"Every malfunction in the periphery must be sensed by the central nervous system in order that corrective measures be taken... the general central nervous system principle states; the central nervous system is universally involved in all diseases, regardless of whether they originally arise in the periphery or whether indigenous to the central nervous system; whether initiated by various infective agents be it viral, bacterial, rickettsial or parasitical in nature or resulted from exposure to toxins, radiation, physical injury or emotional upheavals" Lee N: "Thalamic neuron theory; theoretical basis for the role played by the central nervous system in the causes and cures of all diseases" Medical Hypotheses 1994, 43:285-302.
I know that you’re thinking, “What does this have to do with Chiropractic? It’s about bad backs and necks, right?” Wrong.You think that you go to the chiropractor when your back or neck hurts, and that chiropractors aren’t really that well-educated, and that there might even be some danger in this. Let’s examine each of these things.
Well, Chiropractic does usually help with back and neck pain, certainly without the downsides of drugs (including over-the-counter drugs), and certainly without the extreme dangers, and virtual lack of any upside, of spinal surgery. But… this is NOT what Chiropractic is for or about.
Chiropractic didn’t even start with backache. It began with Dr. D. D. Palmer, who studied the relationship of the structure of the body, to the function of the body. Harvey Lillard was the first chiropractic patient. Harvey was a janitor. He was totally deaf, for seventeen years. Dr. Palmer adjusted Harvey, and Harvey was able to hear the trolley cars down on Brady Street in Davenport, Iowa. This day, that began a great, new healing profession, was September 18th, 1895. You see, Chiropractic didn’t start with someone with a whiplash or a sciatica. It started with a deaf guy, who regained his hearing. In my almost three decades of practice, I have seen people under my care get well from everything from migraines to major heart disease, from ulcers of multiple sclerosis, from Hashimoto’s Disease (an auto-immune disease of the thyroid) to diabetes, from major depression to severe insomnia, from hormonal problems to vertigo.
Chiropractic education? After college, chiropractors must go through four and a half to five years of professional education, before they sit for their Board exams. The basic sciences that they learn… anatomy, physiology, histology, biochemistry, are basically the same as medical school, except that chiropractic students spend much more time in the specialty of neuroanatomy, since we are so involved with the nervous system. As far as the clinical sciences, we learn neither drugs nor surgery, as we don’t use them in our profession. (However, my school had a course entitled “Toxicology,” in which we studied the effects of medications on the body and mind.) We do study, in detail, what we do employ, the chiropractic adjustment, in its various forms (techniques), as well as examination, X-ray and clinical analysis of the spine and the nervous system. We get a lot more hours of radiology (X-Ray) than they do in med school. What makes chiropractic education most unique amongst all of the healing arts is that we have our own separate and distinct view and approach, what we call Chiropractic Philosophy.
Ongoing, continuing education? Chiropractors go to seminars to learn. Medical doctors go to sDanger? Is there really any danger to going to a chiropractor and getting adjusted? No. I know what you’ve heard. But, if that were true, chiropractors wouldn’t be paying a tiny fraction of what the medical doctors that you go to pay for malpractice insurance. Go to a bad chiropractor, and you might go home sore. A bad medical doctor, and you may very well end up in a hearse. Clink “Published Articles,” and see my article, “Where is the danger in Chiropractic?” Print it out for your friends and family. In the end, taking an aspirin is infinitely more dangerous than going to the worst chiropractor you could find.
SO, LET’S GET ON WITH IT! What is Chiropractic, really? Well, before we get to what Chiropractic is, we need to touch upon that Chiropractic Philosophy, which is really just (biological) common sense. One would think, with all the continually changing array of drugs and surgical procedures, and other “medical advances,” that the body needs help, that it really doesn’t know what to do, and how to do it. We fret (perhaps rightfully so) when we get sick, when a part, or a system, or a particular function of the body is not working, causing us pain, disability and/or sickness. But, what about the multitudes of functions that go on every minute of our lives, much of which science hasn’t even discovered yet? This “Innate Intelligence” heals us when we are sick, mends us when we are injured, adapts out body to differing circumstances, and runs everything, without intellectual knowledge or conscious thought.
When you cut your finger, it heals, whether you happen to possess knowledge of the very complicated clotting and healing processes, or not. What happens if you cut the finger of a dead man? Nothing, because life, and the Innate Intelligence that regulates it, must be present to heal. However, when there is interference to the expression of that vital Innate Intelligence, bad things, a lack of health, can happen. We need no help to heal, just no interference.
Interference? The mental impulses of Innate Intelligence run through the brain and the nervous system, which even Medicine acknowledges as the Master System. It runs everything, every part, every function, without exception. The spine protects the spinal cord, and where the spinal nerves emerge from the cords. Structure does effect function. If the structure is off, so will be the function. This is called Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC). See that link.
So, what is Chiropractic? It is the detection of Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC), and its correction by means of the chiropractic adjustment.
As a chiropractor, I do not diagnose. I do not treat or seek to cure anything. I remove cause, Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC), allowingthe body to heal itself, and to function at a higher level… physically, mentally, socially… better able to express its genetic potential.
