Can chiropractic care be the answer to your chronic back pain or a pivotal defense against opioid addiction? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Dr. Kent Greenawalt, the CEO of Foot Levelers, as he takes us through the transformative journey of his father, Monty. Surviving a near-fatal vaccine mishap during World War II, Monty found his path to recovery through chiropractic care, which ultimately led him to innovate life-changing products like spinal pelvic stabilizers and the revolutionary foam casting kit. This heartfelt story not only highlights the personal impact of chiropractic but also the broader implications for patient care.
We also explore the exciting collaborations behind the development of orthotics tailored for court sports, including pickleball and tennis, featuring insights from Dr. Christine Foss and the team at Ohio State University. Discover why chiropractic care should be your first line of defense against opioid dependency and how the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress has grown to become the largest organization in its field. With a focus on mutual respect and collaboration among chiropractors, this episode underscores the importance of research-proven techniques and the philosophy of love and service for achieving the best patient outcomes. Don’t miss this episode packed with innovation, collaborative triumphs, and a deep commitment to improving lives through chiropractic care.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, I'm Dr Arlan Ford , the chairman and founder of
Activator Methods International.
Welcome to our Activate yourPractice podcast.
Today we have a special guest,dr Kent Greenewald, who is the
CEO of Foot Levelers.
Now our history goes back andwe were just talking about it
and I said I've known you, kent,now for about 60 years goes
(00:24):
back, and we were just talkingabout it.
I said I've known you, kent, nowfor about 60 years and yes,
it's uh, it's been like, uh,we've been cousins.
You know almost 100, becausehis dad practiced in iowa and I
practiced in southern minnesota.
So I first knew monty.
And I'm just gonna ask you afoot levelers is 71 years old.
What's the story?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
story.
Well, thanks for asking, arlen,and really great to be here
because you know you're a legendand it's just such a pleasure
to spend time with you.
You're such a great guy andyou've done so much for the
profession.
But to answer your question,you know you may or may not know
this, but Foot Levelers wasborn out of tragedy.
It wasn't born out of successor anything like that.
(01:05):
It was born out of strategy.
And here's why when my fatherMonty they had World War II
going on and he went into themilitary, well, they went
through the standard militaryinduction process and he got all
the typical shots and physicalexamination stuff.
But there was some bad vaccineshots and physical examination
(01:29):
stuff, but there was some badvaccine and 150 people died.
Over 150 people died from thisbad vaccine.
It put my father Monty in aniron lung and for those of you
you know, we know what they are.
But for the younger group, youknow it's kind of like a tanning
bed that you lay in, that helpsyou breathe and he couldn't
survive without that.
So he tells the story how he'dlay in this iron lung for about
(01:54):
six months and he tried to breaka sweat, moving his little
finger.
He really couldn't hardly doanything.
So he said he laid there andprayed to die.
Well, that didn't work.
Thank God I wouldn't be hereand prayed to die.
Well, that didn't work, thankGod I wouldn't be here.
But he said, you know, whateverdid work, I dedicate my life to
(02:15):
the rest of it.
So one day my grandmother wholived to be 103, takes him into
a local chiropractor.
They carry him in.
He has the adjustment and wehad a miracle of chiropractic
event happen.
He walks out with help.
Now remember, he's been in thislot of atrophy going on here,
but he had a miracle adjustmentthat changed.
He wanted to be a neurosurgeon.
He changed from neurosurgery tochiropractic.
(02:38):
Enrolled in Lincoln College ofChiropractic, got out in 1948.
Had a practice in the basementof a bank no store window, no,
anything.
Yet it was buried.
You could hardly even find theguy and that's where he had his
practice.
Next door was a youngpodiatrist and they became
friends.
They were buddies.
(02:59):
When my father noticed that theyhad bad feet, badly pronated,
he'd refer them to thepodiatrist.
Noticed that they had bad feet,badly pronated, he'd refer them
to the podiatrist.
The podiatrist would make anappliance for them.
But unfortunately it made thepatient worse, it aggravated
their back pain.
So my father went to his friend.
He says listen, I love you, butyou're wrecking my practice and
(03:20):
I don't have much to wreck here.
