It is cruelly ironic that the greatest contributors to human welfare are the most persecuted. Chiropractors have told the world for 100 years the terrible consequences of neglecting spinal care. Now we have one of the worst epidemics of chronic disease the world has ever known -- spinal degeneration. MRI and CAT scan proves it. We do not know the incidence yet, but we can suspect that most people in the world over age 35 would show evidence of it. Spinal disease is the leading cause and cost of workers' disability. Yet, medicine relentlessly resists and opposes the chiropractic battle to fight this category of degenerative disease. Why?
Looking back into the history of medicine's behavior, we find a pattern. To give an example or two will suffice. In the 1800's, Samuel Semmiliveiss announced that child bed fever, which killed millions of postpartum mothers, was caused by filthy hands, instruments, and materials used during delivery. He was at first ridiculed, disgraced, and then ostracized from the medical profession to die in ignominy. Today he is honored as the father of aseptic technique.
Anton Lavoissier was guillotined for expounding the discovery of bacterial fermentation. One hundred years later Pasteur made the same discovery and was admitted into the Hall of Fame. Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, was laughed out of the auditorium when presenting his findings. The greatest of all physicians, the man from Galilee (sic), was given a very bad time.
It is difficult to understand why the force of good is opposed so strongly. One would like to believe that chiropractic benefits, once demonstrated, would be accepted with open arms. Not that we expect adulation and honors, but is it too much to ask for a little respect? The force that drives chiropractors to help and care for people is the force of life. As Cyrano de Bergerac proclaimed in the death scene of the famous play when speaking of his ancient enemies: "I fight on! I fight on! I fight on! Yes, all my laurels you have riven away and all my roses; yet in spite of you, there is one crown I bear away with me, and tonight when I enter before God, my salute shall sweep all the stars away from the blue threshold. One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom, mine own -- and that is....my white plume." Cyrano was referring to his individuality as he did in an earlier passage where he said: "To fight or write but never to make a line I have not heard in my own heart. To travel any road under the sun, under the stars, nor care if fame or fortune lie beyond the borne. Yet with all modesty to say -- my soul be satisfied with flowers, with weeds, with thorns even, but gather them in the one garden you may call your own. In a word, I am too proud to be a parasite and if my nature lacks the germ that grows towering to heaven like the mountain pine, I stand not high it may be but alone."
The founding fathers of chiropractic, along with other pioneers, are easily identified. They are the ones with arrows in their backs. We don't seem to know better so we fight on, but sometimes we roll over and play dead. Everybody needs a little rest. Condemnation before investigation is the first law of ignorance. I believe Spencer said that, or something very close.
On the other hand, there is another principle we may want to consider. "He who does not learn from the mistakes of history is doomed to repeat them." When we don't listen to messages from a higher intelligence, innate or whatever you want to call it, we continue having the same unhappy result. I see chiropractors at a cross-road where we are confronted with a decision vital to our future niche in the world. A "standard of chiropractic care" defining a mainstream chiropractic profession. One-half trillion dollars is the present cost of health care, but it isn't health care at all -- it is disease care.
Allopathic medicine is trained to recognize, describe and analyze perhaps 100,000 disease manifestations and it has equipped itself with every sort of hospital clinic or facility imaginable, along with incredible technology for diagnosis and treatment of these diseases, from the womb to the tomb. What has chiropractic invested in this arena where the treatment of life threatening diseases and injuries are available to most people? Where do we fit? Where are we needed? Does our responsibility begin and end in cracking a joint? I am not being snide. I am serious. If it does, then we need to vote and decide. I know an ENT (ear,nose and throat) doctor who specialized in one nostril.
In my 40 years of chiropractic practice, I have arrived at my opinion of what work a chiropractor is on this earth to perform. A chiropractor is here to study all the scientific evidence and conduct appropriate research in the field of whole health care. homo sapien is a being built upon a foundation of four pillars: body mechanics, body chemistry, mental process, and spirituality. All of these, when integrated and functioning in homeostasis, make a healthy, happy being. If this is a chiropractic standard of care, let's vote on it and go for it. Ask not why. Ask, why not?
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?
