Dear Doctor:
It’s chiropractic’s 110th birthday – on 9/18/1895, Harvey Lillard received an adjustment, and DD Palmer made what will be regarded as the pivotal contribution in the development of health and wellness care. So, where are we eleven decades later?
Somehow, we have yet to resolve the most basic issue – the value and intent of our work. We still squander essential resources, taking positions to prove ourselves right and our chiropractic siblings wrong. We still battle cultural misconceptions, since we air our adolescent squabbling in public. And, the health consumer isn’t much closer to appreciating the role chiropractic care can play, except in the most limited sense.
Maybe we could try what other health professions do – realize that there may be more than one right answer. Staunch adherence to an exclusive position hurts us, since there are clearly more applications to chiropractic than any faction is willing to admit.
Medications are prescribed “off-label” as a common practice, in a quest to find new and better uses of the drugs. There is no research to support much of it, but the empirical data and the observations of forward thinking medical scientists make it reasonable to pursue this approach, in spite of potential harm, tolerated in the name of progress.
So, then, what is wrong with chiropractors applying techniques to address issues that have been supported by empirical data, and observed to be useful by those who are investigating such possibilities? That’s real science, really looking at what happens, not just buying into the over-sterilized reductionist viewpoints of paranoid ultra-analyticals.
In practice, I saw people’s vision returned, blood vessels cleared without surgery, ulcers healed, tumors shrank and many diseases vanished, plus countless reports of better quality of life and wellness. Can I explain this to the satisfaction of someone trying to prove me wrong? No, often I wasn’t even trying to produce those results, I just saw them. But I, and thousands of others, witnessed this kind of response almost daily – doesn’t that suggest that there may be more to chiropractic than dealing with musculoskeletal problems? Only the most closed-minded wouldn’t want to know more.
So, Happy Birthday, Chiropractic!! Maybe as a gift this year, we’ll give you the respect you deserve. Yes, handle painful disorders, but open up to see what else chiropractic can do, and maybe we’ll build a healthier, happier and more wellness-oriented world.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
PS The Fifth Annual SuperConference is coming to Vegas! This show will blow you away, from guest speaker Deepak Chopra to the cavalcade of chiropractic stars – to register, please call 800-451-4514, or go to www.themasterscircle.com for more info.
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