Time to Take the Lead (or Die by Free Dinners)
Dear Editor:
I am both a licensed DC and MD (internal medicine) in Chicago. I have seen a growing problem that threatens the existence and legitimacy for every DC practicing today, yet could also position chiropractors in a vital role in changing the health care system.
When I was practicing in a hospital, I was very disappointed in the way we were managing diabetes with ever-escalating doses of medicines and only cursory advise given on lifestyle. After I joined a group of chiropractors, I was able to truly focus on reversing diabetes through aggressive dietary modification, exercise (including the correct dose of resistance and aerobic activities), and appropriate medications (in the lowest doses that have enough data to support use). I can tell you that hands down, lifestyle modifications do more to arrest or reverse the course of diabetes than any medication I can prescribe.
Imagine my dismay when I began seeing ads in our internal literature promising "thousands of dollars" in profits paid by patients, often in cash collectible on the first visit, for various programs to reverse diabetes. This is morally objectionable. The way to reverse diabetes (in most cases) is through common-sense patient education (yes, I have patients who have reversed diabetes, are on no medications, and did not spend "thousands of dollars" to do so).
I am not saying the various nutritional and functional medicine programs out there are not valuable. I just feel that for a disease which is destroying entire communities, especially lower-socioeconomic, we should take the lead in opening the "cure" to all comers. I do not know what shape that should come in, but by marketing a "cure" to only the patients lured into a free "diabetes dinner and lecture," we are no different (worse, actually) than the pharmaceutical companies are in pricing some of their new hepatitis drugs at more than $1,000 per pill!
Colleagues, we are at a time when we have an opportunity to impact our communities in ways the medical profession has only dreamed of. I ask you, is it worth it to withhold lifesaving care from millions so vacation homes and boat payments can be made?
Thomas Albert, DC, MD
Chicago, Ill.
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