Stand And Fight!

 

In this episode, Liz Hoefer is joined by a patient of hers named Ali, who shares how he pushed himself to stand and fight and recovered from his injuries with the help of chiropractic care. Being one of Liz’s patients throughout the years, Ali shares his remarkable healing process from almost dying from a herniated disc to getting back to fighting. Ali was training as a professional mixed martial arts fighter before he hurt his back. Get to know how Ali became pain-free in just two weeks with Liz’s help and what has transformed in his life since then.

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Stand And Fight!

MMA Fighter Ali Walks Again After Blair Correction

I am so excited about my guest. He’s been somebody that I’ve wanted to interview on my show for several years. His story of healing is dramatic and very encouraging. I want everybody to be excited to hear from Ali now. How are you?

I’m doing fantastic. How are you?

I’m good. It’s been a little bit since I’ve had the pleasure of taking care of you because you went and moved away. I wanted everybody to hear your story because how we met, what happened and how much has changed for you in the last several years has been truly remarkable. I always ask this to my guests when I ask them about their healing process with Blair Chiropractic. How did we get well connected?

I was dying of herniated disc. I was in tears. That’s how we got connected originally. I was training mixed martial arts. I was fighting professionally. Unfortunately, that career didn’t go very far. Regardless, I was training and I had hurt my back badly for almost 3 or 4 days. I can’t recall exactly the amount of days because I wasn’t sleeping because I was in so much pain. I could not sleep on my back and my side. I could not stand and sit. I could not do anything except put a pile of blankets and pillows in a cone shape on the floor and lie with my belly down on top of that. That was the only relief I got or if I was submerged in water.

Luckily, I had a friend who had a Jacuzzi at their apartment complex. I was using that a little too much. That was the only time I’d get any relief. Luckily, we found you and you were available that day to help me out. We tried to contact several other people and they couldn’t do it anyways. I remember you were trying to do the initial questionnaire exam that you did. I couldn’t answer the question because I was in so much pain and I was crying. I was trying to hold back to be the tough guy. You were like, “Screw this. Get on the table.”

Typically, the way that it works when people come in to see me, I do a thorough, in-depth health history and understand where you’ve been and what traumas you have had. It was obvious that you were in the midst of having an attack. You crawled into the office. You didn’t walk in. It was an emergency situation. You couldn’t even sit down to sit in the X-ray chair to get images. I had to lay you on your back and do this low back traction adjustment on you to even get you to the point where we could take X-rays of your neck.

I still don’t know what you did because it clicked. I felt like you held the top of my hip with your fingers. I remember a click like, “Did you feel that?” I was like, “Yes.” You were like, “You could stand now.” It was the first time I did it. It was like a Jesus moment and then I was like, “Whoa.” I stood up straight because I was a candy cane. People at home, if you’re reading, I was like that. I’m not even exaggerating it was like this. You did that and I could stand up straight without excruciating pain. It was still painful because my disc was still herniated. I went from freaking 0 to 100. I could not believe it.

It was miraculous. I was like, “You can stand.” You walked over and sat there. We did the Blair upper cervical correction. Within two weeks, you were completely pain-free.

I think that was last 2015. Five years later, I’m still okay.

Haven’t you had another Blair adjustment?

Never.

You continued to train. We got well connected because you came in in an emergency situation. You got your first Blair correction last 2015. What’s been different about your life since your Blair correction? What have you been able to do and experience that you hadn’t done before?

I think the biggest thing is I’m 35 years old and I can still compete with 20-year-olds on steroids. That’s the truth of the matter. I beat up 20-year-olds on steroids still and I’m 35. It’s supposed to be out of my prime. This sounds like I’m exaggerating but I wasn’t because of the level of pain and for three days straight I didn’t sleep. I thought that was like, “This is going to be my life. This is the end.” I destroyed my body enough to where it just gave up. It can’t go back anymore. What am I going to do with myself?

That moment was the one injury. I’ve torn everything from your shoulders to your knees. I’ve torn the cartilage in between my ribs. I’ve done everything under the sun. Anybody that could ever get an injury, I’ve probably got it. That was the one injury that put me in fear like, “This is the end of the road. What am I supposed to do?” I use my body for making money. Whether it was martial arts training or personal training, that was how I made my living and that’s how I ate. That was a huge fear factor moment. I was like hitting a fork in the road. I have no idea where I’m going to go next. Luckily, you were there to get me out of it. You made it seem so effortless.

