Listen or Read Dr. Rubinstein’s Monthly Podcast Interview!
Topic: Allergies
Below you will find an easy to read transcript of Dr. Gregg Rubinstein’s interview on the razorcast™ monthly podcast. You can either watch the video to listen to the podcast or simply read the easy to follow transcript below. Enjoy!
Podcast Interview:
RC: Hello everyone, this is Liz Harvey coming to you from our razorcast™ studios in New York City where we are dedicated to bringing you top quality advice from many of the leading expert professionals across the United States.
In today’s episode we are speaking with chiropractor, Dr. Gregg Rubinstein. Dr. Rubinstein is the founder of 57th Street Chiropractic located in the heart of midtown Manhattan where he has been practicing since 1993. He specializes in pediatric & family care and Dr. Rubinstein is a long standing member of the International Pediatrics Chiropractic Association. He also serves as a board member of Friends of Fresh and Green Academy, a non-profit organization that does extensive charity work in education in Ethiopia.
Dr. Rubinstein is widely considered to be one of the top chiropractors in the U.S. and he is also a contributing member of our national network of razorcast™ professionals.
Today we are going to talk about a very important topic: Allergies
Hello Dr. Rubinstein how are you today?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: I’m doing just fine. Thank you for asking!
RC: Great!
Question 1: Why would a chiropractor be talking about allergies? What do allergies have to do with chiropractic care?
RC: I think the first question everyone is asking is, “Why would a chiropractor be talking about allergies?” What do allergies have to do with chiropractic care?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Well it’s interesting that you ask that question. I want to take a quick step back because when most people think of chiropractors, the common perception is everyone thinks that I’m a back doctor. But the truth is that I’m really treating the nerve system. I’m only using the spine as my avenue of approach. Because when the bones get misaligned, they will start to irritate the nerve system. The big picture here is that you’ve got to understand that your nerve system controls and coordinates everything including your immune system.
Now when I talk to people about allergies, the big point that I want everyone to understand is that allergies are a hyper-sensitivity to things that are normally in our environment. Commonly, I’ll hear people say “Oh that ragweed pollen is making me sick.” But ragweed pollen doesn’t make people sick. Only certain people are hypersensitive to it. I can go to pet a cat or a dog and I don’t have a problem but someone else can walk into my apartment where my cat lives and all of a sudden they start the runny nose, eyes start to water and they have a whole bunch of different reactions. So really, what’s happening is for some reason the person’s nerve system is hyper-sensitive to that allergen. For whatever reason, their body views whatever is floating out in the air (cat dander, dog hair, ragweed, pollen) as foreign and triggers a massive immune response. But the big picture is that the immune response is triggered by their nerve system being a little bit hyper-sensitive.
So as a chiropractor I’m not necessarily talking about the allergen or the allergy itself but how that person’s body reacts to it. Does that clarify it for you?
RC: Yes, definitely.
Question 2: Are there different chiropractic treatments for different types of allergies?
RC: To ask the next question, are there different types of chiropractic treatments for those different types of allergies that people experience?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Not necessarily because really what’s interesting is we treat the same condition in every patient. Every patient who comes in, we’re treating what’s called a subluxation, which is a misalignment of the spine irritating the nerve and making that whole nerve system what I call hyper-reactive or running at a higher tone than it needs to.
We’ll talk about anger for a minute. If someone is really stressed out and angry, it’s a lot easier to set that person off. If my nerve system is really hyper-sensitive and irritated, then it’s a lot easier to set that nerve system off and trigger that massive immune response to something that’s commonly present in our environment.
So the short answer is no, it’s not really different. I mean, I might adjust different segments on different people depending on where their misalignments are. But getting back to the fact that chiropractic is a holistic practice. We’re not treating specific symptoms; we’re treating the whole body to make the nerve system stronger and less reactive to whatever is in the environment.
RC: Okay that makes sense, thank you.
Question 3: Are these chiropractic treatments safe for people of all ages including children?
RC: Are these chiropractic treatments that you perform safe for people of all ages including children?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Absolutely and what’s great is that there are many different techniques that you could use as a chiropractor to treat the subluxation, meaning that there are different ways to correct the alignment. If I’m working on a 90 year old woman who has osteoporosis obviously the technique is going to be different than what I would use on maybe an 18 year old male. So things are different depending on the individual patient and there are different techniques but in my office we treat patients of all ages. My youngest patient I’ve ever treated was 5 hours old and the oldest was probably in their late 90’s. So it is safe and effective.
