[Rev (OP)]

I would very much appreciate the assessment of medical professionals
regarding Dr. Dispenzas report about how he healed his vertebra with
6 broken vertebrae in  9 weeks just with the powers of his mind alone.

http://www.healyourlife.com/how-i-healed-myself-after-breaking-6-vertebrae [nofollow]
http://drjoedispenza.com/ [nofollow]

As a relative of mine recently had Disketomy / Spondylosyndesis of two
vertebrae, I wonder how a body could heal itself without any external
intervention in a much more dramatic case as Dr Dispenzas.

He reports 6 broken vertebrae after a SUV crashed in the back of his bike
with 55 mph and his spine being so damagad that the vertebrae needed
2 12-inch stainless-steel rods along both sides of his spinal column - but
he resigned to any surgical intervention.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The question I found no answer as a medical laymen are :

How can a body fix all this without external intervention ?   

What about all the little shivers and damaged tissue which may be in
need to be cleaned out by the surgeons ? Did the body dissolve them
into microscopic particles?  Liquify them ? How ?

What about the many small and big scattered bone fragments which
were not in place together anymore but needed to be in touch to heal
together again ?   What made them move in place again without a
surgeon placing them carefully together and fixing them mechanically
avoiding to fall apart ?       How can a thought move separated bone
fragments into their original position and then lock them in their
position ?   What processes within the body were triggered to schieve
that ?   

If there was no cleaning up the mess between the parts by hand,  no
placing the fragments into their original position again by hand, and
no locking them together with clamps or screws -  then which are
the forces within the body to achieve this ?   And how ?

According to Dr Dispenzas description the whole shape of the vertebra
was distorted, a "brezel", a complete mess.    If there was no helping
hand and no device to reposition the "brezel"   -  what was it that moved
all the parts into the original shape again ?    A And how ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am aware of the astonshing results placebo sugery does achieve
activating the self healing powers of the body.    But Dr. Dispenzas case
surpasses  anything I ever heard of.

His latest book he  attempts to deconstruct the phenomenom of the placebo
effect to transform in into a tool of self healing applicable by everone.

There have always been people around who smashed the limits of existing
paradigms -  is Dr Dispenza one of them ? 

[RD]

I would very much appreciate the assessment of medical professionals
regarding Dr. Dispenzas report about how he healed his vertebra with
6 broken vertebrae in  9 weeks just with the powers of his mind alone.

"Doctor of Chiropractic" is definitely not equivalent to a Doctor of medicine. 

His latest book he  attempts to deconstruct the phenomenom of the placebo
effect to transform in into a tool of self healing applicable by everone.

His latest book attempts relieve people of their money.

There have always been people around who smashed the limits of existing
paradigms -  is Dr Dispenza one of them ? 

He has stretched my credulity beyond breaking point , but that's not quite the same thing.  We only have his word that he fractured multiple vertebrae , a copy of the report from his medical doctor(s) , with x-ray images, would have been more convincing.  [ He doesn't even name the Doctors in his story ].

Before taking advice or treatment from a chiropractor please read this ...
http://whatstheharm.net/chiropractic.html

[alancalverd]

9 weeks is quite a long time for fractured vertebrae to heal, unless the patient is over 50 years old or in poor general health.

A chiropractor should be able to maintain optimal spinal alignment, either by himself or by guiding someone else to manipulate and massage if the fractures have produced significant misalignment. Nature does the rest, and the mechanisms are fairly well understood.

Thought is indeed important in such a case: you need to think carefully about every movement you make, but after 5 years studying the spine, nerves and skeletal muscles, this shouldn't be too much of a problem for someone who does manual work most days - which chiropractors do.

[RD]

... but after 5 years studying the spine, nerves and skeletal muscles, this shouldn't be too much of a problem for someone who does manual work most days - which chiropractors do.

I could study astrology for 5 years it wouldn't make it into a science.

Chiropractic is pseudo-science at best , and not-medical-doctor Joe Dispenza takes it to the next level ...

" Dr. Joe Dispenza shares [for $25.95] numerous documented cases of those who reversed cancer, heart disease, depression, crippling arthritis, and even the tremors of Parkinson's disease by believing in a placebo. "

http://www.hayhouse.com/you-are-the-placebo-1 

So if you've got cancer don't bother with surgery or chemotherapy , just by Joe's book.

[Rev (OP)]

Thank you for your comment, RD.

I intentionally kept my post free from any personal
evaluation in order not to influence its readers in any
direction.

I agree that supplying specific names and medical facts
would be helpful to avoid sceptisism about his claims. as
these are beyond the limits of what most of the people
believe is possible.

I have asked him for providing details twice per email.