It was a divine appointment for sure. It was neat to see how everything came to pass and then to know several years later all of the amazing things that you’ve done. At one point, you even had this amazing gym where you were training mixed martial arts and teaching kids how to do it properly. You were working with Parkinson’s patients. You would invite me to come over, talk to them and help them understand, “You can have a different story. You don’t have to continue to degenerate.” It was so awesome to be able to come in, do those little talks, educate people on their health and let them know that just because they are this way now doesn’t mean they have to stay that way.

Most importantly, how important the spinal cord is. The body heals itself when it’s aligned. With Parkinson’s people, I try to tell them that but I couldn’t tell it as well as you said it. I was like, “If your spine is aligned, there’s going to be a lot. I’m not saying it’s going to cure Parkinson’s. There’s going to be some issues that you have now that will lessen, if not go away with making sure at least we have your spine corrected, it’s straight and all your knick-knacks are zapping the right way.”

Even in the last couple of years, I’ve taken on another educational platform. I’m getting my diploma in Craniocervical Junction Procedures.

 

It’s super complicated.

It’s so rewarding because it helps me be able to even deeper educate and understand the neurology in how the brain and spinal cord work. How the traumas affect it, what happens in your brain where cerebrospinal fluid and all of the things and implications like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS and all that stuff. I feel more confident now more than ever being able to tie the neurology to your atlas and confidently give a correction that I know will make a massive difference in physiology and function. It’s been fun to be able to do that, learn that and continue to talk with people like you who are like the oldies but goodies.

We were the originals.

You’re the OG.

You’re saving people. I can only imagine with all the newfound education and what you’re doing now is probably remarkable.

What would you tell a skeptic? I know that you talk to people with Parkinson’s. They have these issues. They’re already seeking care with like what you were doing. There are a lot of people who are like, “I’m not sure.”

They’re silly. I have another good friend of mine who’s a very good chiropractor in San Francisco as well. Like you, he has saved tons of people. Some people think it’s just about fixing a skeletal issue. Correct me if I’m wrong. Chiropractic, especially Blair Chiropractic, defines a lot of it. It could cure a lot of different things. If you got a cold, get adjusted. I’m serious. If you got depression, try getting adjusted because it can help. A lot of issues that human beings have to go is start from the fact that their spinal cord is not intact. It’s off. Your central nervous system is not firing the way it’s supposed to. Things are clogged and are not sparking the way they’re supposed to. You need to get that lined up so that those things can start telling each other what to do correctly. I’m sure that was it.

Let me tell you something. You gave the best layman’s definition of chiropractic. It’s true. All those lines have to line up. I am a Blair Chiropractor not because I ever had neck pain, backache or headache. It was because I had depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. I was healed because of a Blair correction. I knew that I had to spend the rest of my life doing it, teaching it and giving hope back to people who didn’t have hope because that was my story. I couldn’t agree more. Every bit of your life and the way that you filter your life is through your nervous system. If it’s not intact, you’re not going to have a good time.

That’s the first thing that’s produced in a womb when a baby is created. The central nervous system is the first thing that develops, if I’m not mistaken.

How do you know these things? Did I educate you that well?

You did, too. It’s true. My friend, who’s up in San Francisco, he’s amazing. He reminds me a lot of you because he helps tons of people. He always used to tell me, like, “You got the flu? Come in. I’ll cure it.” I’m telling you, there were a lot of people that because of this dude and because of YouTube, if they have the common flu, they would go to him and get adjusted. In two days, they’d be like, “I’m feeling better.” He said, “If you call it a coincidence.”

It’s not a coincidence. Chiropractors can’t truly say, “We cure anything.” I tell people, “I move the bone and God does the healing.” He gave us this ability. He gave us this innate intelligence to have our bodies be able to heal when they’re properly aligned. I always say this, “Structure dictates function.” If you’re structurally intact, your bones line up and protect this thing called the nervous system, that’s what drives your immune system, cardiovascular system and digestive system. All of it is connected to your brain, spinal cord and nerves. It goes hand in hand. The fact that you truly get that is wonderful. There needs to be eight billion people who think like you.