I've got to stop this and Idon't have much to wreck here,
I've got to stop.
So he quit, referring to thepodiatrist, and he said you know
, if something can maybe hurtyou, maybe we could do something
differently and help you.
So now you had a period of timewith what I'll call the Thomas
Edison experimentation Try itfail, try it fail, try it fail.
(03:44):
Finally he discovered what I'llcall the magic sauce and how to
do this Kind of like.
When they make Coca-Cola, theyfigure out how to do it special.
And he did that.
And the miracle of what he didis he found out that when you
put this under a patient's footit helped their adjustments hold
better.
He gave a good adjustment.
(04:05):
He really thought he dideverything proper, but when they
got up, walked out, went to paytheir bill, it wasn't holding.
How did he know that?
He had a plumb bob in hisclinic?
He had a mirror and, dr Fore, Iknow you know what they are At
a plumb bob with a mirror.
You could look at the mirror ata 45-degree angle and look
(04:26):
behind and see your spine, andthe patient would be lined up
perfectly with the plumb bob.
He'd have him walk around thetable a couple times, have him
stand in the mirror, look, thepatient could see where their
spine wasn't to where it used tobe.
And so that's how this startedone patient at a time.
(04:47):
And, by the way, arlen, backthen they didn't call it an
orthotic.
A foot leveler's orthoticoticwas called a spinal pelvic
stabilizer, which actually in myopinion is a far better name
than an orthotic.
But in today's world, with theinternet and that sort of thing,
we do that.
But that's how it was kind of amishap of tragic situation that
(05:09):
got the whole thing startedwell, but also I remember he
invented the phone that youstepped in.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
No, that's 100% right .
In the beginning he hadsomething called the metascope
and the doctor had to take a lotof measurements of the foot and
, as Monty used to say, they hadto think and by doing that it
was not easy, it wasn't fun,whatever.
He invented the foam castingkit.
As you said.
Yes and bang.
Now it was easy and we couldget a person in beverly hills,
(05:40):
california, have their feetarrive in dubuque, iowa and make
the custom-made spinal pelvicstabilizer I just happen to
remember that, because he wasfamous for developing that foam
thing that you stepped into, Iguess you, what did you call it?
well, we follow it.
It's a phenolic foam, was thename of it.
It's like floral foam, whatthey use at the florist.
(06:01):
Okay, but uh, uh, we could onlyget it made at that point in
time in Canada.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And, uh, that was very hard to get and he did get
a patent on it also and sopatented, revolutionizing that
thing and and actually I don'tknow if you know this, arlen,
but he really created theorthotic industry.
There really wasn't anythingreally going on until Monty got
going.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I did not know that.
Yes, well, you did some seriesof research on having an
adjustment hole too.
Yes, we did, I remember.
Can you tell about that?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, sure, we've had 37 different studies published,
and you, among all thechiropractors in the world,
probably have one of the bestunderstandings of research that
I know, and you know howimportant it is to have the peer
reviewed, refereed, going overof the research.
And we've done that.
We have 37 studies now that arepublished that show, in a
variety of ways, how theadjustment holds better, how you
can have better athleticperformance, how you can create
(07:06):
stronger muscles, all thesetypes of things.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, those are called clinical trials, yes, and
they're not easy and they'renot inexpensive.
Yeah, you're right about that.
So yeah, I do know, but Iwanted to bring that out because
you know there's a lot ofpeople pushing orthotics out
there.
You know the good feet and allthat kind of stuff.
They have no data to showanything, and so that's why I
brought that up.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, that's a very good point, arlen, because you
know there are a lot of peopleout there pushing orthotics and
what they're doing is they'remaking something where one size
fits all and it's off the shelfand, frankly, it doesn't do what
the orthotic needs to do.
It doesn't create the properproprioceptive response.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I've been.
You know I read theadvertisements and things that
come out in corporate economicsand so forth, but it looks like
you've got a whole new line.
We do Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Well, what happened is that we, you know, I think
there's a fitness craze going onin America right now.
Covid caused a lot of people tostart exercising at home, and
that Peloton and all thesedifferent things people did to
want to be more physically fitand, as a result, whether it's
as basic as walking, which is atremendous good form of exercise
(08:22):
, to all the sports that involvecleats and running and
side-to-side motion.
