After each one of my columns is published in the Capital News, I receive about 20 to 50 emails with questions.
These emails, which I happily receive, seem to have a common theme: “Can a doctor of chiropractic help me with…”.
There are many misconceptions on what a doctor of chiropractic does.
Let me explain what a chiropractor does and does not do.
A doctor of chiropractic goes to school for a minimum of seven years.
After which the successful graduate must pass rigorous federal and provincial licensing examinations in order to practice.
As an aside, there are two chiropractic colleges in Canada. On average, there are 1,600 applicants for 125 positions.
There is a misconception that a doctor of chiropractic concerns themselves with just neck and back pain. This is not true.
In my clinic, I treat people from two days old to 97 years of age.
I treat patients with maladies from asthma to colic, from bed-wetting to PMS, and most things in between. Yes, we do neck and back pain, but that isn’t even what we do best.
Chiropractic is an art and a science concerning itself with the optimization of the body’s ability to express health.
I believe the body has in innate, or inborn intelligence.
If we are cut, we clot.
If we are dehydrated, we perceive a sense of thirst.
If our body temperature is low, we warm up.
All these reactions take place because of our innate intelligence.
All these complicated reactions take place without our conscious input or knowledge of their procedures.
The body and its wonders are infinite. Look at birth or how the body heals a fracture.
The body’s brilliance is what called me to chiropractic.
I thought that we were not born drug deficient and with too many organs.
Rather, I believe that the body has an ability to heal itself and that is what we should focus on.
Sir William Osler, one of Canada’s most noted physicians, said, “One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”
Yes, there are times when medication is necessary and I am thankful it is available to us.
But medication should not always be your first line of action. If I break an arm or have a cavity, the chiropractor is not my first choice.
We are more about overall wellness and optimizing your body’s health through restoring normal function.
A proper doctor of chiropractic concerns themselves with lifestyle, diet, exercise and over all well being. We are true ‘wellness’ doctors.
We believe the nervous system is the grand controller of all things from your immune system to your digestion, energy, vitality and overall welfare.
If there is in interruption in the communication between your nervous system (your boss) and your systems (your workers), we find it, fix it and allow your body to express optimal health.
We believe in being partners with you in your pursuit of health. We cannot fix anything, the body does. We just remove the interference.
That is what differentiates us from medical or allopathic medicine.
We work with your body in a minimally invasive minimally iatrogenic way.
Thomas Edison wrote: “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
The wellness is within us all, it is a matter of unlocking it and allowing it to do what it is supposed to…provide you with a lifetime of health.
We were all born with it. It seems, well, only natural. Chiropractors are just one part of the equation.
