Theresa Warner
Thank you. I'd like to start out by apologizing to the commission that you do not have our statements for myself or my husband, who will be speaking immediately following me. We had a death in the family this week and were out of the office most of the week and are actually on our way returning from the funeral right now, but felt it important enough to come directly here. That been said, I would like to thank you for allowing me to take the time to address this commission on this important topic. 

I'm here as cofounder of the World Children's Wellness Foundation, a nonprofit children's foundation to help educate parents on how to raise healthy children. I'm also in private chiropractic practice specializing in the care of children and infants, and a post-graduate faculty member of several chiropractic colleges in which I teach pediatric chiropractic care to chiropractors around the world. 

My purpose for attending today is to discuss the importance of chiropractic care for infants and children. Specifically the right for children to receive chiropractic care, regardless of symptoms, for optimization of health, growth, and development. It is vital to recognize that chiropractic care for children in a wellness-based vitalistic health care model, not as a treatment for symptoms or disease. Most importantly, that all children will have the opportunity to be checked by a chiropractor as a natural and regular part of childhood. 

Public education is imperative. Today parents understand and find it natural to take their children for an eye exam, dental, hearing, and other exams prior to their child's first day of kindergarten. But many parents remain unaware of the importance of a chiropractic exam for their children. During a chiropractic exam of an infant or child, the chiropractor is able to utilize high-tech objective diagnostic testing, such as that mentioned earlier by Dr. Gentempo, to help identify if there is any interference in nerve function. As chiropractors, we recognize that this phenomenon, which we refer to as a vertebral subluxation, if left uncorrected will equate to a disturbance in that child's body to heal, regulate and adapt. The correction of this disturbance through the adjustment will allow that child to better adapt to his or her world and result in a fuller expression of life.

What I am requesting of the commission is that we expand current research to include to include a pediatric chiropractic study in a vitalistic health care model. Additionally, I would like to expand the information provided to parents upon or prior to the birth of their child to include the importance of a chiropractic exam for their child. Research and public awareness campaigns are the two principal concerns of the World Children's Wellness Foundation, and these are the two primary areas I would respectfully request that the commission review. Specifically, how can we increase funding of pediatric chiropractic research studies by federal grants or other means to nonprofit foundations such as the World Children's Wellness Foundation, and further bringing the results of such studies to the public. Thank you for your attention today and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. 

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Stuart Warner
My name is Stuart Warner. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this distinguished commission. I'm in private practice in Point Pleasant, New Jersey with a focus on children under the age of seven. I'm also part of the post-graduate faculty of several chiropractic colleges and instruct chiropractors around the world in the care of children. And I'm also a cofounder of Kids Day America International as well as the World Children's Wellness Foundation.

Today's a day when childhood illness is considered normal. Rates of asthma, autism, otitis media, ADHD, and other diseases are increasing at all-time highs in our society. This is resulting in lost educational opportunities, lost work days, for parents increased costs, lost of frustration. Medical intervention starts after the symptoms appear, which may not be the best approach. And children are being targeted with drugs by doctors that lack training in how to prescribe many of those drugs, and there have not been safety studies to determine the safety of the drugs given to children. Chiropractic care offers children a very safe and effective approach to obtain extraordinary health and wellness that's a pro-active approach.

Our emphasis is to correct vertebral subluxation in children that interferes with proper nerve function. That essential nerve function directly controls that child's immune system, biochemistry, hormones, as well as every cell tissue and organ in that child's body. We advocate regular chiropractic check-ups for all children starting from birth onward. In fact, studies are now showing that the first three years of that child's life is the most important time, the critical time, to get them started on the path to health and wellness because that's when they develop their habit patterns.

Children are especially susceptible to vertebral subluxation and nerve interference from stresses and traumas early on, such as birth trauma or in-utero constraint positions, normal falls and postural stresses. For example, a child that has a subluxation in their spine which creates an imbalance, the muscles may be pulling more to one side than the other. When this child is going through their growth spurts and developing, these subluxations and imbalances will be accentuated and cause more problems. Just as a dentist will correct a cavity before the symptoms appear, need to correct vertebral subluxations in children before symptoms appear.

Millions of parents report to thousands of chiropractors that when their children grow up with chiropractic care, their children do not succumb to all the childhood illnesses that the rest of the children do. And if they get sick, they respond far quicker than children who have chronic vertebral subluxation. In addition, parents report that children under chiropractic care sleep better, they behave better, when those stresses are removed from their spine. We would like to see parents have full access to having their children checked for vertebral subluxation by chiropractors to prevent illness, optimize their health and wellness, and dramatically reduce medical costs.

In closing, we need to also look at raising funds for research to characterize and demonstrate the benefits of chiropractic care for children, and we need to find more effective strategies to educate and distribute information on chiropractic care for children to a parent. And this also should evolve into an area where chiropractors can be very effective as gatekeepers for raising healthy children. And I thank you for your attention.

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