“Below is an article written by three Northwestern University of Health Sciences students chronicling their trip east to learn more about straight chiropractic.”
How much does chiropractic philosophy mean to you? Is it apparent in your office? Recently, a band of chiropractic students embarked on an adventure that spanned ten days and over 3,300 miles in search of chiropractors and offices that truly embodied the chiropractic philosophy. Three college campuses, 13 states and 18 chiropractors later we found exactly what we were looking for.
When we set out we had a few specific questions: Can any patient, practice member or, as some like to refer to them, people, truly understand the chiropractic philosophy? And even in these hard financial times, are people still seeking the necessary chiropractic care? What makes a great chiropractor? During the trip we found the answers to these questions and many more.
Like many students, our understanding of true chiropractic philosophy was rather incomplete. Each of us have listened to hundreds of hours of audio, read numerous green and blue books and had countless discussions regarding the philosophy. What we lacked was the insight into the “real world” side of chiropractic philosophy that only comes with practical experience. Each stop added to our understanding and the hours on the road in between helped to solidify our beliefs in what chiropractic really is.
It is truly not a treatment for numerous musculoskeletal conditions nor is it the one cure for all of the problems that plague man kind. No, chiropractic is the process of analyzing and removing subluxations thereby allowing for a greater expression of innate intelligence resulting in increased efficiency and a greater expression of life.
All of the people (both chiropractors and patients) that we encountered in our travels understood this principle and have been living it out for a number of years. In fact, some have been coming to the same office at least once a week for over 40 years! This helped us to answer the first question that we had. When people understand what chiropractic is, they do not want to live without it. All of the chiropractors we met were experts in simply explaining the profession to their practice members. Keep in mind that understanding the principle and putting it to use are two totally different things.
With many chiropractic offices struggling in these tough financial times, it was refreshing to see all of the chiropractors we visited relatively unaffected by the changing economic climate. Because these chiropractors stress lifetime family maintenance care and have a correlating fee system that provides families the ability to afford long term care, they had seen very little drop in their visit numbers. In fact, many have actually seen an increase! How many chiropractors can say that they have seen an increase in their visits over the past few years? Not many!
Besides explaining chiropractic and having very affordable fees there was something else that set these chiropractors above the rest, namely their drive to help others. Each of them took hours out of his or her day (even Sunday) to meet with us for as long as it took until we had a complete understanding of exactly what they did within their office as well as to answer EVERY question that we had. And trust me we had questions! Many of them went above and beyond the call of duty: feeding us, offering any and all office material that may be of service, giving us green, blue and self-help books, provided us with hours of audio and video, and allowed us to stay in their homes. How many chiropractors do you know that would do all of that for students that they have never met? Are you that kind of chiropractor?
The final three nights of our journey were spent in the beautiful home of Reggie and Irene Gold in Pennsylvania. Each night after dinner they would sit up with us, patiently answering all of our questions for the night. They had most assuredly been asked each of them many times before, they always answered like it was the first time they had heard the question and gave a very thorough answer. Once all of the questions had been answered and our brains had reached their cognitive limit, Reggie and Irene would retire for the night saying, “Now be sure to make another list for tomorrow!”
The trip was a life changing experience for all of us. After experiencing a trip like this it seems impossible for anyone to visit that many quality chiropractors and not be affected. It is our hope that this article will inspire other students to make a similar trip and have their understanding of chiropractic tested, sharpened and refined. It seems fitting to end this paper with a quote from Dr. Joseph Strauss in his book Still Higher Ground, “We need to give to our community and what better thing to give than chiropractic. You don’t give to your community by giving chiropractic care. You are reimbursed for that, most of us are paid handsomely. You give to your community by giving the message with no thought for reimbursement. Try it and see what happens.”
If you have any questions or would like any other information regarding the trip feel free to email us at rruehle@nwhealth.edu, jmckeague@nwhealth.edu, or rbrott@nwhealth.edu.