What differentiates us from other health care professionals or traditional Western medicine? This is the question you must answer Doing so will help you not only be able to describe what you do, or craft your "elevator speech"; it will also be the foundation for the management of your practice and your patient care. What's more, it will help guide you through raising a healthy and happy, naturally empowered family. I know this because it has done this for me. So, what is the answer? What differentiates how we practice? What is it that sets us apart?
Support vs. Suppression
System support is touted in many aspects of health care, but is it really system support, a good-intentioned symptom- / disease-based approach, or a sales tool? These days, we more commonly hear, "We are going to focus on the problem" in health care. However, the problem-based approach is usually guided by the symptoms; the target is a diagnosis or disease. What separates us as chiropractors? Our philosophy separates us.
Disease based care is a philosophy, too; a science-based approach that sees the body as a bunch of parts functioning together and inherently vulnerable to sickness and disease. Disease-based care is always looking for a diagnosis, whether it be failure of a part, the body being infected with a pathogen, or more recently, a genetic weakness. The treatment approach is to attack the weakness, sickness or disease with any and all means possible: chemotherapy, from aspirin to methotrexate; surgery, to repair or remove weakened, broken or genetically inferior parts; or symptom suppression to allow the patient to tolerate their failing health.
The power that made the body heals the body – it's not just a cool poster in my office; it is a philosophy that the body has an inherent wisdom and that we should never interfere with the bodies healing processes, never force a change, and only support and respect the bodies healing potential. Nature is greater than science; your healing potential is greater than you've been allowed to believe. And the symptoms? The symptoms are part of that process.
Teaching System Support: Focus on the Basics
The problem is the lack of health, that's it. To be at optimum health, you must support the systems of the body, since they all work together. But as with any good team, you need a leader. What is the leader of the systems of the body? The nervous system. All the systems of the body need support, first and foremost the nervous system (chiropractic). But the body also requires air, food, water, exercise, sleep and many other requirements that are often overlooked.
How can you teach your patients to embrace your support-based care and the philosophy of system support? Rather than focusing on a specific organ, for example, the kidneys, supply the basic tenets of health to the body. Let's start with nervous system function and quality, chlorine- and fluoride free water! If you can get a patient to comply with that, then maybe a check of their toxic intake is the next step: diet soda, medication use including any and all synthetic vitamins and inorganic minerals (especially calcium carbonate), etc. Next, assess and recommend changes to what they're eating: for example, unsweetened cranberry juice rather than Red Bull.
Fresh air is also important for the kidneys (smokers can have kidney effects), as is sleep and moderate exercise. Assess your patients' lifestyle behaviors with regard to these necessities, and suggest changes as necessary.
Never underestimate the healing power of the body. If you get these basics in order and allow the body at least six weeks to heal, your patient will be amazed at the results! If they still have impaired kidney function, you can try a kidney-specific protocol (for example, studies have shown kidney beans support the kidneys).
Intelligence at work is the foundation of our philosophy; working to support and never interfere with that intelligence is paramount to a successful chiropractor. After all, even RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) is symptom based. After all, what is inflammation? White blood cells, congregating in the affected or injured area to repair the damage, that's what it is. Should we interfere? I love the look on a patient's face when they come in with a swollen ankle that's been sprained and I tell them, "Great, your body is working perfectly!"
System support with chiropractic philosophy is easily accomplished by supporting the four basic requirements for life, and subsequently health: nervous system function (chiropractic); air (non-invasive air filtration, HEPA, UV, charcoal, water-based systems; water (no chlorine, fluoride, and definitely no vitamin-fortified water); and food (real food ... period).
The Power of Real Food
Real food is easy to recognize; real food is a living thing. You can't synthetically make a blade of grass, let alone any living thing. We are part of a food chain, and that chain is a chain of living things. So much of today's sickness and disease can and has been attributed to this synthetic lifestyle. Real food has intelligence, just like every living cell. Support the assimilation system by providing real food, which is what nature has always intended and provided.
This is the philosophy of system support: supporting the innate potential and intelligence of all the cells, organs and the body as a whole; supplying the necessary foundations of life and health, and fully embracing the power of nature. It is also the chiropractic philosophy; what separates us from the status quo. This is what separates us as chiropractors, and it is the wave of the future. I call on all chiropractors to join me as leaders in the health care revolution we are witnessing.
When I graduated from chiropractic college in 1981 and started practice, I heard it all, and very little was positive. “You are a quack; you do not know what a subluxation is; you couldn’t get into a real health care program, so you chose the one that is slightly above a mail-order degree; you have no proof that chiropractic works; Are you really licensed?”, and so much more.
| Digital Exclusive
A central challenge in creating our identity is that chiropractic is a method of care, not a technique or procedure. This is an important concept for us to promote. Our patients are treated with lifestyle modification, exercise, nutritional supplements, diet and a whole-body approach to accelerate the natural healing process. We are not simply CMT providers.
The results of a global survey released late last year (2023) unveiled some startling findings among medical and nursing students. The “Clinician of the Future: 2023 Education Edition” surveyed 2,212 students, of which 446 were in the United States, from 91 countries.
