"Subluxation-Based" Chiropractic?
Dear Editor:
I just finished reading Dr. Barge's article about his decision to remain a contributor to "DC" for one more year. I've been reading, with interest, articles such as these for many years now, and I must admit they are quite eloquent. It is obvious that Dr. Barge knows how to write because chiropractors still believe what he writes.
Yes, there are chiropractors who still believe in bony misalignment and the importance of viewing x-rays for the purpose of finding those 4 mm shifts in static x-rays. "Believe" is definitely the operative word to be used because you have to be a true believer to accept the bony misalignment theory in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence that contradicts this theory.
D.D., B.J., Gonstead, and a host of other chiropractic greats felt our profession was a scientific one. Each uniquely contributed to the science of chiropractic based on the scientific evidence available to them. Many years have come and gone since these greats have contributed to our profession, but new pioneers have advanced our profession with new information. In all of the health professions, chiropractic stands alone in its tenacity to cling to the past.
I am forever grateful to past contributors to the science of chiropractic. However, "doctors" must first be scientists, not philosophers. The current science of anatomy, physiology, neurology, etc., does not support a "bone-out-of-place" concept of treatment. It doesn't matter how many words of justification: subluxation-based practice, adjustments vs. manipulation, chiropracTORS, etc. The facts remain: The human body that we treat suffers from joint dysfunction and, therefore, our treatment methods and theories must reflect that fact.
Criticizing the profession for abandoning outdated concepts is absurd. Those doctors that are advancing our profession with new ideas and scientific information should be applauded, not harassed. "True believers" that fail to accept current scientific information should be pitied. Hopefully, in time they too will respond to the overwhelming amount of scientific information available to them.
Chiropractic in the 90s should at least reflect terminology and scientific fact derived from literature in the last half century. I look forward to the centennial year of chiropractic in 1995. Just for fun, it might be interesting to dress 1895 style as people often do at such celebrations. I might even adjust all my patients prone that day, but in my heart I'll know that it is 1995 and chiropractic is much, much more than shoving misaligned bones into place.
Terry M. Elder, D.C.
MPI Faculty
Dear Editor:
Sometime in November, following the presidential elections, the ACA declared a legislative emergency. President-elect Bill Clinton has vowed to have a health care plan in his first 100 days. The current outline has no provision for chiropractic care. This should be frightening to every practicing, retired student chiropractor.
I was asked by the ACA to contact four people who were not currently ACA members to ask them to join. My first impression was that this would be easy. With nationalized health care just around the corner and no mention of DCs, I felt anyone would quickly open their checkbooks; I was wrong.
Of the four local practicing DCs I contacted, these are the results:
John McDaniel, D.C., CCSP
Mountain View, California
Dear Editor:
To Jacob Green, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert Itkin, D.C., a big thank you for expressing the feelings of many of us in the health care professions. Your thoughts and rationale are exactly correct. The chiropractic profession would certainly be better off without Medicare inclusion and will probably be better off without inclusion in any national health program.
My experience after 20 years in practice is that the health care seeking public is even more disgusted with the government programs than is the health care provider. And looking at the statistics for the number of participating providers in the various state Medicare manuals, shows a clear and consistent decline in the number of participating physicians.
As Dr. Green states so accurately, the chiropractic physician is becoming the first line of contact with the health care system, meaning less expensive and more effective, and certainly more the family practice specialist than our medical colleagues.
Unlike Dr. Itkin, I don't feel that chiropractors will experience a period of hardship during the transition to an excluded system. Quite the opposite, especially for those of us who already made the changes a number of years ago to the non-third-party pay type of practice.
Now, if we could just get our national organizations to get their collective heads out of the billfolds (and ours) and understand that a free-market system has always benefitted the most people at the lowest cost, we would have the absolute best in health care for anybody that needed it. And we certainly don't need more specialists (not even chiropractic specialists), we need more "generalists" to provide entry-level health care and wellness. I firmly believe that this is the role that the chiropractic physician is best qualified to successfully fulfill.
Are we musculoskeletal specialists or are we health care providers?
Steven J. Parkin, D.C.
