We Get Letters & E-Mail

Why Don't We Have a Chiropractic Postal Stamp?

Dear Editor:

I really enjoyed your Dynamic Chiropractic newspaper of March 22, 1995, especially the article on the front page about the chiropractic stamps to be issued by the Canadian government postal service. It is wonderful that the Canadian postal service will issue not one but three postage stamps honoring chiropractic and Dr. Palmer.

Why haven't the ACA or ICA or other U.S. chiropractic groups gotten behind this project, especially in this year of the 100th anniversary of the first chiropractic adjustment given by Dr. D.D. Palmer?

I see from your article that the Canadian DCs got behind this project with their letter writing and stimulated public opinion in favor of this project.

I believe one could still have a commemorative postage stamp issued if you would promote this in your Dynamic Chiropractic newspaper.

I have written many letters to various chiropractic groups -- including Palmer College, congressmen, and others -- with little success.

Why not try to get a letter writing campaign as the Canadian chiropractors did? They succeeded so why can't we?

Ed Paul Booth, DC
Stanford, Kentucky

Editor's Note: The Chiropractic Centennial Foundation (CCF) has been working very hard for a number of years in an effort to secure a United States commemorative postage stamp celebrating our chiropractic centennial. While there have been many challenges, the CCF has pursued every avenue to make this a reality. Every year, over 30,000 applications are received by the U.S. Post Office with requests for postage stamp commemorations. While this makes a chiropractic postage stamp a long shot, at the time of this writing, we are still being considered. We may yet get our chiropractic stamp.

Dear Editor:

I appreciated Dr. Schneider's article, "Another Look at Preventative Maintenance." I have looked for such an article because it brings out some aspects of my experience that seem missing in general chiropractic print. Until asymptomatic maintenance care is proven, we should not present it as such. We also should look at the risk/benefit ration, for ANY intervention that carries a risk, including simple things such as exercise, and the adjustment does have some risk associated with it. A patient in pain is glad to take this risk; one that is feeling well should decide if the risk is valid. I help my patients choose a schedule of maintenance care that benefits them based on their desires and what actually seems to work. It can be as frequently as once a week, spaced out as four times a year, or as "soon as things don't feel quite right." I am very happy that the decision is in their hands; they take responsibility for the outcome, favorable or unfavorable. I believe this also empowers them towards better health.

Loreen Daigle, DC
Middlebury, Connecticut

Dear Editor:

I did it! I joined every practice-building program advertised in your journal! I also joined every program that was offered through the mail that promised to double, triple, or quadruple my practice. I now see 75 new patients a day, see 957 patient visits a day, and collect $71,545 dollars a day (our collection rate is 100 percent). All this is done in a 12 hour work week. I am physically, emotionally, and financially perfect! I've got to go now -- I've got a golf date with Ben Crenshaw and then take my Lear jet for dinner with the Queen.

Ronald Mash, DC
Shakopee, Minnesota

Dear Editor:

I wish to object to some of Dynamic Chiropractic's rhetoric in a recent front page story, "Why Do MDs Refer Patients to 'Alternative Therapies?'" (April 24, 1995 issue). In it, "DC" suggests that:

"... While the release of the acute low back guidelines by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) would greatly fuel the argument that spinal manipulation should no longer be considered 'alternative,' research publications still consider it so."

Some of us who work within the research community in chiropractic, who investigate, author, publish, and edit research literature in chiropractic, cannot help wondering who "DC" is referring to with this sort of comment. Since your article refers to a paper published in the Journal of Family Practice, perhaps you would have been content to suggest that "medical publications still consider it so." Albeit unintentionally, by referring indiscriminately to "research publications," you slight the significant scholarly and scientific work of researchers in chiropractic.

Perhaps it is understandable in a profession that has traditionally equated medicine with science, and viewed itself as outside the realm of medicine, that we would continue to see "research publications" as something alien or "medical." However, we cannot longer afford this self-defeating perception. To the extent that we in chiropractic engaging in and publishing legitimate research, we are the research community, and our periodicals are research publications.1 Attached please find a list of scholarly and scientific work of research publications (see Table 1); I doubt that the editors of these periodicals would agree that chiropractic should be considered "alternative" care.

Reference

1. Chapter 16 in Keating JC. Toward a Philosophy of the Science of Chiropractic; A Primer for Clinicians. Stockton, CA: Stockton Foundation for Chiropractic Research, 1992.

Table 1

Chiropractic Russell W. Gibbons Bibliography of the History History 207 Grandview Dr. S History of Medicine of Pittsburgh, PA 15215 the National Library USA of Medicine (USA), CLIBCON Index* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chiropractic Rolf E. Peters, DC Australasian Medical Science, Journal of and Mary Ann Chance- Index, British Library History, Australia Peters, DC; P.O. Box Complementary Medicine Professional 748 Wagga Wagga, NSW Index, CLIBCON Index* Issues, 2650, AUSTRALIA Educational Issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chiropractic Robert Hazel Jr., DC; Biosciences Info Science, Sports Medicine 220 Vroom Avenue, Services, CLIBCON Professional Spring Lake, NJ, USA Index,* Excerpta Issues Medica, Physical Education Index ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
European Simon Leyson, DC; CLIBCON Index*, Science, Journal of Gwendwr, 16 Uplands Current Awareness History Chiropractic Cresent, Uplands, Topics Service Professional Swansea SA2 OPB (British Library) Issues, GREAT BRITAIN Educational Issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Journal of the Alan Gotlib, DC; CLIBCON Index* Science, Canadian Chiro. 1396 Eglinton Ave. History, Association West, Toronto, Professional Ontario, CANADA Issues, M6C 2E4 Educational Issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Journal of Grace E. Jacobs, DA; CLIBCON Index* Educational Chiropractic 2045 Christensen Ave. Issues, Education #144, West Saint Paul, Scholarly MN 55118, USA Research in Education, Science, and History ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chiropractic Thomas F. Bergmann, CLIBCON Index* Science, Technique DC; 735 Keokuk Lane, History, Mendota Heights, MN Professional 55120, USA Issues, Educational Issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Journal of Dana J. Lawrence, BIOSIS, CLIBCON Science, some Manipulative & DC; 200 E. Roosevelt Index,* Current History, Physiological Rd., Lombard, IL Contents, Excerpta Professional Therapeutics 60148, USA Medica, Index Medicus, Issues, USSR Academy of Educational Sciences Issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* CLIBCON (Chiropractic Library Consortium) Index to the Chiropractic Literature

Joseph Keating Jr., PhD
Assistant Editor,
Chiropractic Technique
(JCKeating@ aol.com)