Like many of my contemporaries, I chose chiropractic as a career because I wanted to make the world a better place. Helping people to achieve their potential as human beings was the vision. Today's crisis in health care speaks more eloquently than words of the timeliness of this opportunity.
Medical physicians Wayne Jonas and David Rakel wrote, "Leadership is crucial. We need the innovators who will reach out and grab the concepts of health and caring that are now sitting out in the periphery and bring them into the mainstream ...We need the industry - producing the tools and technologies for a wellness system as powerful and as vast as the disease treatment system we currently have. Imagine a system that has expertise in the creation of health. What would it look like, and what kind of professionals would be needed for it to succeed?"1
Promoting the Right Lifestyle Choices
I propose that the chiropractic profession is perfectly poised to provide this leadership. From its inception, the chiropractic profession has noted the significance of lifestyle choices. D.D. Palmer acknowledged the role of physical, chemical, and emotional stress in the dynamics of health and disease when he wrote, "[T]he determining cause of disease are traumatism, poison, and autosuggestion."2 Chiropractors have acknowledged these factors as causes of vertebral subluxations, as well as contributors to disease in their own right. Consider the impact that lifestyle factors have on health care costs and health-related quality of life:
Epigenetics--Changing Gene Expression
Exciting as the above findings are, they take on a new level of significance when considered in the context of epigenetics. As cell biologist Bruce Lipton explained, "It is now recognized that the environment, and more specifically, our perception (interpretation) of the environment, directly controls the activity of our genes. Environment controls gene activity through a process known as epigenetic control."11
Simply stated, we are not slaves to our DNA. Our interpretation of the environment determines how genes express themselves, and we can direct our interpretation of life's events. We are not bound by biochemical caprice. As sentient beings, we sculpt our biology.
According to a recent issue of Time magazine, "Factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next."12 The article noted that lifestyle factors in parents could profoundly affect the longevity of their children. In a seminal study, Dean Ornish and colleagues found that comprehensive lifestyle changes altered gene expression in patients with prostate cancer.13 The study found that more than 500 genes changed their expression. Newsweek reported that "New research shows that improved diet, meditation and other non-medical interventions can actually 'turn off' the disease-promoting process in men with prostate cancer."14
The message for the chiropractor is stunning: Lifestyle choices may result in changes in gene expression that are passed to future generations. As stated by Walters in Discover magazine, "Epigenetics is proving we have some responsibility for the integrity of our genome ... Before, genes predetermined outcomes. Now everything we do ... can affect our gene expression and that of future generations. Epigenetics introduces the concept of free will into our idea of genetics."15
Hyman, Ornish, and Roizen observed, "Personalized lifestyle medicine is a high-science, high-touch, low-tech, low-cost treatment that is more effective for the top 5 chronic diseases than our current approaches. Yet is it not taught in medical schools, practiced by physicians, or delivered in hospitals or healthcare settings ... If lifestyle medicine becomes central to the practice of medicine, our sick care system will be transformed into a healthcare system."8
As a chiropractor, you are a facilitator in determining humanity's legacy. The decisions you make, and the actions you take today, sculpt your future and that of humanity. Step up to the plate and provide that leadership.
References
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?
