Ricky’s Riffs: A blog about health and healing and a world that needs care.

Reflexions On Getting Covid…Again!

Reflexions On Getting Covid…Again!

Growing up in the 1960’s, one generation removed, World War II deeply informed my sense of both past and present. My father and almost all the men of his generation had signed up or were drafted. It was just the thing to do, whether it was to go and fight Nazis or because they realized the neighborhood corner was empty so they might as well go off to where their buddies were. They were spread out from England to France to Burma to New Guinea. Some guarded prisoners, some worked on intelligence, some were on aircraft carriers, and some stormed the beaches of northern France on D-Day.

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Reflexions On Getting Covid…Again!

Reflexions On Getting Covid…Again!

A few sniffles and a light cough were the first signs. And the fact that my wife had tested positive the day before, as did her friend who sat with us at my show last Friday. With a full day of patients, it was time to test. Ah…the double blue lines; the mark of  Covid! Round two!!

For me, more than anything else, Covid is a nuisance; having to cancel my day–and week–and tell patients in pain that they had to re-schedule to next week or to find another chiropractor who might be able to squeeze them in.

Covid is here to stay. It’s endemic. Mask as you will, you will not escape it. We will all get it…all of us. And most likely, multiple times. So why not just accept this reality and relax about it. I know people who have barely left their homes for years out of the terror of getting “The Vid!”

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Ego and Entheogens in a World Gone Mad

Ego and Entheogens in a World Gone Mad

The world has gone mad. The cloud of nuclear Armageddon hangs over us all as war rages on in Ukraine; systemic oppression, locally and globally, can no longer be hidden or denied. Hate, fear and anger have metastasized through our social and political bodies.

It is ego run amok, as politicians the world over vie for power; egos doing anything they can to insure their own survival, operating under the illusion of solidity and permanence, careening toward destruction, willing to take the rest of us along for their deadly ride.

The world cries out for healing; for medicines that can help to lift the veil that has clouded our vision, to reveal our true natures, our energetic connection with all beings, with the cosmos itself; to remind us that what happens anywhere effects what happens everywhere.

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Covid-19: What the Left (and Right) Got Wrong

Covid-19: What the Left (and Right) Got Wrong

Do we ever say we were wrong?

Or have we become so polarized, so isolated in our social media bubbles, that we will maintain the “righteousness” of our positions–bolstered by reams of “evidence,”–forever.

We on the left like to believe that we have sole access to the truth; that it is only the “other side” that wanders in the desert of “alternative facts.” Of course, the other side feels exactly the same way…

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On Creating Sacred Space

On Creating Sacred Space

We all sense the “feeling” of a space when we enter it. We might feel comforted, or irritated, sedated or energized. Whether it’s a friends living room, a doctor’s office, or a mountain landscape, every space generates a different reaction.

Solidity and emptiness: a paradox

Although the world appears to be solid, modern physics has revealed that it is essentially, and mostly, in fact, empty space. At the subatomic level, the atoms that comprise matter, are both particle and wave, solid as well as vibrational…

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Bufo Alvarius and the Entheogenic Revolution

Bufo Alvarius and the Entheogenic Revolution

“Relax and take three deep breaths,” my guide instructs. Then, bringing the pipe to my lips: “Now take in little bits of smoke…sips. When your lungs are full, just hold.”

Within seconds of that hold, the room and I dissolve into a vision.

On Entheogenic Medicine

5-MeO-DMT is a powerful psychedelic medicine. Derived from glandular secretions of the Sonoran-desert toad…

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Techniques of Transcendence

Techniques of Transcendence

Who are we? Who am I? We are daughters and sons, mothers and fathers; we are our jobs, our homes, our educations, our nationalities; we are our ethnicities. We travel through life attached to these identities; composites built, brick by brick…

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COVID Diaries, Part One, Naming Our World

COVID Diaries, Part One, Naming Our World

COVID intruded into our world last Winter, then raged through the Spring and Summer of 2020. After taking a small break in the Fall, it exploded again–predictably–on the heels of reckless Thanksgiving and Christmas travel.

So here we are, rounding the turn on our first full year of COVID.

