Discovery is Not Proof.
For the past 4 years, I have been diligently working on digesting Chiropractic and finding a way to explain it that made sense to the public.
It is incredibly interesting to dive down this path because we will never make sense to everyone, even our own profession.
And yet, the founder and the developer of Chiropractic (DD Palmer and BJ Palmer) spent their whole live working to prove this philosophy, science, and art.
However – there will be people who will never have enough research to satisfy their knowledge of Chiropractic.
There are people who will think it is snake oil no matter how many objective results you provide.
There are people who will call it a placebo.
There are people who will swear by it, having had that once in a life time opportunity to be taken care of by a Chiropractor who understood the principles and respected them in the human body.
There will also be people who have been hurt because the Chiropractor refused to study the principles and as a result caused more harm than good to that patient.
There might even be people who have never even had an experience with a chiropractor but find no use in them because their direct circles of influence have one of these aforementioned experiences to share as guidance.
I get it.
There will be a different experience for all of us when it pertains to our health journey and the path we choose to take.
This is no different than any field you choose to pursue in life. PERIOD.
Religion, Physical Fitness, Commerce, Coaching…I think I made my point clear there.
However… when it comes to Chiropractic – there is Chiropractic and there is not.
And it is my mission to help as many people understand what a chiropractor is, what they do, and how they do it.
In searching for the best way to help you understand, I went back to the source…BJ Palmer.
Let’s simplify it.
According to BJ Palmer…
A principle-constant was conceived by D.D. Palmer, in 1895, on a quantity flowing energy proposition.
Would that conception prove true or untrue?
- Life is motion
- There is no motion without energy to move matter
- health is a rate of activity
- if rate of speed of motion is normal – health
- if slowed down – sickness and dis-ease
- to reduce quantity flow of energy is to produce dis-ease
- vertebral subluxation shorts energy flow
- vertebral adjustment restores it and restores health.
This was written in 1951.
Pain Sells…
How is it that almost 70 years later we are still confused about what a Chiropractor does and does not.
How is it that for most of you – you think we are neck pain and back pain specialist?
How is it that most of our profession thinks we are neck and back pain specialist?
I think it is quite simple to be honest.
Pain sells.
Marketers get this, and they leverage it on purpose to get you to spend your money.
It is a short term gain that destroys the long term understanding.
The good ole fashion bait and switch.
As my friend Justin Lewis likes to describe.
You’re selling candy, vitamins, or painkillers.
Candy is nice to have but it doesn’t solve any problems.
Vitamins are great for solving long term problems but if you stopped taking them today you wouldn’t even notice.
Painkillers solve an immediate problem, you don’t shop around, you don’t look out for a better price, you just try to get out of pain.
So now we have an entire profession, using the same marketing message, trying to grab your attention for a short term fix – when you’re in pain.
Then we try to convert you over to understanding what Chiropractic has been all along.
This is probably one of the greatest crimes we have created as a profession to you the general public.
And it couldn’t be further from the truth.
You can see why I have a mission to help my community understand with exact clarity what Chiropractic is.
It’s not about pain though…
As Palmer stated, life is motion…
Vertebral subluxation shorts energy flow (reduces motion and produces dis-ease)…
Vertebral adjustment restores it (motion) and restores health (optimal energy flow).
If we understand this most basic principle, we understand Chiropractic.
Nowhere in that statement is the word pain used.
Nowhere is there a list of symptoms that Chiropractors “treat”
What is there is a guiding principle – life is motion.
We understand that with basic physiology, life is also governed by optimal adaptation (which is the expression of motion through the nervous system).
When adaptation is compromised (less than desirable motion through the nervous system) we move into a state of dis-ease.
This is caused by a vertebral subluxation (typically located at your cranio-cervical junction)
It is the job of the chiropractor to evaluate your body for dis-ease using objective criteria.
In my office – this is done using a technology called computerized infrared thermography.
If your body cannot regulate radiant heat within .3 degreees celsius between the right and left side of your spine, this is a valid measure of dis-ease.
It also means you have a vertebral subluxation that is located between your skull and the first two bones of your neck.
This malposition is determined utilizing digital x-ray.
It is then and only then that a Chiropractic Adjustment can be delivered.
Once this is delivered.
Ease is restored.
Optimal Adaptation is restored.
Balance is restored to the Nervous System.
And as we know from Palmer, Health is restored.
It is as simple as that.
It has never been about pain.
It has always been about motion.
Optimal motion (optimal nervous system function) = Optimal adaptation (expression of health)
This is the foundation of Chiropractic.
This is the guiding principle of Hope.