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Tangled Webs

Dear Editor:

I noted in the January 1, 1997 issue edition that DC has chosen ChiroWeb as the server for their web site. In your own words, "For the past year, Dynamic Chiropractic has been planning its web site. The hard part was finding an individual or organization that truly understood this new medium." Well, it is very obvious to me that you didn't look too darn hard!

The premier web site for chiropractic and chiropractors has been, and will continue to be, AOL's Chiropractic On Line Today (COT). I'll admit that I am a regular contributor to COT; however, I too did quite a bit of looking before agreeing to sign on to the COT site, and as I will detail, it is for some very obvious reasons.

The rationale for my opinion are many. In comparing these two, ChiroWeb offers: "chiro locator," "all about chiropractic," "special offers," "feel better store," "chiropractors only," and "about ChiroWeb." By comparison, COT offers "mail bank" (a service for creating your own custom e-mail name), "the journal corner," "weekly news updates," "question of the month," "national and state association news," "classified ad section," "referral directory," "supplier's page," "COT classified," and "health beat," as well as specific chiropractic, web, health and education "corners." In addition, there are an impressive array of monthly contributors, namely Drs. Jan Corwin, J. Todd Knudsen, David Lemberg, Donald Murphy, Alan Rousso, Norman Schoenberg, Louis Sportelli, and most recently L. John Faye.

To me, this web site far outshines all others in providing current information, a place for patients to find DCs, articles on specific areas of interest from experts, and an extremely wide array of offerings. Just as your newspaper seeks to provide "something for everyone," so does COT, and it does it very well. Web sites will, in many places, replace many other forms of media, including print in some cases. And well-developed and maintained sites will serve the most number of "hits" as they say in media lingo.

Unfortunately, although COT tried to contact you many times, you did not return their calls, so they were not able to discuss with you the other options available to you. Also, unfortunately, you did not poll DC cyber-readers as to what site they would prefer seeing DC connected with.

Therefore, "in this report of my findings," I feel you have made an unfortunate choice. But, fortunately, chiropractors can still access COT and not be disappointed with all that it has to offer.

Jill M. Bjerke, BS, DC
Davenport, Iowa
Phone/fax #: 319-323-5580
E-mail: dcjmb@aol.com

Editor's note: Efforts to inform the public about chiropractic are commendable, unfortunately, America Online suffers from certain fundamental problems that have resulted in three lawsuits (one filed January 13, 1997 in Los Angeles for $20 million by a group of AOL subscribers seeking class action status and two more filed in New York on January 15th) alleging negligence, consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising.

Since AOL went to unlimited access for $19.95/month, logging on to the service and conducting business has become an adventure in frustration. On one occasion we tried 13 successive times to download important information, and each time we were "thrown out" of AOL with a "good-bye." On other days, we simply gave up accessing the Internet after being thrown out several consecutive times.

In addition to slow and problematic service, the result of AOL being able to accommodate only 258,000 of their seven million subscribers simultaneously, the entire AOL network shut down for almost 19 hours last August and half of the network shut down for nearly four hours on January 15th. This has prompted many chiropractic subscribers and others to refer to this Internet provider as "AOL Hell."

Dear Editor:

I was embarrassed today when a patient brought in the January 1997 issue of a magazine called Smart Money. It is the Wall Street Journal's magazine of personal business. It included the article, "Ten Things Your Chiropractor Won't Tell You." (Editor's note: see the editor's "Report of Findings" on page 3 of the Jan. 27th issue.) At first I thought it was tongue-in-cheek because of the illustrations and the comical titles to each of the 10 things. Upon reading it I was amazed that in 1996 we can still see articles like this published. It was less than flattering to say the least. They even had the ignorance to refer to Ron Slaughter and the NACM quite a few times. It's a shame that this type of sensationalism is what it takes to sell magazines when more good could have been done by reporting all the research studies supporting chiropractic care.

Mark Bolinger, DC
Haddonfield, New Jersey

Dear Editor,

The January issue of Smart Money has an article, "Ten Things Your Chiropractor Won't Tell You," that is a nonobjective poorly researched piece of lousy journalism. I e-mailed them immediately upon reading same and received a reply from its author Robert Safian who attempted to soothe my irritated nerves (pun intended) but begins the salutation by "Mr."

Could you print the article in a near future issue and request your readers to write to Smart Money with their comments?

Martin L. Fallick, DC

Dear Editor:

I am writing in regards to Dr. Troyanovich's December 2, 1996 article, "The Harrison Spinal Model: a Chiropractic Lightning Rod for Criticism." I enjoyed the article very much, and I respect and appreciate the effort of anyone doing chiropractic research. However, it is because of this I must write regarding Dr. Troyanovich's comment that "for the first 90 years of the chiropractic profession's history, virtually no scientific research existed upon which to base the care and treatment of our patients."

This statement is not only untrue; it also does a huge disservice to all chiropractors. In the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, B.J. Palmer and his research clinic staff were doing chiropractic research so advanced and state-of-the-art (such as audiometric, hematological, and metabolic changes under chiropractic care, as well as electroencephaloneurotempograph readings) that it has not even been duplicated to date. It is also my understanding that chiropractic does not provide "treatment."

Steve Porter, DC
Cooperstown, New York

Dear Editor:

I am a trimester seven student at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, California. I am writing to share with your readers the news about a great club that we started at our school last trimester. The name of the club is Chiropractically Speaking, and its purpose is to allow the students to practice and improve their public speaking skills.

