Documentation of my own Improvements with NCR

The scientist at heart that I am, I wanted to document very carefully my patient experience with NCR.  Not only so that I could monitor my own progress and determine if it was an effective therapy for me, but also to prove to others that it worked.  I knew that if I got improvement from the first series, then I was going to go all the way with it, and eventually become an NCR doctor (since I was already in medical school by this point).  I knew that after NCR I would never be the same again, so I wanted permanent documentation of how I used to function in the world.  To do this, I not only used before and after photos, but I also used videos.  I wanted to monitor changes in my speech, my singing, and my posture.  I just knew I would be putting them on my website someday!  NCR really works, and I am living proof of it.  I would not practice a form of medicine unless I believed in it very strongly.  I am my own best case study, and I believe in sharing my case with others, knowing that my experience could provide useful information that just may be the key to helping another person reach their full potential also.

Only NCR could bring about the dramatic changes in my physical structure you see in the pictures below.  The picture on the left was taken in Apr-May of 2003 when I graduated from college, just a little over a month before I began my first series of NCR treatments, and after an 18 month course of orthodontia.  The picture on the right was taken in April of 2009, just a couple months before I graduated from naturopathic medical school.  The pictures are a good comparison because they are taken at similar angles.  Even through some of the most stressful years in my adult life, not only did I survive, but I came out of it in better shape than I went into it.  If it were not for the NCR, my structure would have continued on its downward spiral of instability and mis-alignment from all the stress of medical school, and especially from all the guinea-pigging of being manipulated, cracked, poked and prodded from my fellow classmates in medical school as we were all learning competency in the various modalities, bony manipulation being one of them (they don't tell you that is part of the deal when you sign on as a naturopathic medical student!).

Below, compare the "Before NCR" videos with the "After 4 series" videos.  At the very bottom, watch the videos of me today, 6 years later (12+ series...I lost count!).  Things to compare:  overall stability, grounded appearance, facial and upper body symmetry, tone of voice and general ease of speech and singing, and general appearance of strength, health, and vitality/beauty.

BEFORE NCR:  Speech (Intro to "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration"), June 2003

You can see what an effort it used to be for me to speak, and even to swallow, and how much tension there was in my jaw.  My voice, since childhood, often had a slight hoarseness to it, and a nasal tone to it.  This video was taken after I had already been through 6 months of speech therapy and got re-trained in how to swallow and use my tongue correctly.  The problem was that my nasal passages were too narrow, and my sinuses didn't drain correctly (a structural cause, because my sinuses were not positioned/angled properly due to the cranial imbalance), and my palate and face in general were too narrow.  Therefore, speech therapy could not fully correct the problem.  I was undergoing full orthodontia during this time to improve my bite so that I could speak more comfortably and not bite my lip when I would eat.  You can see that it looked like my face was "all teeth"....a comment I had heard since my permanent teeth came in as an adolescent.  In general, my face looked sqrawny, thin, and famished....regardless of how much or how properly I ate.  Structural integrity goes hand in hand with digestive function.  Even the best, most well-suited diet will not completely nourish a person who has such gross structural imbalances.

BEFORE NCR:  Singing ("Solveig's Song" by Edvard Grieg); June 2003

The most interesting thing to note is how unstable I was!  Just to use my diaphragm properly for singing, I had to move my body in various ways to get the power and tone I needed.  My choir teacher in High School once thought I was going to "float on up to the ceiling" during a state solo and ensemble contest!  You can also see a fair degree of straining in the muscles of the neck and shoulders, esp. when singing higher notes.  I had to angle my head downward significantly (and imagine pulling the sound up through my palate toward my forehead) in order for my voice to resonate properly in the head to get the pure sound I was wanting to create.  Overall, it took quite a lot of effort (I can remember!) to get a decent sound.  Also, since I am facing more directly forward in this video, notice how off my temporal bones used to be--you can tell by the different angles of my ears (my left ear is angled back, my right ear is angled forward) and the compression on the right side of my skull.  This resulted in a lower jaw that didn't fit properly, and therefore did not move with ease and had a lot of annoying clicking in the TMJ.

AFTER 4 SERIES of NCR: Speech (same passage); October 2003

You can see here that my voice sounds more clear, not as high-pitched, and general ease of speech is improved.  My skull also looks less angular, more rounded, fuller, and more balanced.

AFTER 4 SERIES of NCR:  Singing (same song); October 2003

You can see quite a lot of improvement in overall ease of singing!  I appear more balanced, more grounded, I am not moving around as much just to breathe properly, and am able to get even purer, richer sounding, more beautiful and fuller tones.  Even the best vocal training can go to waste without a properly tuned instrument.....in this case, the skull!  (As a cellist, I am quite familiar with the frustration of being held back by an inadequate cello at times in my life.  In the case of a singer, you carry your instrument with you, so anything that affects the health and stability of your body affects the quality of your voice.)  My head is fuller, rounder, and features are more balanced.

Side by Side Comparison

                             BEFORE NCR

                    Me today, after 12+ series