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."
Poland Is Eager for Chiropractic
With a population of over 38 million, Poland was hearing for the first time, in its millennium of existence, the chiropractic story.
Dr. George Curry and Dr. William Hendrick, clinicians in private practice in Connecticut, were ticketed and packed to present a credible and effective example of chiropractic and the Christian Chiropractors Association to Poland. The two doctors were geared up to adjust as many patients as possible; to inform, teach, and demonstrate the efficacy of chiropractic.
Everywhere the doctors went, people would line up for spinal exams and care. The day after their arrival, Dr. Curry was assigned to the city of Bielsk Podlaski in northeastern Poland; Dr. Hendrick was scheduled for Ludy, an agricultural community near the Russian border. Upon Dr. Hendrick's arrival in Ludy, hundreds of people were waiting to see him.
The doctors set up clinics in local churches. People would begin lining up in the early morning to receive their adjustments. The clinics would stay open until 11 p.m., after which the doctors would make house calls to patients confined to beds and wheelchairs.
Many of the Polish children were medically diagnosed with scoliosis. It is such a pervasive condition that all the public schools schedule special classes during their physical activity hour exclusively for scoliosis children.
The parents and children were educated by the DCs about the vertebral subluxation and its contributive cause to many spinal distortions. All of the parents wanted their children examined and adjusted.
Dr. Hendrick lectured to the Manual Medicine Institute in Warsaw and Dr. Curry addressed the staff of the local hospital concerning chiropractic principles and the subluxation complex.
While in the city of Bielsk Podlaski, there were so many people assembled for chiropractic adjustments that even the city mayor and the local medical doctors waited patiently in line for their spinal exams and care.
The orthopedic surgeons learned that chiropractic doctors did not treat symptoms, but were primarily focused on correcting the vertebral subluxation. They also went through the spinal exam and received adjustments.
Dr. Curry and Hendrick witnessed many chiropractic "breakthroughs" in conditions reversed and recovered. The word rapidly spread concerning the compelling benefits of the chiropractic adjustment as a vehicle which allows the body to express its full health potential.
Throughout the days of the tour, the only radio station that broadcasts to northern Poland dispatched a reporter who interviewed Dr. Curry and broadcast the testimonies of the patients.
Each clinic was structured whereby one person recorded the patient entrance data, another person instructed each patient concerning the adjustive procedures the doctors may use, and a third person explained to the patient the principles and rationale of chiropractic using neurological and anatomical charts.
The doctors spent up to 15 hours each day examining and adjusting patients. Their working staff surveyed the people and found that few people over 65 years of age had ever taken drugs of any kind. The final tally of patient care proved staggering. At the end of a blistering nonstop seven day tour, the doctors experienced over 4,000 patient visits (1,000 of them being children).
Dr. Curry comments: "The people of Poland are looking forward to our return visit and are planning to send students to the US to be trained in chiropractic."
Why do we go and work so intensely. First, it is the compelling realization that full health through chiropractic is a trust and a gift to be given to mankind. Secondly, not only is it ours to share our personal faith, but to acknowledge that, in colloquial terms, the cervical knows no color, creed, or culture, and every valuable being deserves a chance for good health.
Editor's Note:
For further inquiry please contact:
Christian Chiropractors Association
P.O. Box 9715
Fort Collins, CO 80525-0500
1-800-999-1970
Christian Chiropractors of Canada
276 Plains Road
Burlington, Ontario L7T 2C6
Canada
(416) 634-9535
Australian Christian Chiropractors Association
433 Buckley Street
Essendon 3040, Victoria
Australia
011 (03) 337-9868
British Christian Chiropractors Society
13 Portland St.
Kings Lynn
Norfolk, PE30 1PB
England, UK