Jack Stephenson (8-24)

To the editor,

This is intended as a helpful addition to Barrett Chapin’s letter of August 24 The Daily Sun. His first 3 paragraphs are clear and accurate. Paragraph 4 ends with a dangerous error, which he may not be aware of.

It has been well proven for over 60 years that MANY physical problems, especially so called allergies ARE caused by pressure on nerves where they exit the spinal column. Just look at the spine and you can see that almost every nerve that controls body functions, and pain, goes through the spine to exits at each vertebra. For example, Asthma is affected by nerve exiting the spine near shoulder level. Sciatica is basically caused by pressure on nerves exiting the spine at about vertebra L4, or below, and is observed as extreme pain in legs. Frequently dangerous surgery is used to eventually remove part of the spine to get at and relieve that nerve pressure, almost always resulting in the need for corrective surgery soon after. At about T5 the nerves go to gall bladder and stomach. A pinch there will give all the symptoms of gall stones. Been there, done that, and none of the expert chiropractors I knew then in Los Angeles could fix it, BUT an osteopath recognized, and freed that joint, with proper manipulation. That was about 1971.

Since moving to NH in 1975, I suffered under the abuse of chiropractors, until I found Osteopath Dr. Mark Aronson and his magic hands! He produced not only great cures to spine problems for both of us, but also education on how to avoid the problems. Dr. Barrett Chapin may be entirely correct in his warning about chiropractors in N.H., but osteopathic doctors actually do the corrections needed.

I must point out that almost all of those spinal problems are due to spasm of spinal control muscles. Turns out that drugs such a Flexeril or Percodan can also relax those muscles and remove the associated problems. But, to use those, you must be aware of the cause of your problem. Dr. Mark Aronson can, and will, educate you.

Okay, why do I know all that? Simple: dad’s asthma forced him to seek cures, none of which were permanent until a super chiropractor moved into town (Lakewood N.J.). He cured him as well as could be done, and introduced us to control of neck and back pain, and outrageous nasal "allergies". Note that at that time Dr. Cersossimo was accepted by all town medical doctors as a necessary aide.

I can tell you many bad stories about BAD chiropractors, and many more about totally useless medical doctors. Fortunately we have found some really good MDs, but still have to keep on top of the problems!

Jack Stephenson

Gilford