Stop Petting Bumble Bees

Bumble bees have nothing in common with golden retrievers. They are not fun loving, gregarious little creatures. You are relatively safe as long as their attention is focused on what is important to them: the flower garden. Otherwise, the bees resent your coming into their domain, and will attack you. Smart people know to leave the bumble bee sitting on a window ledge alone and avoid the possible sting.

The chiropractic profession appears to always want to pet the bee instead of ignoring it. We in chiropractic have existed for 100 years. Why? Because we helped sick people even after the best of allopathic medicine failed. Make no mistake about it, we are here because the public wants chiropractic care. Why then do so many DCs want to imitate MDs? With all the tax payer money infused into the allopathic educational system, they are being sued more often, questioned more often by patients and are losing social status.

Let's get over our inferiority complex and realize that our nondrug/nonsurgical services are desired the world over. Look at the new chiropractic colleges springing up around the globe. We must be doing something right; at least that's what the public is saying. What will it take for us to awaken?

Facts

1. In 1995, health care stocks grew by 40 percent!

    

2. More lawsuits against doctors and managed care institutions are being filed and won by plaintiffs.

    

3. Chiropractic care utilizes one penny of a health care dollar.

    

4. Managed care bureaucracies chew up 30 cents of each dollar spent on health.

    

5. The growth of MCO administration expands exponentially while the number of doctors is reduced. Is this the reason profits skyrocket and lip service is paid to the quality of care being rendered?

    

6. The chiropractic profession needs clinical pathways to help expand the areas of care for which we presently lack sufficient evidence.

    

7. We need research which reduces the barriers to accessing chiropractic services in all arenas.

    

8. We need more patients in chiropractic offices.

    

9. Chiropractic treatment is very safe for patients.

    

10. Allopathic treatment is costly and often dangerous.

The Safety and Costs of Chiropractic v. Allopathic Medicine

1. The misuse of prescription drugs costs up to 137 billion dollars annually and leads to an estimated 119,000 deaths.

    

2. We spend 75 billion on prescription drugs annually.

    

3. We spend 76 billion for the problems caused by prescription drugs and treatments.

    

4. Forty percent of patients taking prescription drugs experience at least one drug related problem. The treatment failed for 23 percent, caused a new medical problem for 11 percent and did both for 7 percent.

What am I missing? If a patient suffers a CVA in a DC's office, we see headlines about the danger of chiropractic care, yet our competitors kill thousands of people and nothing is said. What is laughable is that there are DCs who want to use drugs in practice.

True Costs

Have any of the economists researching health care expenditures ever used the expenses of drug related injuries in their calculations? If you add the cost of injuries into the equation, chiropractic care will be an even greater bargain, and without pain and suffering for the patient.

Perception of Chiropractic

For more patients to enter chiropractic offices, we the profession must mature and become tolerant of other chiropractic viewpoints and more understanding of our own responsibility to be ethical and competent. This leads me to share with you the news which many readers have encouraged me to pursue through your letters, faxes, and telephone calls.

The Summit

In September 1996, NCMIC will host a summit meeting of the field doctors, researchers, educators, politicos, etc. The meeting will be an open forum for the various components of chiropractic to talk to each other in a collegial/nonpartisan manner that seemingly has escaped us for 100 years. Yes, at last we will have an opportunity to share our thoughts, and with God's help, leave better prepared to shoulder our responsibilities and face the 21st century. Don't pet the bumble bee.

Arnold Cianciulli, BS, DC, MS
940 Ave. C
Bayonne, New Jersey 07002