A PHILOSOPHICAL CASE HISTORY Adult male, age 42, was a chiropractic patient for a relatively short time prior to having a heart transplant. Eighteen months after the surgery, he returned to the chiropractor and resumed care on a regular basis receiving full spinal adjustments. He is taking a half dozen different medications for various side effects and complications of his heart problem including high cholesterol. He is also on Cyclosporene which is given to prevent rejection of the donor heart. After three weeks of regular care, the Cyclosporene level begins to drop to a dangerously low point. The patient is suffering from nausea and vomiting which the physician feel may be causing him to vomit the Cyclosporene before his system has an opportunity to absorb it. Now the chiropractic question: Is the innate intelligence of the patient's body rejecting this "foreign heart?" If it is, are the chiropractic adjustments enabling the innate intelligence to better express itself? If so, then is chiropractic care contraindicated in this patient? A number of questions must be answered to come to a logical conclusion. Does the innate intelligence know that the heart is foreign tissue? Apparently it does or it would not begin the rejection process. But if it knows it's a foreign tissue, it appears it does not know that the heart is a necessary vital organ. Is innate limited in its knowledge, knowing it is foreign but not knowing its importance? Is there a mechanism by which it can react to foreign tissue but the mechanism by which it would realize the necessity of the heart is either not there or not functional? Or is it aware but not able to do anything about it because of limitations of matter. The philosophy is important to practice. Of course if all you are taking care of is bad backs and stiff necks, you do not even think about the ramifications of the adjustment. What is the likelihood that a heart transplant patient will come in the office? Very slight. But if we say every person is better off with a good nerve supply, we better explain how everyone, even though we have surgically created an abnormal situation, should go to a chiropractor. This case history is designed to make you think. If you would care to send us your comments on this situation, we would be happy to read them. In a future issue, we will consider the philosophical principles that relate to this question and attempt to present a practical answer.
RESULTS AND REFERRALS
Most chiropractors are under the mistaken impression that referrals come directly from the results that they attain in their offices and the better their results the greater the number of referrals. Often they will begin to adjust people and not see the practice grow as they feel it should. If they are in the least inclined toward mixing or less than fully grounded in the philosophy they begin to add therapeutics in order to get better results and to get more patients. The chiropractor inclined toward straight will bounce around from technique to technique very frustrated because all techniques are pretty much the same in results achieved. However, by chance one may be philosophically or technically more suited to him. Or perhaps the entrepreneur who sells this technique is very charismatic. Consequently, he gets excited about it. That excitement is perceived by the patients and causes referrals. Now his practice is beginning to grow and he assumes that it is because his new technique is getting better results. Here's the principle. Patients who are excited about chiropractic are the ones who refer. Patients do not get excited about results. People expect results. If you take your automobile to a mechanic and he repairs it do you run all over town telling your friends and loved ones to go to this guy? If someone asks you who is a good mechanic, you may tell them but that is probably the extent of it, and how often has that happened? Sixty years ago it was a little different. Chiropractors were not as "recognized." People went to them not as "primary providers" but as a last resort. You may get excited about a mechanic who fixes your car when the best "factory-trained" mechanics in town could not correct it. That was part of the reason for the growth of chiropractic. People went to chiropractors after trying everything else and got well. Today people go to the chiropractor as a first choice and they go expecting to get results. That is part of the price we pay for our "forefathers'" success. They do not get enthusiastic about results, especially if those results involve back aches and stiff necks. Even you, the doctor, do not get excited about results. Can you imagine a patient saying, "Doc, my xyz went away under your care." And you respond, "It did?!" That would not build confidence in you. After all, we are not doing anything unusual or spectacular. We are simply putting into effect the law of nature that says when nerve interference is removed the body has greater ability to heal itself. One of the side-effects of the modern chiropractor's success and increased popularity is that patients expect to get results in the chiropractor's office. There is another thought to be considered on the subject. If results in chiropractic are centered on relief for a named condition, then there is even less likelihood of referral. Patients may get excited about you as a reliever of headaches. If they have a friend with headaches and you have relieved theirs, they will refer. They are not going to refer in their friends with other conditions because, quite frankly, you have not convinced them with results that chiropractic is "good" for those other conditions. Chiropractic success today cannot be based upon results. It has to be based upon patients getting excited about chiropractic as a way of health. Sadly, too few chiropractors are excited about chiropractic as a means of restoring and maintaining the fullest innate expression of health possible. Until and unless the chiropractor gets excited about chiropractic, the patients will not get excited and referrals will not come. As a result, the practice grows slowly or not at all.
THE TRIUNE OF MAN
Definitions: physical- pertaining to the material part of all things. spiritual-pertaining to a non-material part of man. innate----pertaining to a non-material part of all living things. There is a physical dimension to man to which the field of medicine addresses itself. There is also a spiritual dimension to the human race to which theology and its practical application of faith and religion relate. In addition there is a physical/ innate dimension to mankind. Chiropractic addresses its attention to the physical/innate, that is, the expression of innate intelligence through matter. This is the chiropractic definition of life. Medicine has achieved a certain level of success when dealing with problems related to the physical dimension such as limitations of matter and trauma (which is also technically a limitation of matter). Much of medicine's success is also due to the fact that problems in the physical dimension often resolve themselves coincidentally with or subsequent to, medical care. In chiropractic we say "the body heals itself" to describe this phenomena. Medicine's failure has been in trying to treat by strictly physical means, conditions which also have a physical/ innate cause. They simply do not have the tools. Theology, faith, and religion have achieved a certain level of success when dealing with problems of a spiritual nature. (Their success of course depends on what the spiritual problem is and the validity of the belief system. Failure has occurred when attempting to address problems that have a physical or physical/innate cause. The failures of medicine and religion prompted B.J.'s humorous little epigram: Christian Science is all mind never matter. Medical Science is all matter never mind! Chiropractic has achieved a level of success when dealing with a physical/innate problem, vertebral subluxation, which interferes with the innate intelligence expressing itself over the nervous system to the body in vertebrates. The difficulties in our profession arise when we begin to address problems that are merely in the physical realm or those that are in the spiritual realm. Improper nutrition is a physical problem, that is, failing to put the proper physical matter into the physical body. It falls into the field of medicine. Medicine has been less than effective in this area, however, this does not justify the chiropractor entering the realm of physical problems. If it did, we might as well handle trauma cases and surgery. Likewise, muscle and joint rehabilitation deal with the physical, a part of the field of medicine. Another, although less common area of inappropriate practice is that of chiropractors attempting to utilize chiropractic to alleviate man's strictly spiritual problems. Chiropractic is not effective in this area, no more so than is chiropractic effective in treating strictly physical problems. The failure of chiropractic in treating physical problems is the reason chiropractors begin to utilize modalities and therapies. Failure to alleviate spiritual problems with chiropractic has caused some D.C.'s to begin to incorporate religious and metaphysical concepts into their practices. This is just as dangerous to the future of chiropractic as mixing in the physical realm. This spiritual mixing, while not as prevalent, is much more insidious and dangerous. Mixing in the physical realm will only cause antagonism from the medical/ therapeutic community. Mixing in the spiritual realm will bring down upon the profession the charge of cultism and alienate members of the orthodox religious community. We cannot afford that.
