Here my very short version of the history of chiropractic.
Once upon a time there was a doctor named D. D. Palmer and a janitor named Harvey. The janitor was working one day, when all of the sudden, his back went “whack” and then he couldn’t hear. When Harvey told Dr. Palmer about what had happened, Palmer looked at Harvey’s back and found that he had a vertebra that wasn’t where it belonged. Palmer asked Harvey if he thought this was the bone that went whack when he lost his hearing. Harvey told the doctor that he thought so. Being an enlightened thinker, Dr. Palmer reasoned that if he could fix Harvey’s back, perhaps his hearing might come back. Well as the story goes, Dr. Palmer did fix Harvey’s back and his hearing was restored. That was the beginning of chiropractic.
The history of chiropractic from there is wild and crazy. Back then and to some extent still today chiropractors are always questioning the medical establishment. Chiropractors were then, and often are today, disliked by mainstream medicine. The AMA even tried to wipe out the chiropractic profession and was found guilty in the US Supreme court of breaking all kinds of laws in the process. Read all about its HERE.
In spite of all the efforts of the AMA and insurance companies, chiropractic is still around. I believe the reason chiropractic is still here is that people would like to be healthy without drugs and surgery. The public is becoming wise to the lie that when we are sick or in pain, we just need a drug to fix it and make it all better. There is even a major motion picture coming out this fall called “Doctored” about all this. Check out a couple of trailers for the movie:
I’m excited about the future of chiropractic. A good chiropractor is the perfect doctor to help people who want to be healthy, and to get to the root of their health problems, not just alleviate symptoms. Chiropractors have not been under the indoctrination of the drug companies. Do you know how many drug companies have bought me lunch, or paid for me to go to Hawaii, or given me all kinds of gifts over the last 20 years? Zip, zero, none, not even one! Whose opinion is going to be free from the influence of drug companies, a chiropractor or a medical doctor? I didn’t become a chiropractor because I wanted to be in the mainstream, respected by everyone as “The DOCTOR” or to have that covered parking for my expensive sports car. I knew that the mainstream medical institution would always look at me as a second-class alternative health care provider. I chose chiropractic because I wanted to help people without drugs or surgery. So, when I treat a patient, my only concern is finding the source of this problem and doing what it takes to eliminate the source. I’m not interested in treating symptoms–they will disappear when the root of the problem is corrected.
This year I began to expand the scope of my practice. By doing a comprehensive history and lab work-up, I’m helping my patients get healthy on a whole new level. I am seeing patients cured of disease without the drugs they’d been given to treat it when previously diagnosed by a medical doctor. It has been one of the most enjoyable times in my 25 years in practice. In the future, I will be writing more about the different problems we are finding and treating. I think most people will be surprised at what we are finding and successfully treating.
The history of chiropractic is one of people willing to question the status quo in order to help people get healthy. I’m proud to part of the history of chiropractic and I’m excited about changing the future of healthcare as a chiropractor.
