Some of the Basics

Without a doubt one of the most difficult enterprises in the scheme of human endeavor is to be a member of the healing arts. Each profession battles for "turf" supremacy: The allopaths want everything; dentists, the teeth; optometrists, the eyes; and chiropractors -- everything -- through the spine.

Our biggest problem is the "turf" battle within our profession. As I've stated so many times, when have you heard of such philosophical nonsense as a fight within the dental profession as to whether they should only be allowed to work on molars or incisors? Or optometrists who feel that only the left eye should be within the purview of their practice? Absurd? Of course. Yet we have our historic straight/mixer conflict and within even that we have "quack battles" over ways to adjust and even which specific vertebra needs adjusting. Differences of opinion are okay, but we in chiropractic take differences to a greater dimension by calling others "quacks" for not agreeing or not practicing chiropracTIC the way a chosen few determine it should be.

Add to this our professional enemies in medicine and physical therapy and our legislative enemies; it's a wonder we have offices to go to on Monday.

Yet with it all, we not only survive but thrive. Like most other endeavors, if the seed of truth is within, something it will grow.

As we've heard so many times, chiropractic is the largest of the drugless healing arts, the second largest overall and one of the fastest growing. Since the preponderance of practitioners in the profession are mixers, the public has become accustomed to more than just adjustive procedures. Quite often they will ask the chiropractic physician about such diverse subjects as exercise and nutrition, recognizing a presumed expertise in diverse areas of conservative care.

If the preceding is true, that we are the largest and most effective alternative to allopathic medicine, then it seems to be our duty to offer to an expectant public everything that has been proven conservative, safe, and viable.

One of the closest modalities to fulfill the preceding is homeopathy. Along with chiropractic, homeopathy is one of the fastest growing of all the conservative health alternatives. You would think we would jump at the opportunity to more dimensionally serve the welfare of our patients. Instead, in true chiropractic fashion, we procrastinate as opportunities sink into the quicksand of indecision.

Never before has such an opportunity to expand our therapeutic horizons been presented. Yet, when the chance to learn about homeopathy is given, we have to think about it, and then think about it some more, and some more, and some more.

Recently, a bright young medical practitioner who has made many contributions to homeopathic literature offered a seminar in California. Once this was discovered, a self-proclaimed group of chiropractic homeopathic experts (of course) decided (naturally) to make waves by challenging the right of anyone but their little club to decide what should be taught and who should teach it. They seemed not to care about the genuine welfare of homeopathy in chiropractic, just who governed the territory.

They didn't have to worry. The course was canceled because of apathy. All that anyone who inquired about the seminar wanted to know was, "Can I get relicensing credit?" Who cared if they learned something? They would rather fall asleep during a discourse on insurance proceedings than be exposed to a dynamic form of therapy that could change the welfare of not only their patients but their practices as well.

It is my personal conviction that once enough chiropractors have been exposed to homeopathy they will see the natural synergism between it and chiropractic. It will enter their practice concepts with a natural grace.

Let's expose you now to some of these basic concepts and see if they aren't things that could become important to your practice.

Homeopathy works by and on the theory that healing takes place from within outward, from above downward, from the more important to the less important organs, and in the reverse order of their appearance. Sound somewhat familiar? It also works with naturally occurring substances.

Homeopathy doesn't claim to cure, rather to enhance the body's natural defense mechanism.

It does this by "listening" to the body and then attempting to create an environment within it to cure itself by interpreting what it says.

It doesn't treat the symptoms, for they are just the "voices" the body uses to communicate. Rather, it attempts to address the cause of the pathological process.

Homeopathy is safe. Homeopathy is effective. Homeopathy is inexpensive.

Homeopathy is the true synergist to any form of natural health care. Yet, we still stand digging our professional toe in the sand wondering whether we should take this powerful natural modality under the chiropractic umbrella.

This indecision is manifest because of laziness, fear, and stupidity. Laziness because who wants to be bothered with doing more when so many have "in and out" practices? Fear because we're constantly being informed that we can do so little, and who wants to take on added responsibilities anyway? And stupidity because some in the profession believe that all thought stopped when B.J. Palmer put down his pen.

Personally I reject the preceding for I believe that in the long run intelligent and informed young men and women will demand that common sense and the honest desire to help their patients must prevail.

And this will all happen from above down and inside out.

RHT