Comments on: MAKING EVERY ADJUSTMENT COUNT

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:43:57 +0000

I completely respect your views and positions: Here is the challenge for the maturity of our profession – I do not totally agree with your description of our specialty and scope of practice, nor your definition of subluxation: There are areas of similarity and areas that I am not at all in agreement with you. SO – is there room in the profession’s description of itself for the both of us, and for a number of other colleagues who would further spread the definition one way or another?
There are two options:
1) The inclusive view – where all factions of the profession are mature enough to respect each others views AND each others evidence and come up with some kind of description that encompasses the diversity – difficult, most likely heated, possible?
2) The exclusive view – where we sit down and try to determine what we do agree on as the defining similarities between all of us, and then qualify the fringes as specialty interests, perhaps even requiring some degree of post graduate certification?
For example I am not interested in differentially diagnosing what the noxious nociceptive anatomical structure is in a person’s spine, which you may find nauseating to hear. But, I am very interested in the effect that the chiropractic adjustment has on neuroendocrine function and hence state of wellbeing, and brain function. While I have a “general practice” that may look very similar to yours from a number of viewpoints, there are also a bunch of people who seek me out for assistance with addictions, ADHD, depression, anxiety, compulsive disorders and the like, while I might imagine that you have people referred to you because of your skilled ability to diagnose and manage their spinal disorder that no-one else has helped?
Through all the years that I have participated in the growth and development of our profession the thing that has made me most distraught is not the opposing views and the honest and open discussion of these; but the dogma, anger, vindictiveness, even destructiveness with which some viewpoints can try to impose and dictate their agendas on others. (I’m not saying that I feel any of this from you but just sharing a disturbing truth that recurringly surfaces within our ranks)
It’s like the words from a Phil Collins song about war – “if we agree that we can disagree, we can stop all of this today”…

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:42:21 +0000

Always love to have a good discussion, keeps the mind active and the passion of our profession alive!!
Understandably one can not define them selves by describing what we are not.
What we are is a specialist with our scope of practice being spine. Therefore one must be able to differential diagnose between the most simple of synovitus, annular tears to the most serious of neuroblastomas etc.
It is also important to know and understand outside our scope of practice or that, that we can not treat we must refer. As responsible first line health care practitioners.
Chiropractic ’subluxation’ to the best of my knowledge is not a proper diagnosis. It is a term with a specific meaning; a partially displaced joint, which has been turned into a vague myriad of conditions being complex of functional and/or structural and/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health.
It is similar to “joint listings” which have been proven to display poor intra and inter practitioner reliability.
However the adjustment is an amazing tool, we use a biomechanical system as a lever to send an ampliphied propioceptive burst to the brain to restore an aberent somatosensory image of a dysfunctional joint, in addition promoting decending inhibition to significantly reduce pain almost immediately. (BASIC SCIENCE RESEARCH RELATED TO CHIROPRACTIC SPINAL ADJUSTING: THE STATE OF THE ART AND RECOMMENDATIONS REVISITED, CRAMER ET AL 2006)
It needs to be promoted as such.
What is meant by mainstream is that chiropractic is fully integrated into the medical system. ie integration into hospitals etc
We a spinal specialist with our primary tools being that of non invasive physical medicine.
We diagnose conditions using orthopedic, biomechanical and neurological examinations.
We treat conditions within our scope of practice using a variety of manipulative, soft tissue and rehabilitative techniques and procedures.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:41:00 +0000

So here are the questions
1) What is the philosophy of a “medical based model”?
2) Is it a fact that chiropractic philosophy is outdated, or is it just that you disagree with it based on your own beliefs/evidence?
3) If chiropractic was more “mainstream” what does that actually mean or look like? Who will be consulting the Chiropractor and what for?
4) What is it that we want to ”prove or lose”? Is it the cheapest most effective treatment for low back pain, the best way to improve basic daily functioning, the natural alternative to improve global quality of life? In order to accumulate evidence we have to know what question we are asking…
The reason I pose these questions is that you cannot define what you want by describing what you don’t want – we can’t say that we don’t want to be subluxation based chiropractic – we need to make a clear decision as to what we do want to be?

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:39:43 +0000

I agree completely, however my issue is with subluxation based chiropractic and the out dated philosophy of the profession. wouldn’t a medical based model help the profession to become more mainstream in such a “prove it or lose it” society?

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:38:43 +0000

Did you know that Discovery Health Channel is peer reviewed and the “Wiped Out” documentary was about research published in the Molecular Psychiatry Journal, published by Nature.
The Health in Hand documentary was produced by York University and was probably the most objective investigation of chiropractic in this format?
Perhaps you should investigate the evidence before you conclude there is no evidence?

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:37:44 +0000

I rather something based on evidence

By: admin

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:04:12 +0000

Hi Natasha
I am gradually working my way around the country and elsewhere - have done Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Johannesburg and this year will be in Perth. I’ll put Adelaide on next year’s hit list plus I also present to groups if they organise he event - happy to chat about this if you have a group of Chiropractors that would like to host me?

By: Natasha barnes

Natasha barnes — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:22:17 +0000

Looks & sounds interesting . Have you thought of doing an Adelaide seminar any time soon??

By: Dennis Pick,D.C.

Dennis Pick,D.C. — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:04:50 +0000

Dear Doctor:
I took TRT last year in Detroit, MI with Dr Holder and Dr. Suzi
Tayor. Dr. Holder spent 95% of the entire seminar on theory
and 5% on technique. I never understood the adjusting
proceedure, even from the notes that were supplied. It
was a 1-2 pg copy of some possible listings that could come
up with not exact protocol sequence. I ordered your TRT manual
but still found it wanting in a clear format as to proper sequencing
and protocols. Is there any other instuctional (DVD,tape,
etc) that can help me LEARN how to do TRT? Thank you
Hi Dennis,
The USA basic training is primarily seminar with some demonstration and then you can attend an advanced track which is more hands-on which I would recommend is your next best step. We include more hands-on at the Australian program and also run advanced hands-on workshops which are entirely practical application. I’m surprised you didn’t find the instruction manual clear as it includes photos of contact points, and a very detailed flow chart of the protocol - I have had DCs attend a seminar after learning from the manual and they are usually very close with their application and just need some coaching and fine-tuning…