barley, Rye, Wheat, Spelt, and Kamut often reveal a dietary trigger to symptoms.

Celiac Disease can usually be measured by testing our immune system for antibodies against gluten proteins, but the gold standard test is a biopsy of the intestinal tissue to gauge if there is damage.  What we commonly see in practice are negative tests results for both the biopsy and the antibody test in individuals who experience gluten related symptoms.  When researched, even individuals with no intestinal damage will respond favourably to a gluten free diet.  It's a confusing picture.  If gluten works by harming our digestive tissue why don't we see that in all cases?  We believe the nature of the disease has been misunderstood and that it can look like and act like more than we have given it credit for in the past.  But more recently, many health practitioners are waking up to the idea that we must throw our net wider to encompass a lot more than just diarrhea and constipation as gluten related symptoms.  Research is now showing that schizophrenia and other mental illnesses improve when gluten proteins are removed from the diet - a remarkable finding.  It is for these reasons that we believe it is worth the effort to eliminate all gluten containing foods from one's diet to determine if it may be responsible or at the very least contributing to dis-ease.

As both muscle and bone grow rapidly between the time of birth and young adulthood, your child may often present with symptoms of “growing pains”. Children often wake during the night, in tears, with the sensation of sore arms and legs. Therapeutic touch and spinal adjustments may relieve the child of pain during the growth process while simultaneously improving sleep and decreasing the likelihood of night terrors.

Furthermore, as the child approaches adolescence, a therapeutic approach aids in the ability of the child to understand and communicate pain, which then promotes the child’s self-awareness.

By recognizing and increasing the vocalization of physical discomfort, the child becomes more in control of their personal body and may even become more attune and sensitive towards others, assisting in the ability of the child to cultivate positive relationships during the growth process.

Therapeutic touch and spinal care introduced within the developmental stages of childhood may also play a vital role in deterring future physical impairments as the child reaches adulthood.  Chiropractic and massage therapy, when combined, can be beneficial to a child’s growth both physically and emotionally.  For example, research has shown that touch therapy significantly decreases levels of anxiety, and as your child experiences different emotional stages in life, they may be able to process stressful situations differently.

Therapeutic touch can be as simple as introducing focused breathing exercises, progressive relaxation techniques and gentle manipulations of soft tissue and joints, all of which can bring both emotional and physical relief to both parent and child.

For more information contact one of the practitioners at evolve Nurturing Vitality®.

Tessa Ridley, Registered Massage Therapist

Tessa was introduced to Massage Therapy at a very young age. She is a recent graduate from Utopia Academy in Vancouver and received her RMT certification after completing the 3000-hour program, which included over 550 hours of hands on clinical experience.

Tessa has a deep passion for the continued care and health of women. She has found great outcomes in treating low back and breast pain associated with menstruation, constipation, headaches and migraines, post-surgical scar tissue care from breast surgery, caesarian section and many others.

She is enthusiastic about manual therapy and desires to aid others to discover a comfortable balance between the physical body and the nervous system.

During her internship she had extensive training in a plethora of modalities and was drawn to Craniosacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation in her final semester. She is currently undertaking further training in both of these treatments to gain further experience with these powerful techniques.

Tessa’s Hours:

Tuesday: 9:00am to 3:00pm

Thursday: 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Friday: 1:00pm to 4:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am to 3:00pm

For those parents who choose not to vaccinate, it is important to familiarize with the signs and symptoms of different diseases. They also need to be aware of any requirements that certain schools or camps have in regards to vaccinations.  In addition, boosting a child’s immune system with the following is beneficial: breastfeeding, adequate sleep, decreased stress, decreased environmental toxins, and regular visits with their family chiropractor.  

If parents decide on vaccinating their child, they can specifically choose vaccines that they feel are appropriate for their child to have.  One important guideline to follow is to omit vaccines with mercury (thimerisol) or live viruses.  Parents can opt for partial vaccines where they do individual inoculations.  An example would be to have the diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus independently and at separate times.  Parents should be aware of what to look for, should there be an adverse reaction and report it to the Public Health Agency of Canada.  It is important to note the lot number, date, time, amount and who administered the vaccine.  Some countries suggest delaying the vaccinations until age 2, or at least until they have been weaned from breastfeeding as they feel that these children have less reactions.  And finally, it is important to boost the child’s immune system before the shots, and this can be achieved in giving them vitamin C and Vitamin B complex for 48 hours before and after the vaccination, as well as have the child checked by their family chiropractor pre and post vaccination.

For those parents who feel that there are risks with the conventional vaccines but feel that they need to do something, there are Homeopathic vaccines.  Homeopathic immunizations do not involve injections; alternately they are taken orally in a sugar pill form. Immunization remedies are made from disease matter.  They are prepared in a homeopathic manner in order to render them completely safe and non-toxic and they do not contain toxins or chemicals. Once the homeopathic remedy is administered, it is recognized by the body so that when the child comes across the disease later in life, the body is equipped to fight it off.

As to whether you should vaccinate your child or not, only you can and should make that decision.  Ultimately, parents deserve to have access to all the information available, so that their choice about vaccinating (conventional or homeopathic) or non-vaccinating, can be an informed one.  Listed below are a few resources:

·         "The Vaccine Guide: Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults" by Randall Neustaedter

·        "What your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations" by Stephanie Cave. The issues and vaccinations are broken down and discussed individually, she offers an alternative schedule as well as some suggestions on how to best optimize the child's outcome if vaccination is the choice. 

For any questions you may have about boosting your child’s immune system or for general health and wellness, please contact one of our practitioners at evolve Nurturing Vitality.

Conventional medical options include a watch and wait approach, bracing and finally surgery.  Bracing is typically the medical approach for curves between 25 to 30 degrees.   These braces exert pressure against the spine in hope of achieving stabilization, however they do not correct the curves. 

Chiropractors work with the spine and look at spinal joint motion and alignment.   Curves can be stabilized and even reduced with Chiropractic care by leveling the pelvis, strengthening the psoas muscles and maintaining spinal motion in the neck.  Over 80% of patients with a scoliosis greater than 30 degrees have been shown to have a loss of a normal cervical curve as well as a reversal (kyphosis) of the curve.  Chiropractors, in addition to massage therapy and acupuncture can help restore normal functional curves in scoliotic patients.

For a spinal assessment please contact one of the chiropractors at our office.