So now we have orthotics fortraining, we have them for
skiing, golf, the cleat sports,anything where you look at your
shoe and it's got the things onthe bottom.
And we even have a slideafterwards which a lot of the
(08:44):
people wear when they're doneexercising and they just want to
have more freedom in their footand kind of relax.
But, as you know, when thatsoft tissue is elongated, when
it stretches out with normalactivities of daily living use,
no matter what we do, we can getthings in proper alignment, but
(09:08):
the moment it's not supported,it goes back out of alignment
and that's why we developed allthese things to keep the patient
healthy.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You know we as activator practitioners.
It worked perfect with usbecause we're into the balance
of the body, exactly.
You know, making everythinglevel and then adjusting it and
making it whole.
But I looked at this and youhad them for pickleball.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We did the court sports Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That was pickleball and what else.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, pickleball and tennis, see, we have a court
orthotic, so that would beeverywhere, from basketball
court, you know, to pickleballcourt, to tennis court.
So all those sports thatrequire fast acceleration,
de-acceleration, left and rightmotion, is what this orthotic is
(09:55):
geared to to help with thatspecific activity.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Who helped develop the pickleball one.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Well, we have a director of education who is
actually an Olympic doctor ohokay, Her name is Dr Christine
Foss and through her contactsand through her patient base, et
cetera, she's an activepractice.
In addition to working with us,we developed these through the
input of many, many patients,trial and error and learning
(10:24):
what they really needed toperform best.
So it was a group effort.
No one can raise their hand andsay, well, I did that.
That's not true.
A lot of people had a lot ofideas to make it work.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, there's a word that chiropractors have no idea
what it means.
It's called collaboration.
I have been hot on collaborationhere for about 10 years and be
surprised how far you can get.
We'll be coming out with thissoon.
But we got a call the other dayfrom Ohio State University and
(10:55):
they wanted to know how to putforce into an animal because
they're doing a study.
And somebody referred them tous and here we are now with Ohio
State University Medical SchoolCongratulations, wonderful.
Isn't that great forchiropractic?
You bet that's beautiful.
What's the Journal ofCompensation Benefits?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, as you know, in today's world there's a journal
for about everything, and theJournal of Compensation Benefits
is a publication that is readby the top HR professionals in
our country.
So, for example, if you were anHR professional for one of the
Fortune 500 companies an HRprofessional for one of the
(11:40):
Fortune 500 companies you'dprobably get this publication to
read about trends in HR properhiring practices.
Maybe there's legal issues andnaturally, one of the things
that HR is purposed with isproviding the best benefit
coverage possible for the leastamount of cost.
The CFOs want to make surethey're spending the money
(12:00):
properly and the HR people wantto make sure they're getting the
right value.
So recently I submitted a paperto that journal and the
executive summary is basicallythis I stated all the facts
about the number one cause oflost time worldwide and injury
(12:21):
worldwide not USA worldwide and,as you know, it's back pain.
That's the number one thing.
And then I went through andaddressed the common methods of
treatment of this situation andall we did is cite reality.
We talked about the use ofpainkillers, the use of muscle
(12:41):
reluctance, the use of surgery,pt, all these things, and then
we did a comparison ofchiropractic.
You probably know this, arlan,but you know that there are over
197 million people, 197 millionopioid prescriptions written
(13:02):
annually, annually.
Do you know that of those, 20%are from back pain?
So 20% of the 197 million,let's round it up to 200 million
, just to make the math easy.
So two times two is four, soyou got 40 million people that
(13:28):
get an opioid prescription.
20% of those get addicted.
So two times four is eight, sonow you got 8 million people
that are addicted to opioids forback pain.
So the crux of my article isbasic.
And then I cited how every yearin Yankee Stadium, if you
filled it up, that's how manypeople die from opioids.
(13:48):
And it wasn't war against that,it was the suggestion to the HR
department to say why not avoida potentially deadly solution
to a relatively simple problemand why don't we do chiropractic
first at a very low cost with ahighly proven, research-backed
(14:12):
outcome, and if that doesn'twork, make a referral and see if
they might need something moreinvasive?
