Chiropractically Numb

It’s been another long stint since my last blog post.

I had convinced myself I was too busy in the practice, with family or running chiropractic is... but the truth is I have been chiropractically numb.

It finally occurred to me this evening during the progress exam of a practice member who has been under care for 9 months.

This 15-year-old boy has been sick almost as many years as he has been alive. He has suffered with daily seizures since he was 2 or 3 and multiple complications from unknown to bizarre medical diagnoses.

Since starting care, his quality of life, seizure frequency and health have dramatically improved and show no sign of plateauing.

As we were nearing the end of the review of his objective findings, his mother asked how frequently he should continue to get checked. I sensed that she was hoping to decrease the frequency to ease the extra burden of traveling to the office twice a week. So I told her what I tell everyone in a similar situation. I told her what I would do if he were my son and recommended he continue to get checked twice a week.

She then reminded me of what I forgot.

That she had taken her son to a “chiropractor” for two years and that during that time he never adjusted her son. She would take him weekly for muscle testing and for a laundry list of over 24 supplements that he prescribed her son to take.

That’s when I realized I have become chiropractically numb.

Instead of anger, I felt an emptiness inside and the weight of a profession so off course that this story surprises very few. I felt the apathy and “normality” of a profession that has accepted and even promoted tolerance for that practice. I saw flashes of leadership that seeks crumbs, safety and acceptance versus standing for what is right.

Now I am not suggesting there be no tolerance for philosophical differences, different practice styles or technique approaches. However, the disregard for our professional objective and marginalization of it by some trade associations and colleges is reprehensible.

Our students leave school without the philosophical, scientific, or clinical knowledge necessary to competently address vertebral subluxation and worse, without the understanding of its devastating effects or the unparalleled restorative effects of a specific chiropractic adjustment.

It is this allowance by the chiropractically numb that perpetuates the problem. It is the tolerance of everything that makes chiropractic nothing and dilutes our impact, message and results.

What could be more powerful than the restoration of normal cycles in the body?

If you are unclear on that, you have an ethical obligation to investigate, explore and become competent in your professional objective.

Research suggests that every 7 to 10 years the entire body, with the exception of certain neurological tissues, completely recreates itself. That process is orchestrated primarily through the messages transmitted over and through the nervous system. A clear, balanced nervous system will constantly create a healthier body than a subluxated one.

That mom understood that her son’s body has built itself sick and that time, restoration and momentum will build it well within the limitations of his particular matter.

The profession understood that once. The chiropractically numb have allowed outliers a seat at our table to the point that they now serve the meal.

The proper thing to do at a restaurant is to send a meal back when it is not prepared properly. It’s time we do the same.