The members of the club give a speech every two weeks on a variety of subjects ranging from chiropractic science, to chiropractic philosophy, to patient education. Each speech is up to five minutes in length and the speaker is given an evaluation by another member of the club.

The curriculum in chiropractic colleges is extremely full and unfortunately, at this time, there is no room for introducing a public speaking class. This is why I, with the greatest help from a number of other students and administrators, formed the Chiropractically Speaking club. So far, we have had approximately 20 students become active members, and we foresee a significant increase in the upcoming trimester.

As future doctors of chiropractic, one of our main responsibilities will be that of educating the public and our patients about the chiropractic profession. To become successful, it will not be enough to master the science, art, and philosophy of chiropractic, but also to be able to teach others. This can only be done if we can communicate to small or large groups of people in a professional and efficient manner. As one of our club leaders, Chris Schafer, stated, "An unspoken thought is a mental impulse. A spoken thought is a message."

Given the success that Chiropractically Speaking has had on our campus, I would like to offer any assistance to students from other colleges in starting a similar club. To find out more details about the structure and administration of the club, please call me at (310) 207-6499. I hope to hear from you soon.

Radu Ioan
Founder/co-president
Chiropractically Speaking

Dear Editor:

I enjoy receiving your publication and look forward to each one's arrival. The statistics (graphs) that you illustrate on the lower left hand corner of the front page are especially interesting. After reading the statistics regarding complications of cervical adjusting and then the other procedures (Dec. 16, 1996 graph), I was wondering if you'd do requests.

I know that although extremely rare, strokes and other "emergency" conditions occur in chiropractors' offices from time to time. I'd like to see statistics comparing their occurrence in our offices to the occurrence while driving, or on the golf course, or at the shoe store, basically the occurrence when there is no doctor's intervention at all. I suspect that driving a car, golfing, or shopping are all just as "risky" as chiropractic adjustments, and that the incidence of stroke, heart failure, etc. is no higher in our offices that it is during the course of a person's normal day. I also suspect that these "emergencies" happen more often in dental, physical therapy, osteopathic, and of course, medical settings.

If this data is out there, it should be published, and distributed to the public. I hope DC can dig these statistics up and put them in print.

Mike Powell, DC
4245 1st Ave, SE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
(319) 366-2518
102045.1405@CompuServe.com (Mike Powell)

Dear Editor:

Recently I had a discussion with a fellow doctor about bony proliferation in the spine, specifically "stress" or "traction" spurs. The doctor pointed out that the site of development coincided with areas of increased stress or greater loadbearing in the spine. He attributed these changes to alteration in the electrophysiology of bone. Calcium is attracted to weightbearing areas because of the net negative charge that is produced.

I then proceeded to explain that the change was probably due to alteration in the function of joints in the region. This creates a chronic low grade inflammatory response by the body secondary to nociceptive irritation, tissue injury, and ischemia. Thus the chemical balance in the area is altered, attracting calcium and producing subsequent spurring.

To make a long story short, the viewpoints expressed were both valid, logical, and probable explanations for the phenomenon of spur development. The conversation helped me to appreciate the interrelatedness of all things. Instead of becoming emotionally charged and defending our separate positions (however closely related), we had the courage to accept a "both-and" rationale rather than an "either-or" attitude.

One hopes our profession can go forward from this point on with a more tolerant ("both-and") attitude towards our peers, technic developers, political leaders, and professional organizations. That is my wish for 1997.

Gordon L. Stephenson, DC
Columbus, Georgia

Dear Editor:

Kudos to Dr. Jeffrey Cates for his profound and all-inclusive letter regarding the suggestion that Rush Limbaugh become a programmed "advocate" for chiropractic (DC, January 14, 1997). There are many thoughtful political and social commentators on the air and in the print medium, but as Dr. Cates reminds us, Rush is not one of them.

He is, in fact, an embarrassment for any serious listener, and the evidence of his self-fulfilling demise is apparent in his books on the remainder shelves and the number of stations that have dropped his show. For those who would like to investigate his history of bigotry and distortion, there are several books available. I would recommend The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error, edited by Steve Rendall ($8.45, 1-800-847-3993).

The people who sponsor and promote Limbaugh have a narrow political ideology which has replaced government for cold war communism as the enemy, and those who talk about "getting government off our backs" are really interested in unfettered and unregulated corporate profit-making at the expense of the public. To make an analogy with chiropractic, they have targeted those federal agencies who have taken on monopoly medicine and called for a true free market for therapeutic care.

Thus, the maligned Agency for Health Care Policy and Research is in the cross-hairs of the extremists, whose "revolution" has targeted Medicare and Medicaid. Remember, AHCPR blew the whistle on unnecessary back surgeries and gave an accolade to spinal manipulative practitioners (i.e., DCs).

Chiropractic was born in the tradition of grassroots American dissent to the prevailing and dominant monopoly of allopathic medicine. Its advocates at the turn of the century were true muckrakers such as Elbert Hubbard and Clara Barton. They appealed to reason and intelligence, and in their tradition chiropractic should seek public favor -- not through mindless rhetoric and ridicule of our mainstream institutions. Thanks again, Dr. Cates!

Russell W. Gibbons, DC (hc)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Editor Emeritus
Chiropractic History