One other thing that I always like to share with people when they talk about the safety of chiropractic is that for a chiropractor, my malpractice insurance is about twenty-eight hundred dollars a year and those rates are always based on how safe your profession is and how often you injure people and how often your profession gets sued. So compared to a medical doctor who probably pays about eight to ten thousand dollars in malpractice insurance, I would take our rates and our safety record against any other profession. So it truly is very, very safe and very effective.
RC: Okay great.
Question 4: Most people suffer from seasonal allergies and don’t have symptoms all year round. So, is it ok to only see your chiropractor when symptoms flare up?
RC: Most people suffer from seasonal allergies and don’t have symptoms all year round. So, is it okay to only see a chiropractor when symptoms flare up?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: I get that question asked a lot. People only want to come in when they’re symptomatic but really I equate what I do much more along the lines of dentistry. Do you only brush your teeth when they hurt? Do you ever go to the dentist office and say “You know what, Doc? My teeth don’t hurt today. I’m not going to go through with my cleaning and my treatment today.”
It’s really much more about prevention and staying on top of things. If you maintain your spine in a healthy way, your nerve system is going to function better and clearly without interference and then you’re going to be less likely to have these other symptoms and these other problems come up. Particularly we’re talking about allergies now.
So if you really want to be effective, you need to keep your spine and your nerve system healthy all the time throughout the course of your lifetime, not only when you’re symptomatic. That’s not a holistic approach. A holistic approach is about keeping your body and your spine and your nerve system healthy all the time so your body functions better, not just addressing individual symptoms. When you get into what I call “symptom treatment,” that’s really the job of the medical doctor. If you have pain, they are going to give you a pain-killer. If you have inflammation, they are going to give you an anti-inflammatory. So they’re going to give you whatever your symptom is and they’re going to try and treat those symptoms.
The bigger question sometimes I like to discuss is “Why you are showing those symptoms in the first place?” There is probably a reason for that and chiropractic doctors like to address the cause of the situation – not just treat the symptom. Look, if someone has a headache, they take aspirin and their headache might go away but why are they getting the headaches? That’s the real question. Why does that person have allergies? What is it that’s triggering them? What makes their nerve system more susceptible to that ragweed pollen or to that cat dander? That’s the bigger question that I like to address.
Question 5: What tips do you have for people to help alleviate allergy symptoms?
RC: Okay and what tips do you have for people to help alleviate their allergy symptoms?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: You know that kind of speaks to what I just spoke about. Which is after they already have the symptoms, I can start to work on their nerve system and potentially help them down the line, but as far as treating individual symptoms, that’s not really the job of a chiropractor. I can help people who suffer from allergies and hopefully our treatment will help them be less reactive and prevent that cascade of events that really brings them on. But in the long term, as far as symptomatic treatment, chiropractic it really isn’t about symptomatic treatment in that realm.
RC: Right, okay well this has been great! Thank you so much.
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: I’d just like to add one other thing. I know a lot of concepts that I talk about aren’t commonplace. Most people don’t think in these terms but really what I want you to understand that if someone is having allergy symptoms or having an allergy attack they need medical intervention. Especially if someone is going into anaphylactic shock, I don’t want that person brought to my office. They need medical attention first. I might be able to help them down the road but understand in severe allergy attacks and cases like that, medical attention is always going to be the first thing you need to do. Then later when everything is under control and you’re healthy, if you want to pursue a holistic approach to taking care of your allergy conditions, then you consult with a chiropractor.
RC: Okay that’s really important. Thank you for mentioning that. Thanks so much for being with us today. I know you are extremely busy so thanks for your time and all of this great advice.
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: It’s really my honor. I’m glad to be on here and share what I know.
RC: For our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with Dr. Gregg Rubinstein, you can either go online at www.chiropractormidtown.com or call (917) 534-6484 to schedule an appointment.
On behalf of our entire team at razorcast™, we want to thank you for listening and we look forward to bringing you more top quality content from our country’s leading professionals.
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