But for heaven's sakes, let'sstop hurting people, literally
killing them, and let's dosomething that's less expensive
than hundreds of thousands ofdollars spinal surgery, which a
lot of times half of them don'twork Exactly.
So that was the.
(14:33):
I'm very proud of that article.
That's a very prestigiousjournal and we were very clear
what the right answer is, andthat is go to a chiropractor.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Now, you have always been a giver and I remember
Monty was too back to theprofession.
I think I modeled myself afteryou guys because you have given
a lot back.
And I remember at the FCA whenyou did the million-dollar match
yes, and how much money did youend up raising for the
(15:05):
foundation?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Well, we did the following we got a million
dollars for the foundation thatnight with what I gave them, and
then there was anothermillion-dollar match I said I'd
do.
Of that we raised $600,000.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's what I was asking.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
There's still $400,000 left to do, which, as
you know, we're at the ParkerSeminar, and we hope to get that
whittled down even more.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
We turned 70 years old a year ago and Don Peterson
with Dynamic Chiropractic wasinterviewing us and he wanted to
know what our annual or whatour yearly lifetime lifetime
rather contributions were.
And we really didn't know, sowe put somebody in all the file
room for a couple weeks.
Arlen we were shocked 34million that's what I was.
(15:58):
We gave 3434 million and weknew it was a lot.
I thought it was more around 20.
It was 34.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
That's fantastic.
I mean, you know, so many timeseven the academics take the
business world for granted, andso I have tried to educate the
academics that say you know, yes, if you don't have any money
you're not going to be doinganything, and you know an R01,
it takes a lot of time, energyand so forth to submit to the
(16:25):
government and there's a lot of.
I mean.
I remember getting the firstNIH grant in chiropractic.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I do too, and it was 1986.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It was for $50,000.
I thought I'd died and gone toheaven, and what I didn't know
about research has cost meanother $50,000 out of my own
pocket to finish the project.
However, chiropractic now wason NIH's list.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
That's right.
And suddenly we had a new start.
You were the pioneer and brokethat ground.
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What's the future for chiropractic?
What do you see?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I think the future is really quite bright.
The thing that's so nice isthat we're starting to come into
the limelight.
You just gave an example.
You just said how we're now onthe NIH grant list.
We were on the NASDAQ.
You know, in New York you go tothe NASDAQ and you see that big
(17:17):
sign they have in Times Square,new York Stock Exchange.
Well, sherry McAllister, ourpresident, was on there because
they had dedicated that day tochiropractic.
Now think of this.
Arlen, I grew up.
The reason I even started thefoundation is I was in a
swimming class when I wasprobably seven or eight years
old and they do a roll call andI raised my hand.
(17:40):
They said Greenewald.
I raised my hand.
He says oh, yeah, your dad'sthe quack.
And we've gone from quack.
And I says oh, by the way, no,I says no, no, my dad's a
chiropractor.
He says no, yeah, yeah, quack.
And I said that is bright.
(18:02):
We're going to be doing a lot ofthings.
You know we have 37 000 membersof the foundation for
chiropractic progress.
So in my knowledge, I don'tthink there's any other
chiropractic organization thathas that many members.
I agree, and they're in andwe're getting.
We're to.
We just have a program withForbes magazine now where
they've kind of adopted us andwe're going to be going on book
(18:25):
tours with them.
We have a PR agency in New Yorkcalled FINN F-I-N-N, which is a
very, very high level agencythat's going to help carry the
torch farther.
What do we have to do?
Not be so much a secret, butthe one way I think we even get
(18:46):
better.
Arlen and this is in your heartand soul, I know by golly
respect each other If we'relicensed and we have the right
to practice chiropractic.
Love your brother or sister.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
You're 100% right.
Remember when I saidcollaboration is a word that
chiropractors don't know Exactly.
Exactly when you collaborate,you learn a lot from the other
side and the other side learns alot from you, and pretty soon
your friends and you're makingthe whole profession better.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Exactly so.
The best of us is ahead of us.