[Rev (OP)]

"9 weeks is quite a long time for fractured vertebrae to heal, unless the patient is over 50 years old or in poor general health.

A chiropractor should be able to maintain optimal spinal alignment, either by himself or by guiding someone else to manipulate and massage if the fractures have produced significant misalignment. Nature does the rest, and the mechanisms are fairly well understood.

Thought is indeed important in such a case: you need to think carefully about every movement you make, but after 5 years studying the spine, nerves and skeletal muscles, this shouldn't be too much of a problem for someone who does manual work most days - which chiropractors do."

Very interesting !  This would imply that spline surgery could be in fact replaced by the "Dispenza Method" in some even very
severe cases ?!

[RD]

I have asked him for providing details twice per email.

We'd love to see his quantum-mechanics calculations ...

" chiropractor Dr. Joe Dispenza combines the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to show you what is truly possible."

http://www.hayhouse.com/breaking-the-habit-of-being-yourself-3

A quick way to tell if a claim about quantum physics has scientific validity is to ask for the mathematics. If there isn't any, it's rubbish.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Quantum_woo

[alancalverd]

Very interesting !  This would imply that spline surgery could be in fact replaced by the "Dispenza Method" in some even very
severe cases ?!

Treatment for broken bones is to realign them and keep them in place until they heal. It gets more complicated if other tissues are involved or the bone is diseased, or the fracture doesn't lend itself to simple fixation, and then you need complex surgery, pins, screws, and the like. It is entirely possible that vertebrae (or indeed any bones, but I think vertebrae are particularly good examples) sustain fractures that do not completely separate the fragments - cracks rather than breaks - and mere attention to posture might suffice to heal the crack.   

[alancalverd]

I could study astrology for 5 years it wouldn't make it into a science.

But if you studied anatomy, physiology, psychology, radiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, biophysics, histopathology, physiotherapy, and a few other subjects for 4 or 5 years, you might be on the way to becoming a chiropractor, or at least understanding the science behind what they do.

[RD]

But if you studied anatomy, physiology, psychology, radiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, biophysics, histopathology, physiotherapy, and a few other subjects for 4 or 5 years, you might be on the way to becoming a chiropractor, or at least understanding the science behind what they do.

Do chiropractors need to know all of that just to crack someone's neck ?
see ...

a procedure which is just showbiz , ( and on rare occasions stroke-inducing ).

... studied anatomy...

Chiropractors have misappropriated the anatomical term "subluxation" ...
 

"The chiropractic profession refers to this concept as a 'subluxation'. This use of the word subluxation should not be confused with the term's precise anatomic usage, which considers only the anatomical relationships."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertebral_subluxation

[Rev (OP)]

It is entirely possible that vertebrae (or indeed any bones, but I think vertebrae are particularly good examples) sustain fractures that do not completely separate the fragments - cracks rather than breaks - and mere attention to posture might suffice to heal the crack

I had thought that fixation by steel rods implyed fractures with separated segments.   But healing could not have taken place under these circumstances,
so it must have been the way you described it.

But then all of the healing process did not necessarily take place due to 4 hours of visualisations a day, a day as bone fractures heal themselves.

So the right wording should be : "Doctors 6 broken vertebrae heal themselves
in 9 weeks ?!"

[alancalverd]

But if you studied anatomy, physiology, psychology, radiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, biophysics, histopathology, physiotherapy, and a few other subjects for 4 or 5 years, you might be on the way to becoming a chiropractor, or at least understanding the science behind what they do.

Do chiropractors need to know all of that just to crack someone's neck ?

Yes. At least those registered in the UK, with whom I work.  http://www.aecc.ac.uk/system/site/uploads/content/docs/Prospectus_2008.pdf

The title is not regulated everywhere, but graduates from reputable colleges in the UK, Australia, Canada, and some US states, have a very sound scientific background. 

[RD]

The title is not regulated everywhere, but graduates from reputable colleges in the UK, Australia, Canada, and some US states, have a very sound scientific background. 

Orthodox chiropractors are in realms of pseudo-science ...

Traditional chiropractic assumes that a vertebral subluxation or spinal joint dysfunction interferes with the body's function and its innate intelligence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic

If your chiropractic colleagues are scientific then they are on the fringe of the chiropractic church , heretical even.

To be fair chiropractors are essentially useless and only rarely do harm , and like homoeopathy are in the placebo business,  which is cheaper than actual medicine , which is why they are employed by public-health systems , and those whose budget is not sufficient to consult a doctor of medicine.

IMO to tell people they have subluxation [dislocation] of their vertebrae when they don't , and that their spine is being "adjusted" , when it isn't , is fraud.

[CliffordK]

Interesting story....
The power of the anecdote. 

