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Little-Known Facts About the History of Chiropractic Marketing

Editor's note: The following letter to the editor is in response to "Wish List for Chirohistory," by Joseph C. Keating Jr., PhD. In that article, he listed topics about which he'd like to read or write in "his remaining years." Among those topics: a history of marketing in chiropractic, including such entities as the Burton Shields Company, which is the subject of the following letter addressed directly to Dr. Keating.

Dear Dr. Keating:

I read with interest, in the Oct. 26, 2006 issue of Dynamic Chiropractic, your desire to have additional information on certain areas of chiropractic, including marketing and the Burton-Shields Company.

I graduated from Palmer in 1963. I used different tracts and promotional flyers from different companies, including the "Chiropractic Educator" from Palmer, and the "Health Builder" from Burton Shields.

In the early 70s, Burton Shields sent a letter with its order form, asking for someone to submit some articles. I decided to write an article. I decided to use a low-key approach - not that chiropractic was superior to taking care of certain disorders, but the relativity of the spine and nerves to the glands and organs, which may impede normal function there and cause the malfunction. The article was accepted and the company requested more articles. (Apparently, I was the only one to submit an article.)

Over the next 15 years, I continued to write for Burton Shields. I wrote articles on exercise, health diets, latest non-chiropractic science research on health technology and a host of other topics. I never wrote on treating diseases with chiropractic care. I often wrote about or included the important benefit of preventive maintenance care through regular checkups and adjustments. Very often, I included discussion of totally non-related problems with the primary disorder discussed.

After 15 years, the owner became ill and the company was put up for sale. I do not know who bought it or if Burton Shields just folded up. A few years later, apparently one of the family members tried to resurrect the company and again contacted me. However, at that time I was too busy, so I did not take up writing again. I don't think the company ever re-established itself.

I started chiropractic care in 1956 with Dr. William Roher. He was a 1926 graduate of Eastern Chiropractic College. Dr. Roher was a member of the American Chiropractic Bureau and a charter member of the ICA. He had many innovative marketing and advertising methods. (He was in marketing before he entered chiropractic.)

Frederick Vlietstra, DC
Middletown, New York

The Intelligence of Nerve Transmission

Editor's note: While Dr. David Seaman's recent article series on the "curse of chiropractic" generated considerable reader response, only a portion of which was published in our We Get Letters & E-Mail section, we thought the following commentary provided an additional perspective on the topic. Dr. Seaman concludes his series with a two-part article on the "cure for the curse," beginning in the Jan. 29, 2007 issue.

Dear Editor:

Regarding Dr. Seaman's most recent article, I agree with many of his points. I concur that those in the straight community should broaden their outlook of the vertebral subluxation concept. I also agree that universal intelligence may be considered a pseudonym for God and innate intelligence a pseudonym for soul. However, is that foolishness? Or is it foolish to think otherwise?

Can intelligence evolve from energy/matter? If so, how does energy/matter control the intelligence? Does the arrangement of the atoms in my brain control my thoughts? If so then my life is determined. I have no control. It also means there is no such thing as placebo effects; all changes due to faith first occur by changing the energy/matter of the body and causing the patient to have faith.

Therefore to simultaneously believe in evolution of intelligence from matter and placebo effects is contradictory. Straight chiropractors do not suffer from that inconsistency.

As to Stephenson's idea of the curse of chiropractic, I believe Seaman entirely misses the point. If we define intelligence as the ability to adapt to new and trying situations, and if we realize that intelligence cannot evolve, it follows that intelligence pre-existed the patterns of energy/matter which we recognize as the physical universe.

If we realize that the ability to adapt happens by transference of intelligence from one intelligent organism to another, we realize that adaptation which occurs in the body is similar to the adaptation which occurs in the adaptation of a business. A leader recognizes a problem and makes a decision. In the case of the human body, the leader is innate intelligence, the soul. In the case of a business, it is the manager or president of the company. The leader must then instruct the workers to carry out the decision. In the human body, the workers are cells. In the business organization, the workers are people. Both the cells and people have their own intelligence. The cells and people respond to the instructions given them.

How are the instructions sent? In both cases, the messages are encoded in electromagnetic signals. In the business organization, the messages are encoded in paper memos (ink blots on paper, which are arrangements of energy/matter), e-mail (sent via electromagnetic signals to a display that glows due to an arrangement of energy/matter), or simply voice (sent via sound waves through the air or interruptions in the vibration over a wire, other arrangements of energy/matter). In the case of the human body, the messages are sent via mental impulses (variations in nerve signal, an arrangement of energy/matter).

Seaman misses the point that there is an intelligent message (mental impulse) in the nerve transmission. The intelligence can be blocked but it cannot be increased. The business analogy provides great examples. If a leader sends a paper memo, more ink on the paper (as in the case of a leaky printer cartridge) does not improve the message. More ink can actually make the message unintelligible. In the case of an e-mail, electromagnetic interference can also disrupt the message to the point that it cannot be read. In the case of voice communication, interference due to competing noise in a room can cause so much interference that the message cannot be understood.

In the case of voice over a telephone wire or a radio, electromagnetic interference can create static which is increased vibration of the speaker mechanism, and the intelligence in the message can be lost. In each of those examples, the amount of signal was increased but the intelligence was blocked. It is even more obvious that a reduction in signal: too little ink, not enough signal strength to the display, too little power to the speaker, can result in loss of intelligence.

Is it possible that either decreased or increased vibration (as the analogies sited previously) over the nerve causes a loss of the intelligence which is being transmitted? Is it possible that either too much or too little vibration is disease? D. D. Palmer and Stephenson seemed to think that the answers to both of those questions were yes. That was, and continues to be, the point.

Robert C. Affolter, MBA, DC
Postgraduate Faculty,
Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic
Bellingham, Washington