I hope I’ve spoken enough. If a caveman taught it, we would understand it. It’s common sense if we think about it since it’s called the central nervous system. It’s the center of everything. It makes everything run.

Common sense, that’s something that escapes.

Thomas Paine wrote about it a long time ago. You should read that book again.

I have one more question for you. It’s something that I like to ask to end this official interview. I think that you’ll be able to speak to it well. What does it look like for you to live your life in alignment?

Real bright. There are certain people who have added that to my entry that understand what I’m talking about. It’s a very scary ordeal. It’s like when your back goes out, it’s a very frightening situation. There are a lot of people I know who have serious back injuries and they’ve never even thought about going to a chiropractor. If there are any doctors out there, I’m sorry but it’s the truth because doctors mislead people a lot. They go, “No, that’s not real medicine.” First off, you’re not anybody to say if something is real medicine or not. Stop talking. It’s a matter of if the person gets healed or gets better in that. That’s it.

The body heals itself when it's aligned. Click To Tweet

That’s for the patient.

If it’s an old, lunatic lady in Miami, Florida but she’s making people better, I’m going to call that medicine because you’re making people better. That’s what it’s about, making people healthy. If people went through with what I experienced, met somebody like you and got better as quick as I did, you go from a dark tunnel when you’re on a train and it does that. It’s like, “There’s the end of the tunnel. I can go out of it now.” That’s probably the way I would put it.

That’s powerful.

Thanks. That’s honestly how I envision that.

Nobody has ever explained it like that before. I like that. Now that you’re out of that dark tunnel and you’re in the light, in the brightness, what are you able to do?

Everything. I’m 35 years old. I’d still continue to practice a sport and an art form that is so hard on your body that puts you in so many different awkward positions. My size, I’m 6’1″ and 240 pounds. I could stick my knees behind my head and touch the floor. My spine is working in ways that a man my size probably shouldn’t. I’m doing it with steroids of twenty-year-olds there. They’re trying to throw me around. I’m not just keeping up with them. I’m beating them up. My body is stronger than most of them. That’s what it is. I’m all-natural. I eat my veggies and I got Blair Chiropractic to work on that. That did it for me.

That’s it. That’s all you need.

I can do things what most 35-year-olds probably couldn’t do with their bodies or are too afraid to do. Maybe also I have confidence and I know an avenue of where I can always feel too.

Knowing where you can go to get help is so key. I have people who moved all over the world. They come back when they need help because they know where they can come to get help. That’s so rewarding to know. The story that I went through to get to where I am to be able to provide this care was worth it. I wouldn’t have appreciated the healing that I got if I hadn’t suffered as much as I suffered. I’m passionate about being available and providing this care that people six years later can call me up and say, “Do you still have the same number? I need to come to get checked.” I’m like, “Let’s get you checked. Let’s see what’s going on.”

It’s the best. It’s great to have somebody like you around. You got our backs.

Literally.

You can always give me a call and get fixed up.

This has been a fun conversation. It’s been good to catch up with you and to remember that powerful moment in time. I can’t believe it’s already been five years. That’s wild.

Yes, 2015.

It was one upper cervical adjustment. That was it and you’re healed.

I came back to you several times so people don’t think I just ran off. I went back several times after to make sure that I was well-adjusted.

The only reason I haven’t seen you is because you moved away but it’s not because you weren’t consistent with your care up until you moved. The truth is, when you need it, you’ll come back to Orange County and we’ll get you fixed up.

 

Absolutely. No matter where I am in the world.

Amen. COVID be damned. You will get on a plane and fly here.

I sure will.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I know that somebody reading is going to be inspired by the fact that they found hope through your testimony with healing your disc herniation, low back pain and debilitating suffering that you were going through back then. I’m thankful that we crossed paths and got to be a part of that incredible story for you.

Me, too. Thank you for having me.

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Thanks for tuning in to Get Your Head On Straight with Dr. Elizabeth Hoefer. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at WellConnectedChiro.com. If you want to know more about the Blair Technique, please look me up. Until next time. Take care.

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