1 person recovers from a badly fractured back.
If 100 others were left untreated, would they all recover?  Or was this recovery 1/100? 

And, it wasn't truly untreated.  He was essentially immobilized for 2 months, whether or not he had a cast or pins. 

There were no before & after X-Rays, or 20 years later X-Rays to look at. 

Is he an inch shorter now than he was before the accident?

Healing, of course, is what the body does.  Casts and pins just aid with stabilization to help the body with natural healing.  And, throughout life, there is significant remodelling of tissue. 

[alancalverd]

No x-rays? how do we know it was fractured?

Incidentally the Wikipedia definition of "verterbral subluxation" is crap. Everyone knows what a subluxation is, and it certainly isn't a collection of signs and symptoms, any more than a motorway is a set of road signs.

Also from Wikipedia

A subluxation may have different meanings, depending on the medical specialty involved. It implies the presence of an incomplete or partial dislocation of a joint or organ

so a vertebral subluxation is exactly that - partial dislocation of vertebrae. Easy enough to see with x-rays or MRI, and a common cause of a whole spectrum of signs and symptoms due to nerve compression.

Having a "high mileage" spine, I suffer from restricted neck rotation which gradually gets worse to the point that I am unhappy to drive or fly, at which stage I find chiropractic manipulation can restore safe scanning of the horizon.  Far from "essentially useless" - in my life, occasionally essential (can't fly on any medication!).

[Bored chemist]

Well, I don't know about six, but my dad fractured one of his vertebrae and it healed rather sooner than 9 weeks  with nothing more than rest and pain killers.
So this guy's claim to fix something is, at best, dubious.

There's no reason to suppose the problem didn't heal itself.

So, that's at least one anecdote on each side of the debate.
If you consider that the hospital thought that rest and painkillers was the sensible treatment, it's likely that they did so because they have tried that treatment regimen before- and that it worked.
I don't know how many people they have treated that way, but it's a good deal more than one.
So the evidence suggests that they guy did nothing, but is making big claims.

[Rev (OP)]

Here the experience in his own word available at different sources around the
internet including issuu.  I took out some line to keep it a bit shorter.

" As I passed two cyclists on that particular corner, a red four-wheel-drive Bronco going about 55 miles an hour slammed into my bike from behind
...
I would soon discover that I had broken six vertebrae: I had compression fractures in thoracic  8,  9,  10,  11,  and  12  and  lumbar  1  (ranging  from  my  shoulder  blades  to  my kidneys). The vertebrae are stacked like individual blocks in the spine, and when I hit the ground  with  that  kind  of  force,  they  collapsed  and  compressed  from  the  impact. The
eighth  thoracic  vertebra,  the  top  segment  that  I  broke,  was  more  than  60  percent collapsed, and the circular arch that contained and protected the spinal cord was broken and pushed together in a pretzel-like shape. When a vertebra compresses and fractures, the bone has to go somewhere. In my case, a large volume of shattered fragments went back toward my spinal cord. It was definitely not a good picture.
As if I were in a bad dream gone rogue, I woke up the next morning with a host of neurological  symptoms,  including  several  different  types  of  pain;  varying  degrees of numbness, tingling, and some loss of feeling in my legs; and some sobering difficulties in controlling my movements.
So after I had all the blood tests, x-rays, CAT scans, and MRIs at the hospital, the orthopedic surgeon showed me the results and somberly delivered the news: In order to contain the bone fragments that were now on my spinal cord, I needed surgery to implant a Harrington rod. That would mean cutting out the back parts of the vertebrae from two to three segments above and below the fractures and then screwing and clamping two 12-inch tainless-steel rods along both sides of my spinal column. Then they’d scrape some fragments off my hip bone and paste them over the rods. It would be major surgery, but it would mean I’d at least have a chance to walk again. Even so, I knew I’d probably still be  somewhat  disabled,  and  I’d  have  to  live  with  chronic  pain  for  the  rest  of  my  life. Needless to say, I didn’t like that option.

But if I chose not to have the surgery, paralysis seemed certain. The best neurologist in the Palm Springs area, who concurred with the first surgeon’s opinion, told me that he knew of no other patient in the United States in my condition who had refused it. The impact of the accident had compressed my T-8 vertebra into a wedge shape that would prevent my spine from being able to bear the weight of my body if I were to stand up:
My backbone would collapse, pushing those shattered bits of the vertebra deep into my spinal cord, causing instant paralysis from my chest down. That was hardly an attractive option either.

I was transferred to a hospital in La Jolla, closer to my home, where I eceived two additional  opinions,  including  one  from  the  leading  orthopedic  surgeon  in  Southern California. Not surprisingly, both doctors agreed that I should have the Harrington rod surgery.

