It's Time for a Divorce
Dear Editor:
After being part of the chiropractic profession for over 16 years, it is very obvious that time has come for a major change. I have been on the sidelines watching the straight-mixer war deteriorate the profession, hoping that we would one day be unified and all would be well.
The merger almost happened. We all rejoiced together at the Wilk, et al., victory. We all feel proud when chiropractic is viewed positively in the media, and our chiropractic leaders don't openly bicker in every chiropractic publication that comes through the mail. I had a glimmer of hope that we could come together to help chiropractic achieve its potential. I know now -- it's not going to happen. Never. It has become very clear over the years that no matter how many good things come to us, we will never stop competing against each other. That leaves only one option open to us if we are to thrive and grow instead of self-destruct. That option is that we must divide into two professions. I know this idea is nothing new, but now is the time. To continue in the manner in which we have is nothing different than staying in a bad marriage waiting for things to get better. There comes a point where we have to someday realize that things aren't going to get better, and we will be happier and more productive apart. It is time for a divorce.
I know that a divorce can be messy; lawyers get involved and both parties fight for their property, but all the wrinkles could be worked out after a year or so of getting the ground rules laid out. The straights could be SCs (straight chiropractors) and the mixers could be DCs, for example. The motto for the SCs, "a subluxation free world," and DCs may be "whatever it takes to make sick people well" or something to that effect. All DCs would need to decide from the start what they want to be. Each profession would have their own schools and accrediting agency. Each state would have their own examining board and be responsible for its own profession. Each profession would then be allowed to grow unrestricted in the direction they want to go without worrying about what the other side is thinking. Much more progress would be made legislatively, without one side contradicting the other, and then each profession would achieve the legal rights they seek. Patients would no longer be confused by getting contradictory advise from one DC to another, but they would chose their doctor by their own experience. The benefits of two professions seem endless.
When a marriage is on the rocks, a counselor will tell each partner to make a list of pros and cons of staying married to each other. Then the couple can weigh the differences. It's time our leaders made a list for the profession. Are we, as professionals with so much potential, better off together or apart? Call in the lawyers, I'm ready for the single life.
Dana R. Miller, D.C.
Rexburg, Idaho
Dear Editor:
Mercy, mercy, mercy me, on which conference do we agree; the Murky Conference (in my terminology), or as RHT so sardonically termed the other, "The Wind Bag Conference?" Ah, yes, the superb literary style of RHT really reached the pinnacle of achievement in this article. ("The Wind Bag Conference," Dynamic Chiropractic, July 3, 1992). However, it appears to me that if anybody sounded like a wind bag most certainly it was the writer. (There now, you see, FHB, you can write like RHT).
When I first read the Murky Conference papers I said to myself, the enemy within is at it again. Then I said, no, to myself, no you are not going to comment on this murky document, the most ridiculous of all medipractic documents ever to spew forth from the lower units of chiropractoid discontents. The profession will see through this one; Barge, be quiet, "this too shall also pass." But is it passing? If anything, it is passing more odious emissions than ever. I can't believe it. With the condemnation of the Association of Chiropractic Attorneys, the ICA board, numerous state organizations, its murky cloud still hangs over us ad nauseam. I "thot" surely by now that it would have come to rest on the dung heap of pseudointellectual documents it most certainly represents. (By gosh, FHB, you really can write like RHT. Well, somebody on our side has to, so let's keep at it for a while.)
Drs. Traitano and Mixerstein jumped for joy at the results of the contrived outcome of the Murky Conference's predetermined conclusion. They were heard exultantly whispering, "Haven't we done a neat job of straight bashing. Indeed, even their near-a-calamity instruments are now investigational. The analytical fanatics will now have to prove all that they do is scientific. But not us! Our conglomerate of medical therapies has stood the test of time. Most of all we do was tried medically and osteopathically before us and that proves it's scientific -- now doesn't it? Yes, we'll prove we can diagnose as good as any MD. Mayo Clinic even had to discharge the grandson of the great Dr. Mayo for misdiagnosis; certainly we can do better than that -- now can't we?"
But that's "enuf" of writing like RHT, FHB, the motive of the not so Murky Conference should clear up as soon as everybody reads it. But, will they? If they do the murk will clear and it will be seen that this document trades our singular and unique chiropractic model of health care for the medical disease treatment model. So please, everyone, read all multihundred ponderous pages of this ill-conceived, inconsistent, clumsy and verbose diatribe. You will see that the chiropractoids are at it again.
"Chiropractoid, neither fish nor foul," as BJ would say, but as I say, smelling awfully fishy and acting awfully foul. (There you see, FHB, you can fight fire with fire. Whose laughing now.?)
But before anybody can suggest it, allow me to --
I suggest an FHB and RHT Conference. We'll call it the Initial Conference. I do think between the two of us we could come up with something a little less windy and a little less murky
So, here's to the Initial Conference, Lord have mercy upon us. But, you know, just possibly we'd agree on more than most people think. And come to think of it, if the match were refereed, then we could publish it in a RD journal.
Fred H. Barge, D.C., Ph.C.