LeMars, Iowa
Dear Editor:
Dr. Joe Keating's article, "We Don't Need More Anecdotes," in the December 18, 1992 issue of Dynamic Chiropractic was a breath of fresh air for chiropractors who are continuously brainwashed by a large number of slanted and pseudoscientific chiropractic publications.
The candor of Dr. Keating, supported by intelligent, scientific objectivity, can provide important guidance for a profession that is struggling for the credibility it needs to function in the scientific community.
If the leadership in the chiropractic profession had views similar to those of Dr. Keating, the profession would not have so many problems.
Unfortunately, there are not enough Joe Keatings in the chiropractic profession, or at least up until now they have not been expressing themselves.
Hats off to Dr. Keating.
Samuel Homola, D.C.
Panama City, Florida
Dear Editor:
For the life of me I can't understand Joseph Keating, Ph.D. What can he fear from anecdotal reporting? ("DC", December 18, 1992, "We Don't Need More Anecdotes.") Is solid, rock-hard, objective, real scientific research so unstable as to be undermined by anecdotal reporting?
When I responded to the request for anecdotal successes, I did not respond for the sophisticated researcher who can't understand that fact is fact, truth is truth (nonfact is nonfact, untruth is untruth also), whether it has been scientifically proved or not. I responded for the poor soul who may not know what successes are possible in chiropractic. There may be some recent graduate who doesn't realize that just because Dr. Keating and the other researchers have not yet proven that it can be done, does not mean that it cannot be done.
I get the distinct feeling there are researchers among us who would disband the profession until they have scientifically proven every aspect of it. I promise not to let Dr. Keating's findings, or lack of them, undermine my work with sick people. I hope he has enough, I hesitate to say, faith, in his work not to abandon it because some of us are willing to state we do have successes even where he wishes we didn't.
John G. Watson, D.C.
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Dear Editor:
As always, I read Dr. Andersen's Clinical Nutrition column with great interest. I want to take this opportunity to add one suggestion to his "Food for Thought" list for 1993. If our profession wants; better doctors, we should start with better students.
One easy solutions to this problem is to make the MCAT test a prerequisite to applying to a chiropractic college for admission. This is a test of the basic sciences that most medical and physical therapy schools require as a prerequisite.
The premed and health students know only that they want to help people. They want to get sick people well. This is a noble goal. To achieve this goal most students only know of allopathic medicine or physical therapy. If they knew they had the chiropractic profession as an option, they might choose it.
Let us take the New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls, New York for example. This school has a wonderful new campus: a campus so fully equipped that one could create "Frankenstein the Chiropractor." But who knows anything about it? The school is located in the midst of several top-notch undergraduate colleges with probably thousands of premed, biology, and health science majors all wanting to know how to get sick people well. Okay, NYCC, make the MCAT a prerequisite, then train and send your recruiters to hold a "chiropractic education day" on campus for the students.
Let us teach them about the wonderful healing abilities of the human body and the power they will have in their own two hands. Can you imagine all of those fertile, idealistic young minds listening and learning about Wilk vs. AMA, the RAND study, the Meade study, etc., reading complimentary copies of JMPT, and learning that there is a better way. I will bet many will be salivating like Pavlov's dogs, wanting to join our growing yet underdog profession.
The students are hungry, why don't we give them something to eat?
John Thomas Cece, D.C.
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Continuing to impress the advertising and marketing world, The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) has again been recognized by industry organizations for its excellence in educating consumers on the benefits of chiropractic, this time through social media, newsletters, and demonstrating thought leadership by promoting holistic well-being.
Dr. Louis Sportelli received the Lee-Homewood Chiropractic Heritage Award during the annual conference of the Association for the History of Chiropractic (AHC). During his nearly 60-year career, Dr. Sportelli has embodied the spirit of the award, given to “living individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the chiropractic profession.”
Presently there is no consensus on the best treatment for Achilles tendon rupture; and its management is still controversial. The treatment options are conservative treatment and surgical repair. With either treatment, be it conservative or surgical, Achilles tendon tears necessitate prolonged recovery and rehabilitative management.
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