ETHICS, QUALITY AND
CHIROPRACTIC

Shouldn’t you expect the highest level of ethical behavior from anyone to whom you entrust your health? How often do you get it?

When you go to the doctor, don’t you think that their recommendations are skewed one way (as opposed to what’s best for you), by what will be covered by your insurance plan, and another way (as opposed to what’s best for you), by which pharmaceutical company sent the sexiest sales representative or offered the best vacation to Tahiti, or box seats at the 49’ers, if “x” number of their prescriptions were written? Do you ever wonder about how their more expensive procedures are sold, backed by alleged scientific testing? When a cardiac procedure is sold, why are the coronary arteries always "90% blocked"… never 67%… never 98%… always 90% blocked? Why, when knees and hips are evaluated for replacement surgery, the test always comes back “bone on bone?” How can you trust tests, and the people who do the tests and interpret those tests, when the results are obviously untrue? Time to re-evaluate. Time to demand real science, and time to expect ethical behavior.

The pharmaceutical companies? Do you expect the fruits of Science to bring new “advances,” new cures? Under the reign of Big Pharma, their “science” has become a marketing tool. Gross manipulation of drug testing is rampant. (Read The Truth About the Drug Companies, by Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. You will be astounded. (You might also read Powerful Medicines, by Jerry Avorn, M.D, and Overdosed America by John Abramson, M.D.) Lest you think that the FDA properly protects you, the public, forget it. Contrary to popular belief, the FDA does no testing on its own. It merely evaluates the data given it by the drug companies who wish to sell their drugs. Personnel tends to go back and forth between the FDA and the drug companies, so everyone, on both sides, is nice and friendly. OK, enough on the medical folks. On to chiropractors…

What’s wrong with the ethics of a lot of chiropractors? Plenty, I am sorry to say. The chief problem is a failure to present the truth, straight up, about what Chiropractic is, and is not. The public perception of what Chiropractic is way off the mark. Chiropractic is neither a third-rate medical therapy nor any kind of New Age or alternative or complementary treatment for back and neck pain. Even if the many chiropractors speak and act in that mode, that does not make what they do Chiropractic. Chiropractic is what it is, founded by Dr. D. D. Palmer in Davenport, Iowa on September 18^th, 1895, and developed by his son, Dr. B. J. Palmer.

This misperception is not your fault. It is not the fault of the public at large. It is the fault of chiropractors who drifted away from the truth, and many chiropractic colleges that never taught the truth and continue to foster a misguided allopathic (medically-oriented) version. As a profession, we have allowed chiropractic organizations, testing and governing bodies to further distort Chiropractic, and to enforce that distortion. Schools seek more students and more tuition. Organizations, as a rule, seek political power. Testing and accrediting agencies seek control over professions. And government, as in chiropractic boards, often, hires the lowest of the low, often with rabid anti-chiropractic attitudes. This has certainly been true for the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners. More on that later.

Is there a real, human cost to this lack of ethics amongst allopathic, medically-oriented chiropractors? Recently, I was introduced by one of my practice members to one of her friends. This friend went on and on about how “chiropractors are such special people” and about the “wonders” they do. It was obvious that she was a “chiropractic patient.” Later on in the conversation, her nine year old son’s heart condition came up. They had to return early from a vacation at Lake Tahoe because he couldn’t take the altitude. He has had several surgeries, and been to specialist after specialist. When I suggested that he have a chiropractic check-up, she was shocked. “But he’s just a baby.” I said “He wasn’t too much of a baby to have surgery and be living on dangerous drugs.” Now, this woman’s chiropractor has, obviously, failed in his or her duty, not telling the truth about Chiropractic, not making his or her office available to children. I can count at least three children in my practice, over the years, who would have likely died if not for chiropractic care allowing their Innate Intelligence to do the right thing. One was three weeks old. “Failure to thrive” was the medical diagnosis. If I hadn’t said anything…

Chiropractic is the detection and analysis of Vertebral Subluxation (http://www.chirodrharte.com/templates20/sublux.html), and its removal by the chiropractic adjustment, allowing a fuller expression of Innate Intelligence (http://www.chirodrharte.com/templates20/custom-content/1truth_innate_intelligence)… nothing more, nothing less. That is what I do. That is what other subluxation-centered, or “straight,” or what I just call real chiropractors... do.

When chiropractors pose/act as mere fixers of neck and back pain, even if that is all that you expect, you are not getting all that you should from Chiropractic (even if your back feels better). Besides, you could take Advil or Tylenol (I am not recommending this), which would be considerably cheaper, if all you wanted was pain relief.

Confused? Excellent! How about exploring, in a complete and coherent fashion, the topics of health, in general, and Chiropractic, specifically. Dr. B. J. Palmer said: “The second job of the chiropractor is to adjust. The first is to teach.” I do both, as I am supposed to. Throughout all of your initial procedures, and as long as you are under my care, I do everything I can to inform you and to educate you. So, if you want to clear up that confusion! get checked! Call me now, at (415)460-6527..

