2. By now, your medical friend may be totally
confused. It might be a good idea at this time to offer him the opportunity to
join you at your clinic for a few hours to observe Real Chiropractic Care as you
return patients to wholeness and optimal health. Confused? It is very beneficial,
as a Chiropractor, to have studied Chiropractic Philosophy! If you have not thoroughly
studied nor had formal courses in Chiropractic Philosophy (like a minimum of two
years of formal education in Chiropractic Philosophy), I strongly suggest that
you dedicate some serious reading and studying time to this very important subject.
I will be more than willing to give you references for books that you might want
to familiarize yourself with and seminars that you may want to attend so that
you will be able to properly teach our Vitalistic concepts to your patients and
friends and maybe even to that medical doctor!
3. As you can now see, Chiropractic is completely
different from any other form of healthcare. In fact, if you were to create a
healthcare formula, Chiropractic would be on one side of this equation, and all
other forms of healthcare delivery systems, including medicine, would be on the
other side. It's our Philosophy that makes us so different!
4. We prefer to call ourselves Chiropractors,
and not "chiropractic physicians," which is a title sometimes used by those doctors
within our profession who do not understand the nobility of the title Chiropractor.
Some members of our profession think that by using the term physician, the public,
who always associate that term with medical doctors, will therefore consider them
as being (RDs), i.e.: "Real Doctors!" We are, of course, already real doctors
but perhaps more importantly, we are the only real doctors who can remove an obstruction
to the transmission of Mental Impulses.
5. We look at life and health from a completely
different point of view than those in the medical world. We see an intelligent
force guiding the universe. Chiropractors refers to this intelligent force as
"Universal Intelligence." In fact, the entire science of Chiropractic is based
on this concept and is referred to a Chiropractic's Major Premise. We do not perceive
life as some do within the scientific community i.e., "that life is a mere coincidence
of happenstance that took place eons ago when a lightening bolt struck a soupy
molecular solution."
6. We believe that residing within all living
things is a special form of this intelligent force which exists throughout the
universe. Its purpose is to protect, heal and guide us through all of life's trials
and tribulations. We know that it is this special form of "Universal Intelligence"
that does all the healing required to continue life and that all any doctor can
do is to facilitate the process. As Chiropractors, we refer to this special controlling
life force as "Innate Intelligence," a name given to this force by the founder
of Chiropractic, Dr. D.D. Palmer. You may prefer the word nature or, if you are
more spiritual in your thinking, God within. It really doesn't matter what name
you give it. It's there, residing inside all living things and, it's in charge
of your health.
7. Chiropractors also know that this life force,
which we have named "Innate Intelligence," is not present in dead tissue. Some
people within our profession choose to believe that when our physical life ends,
this special life force returns to "Universal Intelligence." Regardless of your
particular belief system, "Innate Intelligence" does exist and, as a Chiropractor,
you can communicate with it, if you know how!
8. How do we communicate with "Innate Intelligence?"
Chiropractors do so through touch by removing nerve interference which then enables
this "Innate Intelligence" to continue its job of keeping the human body in a
state of optimal health through the transmission of a normal flow of Mental Impulses.
No one in any other healthcare profession is trained to perform this corrective
procedure except "Doctors of Chiropractic." We accomplish this by using a scientifically
applied Chiropractic Adjustment, not generalized, regional non-specific manipulative
therapy! Anyone can manipulate a joint to loosen a restriction or to increase
range of motion. But, only a Chiropractor can analyze where to adjust in order
to remove interference to the flow of mental impulses, when to adjust and after
adjusting, determine if the adjustment is holding and is correcting nerve interference!
To properly accomplish these procedures takes years of training, not only in Chiropractic
Science, but in the Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic. Sadly, most IME's are
notoriously ignorant of this uniquely Chiropractic process.
9. The Art of Chiropractic is concerned with
three major processes namely: Analysis, Adjustive Technique and Assessment. Analysis
is a process of determining where and when to adjust in order to remove nerve
interference. Much of time spent in analysis is done to locate the subluxation
to be corrected. The second process, called Adjustive Technique, deals with selecting
the appropriate technique from the three major classifications of Chiropractic
Adjustive Technique namely: Segmental, Postural and Tonal. The third process is
called assessment. It is during this process that doctors make a determination
of the condition of the patient's subluxations and their present response to Chiropractic
Care, in order to ascertain the patient's appropriate schedule for future Chiropractic
Care.
10. Since we do not offer treatment for disease
processes, then what exactly is Chiropractic Care? There have been many names
given to the different stages of Chiropractic Care while under the services of
a Chiropractor. Most DC's use only two stages of care. The first stage or phase
is call Chiropractic Corrective Care. This is the type of care given to a patient
when their bodies may be expressing symptoms and have acute and/or chronic subluxations
present. It is during this type of care that acute as well as the long standing
subluxations are reduced or corrected and symptoms recede. When the maximum subluxation
corrections have been attained for a particular patient, corrective care is completed
and the next phase or stage of care is introduced. This is the stage of care where
we offer a concept of maximizing optimal health throughout a patient's life and
is referred to as Chiropractic Lifetime Wellness Care. Under this stage of care,
symptoms are usually not present at all. This phase of care is similar to what
dentists refer to as Preventive Dentistry, i.e.: the work of correcting the primary
and secondary subluxations, which may or may not have caused symptoms, has been
completed and now we go forward toward allowing a patient to achieve their optimal
health! Under this stage of care, a patient is scheduled for a fixed number of
office visits per year for the rest of their life based on the many factors presented
by the patient during their corrective phase of care. It is during this phase
of Wellness Care that a Chiropractor continues the process of keeping the patient's
spine cleared of acute subluxations.
11. Chiropractic Lifetime Wellness Care must
not be confused with maintenance care which is, by definition, a phase of care
during which a doctor is trying to "maintain" a certain level of reduced symptoms
in order to allow patients to experience a more comfortable and acceptable lifestyle.
Maintenance care is similar to palliative care, where deterioration of a symptomatic
condition is expected without scheduling continued future periodic care.
12. Lastly, it doesn't make any difference
if insurance companies understand the difference between Wellness Care, maintenance
care or palliative care. They will not pay for any form of care other than Corrective
Care and then only part of that form of care will be covered. Insurance companies
are not in the health care business, they are in the "sick care" business. They
will not pay money to keep you or your patients healthy. As a matter of fact,
as most healthcare providers already know, it's difficult enough to get them to
pay money when you or your patients are sick! Chiropractors who continue to support
managed care insurance or any of its concepts only serves to keep this type of
a substandard insurance system afloat longer than necessary! Take away your support
from managed care and watch it fade away just like all other bad concepts in healthcare.
Insurance Medical Examiners (IMEs), are involved in medically defined "sick care"
only! They do not look for Subluxations much less try to correct Subluxations.
In fact, most IMEs do not care to understand the concept of subluxation analysis,
adjustive technique and assessment. They receive their income from insurance companies
by addressing only limited medically defined "sick care" and do so by working
within the medical reductionist paradigm only. Do not expect an IME to understand
Real Chiropractic Science, Art or Philosophy. If they understood these things,
they wouldn't be IMEs!
