Listen or Read Dr. Rubinstein’s Monthly Podcast Interview!
Topic: Digestive Issues
Below you will find an easy to read transcript of Dr. Gregg Rubinstein’s interview on the razorcast™ monthly podcast. You can click 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 Chiropractic Pediatrics 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 is also a contributing member of our national network of razorcast™ professionals.
Today we are going to talk about a very important topic: Digestive Issues
RC: Hi Dr. Rubinstein, how are you today?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: I’m doing great Liz, thanks for asking. How are things by you?
RC: Things are great. So thanks for joining us and let’s jump in.
Question 1: Let’s start by naming some common digestive issues that you see with your patients.
RC: So let’s start by naming some common digestive issues that you see with some of your patients.
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Well one of the things that we see very commonly, particularly with people with mid back or lower back problems, is that the same nerves that can cause pain in the middle and lower back are the same ones that innervate the stomach and the intestines. So very often, we’ll see lots of people coming in with stomach troubles and they’ll have indigestion, heartburn, dyspepsia, gastritis. We can also see constipation, colitis, dysentery diarrhea. All these different things can be affected by the spine and how well the nerve system is working especially when there’s a lot of irritation to the nerves that actually control and coordinate the stomach and the intestines. Because as there is irritation to those nerves at the spinal level from misalignments or what most chiropractors call subluxations, that irritation will lead to poor communication between your brain and the stomach and really affect how well your stomach works and how well your digestion works and how accurately those processes go in the body.
Question 2: Can you explain some of the causes of these conditions?
RC: Alright so along those lines can you explain some of the causes of those conditions?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Absolutely. Well you know there’s obvious causes. If you’re eating a very poor diet or a very acidic diet or things of that nature then you know those are obvious causes. But really what chiropractors look at is we look at, you know we kind of break it down and say well why is this person having colitis or irritation to the large intestine? What is it in that person that they have it but their brother or sister doesn’t? And very often, we look to the spine as chiropractors because if there are bones out of place irritating the nerves that go to the large intestine, it’s going to distort the communication, the messages from the brain to the intestine and the information from the intestine back to the brain is going to be disturbed or it’s going to be like static in the line. And with poor communication comes poor execution of bodily functions.
So if your brain essentially can’t tell your intestines what to do, they’re going to malfunction. You not going to absorb food as readily which can lead to vitamin deficiencies. You can see people who have just so much irritation that the stomach is so agitated that everything passes through and doesn’t really get digested well. Or they become very acidic in their diet and that can cause inflammation to the stomach as well.
But looking at the spine, trying to alleviate any nerve irritation, the body should be able to right that ship and really control and coordinate everything. There’s an ability in the body which allows it to self-heal but only if there’s enough information going from the brain to the problem area and the information going back so the body can understand and figure out what the problem is. A lot of times with subluxations putting pressure or irritating the nerve, there’s so much static in the line that the body has a lot of trouble and that very often can lead to additional digestive issues for people who have them already.
Question 3: How can chiropractic care help alleviate these issues?
RC: Okay and how can chiropractic care help alleviate these issues?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: And that’s a great question because really by eliminating the nerve interference, getting the pressure off the nerve and restoring normal communication, should allow the body to function properly. It’s designed to be healthy, healthy is the natural state of the body and as long as you have proper communication and the brain is able to control everything through the nerve system, it should work fine. And that’s why as a chiropractor, I’m dedicating my life to really removing the nerve interference which causes these problems.
So many people will go to doctors and take medications to get rid of the symptoms but the symptoms aren’t necessarily the cause or the true problem. They’re just a sign of the problem, the actual problem could be the interference or irritation to the nerve system causing that problem to begin with. So if you get rid of the initial irritation or the cause of the problem, the need for secondary treatment or drugs very often can be alleviated and the problems can be prevented and almost solved naturally without using drugs or surgery.
Question 4: Is nutritional counseling part of the care when treating digestive issues?
RC: Okay and is nutritional counseling part of the care when you’re treating digestive issues?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: It absolutely is important to know what’s going in. If they eat a really great well-balanced diet and they’re having tons of issues, you know that it’s not the diet. But if you kind of look at what they’re eating and say you know, “Hey look at this.” What I ask everyone to do if they’re going to come in and ask me about nutritional advice is I ask them to do a seven day nutritional profile. Basically how that works is if it goes in your mouth, it goes down on paper. And then you kind of look at patterns and you know what you don’t need a lot of training. You know if you look at your diet and you just see lots of meat and very little vegetables, you know you can see your diet is out of balance. It isn’t rocket science.
But when people come in with more complex conditions, I’m trained as a chiropractor and I’m a pretty good one but I’m not the best nutritional consultant. So very often, I’ll refer that out to either a registered dietitian or someone who has more expertise if I truly think it goes beyond the scope, it’s not being contributed by any spinal problems. But if it’s truly a nutritional or a diet issue, I very often refer that out because there are people who are more qualified and better trained for that.
Question 5: What type of results do people see after seeking chiropractic care?
RC: Good and what type of results do people see after seeking chiropractic care?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Well you know there’s a variety of results and I’m not going to sit here and tell you that chiropractic is a panacea and I can cure everything that walks into my office because that’s simply not true. But we help a great deal of people. Many people whether they know it have misalignments in their spine that are irritating the nerves. If there’s enough irritation, sometimes it will cause pain but sometimes if there’s not a lot of irritation it might be imperceptible. It might only be affecting the internal organs and since we’re not used to feeling pain in those organs, there can be irritation without pain but it can certainly affect how the body functions, particularly our digestive track.
So people get good results. I would say that the majority of people who come into my office get some alleviation of the initial symptoms and problems that they came in with. But what they leave with is a healthier spine and a healthier nervous system and a body that’s better able to adapt to these stressful situations which can minimize digestive issues going forward.
And that’s really what it is but again I just want to reiterate that you know I can’t promise you – I mean if someone comes in with an acute appendicitis, they don’t need to be in a chiropractor’s office. They need to be with their medical doctor. So there are certain things and there are certain cases that you know I’ll take on and handle but other things do need to be referred out from time to time but that doesn’t mean that they can’t still get chiropractic care while they’re dealing with the other stuff because again getting pressure off the nerve system will result in a higher function of the nerve system and better health. It’s just that simple.
RC: Okay great. Thank you so much Dr. Rubinstein. We know you’re extremely busy so I just want to thank you for your time and help today.
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: It’s always an honor to be here with you.
RC: Thank you so much and 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 experts.
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