It was a pretty consistent prognosis: have the surgery or be paralyzed, never to walk again. If I had been the medical professional making the recommendation, I’d have said the same thing: It was the safest option.

But it wasn’t the option I chose for myself. Maybe I was just young and bold at that time in my life, but I decided against the medical model and the expert recommendations. I believe that there’s an intelligence, an invisible consciousness, within each of us that’s the giver of life. It supports, maintains,
protects,  and  heals  us  every  moment.  It  creates  almost  100  trillion  specialized  cells (starting from only 2), it keeps our hearts beating hundreds of thousands of times per day, and it can organize hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions in a single cell in every second—among many other amazing functions. I reasoned at the time that if this intelligence  was  real  and  if  it  willfully,  mindfully,  and  lovingly  demonstrated  such amazing abilities, maybe I could take my attention off my external world and begin to go within and connect with it—developing a relationship with it.

But while I intellectually understood that the body often has the capacity to heal itself, now I had to apply every bit of philosophy that I knew in order to take that knowledge to the next level and beyond, to create a true experience with healing. And since I wasn’t going anywhere and I wasn’t doing anything except lying facedown, I decided on two things.  First,  every  day  I  would  put  all  of  my  conscious  attention  on  this  intelligence within me and give it a plan, a template, a vision, with very specific orders, and then I would surrender my healing to this greater mind that has unlimited power, allowing it to do the healing for me. And second, I wouldn’t let any thought slip by my awareness that I didn’t want to experience. Sounds easy, right?
A Radical Decision

Against  the  advice  of  my  medical  team,  I  left  the  hospital  in  an  ambulance  that brought me to the home of two close friends, where I stayed for the next three months to focus  on  my  healing.  I  was  on  a  mission.  I  decided  that  I  would  begin  every  day reconstructing my spine, vertebra by vertebra, and I would show this consciousness, if it was  paying  attention  to  my  efforts,  what  I  wanted.  I  knew  that  it  would  demand  my
absolute presence . . .

So  for  two  hours  twice  a  day,  I  went  within  and  began  creating  a  picture  of  my intended result: a totally healed spine. . . .

Finally, after six weeks of battling with myself and making the effort to be present with this consciousness, I was able to make it through my inward reconstruction process without having to stop and start over from the beginning.....

I  made  other  key  decisions  about  my  healing  as  well.  I  set  up  a  whole  regimen (described  in  detail  in Evolve Your Brain)  that  included  diet,  visits  from  friends  who practiced energy healing, and an elaborate rehabilitation program. But nothing was more important to me during that time than getting in touch with that intelligence within me and, through it, using my mind to heal my body. At nine and a half weeks after the accident, I got up and walked back into my life without  having  any  body  cast  or  any  surgeries.  I  had  reached  full  recovery.  I  started seeing patients again at 10 weeks and was back to training and lifting weights again, while  continuing  my  rehabilitation,  at  12  weeks. And  now,  almost  30  years  after  the
accident, I can honestly say that I’ve hardly ever had back pain since.

[alancalverd]

The before and after x-rays would be very interesting.

[Rev (OP)]

Thats why sent him two emails asking for them.

Alcanverd, are you a medical professional ?
Can you judge from Mr Dispenzas description, if a selfhealing
process was indeed possible ?   Or is it completely impossible
to judge without further information?
For al laymen it appears that there was a pretty mess in his back.

Why should doctors consider two 21 inch long rods be indispensable
for his healing if there was even a small chance to get it healed
by the natural healing process ?

And there was not only one doctor involved.

[alancalverd]

I'm a medical physicist with a particular interest in imaging the spine. I teach radiographic physics to chiropractors, advise surgeons and physicians on the use of x-rays and MRI in minimally-invasive procedures, and I have a company that operates some upright (i.e. weightbearing) MRI machines.

Resorption of bone fragments is entirely possible and all the rest of the healing process depends on sufficient immobilisation to allow the bone to repair - we do occasionally use epoxy resin but generally only where the natural healing process has failed.

There's a difference between compression failure and transverse fracture, and it isn't all that surprising that compressed vertebrae should recover their strength if the patient is generally healthy, though complete recovery of form and function would be remarkable, even with the best available treatment. The key trick, as Dispenzas hints, was to prevent the wedged T8 from moving until the discs have regained some strength.

Rods and suchlike obviously have their place where the vertebrae are very unstable but whilst unusual, it isn't surprising that a "young and bold" man (particularly a chiropractor, who tend to be fit, muscular, well-nourished, and very aware of the action and control of postural muscles) should have the capacity to make a reasonable recovery without surgical intervention. After all, 75% of the world's population have little or no access to anything recognisable as neurosurgery, yet seem to survive without it.