It's one of my favorite sayings, and the way we do that is we
continue to work together andcontinue to get the positive
results, whether it's using awonderful technique that's
research-proven, like Activator,whether it's using wonderful
spinal pelvic stabilizerorthotics that are
(19:41):
research-driven and proven,whether it's nutrition, whatever
it is that's going to get abetter patient outcome here at
Parker and you and I both knewJim Parker very well, and one of
his underlying themes issomething we must never forget
love and service.
Love your patient, don't worryabout the money.
(20:04):
Love your patient, everythingelse takes care of itself.
Get the best outcome.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
We're going to stop right there.
Okay, that was perfect, okay.
Hi, I'm Dr Arlan Ford , the chairman and founder of
Activator Methods International.
Welcome to our Activate yourPractice podcast.
Today we have a special guest,dr Kent Greenewald, who is the
CEO of Foot Levelers.
Now our history goes back andwe were just talking about it
and I said I've known you, kent,now for about 60 years goes
(00:24):
back, and we were just talkingabout it.
I said I've known you, kent, nowfor about 60 years and yes,
it's uh, it's been like, uh,we've been cousins.
You know almost 100, becausehis dad practiced in iowa and I
practiced in southern minnesota.
So I first knew monty.
And I'm just gonna ask you afoot levelers is 71 years old.
What's the story?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
story.
Well, thanks for asking, arlen,and really great to be here
because you know you're a legendand it's just such a pleasure
to spend time with you.
You're such a great guy andyou've done so much for the
profession.
But to answer your question,you know you may or may not know
this, but Foot Levelers wasborn out of tragedy.
It wasn't born out of successor anything like that.
(01:05):
It was born out of strategy.
And here's why when my fatherMonty they had World War II
going on and he went into themilitary, well, they went
through the standard militaryinduction process and he got all
the typical shots and physicalexamination stuff.
But there was some bad vaccineshots and physical examination
(01:29):
stuff, but there was some badvaccine and 150 people died.
Over 150 people died from thisbad vaccine.
It put my father Monty in aniron lung and for those of you
you know, we know what they are.
But for the younger group, youknow it's kind of like a tanning
bed that you lay in, that helpsyou breathe and he couldn't
survive without that.
So he tells the story how he'dlay in this iron lung for about
(01:54):
six months and he tried to breaka sweat, moving his little
finger.
He really couldn't hardly doanything.
So he said he laid there andprayed to die.
Well, that didn't work.
Thank God I wouldn't be hereand prayed to die.
Well, that didn't work, thankGod I wouldn't be here.
But he said, you know, whateverdid work, I dedicate my life to
(02:15):
the rest of it.
So one day my grandmother wholived to be 103, takes him into
a local chiropractor.
They carry him in.
He has the adjustment and wehad a miracle of chiropractic
event happen.
He walks out with help.
Now remember, he's been in thislot of atrophy going on here,
but he had a miracle adjustmentthat changed.
He wanted to be a neurosurgeon.
He changed from neurosurgery tochiropractic.
(02:38):
Enrolled in Lincoln College ofChiropractic, got out in 1948.
Had a practice in the basementof a bank no store window, no,
anything.
Yet it was buried.
You could hardly even find theguy and that's where he had his
practice.
Next door was a youngpodiatrist and they became
friends.
They were buddies.
(02:59):
When my father noticed that theyhad bad feet, badly pronated,
he'd refer them to thepodiatrist.
Noticed that they had bad feet,badly pronated, he'd refer them
to the podiatrist.
The podiatrist would make anappliance for them.
But unfortunately it made thepatient worse, it aggravated
their back pain.
So my father went to his friend.
He says listen, I love you, butyou're wrecking my practice and
(03:20):
I don't have much to wreck here.
I've got to stop this and Idon't have much to wreck here,
I've got to stop.
So he quit, referring to thepodiatrist, and he said you know
, if something can maybe hurtyou, maybe we could do something
differently and help you.
So now you had a period of timewith what I'll call the Thomas
Edison experimentation Try itfail, try it fail, try it fail.
(03:44):
Finally he discovered what I'llcall the magic sauce and how to
do this Kind of like.
When they make Coca-Cola, theyfigure out how to do it special.
And he did that.
And the miracle of what he didis he found out that when you
put this under a patient's footit helped their adjustments hold
better.
