Dumb Quote

Sometimes those within our profession who are the most well-respected and in the limelight say such stupid things that you really cannot just ignore them. The following was said about the time of the centennial of the discovery of chiropractic by one of the most well-respected and most visible members of the profession. He has regularly written a column in a professional journal for many years. In kindness to him he shall remain anonymous. In meeting a potential practice member, he advocated saying the following: “ ‘I don’t know that we can help you but a reasonable, controlled trial of three months is certainly within reason to see whether there is any change.’ That will put chiropractic into a believable standpoint.”

There are some important points to consider with this advice:

1. He obviously sees chiropractic as a conservative approach to the treatment of disease and/or its symptoms.

2. How do we convince people of the lifetime benefits of chiropractic, if we start them out on that basis?

3. What about the dangers of people delaying necessary medical care for their three months or longer (if they have some positive changes during the “trial” care?) Suppose the headaches caused by a growing brain tumor are decreased during that three months?

When it comes right down to it, there is no safe way to practice chiropractic when you are not practicing it in a non-therapeutic, objective, straight manner.
What’s more, there is no way you can provide the greatest service to the greatest number of people when you are practicing in a therapeutic model.