The wreckage of the pandemic is all around us: millions out of work, thousands of small businesses shuttered, over four hundred thousand dead…

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On Impermanence and Illusion

On Impermanence and Illusion

We spend so much of our lives constructing stories; narratives to make sense of our worlds. And we usually cast ourselves as the heroes, the center pieces of what are, all too often, tall tales. As I watch my boarded-up city of San Francisco slowly re-open, I know that it will not be what it was before. Like a tidal wave washing over the city, sweeping away lives and livelihoods, COVID-19 has destroyed so much. I, like millions of others, was comfortable with my illusions…

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On Practice in the World of COVID-19

On Practice in the World of COVID-19

One of the biggest challenges for me during this pandemic has been the very real possibility that work, as I have known it, may never be the same. On March 16, complying with the orders of Mayor London Breed, I shut down my San Francisco chiropractic practice. As an essential service, I could have stayed open. But my partner and I (along with the other practitioners in my office) chose to “shelter in pace” in order to help “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus spread. I plan to re-open for business this coming Monday, May 4. We will take all of the necessary and recommended precautions: wearing masks, physically distancing our clients in the waiting room, reducing patient appointment numbers, scrubbing down…

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Some Early Thoughts on a Global Pandemic

Some Early Thoughts on a Global Pandemic

We have suddenly been thrust into a global pandemic. Seemingly overnight, our lives have changed. Many of us are on lockdown, prohibited from leaving our homes except to go to the grocery store, the pharmacy, or the doctor. We must now maintain “social distance” to prevent infection, staying at least six feet from others. There were already signs, back in December 2019, of a strange viral disease originating in the filthy live animal markets of China’s Wuhan province. Then it was seen in South Korea, and Japan. Somehow it jumped to Italy, and spread throughout Europe. All the while, from our “distant” perch–despite alarms being sounded by infectious disease and public health experts–our leaders looked on, and did nothing…

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The Democratization of Health and Healing

The Democratization of Health and Healing

I’d like to start a movement called “Humans for the Democratization of Health and Healing.” The movement will include many stakeholders: patient/consumers, healthcare practitioners, industry, and government. It will question the traditional relationships among all of these entities. And it will demand change from them all–including myself!…

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Cannabis: Medicine of the Future?

Cannabis: Medicine of the Future?

The cultivation of cannabis is a science and an art. As medicine, it can be used for relief of pain and the enhancing of pleasure; to relax and to sleep. It can stimulate the creative mind, and the spiritual one as well. The Emerald Cup, an annual event held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, is the “Academy Awards” of cannabis.  Named for Northern California’s “Emerald Triangle”–the center of the state’s cannabis cultivation industry—it is now in its sixteenth year. Awards are given…

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The Sound of Healing

The Sound of Healing

I relaxed at Philz, my local cafe, sinking into a soft leather couch, taking in a fine selection of indie rock, and enjoying some very strong coffee. As I sipped on a tall Tesora, I daydreamed about the trip I’d soon be taking to Peru. I was excited, but at the same time troubled by a pain I was feeling. I knew its source. A deep wound inflicted by someone whom I thought was a friend. He had stolen something from me, something real and material, but also something more…vital. It felt as if this “friend” had made off with a piece of my heart. But knowing this…

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The War on Health Care

The War on Health Care

Our health care system is in crisis. Everyone feels it. Premiums and deductibles keep rising, provider networks are narrowing, and the bite out of the average American paycheck gets bigger and bigger. Health care has taken center stage in the run-up to the 2020 election.

The Democrat arguments swing from elimination of the private health insurance industry and Medicare-For-All to a public option to buy into the Medicare system.  The Republicans have no plan, beyond destroying the ACA (Obamacare) and crying “socialism!”

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In Guatemala with the Integrative Health Project

In Guatemala with the Integrative Health Project

I just returned from a week in Guatemala, where I worked with the Integrative Health Project.  The project was started by a few acupuncturists about six years ago.  They wanted to work with the underserved, indigenous population living around Lake Atitlan, a beautiful, fertile and impoverished region in the Guatemalan highlands.

