Well, baseball season is about to begin, and most of the conversation is dominated by commentary about steroids — who was arrested, who denies everything, which records may now be tainted, and who seems to have lost an awful lot of weight over the off season. In a related story, a recent study showed that the use of antibiotics dramatically increases the likelihood of breast cancer.
The sad part of it is, the powers-that-be can find the perpetrators of such crimes and deal with them, without ever noticing the philosophy that keeps producing them. The problem is not using antibiotics or steroids — those are symptoms. The cause is the belief in looking outside to address inner issues.
The reason chiropractic has had such a hard time being accepted in the marketplace is not based on results — those have been demonstrated over and over, in chiropractors’ offices world wide. It’s not even based on economics, though at times I would have thought that was true — actually, it’s obvious enough to anyone who bothers to look that someone who observes a chiropractic lifestyle has a better probability of long term health and wellness than someone who does not, thereby minimizing the catastrophic care that ultimately eats the bulk of each family’s health dollar.
No, the reason for our struggle in the marketplace is because entire generations of our citizens have been misled into thinking that life is lived outside-in — if you want to be super-strong, take a drug that enhances your muscles. If you want to fight an illness, take a medication that fights it for you. How can we expect our neighbors to embrace the inside-out philosophy of chiropractic when everything they’ve learned is exactly the opposite?
This is why patient education is so critically important, not only for building a practice but for reshaping the consciousness of our communities. Selling chiropractic as a treatment for conditions is certainly easier to get across, but the real transformation only happens when your patients start to understand why chiropractic works as well as it does.
Each chiropractor must accept the responsibility to inform his or her sphere of influence about this vital distinction. It’s more than just getting the chiropractic message out — that is important enough in its own right. But the real truth is, our world is in crisis largely because this outside-in philosophy has permeated our culture, shaping our politics, our scientific research, our entertainment and leisure, the way we educate our children, literally everywhere we look.
As a member of a small minority that perceives the value of looking at life above-down-inside-out, it’s up to you to lead others toward it. Take a few extra minutes each day to single out someone in your practice who would be receptive, and share some of the reasons why you do what you do, in the simplest terms possible. That conversation might re-direct someone’s path, and perhaps one kid who was headed for Prozac or Ritalin might be saved. Health and wellness come from within — please say so.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
PS It’s your last chance to catch the first quarter 2004 MVP in New Jersey — learn to improve your leadership, your marketing, your patient education and your confrontational tolerance! Special guest speaker Richard Flint provides some of the most practical team building and staff management advice you will ever hear, so come and get motivated, while learning specific techniques for building a bigger and better practice. We’ve even added continuing education for many states — to register for the NJ MVP on 3/12-13, or for more info, call 800-451-4514 or go to www.themasterscircle.com.
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