For chiropractors, wellness is more than just the absence of disease. But talking about and believing in the tenet of wellness is different than proving it.
Yes, as a doctor of chiropractic you see the daily "proof" in your practice, and your patients feel it in their bodies. But the kind of proof I'm referring to is the kind that changes the health care habits of the entire world.
So, what about the current research that "seems" to be reinforcing chiropractic's wellness model? Can we really claim that the research results which demonstrate chiropractic's effectiveness for cervicogenic headache is contributing to the body of literature needed to support our wellness model?
In the last issue, we celebrated the first paper published in the American Journal of Public Health primarily authored by chiropractors.1 But what that paper told us was not necessarily cause for celebration:
How do we get out of this box?
You'll recall the AHCPR's acute low-back pain guidelines were conclusions based on solid, well-designed research, and nothing less. This quality research raised the awareness of the scientific community and gave us ammunition on the political and media fronts.
The challenge is how to move from symptom-specific studies to wellness research.
As a first step, all of our future research has to include quality of life and wellness components. It isn't that much work to add wellness questions to a survey or Oswestry form. This two-pronged approach will give a presence to the wellness model in the literature.
Think of what our studies could be telling the world: not just that chiropractic is effective for low-back pain, headache, etc., but that patients ALSO show a significant increase in their wellness/quality of life scores. This additional component echoed over the next few years will begin a dialogue within health care and probably set a trend for other health care researchers to follow.
The next step will be to conduct large-scale wellness studies over many years involving diverse patient groups. People will be very interested in how chiropractic can benefit them over the course of their life. As people age, the concern about quality of life grows. Our aging population is ready to hear our results.
If chiropractic is about the quality of our patients' health, everything we do has to reflect that focus. Wellness is primary to our approach to health. It should be reflected in every effort the chiropractic profession makes.
Let's become well-known as the champions of wellness and quality of life, before some other health care profession claims the title.
Reference
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
