The Doctor of the Future

"The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease." — Thomas Edison.

We chiropractors are the doctors of the future. It is as simple as that. No other healthcare provider is as educated in human anatomy and physiology as we are from a natural standpoint.

This is who you are; like it or not, the responsibility is ours and ours alone. Shifting the population of the world to a new approach to the care of the human body is our destiny. As a profession, we need to stand together and rally together around the principles upon which we can all agree.

Many of these principles may work together; many may work for some, but not others; but our true collective strength lies in the quickly disappearing stronghold of our profession: the independent, stand-alone chiropractic office.

There are many reasons for this and I will elaborate further, but I first want to deliver the good news: for those who want to open their own office, building a practice from scratch is not as difficult as it may seem. I should know: I have built two of them from scratch in highly competitive markets, and they have both been very successful.

First, you have to decide, what kind of life do I want to live? What contribution do I feel compelled to make? What do I want to do, and am I willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for it? Am I willing to shape my own life and not be imprisoned by the confines of societal pressures?

More Than Money

Money is always a contributing factor in any person's path to their lifestyle; however, it can be, and often is, the most limiting factor in suppressing our ability to actually accomplish and reach our true goals.

Wealth has always been the most powerful distraction because we have all been taught it is the measure of success. Nothing could be further from the truth. We all focus on the most popular news – the falls from grace, so to speak, of the rich and or famous. Why is this? Are we really so petty that we thrive on the failure of others?

Is it another lie, propagated to keep you imprisoned in you quest for wealth and notoriety? No. The real reason we are drawn to the reporting of the fall of the rich is because deep down, the truth is revealed to us: popularity and wealth do not change anything. Happiness is just as elusive; we have just been made to think otherwise.

Talking about happiness and wealth, do you know Thomas Edison invented a light bulb based on DC, or direct current, very safe, but not as efficient as AC, or alternating current; and which his intern, Nikola Tesla, invested in? Edison believed and stated that alternating current will kill untold thousands of people, and he was right, as many have died because of alternating current.

Edison stood by his principles and did not financially gain from his invention; however, Tesla did. Why? Edison had a philosophy that human lives are more important than the efficiency of alternating current. He chose not to get rich off something he did not believe in.

Make sure you choose to stand by your principles and beliefs, and you, too, will know happiness. What's more important than doing what you love and believe in?

What interests the doctor of the future is of utmost importance. Recently, I had a talk with a patient and they said, "I just want to know what's wrong with me." And therein lies the problem: Our population has been taught to look at their body as a corroding, inanimate object; a bunch of parts susceptible to failure.

What did I want to know? What is right with you! No matter what the problem or disease is, supporting the requirements for a healthy body will always help, sometimes with amazing results.

What We Do

Seven years ago, I had a life-changing experience. A 13-month-old boy named Jake was brought to my office by his mother with hydrocephalus, or what she called water on the brain. She asked if I could help him, as he was scheduled for surgery in a few weeks.

I examined his spine and found his neck restricted and out of alignment. I told her I didn't know if I could help, but he'd be much better off with this corrected than not.

Before seeing me, Jake didn't sleep for more than two hours at a time, couldn't hold down anything except a special formula and wasn't crawling yet. Within two weeks after his mother brought him in, he was crawling around, held down whatever food his mom gave him and was sleeping through the night.

Jake's mom said she thought his head looked smaller, too; it had been about 40 percent larger than normal at presentation. I couldn't tell; maybe I should have done measurements, but I wasn't treating his hydrocephalus – I was adjusting his subluxations.

Six weeks after Jake's initial visit (I saw him daily for six weeks), I got a call from Jake's mom; they were at the doctor's office reviewing his pre-surgery scan. Jake's mom said, "It's gone." I asked, "Is is it better?" She said, "No Dr. Rick, it's gone and the doctors are arguing about the scan, and they said that it couldn't just go away!

Then Jake's aunt piped up and said, "Of course it's gone! We took Jake to my chiropractor, Dr. Rick. Jake's mom told me later, "You should have seen the look on [the MDs'] faces" when they heard that.

So, no shunt, no surgery; the only thing remaining was a poster-sized thank-you note where Jake (actually his parents wrote it for him) called me his hero. It's hanging by my door. I used that opportunity to tell them I did not heal him; I just restored his own ability to heal.

Nothing could have brought the importance of our job home to me more than that experience. Our job is to disseminate that message, the philosophy of health, to guide our patients on a quest for health and see what nature can do. It's as simple as that.

"What's wrong with me, what's broken? If I had Dr. House, he could find the problem and fix me." That is the message being consistently driven into our patients' heads.

Edison got it right: no medications for the body, because then it has to heal twice, once from the disease and once from the medication. The human frame is what matters; nothing is more chiropractic than that.

Then there's diet: what you put in your mouth is the most important decision you make on a daily basis. And the cause of disease? The lack of health is never even considered except in a passing recommendation. Prevention of disease is what we do as chiropractors.

Where there is any dysfunction of the body, you will always find corresponding spinal dysfunction. Which came first ... and does it matter? Never underestimate the healing power of the body.

You are the doctor of the future; all you have to do is decide to be that doctor. Always follow your principles and beliefs, and practice with that in mind.

Doing what you love and loving what you do will bring true happiness and wealth to you and your practice. The future is upon us and there is no one more capable than you to be that doctor. The duty is yours.

We chiropractors as a profession need to come together with these basic principles, the ones we can agree upon no matter how you practice, and take our rightful place as the doctors of the future.