He gave a good adjustment.
(04:05):
He really thought he dideverything proper, but when they
got up, walked out, went to paytheir bill, it wasn't holding.
How did he know that?
He had a plumb bob in hisclinic?
He had a mirror and, dr Fore, Iknow you know what they are At
a plumb bob with a mirror.
You could look at the mirror ata 45-degree angle and look
(04:26):
behind and see your spine, andthe patient would be lined up
perfectly with the plumb bob.
He'd have him walk around thetable a couple times, have him
stand in the mirror, look, thepatient could see where their
spine wasn't to where it used tobe.
And so that's how this startedone patient at a time.
(04:47):
And, by the way, arlen, backthen they didn't call it an
orthotic.
A foot leveler's orthoticoticwas called a spinal pelvic
stabilizer, which actually in myopinion is a far better name
than an orthotic.
But in today's world, with theinternet and that sort of thing,
we do that.
But that's how it was kind of amishap of tragic situation that
(05:09):
got the whole thing startedwell, but also I remember he
invented the phone that youstepped in.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
No, that's 100% right .
In the beginning he hadsomething called the metascope
and the doctor had to take a lotof measurements of the foot and
, as Monty used to say, they hadto think and by doing that it
was not easy, it wasn't fun,whatever.
He invented the foam castingkit.
As you said.
Yes and bang.
Now it was easy and we couldget a person in beverly hills,
(05:40):
california, have their feetarrive in dubuque, iowa and make
the custom-made spinal pelvicstabilizer I just happen to
remember that, because he wasfamous for developing that foam
thing that you stepped into, Iguess you, what did you call it?
well, we follow it.
It's a phenolic foam, was thename of it.
It's like floral foam, whatthey use at the florist.
(06:01):
Okay, but uh, uh, we could onlyget it made at that point in
time in Canada.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And, uh, that was very hard to get and he did get
a patent on it also and sopatented, revolutionizing that
thing and and actually I don'tknow if you know this, arlen,
but he really created theorthotic industry.
There really wasn't anythingreally going on until Monty got
going.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I did not know that.
Yes, well, you did some seriesof research on having an
adjustment hole too.
Yes, we did, I remember.
Can you tell about that?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, sure, we've had 37 different studies published,
and you, among all thechiropractors in the world,
probably have one of the bestunderstandings of research that
I know, and you know howimportant it is to have the peer
reviewed, refereed, going overof the research.
And we've done that.
We have 37 studies now that arepublished that show, in a
variety of ways, how theadjustment holds better, how you
can have better athleticperformance, how you can create
(07:06):
stronger muscles, all thesetypes of things.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, those are called clinical trials, yes, and
they're not easy and they'renot inexpensive.
Yeah, you're right about that.
So yeah, I do know, but Iwanted to bring that out because
you know there's a lot ofpeople pushing orthotics out
there.
You know the good feet and allthat kind of stuff.
They have no data to showanything, and so that's why I
brought that up.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, that's a very good point, arlen, because you
know there are a lot of peopleout there pushing orthotics and
what they're doing is they'remaking something where one size
fits all and it's off the shelfand, frankly, it doesn't do what
the orthotic needs to do.
It doesn't create the properproprioceptive response.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I've been.
You know I read theadvertisements and things that
come out in corporate economicsand so forth, but it looks like
you've got a whole new line.
We do Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Well, what happened is that we, you know, I think
there's a fitness craze going onin America right now.
Covid caused a lot of people tostart exercising at home, and
that Peloton and all thesedifferent things people did to
want to be more physically fitand, as a result, whether it's
as basic as walking, which is atremendous good form of exercise
(08:22):
, to all the sports that involvecleats and running and
side-to-side motion.
So now we have orthotics fortraining, we have them for
skiing, golf, the cleat sports,anything where you look at your
shoe and it's got the things onthe bottom.
And we even have a slideafterwards which a lot of the
(08:44):
people wear when they're doneexercising and they just want to
have more freedom in their footand kind of relax.
