The Healing Art of Chiropractic

It was the year that hands-on manipulation started to be tracked, reproduced, and studied.  There was plenty of literature on various bone setting, osteopathic, and spinal traction techniques, as these types of manual therapies had been around for thousands of years; however, up until this point, there was no organized documentation of manipulation or the effects thereof.

D.D. Palmer, a well-read scholar, thinker, and magnetic healer had been reading about manipulation and performed the first chiropractic manipulation in September 1895. Seeing the undeniable effect on his first patient, he went on to name it chiropractic, meaning ‘done by hand.’

He documented adjustments and their affects on patients. He formulated hypotheses on the physiological effects of the manipulation and their influence on health and wellbeing. He then founded the first chiropractic colleges. Early chiropractors spoke of the importance of exercise, healthy diet, and mindfulness, with vitamins or herbs as needed, and drugs or surgery if necessary. Medical treatments included primarily bloodletting, surgery and drugs and at the time were crude and largely experimental.

As time went on, medical doctors were disgruntled by the chiropractic profession and they began a charge to get rid of chiropractors. Soon, chiropractors were being jailed for practicing medicine without a license. From the early 1900’s to the early 1970’s thousands of chiropractors were jailed for treating patients. In an effort to stop this nonsense, DD put out a public campaign announcing that chiropractors didn’t practice medicine – which is where ‘chiropractors aren’t real doctors’ came from.

By the 1970’s chiropractic was recognized in all 50 states but the 1970’s were a turbulent time. The American Chiropractic Association discovered that the American Medical Association was engaged in a powerful effort to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession. The AMA had created a special committee, the "committee against quackery." It distributed literature to generations of young medical students, put publications in trade magazines, and banned MD referrals to chiropractors.  The committee was the origin of slandering non-MD doctors as 'quacks.'  It resulted in the Wilk’s case, a grand Supreme Court antitrust case filed in 1976 finding the AMA guilty in 1987. It demanded that the AMA produce a press release recanting their slander and prejudicial efforts of the past.  The ultimate result? Inclusion of chiropractors on insurance panels and acceptance into Medicare (not as equal peers but included nonetheless). The chiropractic profession is now recognize Federally as physicians, but remains unequal peers in practice. 

While there is still a large question of 'quackery' in the public eye when it comes to chiropractic, there is an overwhelming amount of research out there on the beneficial effects of hands-on manipulation. In reality, it is undeniable when you feel it. Medical doctors refer to chiropractors on a larger scale, and I have countless medical professionals as patients, as a business partner, as colleagues.  Thanks Anil. 

New medical doctors, unexposed to the bias of the past, largely endorse the chiropractic profession and see it as a viable conservative care option.  There are chiropractors working in hospitals and large spine clinics; in military bases and hospitals. There are chiropractors contracted with professional sports teams and Olympic affairs.  And in countries all around the globe.  And in the small town two hours away from the nearest hospital. 

Since beginning my schooling, I have had the honor of meeting several Chiropractors who were jailed for practicing, who were rejected throughout various parts of their communities, and who were slandered because of their profession and their passion for treating patients without drugs or surgery.

I have extensive training as a Primary Spine Care Physician. This is a new type of potential certification and has prospective expansion for chiropractors and putting manual medicine within reach of all Americans (Worldwide, chiropractic is much more accessible.) But this would not be possible without the evolution of what has been, and the evolving of what is currently chiropractic.