It may be just an impression,but it seems that many times the harshest critics of something are those who know the least about the thing they criticize. Not too long ago, the profession of chiropractic was attacked viciously and maliciously by the medical profession and suppressed by them politically and illegally for over fifty years. Law suits brought by chiropractors proved this conspiracy and most medical institutions and specialties were declared guilty of all charges. If you had asked medical practitioners during those years what it was they were opposing, most would not have had a clue except that we represented competition to an apparent monopoly.
For those professionals and the public at large who still know little or nothing about chiropractic, let me provide a brief explanation. First, let me point out that knowledge about the body, its construction and its functions, is available to anyone who can read and understand. It is not the private domain of any one group. The interpretation of that statement is that anyone can learn the same things about the body as anyone else.
With that knowledge, people can differ upon how the body's health can best be maintained and treated before and during any malfunctioning. Chiropractic's views stem from the belief that our bodies have the inherent ability to care for itself if all systems are "go". We also believe that when things do go wrong, the first cause should be determined and not the symptoms of that cause. Treating symptoms is painting over rust.
If, as we believe, the body has the ability to heal itself, discovering the causes which are inhibiting that ability is what is required to produce a recovery. Chiropractors believe that command and control is being compromised in some way so that normal function cannot take place. But, command and control depend upon the nerves to regulate function and if nerves have been impacted in some way that they cannot do their job efficiently, some abnormality in function will result. Conversely, if the nerve function is restored to normal, body function will follow suit.
The question, then, is what caused the abnormal nerve function and how do we fix it? Since the body is a living machine and is subject to all the physical aberrations of development and usage, when discussing "correction", we have to understand it as "optimum" correction, depending upon the limitations of each body.
In this machine we call "body", nerves can be compromised in many ways. We concern ourselves with the kind of interference caused by physical compression, stretching or irritation. The most likely places for this to occur is where the nerves are close to bones whose position can be altered by abnormal movement or position. The place where the effects of the irregularity would be the the greatest is the spinal column where major nerves exit the spinal cord between a pair of movable bones. The chiropractor repositions the offending bone, the nerve is relieved and normal function returns.
The simplicity of chiropractic offends those who practice mysterious remedies which patients, for lack of knowledge, cannot understand or question. While only 15% of their practice is actually science based, they would lead you to believe it all is. The admonishment in their oath to do no harm is not reflected in the side effects listed for the remedies they prescribe.
To this day, remnants of this conspiracy can be seen in insurance and government plans which seek to discourage and limit access to chiropractic care by placing monetary obstacles and/or unreasonable limits on the amount of care a patient may receive.
For those professionals and the public at large who still know little or nothing about chiropractic, let me provide a brief explanation. First, let me point out that knowledge about the body, its construction and its functions, is available to anyone who can read and understand. It is not the private domain of any one group. The interpretation of that statement is that anyone can learn the same things about the body as anyone else.
With that knowledge, people can differ upon how the body's health can best be maintained and treated before and during any malfunctioning. Chiropractic's views stem from the belief that our bodies have the inherent ability to care for itself if all systems are "go". We also believe that when things do go wrong, the first cause should be determined and not the symptoms of that cause. Treating symptoms is painting over rust.
If, as we believe, the body has the ability to heal itself, discovering the causes which are inhibiting that ability is what is required to produce a recovery. Chiropractors believe that command and control is being compromised in some way so that normal function cannot take place. But, command and control depend upon the nerves to regulate function and if nerves have been impacted in some way that they cannot do their job efficiently, some abnormality in function will result. Conversely, if the nerve function is restored to normal, body function will follow suit.
The question, then, is what caused the abnormal nerve function and how do we fix it? Since the body is a living machine and is subject to all the physical aberrations of development and usage, when discussing "correction", we have to understand it as "optimum" correction, depending upon the limitations of each body.
In this machine we call "body", nerves can be compromised in many ways. We concern ourselves with the kind of interference caused by physical compression, stretching or irritation. The most likely places for this to occur is where the nerves are close to bones whose position can be altered by abnormal movement or position. The place where the effects of the irregularity would be the the greatest is the spinal column where major nerves exit the spinal cord between a pair of movable bones. The chiropractor repositions the offending bone, the nerve is relieved and normal function returns.
The simplicity of chiropractic offends those who practice mysterious remedies which patients, for lack of knowledge, cannot understand or question. While only 15% of their practice is actually science based, they would lead you to believe it all is. The admonishment in their oath to do no harm is not reflected in the side effects listed for the remedies they prescribe.
To this day, remnants of this conspiracy can be seen in insurance and government plans which seek to discourage and limit access to chiropractic care by placing monetary obstacles and/or unreasonable limits on the amount of care a patient may receive.
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