But, as you know, when thatsoft tissue is elongated, when
it stretches out with normalactivities of daily living use,
no matter what we do, we can getthings in proper alignment, but
(09:08):
the moment it's not supported,it goes back out of alignment
and that's why we developed allthese things to keep the patient
healthy.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You know we as activator practitioners.
It worked perfect with usbecause we're into the balance
of the body, exactly.
You know, making everythinglevel and then adjusting it and
making it whole.
But I looked at this and youhad them for pickleball.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We did the court sports Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That was pickleball and what else.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, pickleball and tennis, see, we have a court
orthotic, so that would beeverywhere, from basketball
court, you know, to pickleballcourt, to tennis court.
So all those sports thatrequire fast acceleration,
de-acceleration, left and rightmotion, is what this orthotic is
(09:55):
geared to to help with thatspecific activity.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Who helped develop the pickleball one.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Well, we have a director of education who is
actually an Olympic doctor ohokay, Her name is Dr Christine
Foss and through her contactsand through her patient base, et
cetera, she's an activepractice.
In addition to working with us,we developed these through the
input of many, many patients,trial and error and learning
(10:24):
what they really needed toperform best.
So it was a group effort.
No one can raise their hand andsay, well, I did that.
That's not true.
A lot of people had a lot ofideas to make it work.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, there's a word that chiropractors have no idea
what it means.
It's called collaboration.
I have been hot on collaborationhere for about 10 years and be
surprised how far you can get.
We'll be coming out with thissoon.
But we got a call the other dayfrom Ohio State University and
(10:55):
they wanted to know how to putforce into an animal because
they're doing a study.
And somebody referred them tous and here we are now with Ohio
State University Medical SchoolCongratulations, wonderful.
Isn't that great forchiropractic?
You bet that's beautiful.
What's the Journal ofCompensation Benefits?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, as you know, in today's world there's a journal
for about everything, and theJournal of Compensation Benefits
is a publication that is readby the top HR professionals in
our country.
So, for example, if you were anHR professional for one of the
Fortune 500 companies an HRprofessional for one of the
(11:40):
Fortune 500 companies you'dprobably get this publication to
read about trends in HR properhiring practices.
Maybe there's legal issues andnaturally, one of the things
that HR is purposed with isproviding the best benefit
coverage possible for the leastamount of cost.
The CFOs want to make surethey're spending the money
(12:00):
properly and the HR people wantto make sure they're getting the
right value.
So recently I submitted a paperto that journal and the
executive summary is basicallythis I stated all the facts
about the number one cause oflost time worldwide and injury
(12:21):
worldwide not USA worldwide and,as you know, it's back pain.
That's the number one thing.
And then I went through andaddressed the common methods of
treatment of this situation andall we did is cite reality.
We talked about the use ofpainkillers, the use of muscle
(12:41):
reluctance, the use of surgery,pt, all these things, and then
we did a comparison ofchiropractic.
You probably know this, arlan,but you know that there are over
197 million people, 197 millionopioid prescriptions written
(13:02):
annually, annually.
Do you know that of those, 20%are from back pain?
So 20% of the 197 million,let's round it up to 200 million
, just to make the math easy.
So two times two is four, soyou got 40 million people that
(13:28):
get an opioid prescription.
20% of those get addicted.
So two times four is eight, sonow you got 8 million people
that are addicted to opioids forback pain.
So the crux of my article isbasic.
And then I cited how every yearin Yankee Stadium, if you
filled it up, that's how manypeople die from opioids.
(13:48):
And it wasn't war against that,it was the suggestion to the HR
department to say why not avoida potentially deadly solution
to a relatively simple problemand why don't we do chiropractic
first at a very low cost with ahighly proven, research-backed
(14:12):
outcome, and if that doesn'twork, make a referral and see if
they might need something moreinvasive?
But for heaven's sakes, let'sstop hurting people, literally
killing them, and let's dosomething that's less expensive
than hundreds of thousands ofdollars spinal surgery, which a
lot of times half of them don'twork Exactly.
So that was the.
(14:33):
I'm very proud of that article.
That's a very prestigiousjournal and we were very clear
what the right answer is, andthat is go to a chiropractor.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Now, you have always been a giver and I remember
Monty was too back to theprofession.
I think I modeled myself afteryou guys because you have given
a lot back.
