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IFBM President Paul Bucky Speaks with Dr. Michael Blanchard, MD
By: Jennifer Phelps

Dr. Michael Blanchard is a Family Practitioner and the Medical Director for Managed Care with Sutter North MedicalGroup in Marysville, California. He is also the Vice Chief of Staff at the Fremont/Rideout Health Group.

Last July his wife Anneliese read in the Institute of Noetic Sciences Bulletin that a Practitioner Training in Bio-Magnetic Touch Healing^TM was being offered in San Francisco. She called the Foundation for more information and was referred to Elsbeth Shields, a local Outreach Volunteer. Elsbeth had set up a class in nearby Sutter and Anneliese graciously volunteered to hold the class in their home in Yuba City. That's when "Dr. Mike" was first introduced to BMTH and began incorporating it into his medical practice. Since then, the Blanchards have hosted a Certification Class and individual sessions in their home and have coordinated classes at the hospital. Dr. Mike has also begun work with IFBM to conduct a clinical study on BMTH.

Paul Bucky spoke with Dr. Mike about his experiences with BMTH, and the following are some excerpts from that discussion.

I think that it is a very powerful tool
that one can offer to patients and families
to empower them to help take care of themselves.

Paul: What first interested you in Bio-Magnetic Touch Healing^TM?

P: Do you think there is a big part of this healing process that is placebo?
Dr. M: Whether it is truly placebo or just the fact that there is a positive benefit to a gentle, caring touch [we don't know]. Maybe it's placebo, maybe it isn't.

P: How have you incorporated BMTH into your practice?
Dr. M: Initially, I presented it in as bland a way as I could, making no promises. I was trying to be absolutely neutral and just see what response the patients really had without suggesting to them that this was really going to help... Within the first month I had done [BMTH] with at least 60 people. A number of times when I've used it in the office I've seen it reduce a patient's pain faster than if I had given them a pain shot and expected that to work -- with obviously no side effects, in terms of needles or bleeding, or anything else. I use it the most when someone comes in with an acutely painful process: neck spasms, back spasms, shoulder pain, other joint pains. I don't teach it to everybody that walks in the door [because I just don't have the time].

P: Is that why you've encouraged us to open a Center here?
Dr. M:Clearly there are a number of patients that I have seen through the years who have chronic pain for any number of conditions; be it from auto accidents, other back injuries, degenerative disk disease, patients with MS, patients with herpes zoster, where they have a neuralgia that hasn't gone away. It's clear to me that BMTH helps these people when you can do it. But they can't afford to come see me once a week or twice a week to have it done. Some of them have partners or spouses or friends that can do it for them, but many of them don't. So with the availability of a clinic I could tell them, "You really should go there at least once a week and have this done to make continued progress." I would be able to refer those patient who really need it and make sure they get it done on a regular basis.

P: What kind of results have you seen?
Dr. M: Certainly there has been a wide variation. I've had a few patients who seem to get no response at all. They clearly are the minority. I would say, at this point, I run between three and four out of every five people who get at least some immediate response.

P: "Immediate", meaning what?
Dr. M: Within the time frame of me doing it in the office. In five to ten minutes they have reduced pain, better motion, or dropping of the blood pressure if their blood pressure was too high. So, just statistically, it's much better than chance that I'm getting a positive response. The most dramatic were a couple of shoulders where they basically... couldn't take their hands and reach above shoulder height. And when we were done their hands were going way up above their head.

P: What place would you like to see BMTH hold in the clinical setting, and what response to it have you had from the medical community?
Dr. M: [Because IFBM] is purposely not set up as an exclusive entity, it's not set up to see how much money it can make, and that BMTH is such a simple, easy technique, people don't feel afraid of it. I really can't say that I've had any negative response from any of the nurses or doctors that I have really sat and talked to about it.

I think that it has the potential... to really
change a dynamic in a family.

I would like to have it available, I would like patients know about it, and I would like to have the doctors at least be familiar with it. Whether they practice it or not would be a separate issue.

I've had a number of docs send me patients for pain consults, [their] patients with chronic pain from any variety of sources. I told them that I would be glad to give them pain consults, but I want a couple to come. I want husband and wife, or mother and daughter, or somebody to come together; because my goal is not just to do the technique, but it's to teach it to someone else so they can go home and do it routinely.

I think that it has the potential in those scenarios to really change a dynamic in a family where you have someone in a sick role constantly... It gives that other person something they can DO right then to help benefit..., and that the person can give back -- even if they're not feeling that well.

P: As a doctor you can give advice. What advice that you would give people in regards to BMTH?

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