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Pain, the Opioid Crisis, and Alternative Care

Pain, the Opioid Crisis, and Alternative Care

Drug overdoses killed approximately 72,000 people in in the United States in 2017. This was an increase of 10% from 2016. The two reasons cited are (1) Americans continue to use opioids in increasing numbers, and (2) there are more powerful, deadlier, synthetic opioids available in the underground marketplace—mainly fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine.  While the latter is the primary cause of fatalities, there is a connection between the two explanations…

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On the Opioid and Gun Violence Epidemics: Rationales in Common

On the Opioid and Gun Violence Epidemics: Rationales in Common

We are currently in the midst of the most lethal drug epidemic in our country’s history. One of the shocking things about this crisis is that it has been going on for the past 20 years without showing any signs of letting up. In 2016, overdoses involving opioids killed more than 42,000 people. Of those deaths, 40% were from prescription opioids. (Statistics are still being finalized for 2017.) Several recent books describe the evolution of this…

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A Rationale For A Single Payer Health Care System

A Rationale For A Single Payer Health Care System

Real change is coming to our health insurance system. This is inevitable for the simple reason that the system, as it stands, is not sustainable. Premiums and deductibles keep rising, way beyond the rate of inflation. Drug prices also rise, as do hospital and medical device costs.

In 2010 President Obama pushed through his landmark legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which enabled millions of previously uninsured people…

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Welcome to “Condition: Health News That Matters”

Welcome to “Condition: Health News That Matters”

For quite some time, I have been thinking about writing a book.  I believe I have a unique perspective on health and healing and that this perspective might be interesting and useful to others.  After all, I’ve been in practice for more than 30 years.  I’ve taught...

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A World of Pain

A World of Pain

In our highly medicated society, Americans consume more mind and mood altering drugs—legal, illegal and prescribed--than any other people in the world.  Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, Xanax, Ambien, Atavan, alcohol and many more: a full spectrum of pain, anti-anxiety,...

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Empathy, Patient Centered Care and Healing

Empathy, Patient Centered Care and Healing

Carlos presented in the clinic, walking stiffly.  He wore a green asbestos suit and steel toed boots.  The distinctive chemical smell of the steel mill where he worked clung to him like a second skin.  Carlos is a welder. He wields a blow torch for most of his day. ...

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Obamacare and the Shifting of the American Mind

Obamacare and the Shifting of the American Mind

The first order of business for Donald Trump and the Republican party was to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare. Obamacare was the signature piece of legislation of President Obama’s eight years in office.  In terms of...

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Public Option: Next Step Toward Universal Health Care

Public Option: Next Step Toward Universal Health Care

The Republicans have failed to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  They stated this would be their first order of business upon coming into power.  Although they will surely continue their efforts, it is unlikely that they will succeed. It is now time...

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Trump Excitement Disorder (TED)…or Tribal Fever

Trump Excitement Disorder (TED)…or Tribal Fever

The shock of Donald Trump’s election has left many people disoriented.  Assumptions about the nature and order of the world have been upended. Few, but not all, on the left side of the political spectrum believed Trump could be elected.  Yet here we are, six weeks...

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Pain and Suffering of the Digital Natives

Pain and Suffering of the Digital Natives

“Digital natives” are those young women and men who have been raised from childhood on computers. We see them everywhere:  Toddlers in strollers playing with iPhones, pre-teens on iPads in restaurants, strategically distracted to allow their parents to eat in peace;...

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Music, Art and Revolution: Cuba, 2016

Music, Art and Revolution: Cuba, 2016

Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport is typical of many airports in the “developing” world—one terminal and one carousel for our bags (AND the bags of another two flights coming in right after us).  After an hour of chaos, we found our last piece of luggage and...

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A Persian Wedding: Love and the Will to Freedom

A Persian Wedding: Love and the Will to Freedom

Mehraban and Sahar were married under redwood trees in the hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay.  It was a brisk evening warmed by the presence of their many friends and relatives who had gathered from near and far. When I walked into the reception hall, the dance...

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Ebola, Chronic Disease and the Road to Wellness

Ebola, Chronic Disease and the Road to Wellness

The Ebola epidemic is still raging through West Africa. Thousands are dead, including many health care workers who bravely fought the disease on the front lines. There is an urgent demand to develop the medicines needed to defeat Ebola. Experimental drugs are being...

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[email protected] www.rickyfishman.com
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