Chiropractic colleges? Most, sadly, operate as excuses-for-med-schools. Two of these have even taken the word “Chiropractic” out of their names. In my opinion, these colleges are not ethical. If you’d like to see what a real chiropractic college looks like, to help you understand better what I am talking about, or even for a career opportunity, I suggest Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic, www.sherman.edu.

Real chiropractic organizations? I am a Governor of the World Chiropractic Alliance, and their 2006 “Chiropractor of the Year.” See www.worldchiropracticalliance.org. Definitely check out the “Position Papers.” Also, I am a proud member of the Federation of Straight Chiropractors and Organizations, www.straightchiropractic.com.

Back to the government. In general, government goes in the direction of money and power. In modern times, Establishment Medicine and Big Pharma epitomize money and power. They extract large amounts of money from government (from us, really, through our tax dollars). They have the largest and most well-financed lobby in Washington. From the beginning, Medicine has attempted, through the State, to wipe out Chiropractic. Years ago, thousands of chiropractors were jailed for, what they called, “practicing medicine without a license.” Before the people of California, through the initiative process, legalized Chiropractic in 1922, our state jailed more chiropractors than anywhere. My home state of New York was the third to last state to legalize, in 1967. I began New York Chiropractic College in 1977, where most of my older professors had done time in jail! And what did they do in jail? They adjusted their fellow prisoners and the guards. Often, their patients demonstrated outside the jails, holding signs and shouting “Free our Doctor!”

The history of the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners has been, at least in the decades that I have practice here (since 1981), disgraceful. (See http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/2005/may/viewpoint.htm. While its mission is supposed to be to assure quality in the profession, and to be looking out for the public health, the opposite has been true. It has been said that the Board believes that its mission is to protect the public from Chiropractic. I cannot disagree. Their tactics have been arbitrary and ruthless, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Certain top officials have had substantial financial ties to the insurance industry. Others just plain hated Chiropractic and chiropractors, and did everything that they could to harass and intimidate chiropractors. Straight Chiropractic was a special object of their fury. Freedom of speech was not to be accorded to certain chiropractors, including myself.

Some years ago, I was attacked by the Board for telling the real Chiropractic Story, instead pushing the fake back pain story that many of my collegues do. Instead of backing down, I decided, at great risk to myself, that my profession, and your health, was non-negotiable. So, I fought back. I brought the World Chiropractic Alliance into the fight. Because of these efforts, Board members were replaced, and key staff members were fired or “retired.” This is how I became known, within the profession, as "The Chiropractic Avenger," and how I was awarded the honor of "Chiropractor of the Year" in 2006 by the World Chiropractic Alliance. http://chirodrharte.com/articles/unbridled_power.pdf http://chirodrharte.com/articles/wca_chiro_of_year.pdf

Oh, a word about insurance. Sure, you would like me to take your insurance. But, also, you want an ethical and competent (preferably highly competent) chiropractor. When a chiropractor “takes” insurance, he or she is, by definition, diagnosing and treating, which is the practice of Medicine. Secondly, these days, there is no coverage for any decent amount of chiropractic care, especially under any form of managed care. So, any chiropractor who is on these so-called preferred lists may be contractually agreeing to substandard care. You want that???

CLINICAL EXCELLENCE: I believe that it is an ethical duty of a chiropractor to hold to the highest clinical standards. (Oddly, this was never a concern of the Board.) The absolute minimum is the use of X-ray* (http://chirodrharte.com/articles/to_xray_or_not.pdf, an article I wrote to and for chiropractors), to see the misalignment component of the Vertebral Subluxation, and the use of the Subluxation Station, to see the physiological portion of the Vertebral Subluxation… the functioning, or lack thereof, of two parts of the nervous system. Besides this, a proper and thorough history, physical examination and analysis of your Vertebral Subluxation is performed here, as well as an overall, personalized clinical plan, and periodic Progressive Exams to monitor your progress. Adjustments are my own combination of sophisticated techniques, specific and scientific. My main technique is Directional Non-Force Technique.

After your Initial Intensive Care is successfully completed, I continue to check you, periodically, during your Wellness Care. A chiropractor deals with your nervous system, your health, your life, making sure that your Innate Intelligence is free to express itself better for you.

In today’s society, where the lines between right and wrong are commonly blurred, I make no compromises. I serve chiropractic care, straight and unadulterated. "I will help you."

* Dr. B. J. Palmer, the “Developer of Chiropractic,” son of the inventor, Dr. D. D. Palmer, imported (from Germany) the fifth X-ray unit into the United States, the first west of the Mississippi. He also invented the electroneuromentipalograph, to monitor and measure the “mental impulse” of Innate Intelligence. This device was a predecessor to the EEG, the electroencephalograph.