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Dear Editor:
Medical doctor tells Congressional Subcommittee that 60 percent of DCs are quacks. This was featured in the late-breaking story section of Dynamic Chiropractic in July 17 issue.
The definition of a quack according the Steadman's Dictionary is a charlatan; a false claim to medical knowledge: Treating the sick without knowledge of medicine or authority to practice. Claiming to cure disease by useless procedures, secret remedies, diagnostic and therapeutic machines.
I am a practicing chiropractor from a pharmaceutical family. My grandfather, father, and uncle were all pharmacists. I grew up in a drug store watching their customers come in week after month, after year, after decades having their same prescriptions filled. These people never got well or cured of their supposed illness or disease. Most of these people died at an early age due to their disease or more likely from a reaction to all of the drugs they were consuming. Before I decided not to become a pharmacist, I took a real hard look at what pharmacy and medicine really were and how it originated. This brief letter does not permit me to expound on all I have learned in my research. So, in brief, the word pharmacy comes from the root word pharmakia (Greek) which is a translation from the word sorcery (Hebrew). A sorcerer was a magician in biblical days. He carried with him secret potions, pills, and lotions to treat various ailments or symptoms of the kings and rulers of that time. These pills, potions, and lotions today are called patent medicines and many still have secret formulas. Today, these potions, pills, and lotions are made by large pharmaceutical houses, i.e., Ciba, Eli Lilly, Roach laboratories, and the list goes on.
The bottom line to all this is that medicine, i.e., pharmacy, is really the quackery in health care today. Not chiropractic. The American people have been the victims of these charlatans and sorcerers, ever since the beginning of time. They have invented every magical potion, pill, and lotion they can conceive of to trick us into thinking we are well, while we remain diseased. So, when some medicine man calls you a quack, be it in your home town or on capital Hill, remind him of his own roots and origins; let him see for himself who the quack really is. By the way, in 1938 my grandfather moved to High Point North Carolina and bought his first drug store from a magician (sorcerer) who owned five drug stores in town. Pharmacy and medicine has its roots in witchcraft, sorcery, magic, and even the occult. So, if they call you a quack, do yourself a favor and go back to medical school so you can be a real quack, instead of just a chiropractor who does not prescribe potions, pills, and lotions. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, you guessed it -- a chiropractor? -- wrong -- a duck. Chiropractors don't have a license to quack (RX). Remember, it's not taught in their schools.
William A. Anderson Jr., D.C.
High Point, North Carolina
Dear Editor:
I read with interest the recent exchange between Dr. Woodard and Drs. Wisniewski and Insinna. I must agree with Dr. Woodard that the promised statistics of the advertisers are ludicrous. A 40-hour work week with 1,200 patients leaves two minutes per patient. New patients will take more time (hopefully) leaving even less time per established patient. It is also true as Drs. Wisniewski and Insinna state that 30 minutes does not insure twice the quality of care as 15 minutes. But 15 minutes does promise 100 times the quality of care as one minute.
I do not intend to respond to the ridiculous statements of Drs. Wisniewski and Insinna. I would like to reiterate them here for their sad but humorous value: "It is our mission to serve mankind by helping our fellow chiropractors to reach their potentials and serve more." "If every chiropractor was serving 1,200 patients per week, we would change the entire health care system." "Shouldn't quality be measured by the degree that life is turned on and health is restored?" "Within the split second required to perform the actual adjustment, there is a mini-micronuclear explosion as that life force is released and healing begins."
Ouch, do not pull our legs any further. Save the lay lecture analogies for the uninitiated who comes to your clinic. You are talking to the profession now. We know all about subluxations, life force, BJ, and quality of care. We know that those concepts do not apply to most practice volume companies. We also know about overutilization, hard-sell salesmanship, number of visits per patient statistics, and greed, greed, greed. We also know that this type of "practice management" course is the root cause of many of the problems our profession faces today. Everyone in the profession knows this. All those attending such seminars know this. And occasionally someone outside the profession figures this out and uses it to the embarrassment of the entire profession. Both Parker Seminars and PMA have found this out the hard way.
Such companies are not about quality of care or even subluxation care. They exist for personal bankbook care only. Read the advertisements. There is not one mention of improved patient care, new approaches to the subluxation complex, new research into the effects of subluxations or manipulation, or any other health care parameters. Let me quote:
"Increase a practice to over 200 visits that week, boost your volume instantly, 25+ new patients a week, make in the seven digit range with 15 percent overhead, process over 50 new patients in one day, explode into hypervolume" (my personal favorite), or as the other advertiser says, "absolutely explode into volume practice." I must have slept through the course in volume practice in my CCF accredited alma mater.
Drs. Wisniewski and Insinna are right about one thing, overutilization is changing the entire health care system.
But, Dr. Woodard, do not blame Dynamic Chiropractic for accepting advertising. All those attending these seminars are adults who may choose freely. The responsibility lies with them and us. Do not give them the easy ethics slip of saying, "It must be okay or someone else would stop it." To quote from another article in "DC" regarding the attack on chiropractic in Oregon and the comic strip "Pogo" by Walt Kelly, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
John McDaniel, D.C., CCSP
Mountain View, California
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."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