And I remember at the FCA whenyou did the million-dollar match
yes, and how much money did youend up raising for the
(15:05):
foundation?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Well, we did the following we got a million
dollars for the foundation thatnight with what I gave them, and
then there was anothermillion-dollar match I said I'd
do.
Of that we raised $600,000.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's what I was asking.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
There's still $400,000 left to do, which, as
you know, we're at the ParkerSeminar, and we hope to get that
whittled down even more.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
We turned 70 years old a year ago and Don Peterson
with Dynamic Chiropractic wasinterviewing us and he wanted to
know what our annual or whatour yearly lifetime lifetime
rather contributions were.
And we really didn't know, sowe put somebody in all the file
room for a couple weeks.
Arlen we were shocked 34million that's what I was.
(15:58):
We gave 3434 million and weknew it was a lot.
I thought it was more around 20.
It was 34.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
That's fantastic.
I mean, you know, so many timeseven the academics take the
business world for granted, andso I have tried to educate the
academics that say you know, yes, if you don't have any money
you're not going to be doinganything, and you know an R01,
it takes a lot of time, energyand so forth to submit to the
(16:25):
government and there's a lot of.
I mean.
I remember getting the firstNIH grant in chiropractic.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I do too, and it was 1986.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It was for $50,000.
I thought I'd died and gone toheaven, and what I didn't know
about research has cost meanother $50,000 out of my own
pocket to finish the project.
However, chiropractic now wason NIH's list.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
That's right.
And suddenly we had a new start.
You were the pioneer and brokethat ground.
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What's the future for chiropractic?
What do you see?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I think the future is really quite bright.
The thing that's so nice isthat we're starting to come into
the limelight.
You just gave an example.
You just said how we're now onthe NIH grant list.
We were on the NASDAQ.
You know, in New York you go tothe NASDAQ and you see that big
(17:17):
sign they have in Times Square,new York Stock Exchange.
Well, sherry McAllister, ourpresident, was on there because
they had dedicated that day tochiropractic.
Now think of this.
Arlen, I grew up.
The reason I even started thefoundation is I was in a
swimming class when I wasprobably seven or eight years
old and they do a roll call andI raised my hand.
(17:40):
They said Greenewald.
I raised my hand.
He says oh, yeah, your dad'sthe quack.
And we've gone from quack.
And I says oh, by the way, no,I says no, no, my dad's a
chiropractor.
He says no, yeah, yeah, quack.
And I said that is bright.
(18:02):
We're going to be doing a lot ofthings.
You know we have 37 000 membersof the foundation for
chiropractic progress.
So in my knowledge, I don'tthink there's any other
chiropractic organization thathas that many members.
I agree, and they're in andwe're getting.
We're to.
We just have a program withForbes magazine now where
they've kind of adopted us andwe're going to be going on book
(18:25):
tours with them.
We have a PR agency in New Yorkcalled FINN F-I-N-N, which is a
very, very high level agencythat's going to help carry the
torch farther.
What do we have to do?
Not be so much a secret, butthe one way I think we even get
(18:46):
better.
Arlen and this is in your heartand soul, I know by golly
respect each other If we'relicensed and we have the right
to practice chiropractic.
Love your brother or sister.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
You're 100% right.
Remember when I saidcollaboration is a word that
chiropractors don't know Exactly.
Exactly when you collaborate,you learn a lot from the other
side and the other side learns alot from you, and pretty soon
your friends and you're makingthe whole profession better.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Exactly so.
The best of us is ahead of us.
It's one of my favorite sayings, and the way we do that is we
continue to work together andcontinue to get the positive
results, whether it's using awonderful technique that's
research-proven, like Activator,whether it's using wonderful
spinal pelvic stabilizerorthotics that are
(19:41):
research-driven and proven,whether it's nutrition, whatever
it is that's going to get abetter patient outcome here at
Parker and you and I both knewJim Parker very well, and one of
his underlying themes issomething we must never forget
love and service.
Love your patient, don't worryabout the money.
(20:04):
Love your patient, everythingelse takes care of itself.
Get the best outcome.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
We're going to stop right there.
Okay, that was perfect, okay.
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