The latest issue of Scientific American has an article titled “Faulty Circuits”. They are found in the brain and have a relationship to mental disorders. The article starts with a statement about doctors historically trying to glean something about the underlying cause of a patient’s illness before they figure out a treatment to address the source of the problem. Really? Great statement and what a difference if it were true! This includes chiropractors as well as medical professionals. This statement implies that we need to use our intelligence, training, and experience to gather data and, God forbid, THINK!
Today we have managed to let computers do our thinking for us. Fill in the data and it comes up with a diagnosis! That way we get paid at least, which solves the source of one problem, income. Applications such as: tissue resistant testing to determine the area of restricted motion and therefore vertebral subluxation; to crazy instruments that can tell you which vertebra to adjust based on Galvanic Skin Response (along with which heavy metals are in your system as well as personality traits) are coming out of the woodwork.
While at Chiropractic events, I’ve seen everything from distraction tables that would be enough to scare me out of a DC’s office, to weird Frankenstein like “gizmos” with electric arcing, that are supposed to do something (other than affect the northern lights) , all for sale to Chiropractors. Some of these “wonder” instruments claim to have some level of registration with the FTC while others have a story about it not being needed. Be careful out there in “Wonderland” folks! This profession deserves our respect and attention when it comes to the image we portray and instrumentation we use.
With the direction in the profession fixed on spinal structure and joint mechanics, it is easy to see why we attract the mechanical model support vendors such as: mattress sales, various muscle testing devises, orthotics sales, exercise equipment, x-ray equipment and others. Next we have the add-on sales that, while they have value, are more about adding on to income than actual Chiropractic application. Products such as: pillow, supplements, herbal therapy, food processors, various sprays, tapping, and hot and cold packs.
There are some discerning organizations out there who restrict their vendor list to meet a level of credibility and hats off to them. The Master Circle is one that I know is doing this.
Before I get too far off track, let me make my point! It seems that as Chiropractic lost its direction of improving neurological function, we started to gather these other applications around us as they found a market place willing to grab at anything that will sell under the guise of Chiropractic.
In the meantime we have neuroscience talking about neuroimmunology, stress influences on neurological function, brain innate, and faulty circuits as the cause of illness and disease.
So we are still fortunate enough to have a choice about our future direction but the time is fast running out. Will we be smart enough to seize the opportunity to regain the concepts of Chiropractors being “Functional Neurologists” or will we continue to struggle as symptom relief caregivers with limited responses? Not much of a choice especially when you look at the company we are keeping at our events. Want a direction for the future – visit the www.neuroinfiniti.com web site and start learning about Neurologically Based Chiropractic!
