The health field in general and medicine in particular are just beginning to realize the importance of the mind and the body in health and disease. This relationship has been known to chiropractors for the last eighty years but finally medicine is discovering it. People like Bernie Siegel and Norman Cousins are writing bestsellers about the attitudinal factors in getting well. As chiropractors, we understand that the mind and body are inter-related and interdependent and cannot be separated. We know that subluxation negatively affects the thinking processes and poor mental attitudes contribute to subluxations. But perhaps there is another factor that we have failed to fully consider, a factor that is also important to the healing process and the health maintenance process. Patient education may be an important consideration.
Dean Black, Ph.D., in his book Health at the Crossroads, on page 57 tells of an experiment in which cancer patients were given Vitamin C to treat cancer. Those given a placebo were no better off than those given the vitamin. But another group was given the vitamin and told what was happening and given positive mental reinforcement about the wonders of the vitamin. (Linus Pauling was the researcher so it was not difficult to interject enthusiasm for the treatment.) The group involved positively in the treatment fared much better. The conclusion drawn is that if people are taking a vitamin and confident that it will help fight their cancer, they respond better than if just given the vitamin. The power of thinking the vitamin will help you enhances the effectiveness of it. There are many chiropractic applications that could be made relative to the entire issue of mind/body connection, but one I find interesting, which I have not ever seen addressed, is the positive mental influence of patient education.
Perhaps we have underestimated the positive mental-emotional physiological effects of chiropractic patient education in the process of getting well and also in staying well We all know that patient education makes better patients, ones who are more regular in their care, hence, more free of vertebral subluxations and healthier than they would otherwise be. But let’s look at some not so tangible ways. If the research being done in the medical field is correct, they are intangible but real influences on health and healing.
The first which also happens to be the cornerstone of chiropractic is the innate wisdom of the body. An individual who understands, really understands, what a fantastic organism the human body is and how great the innate intelligence of the body is, has to be much more positive, much more hopeful and confident that his body has the capacity to heal itself. Granted, we must temper that enthusiasm with the reality of limitations of time and matter. But in contrast to the medical patient who is putting their confidence in a man-made drug and four years of nine months, the chiropractic patient is putting his confidence not in an educated doctor but in all the wisdom of the universe. That must count for something. I tend to think it counts for a great deal.
A second area in which chiropractic education may affect the patient’s mental attitude in a positive way is by giving them a common sense approach to health. Sir William Osler, a noted 19th century physician is purported to have said, “Man has an inborn craving for medicine. Heroic dosing for many generations has given his tissue a thirst for drugs. The desire to take medicine is one feature which distinguishes man, the animal, from his fellow creatures.” I do not agree with Osler. I believe man has an inborn aversion to medical procedures. It is just that he does not know there is any other approach than the outside-in disease treatment avenue. Every chiropractor has repeatedly seen a patient’s eyes light up and their countenance brighten when they grasp the “big idea.” The most usual comment is “that really makes sense.” Chiropractic philosophy and education is common sense. A common sense, rational, natural approach to a positive (health) has got to be more mentally uplifting than an irrational, artificial approach to a negative ( disease).
This leads to the third way in which chiropractic education promotes a positive mental attitude. It relates to health maintenance care. Health maintenance is positive. Disease treatment is negative. But disease prevention is also negative. It may very well be that worrying about your cholesterol level, your diet, your hardening, clogging arteries and whether you have a genetic predisposition to heart disease is more harmful than all of them put together. People who focus on disease even if it is in the area of preventing it, are still focusing on a negative. Someone once said that specialists in cancer, heart disease, etc. have a higher than usual incidence of these diseases. Chiropractic health maintenance care focuses on maintaining health, not treating or even preventing disease. I often wonder whether those little subluxation buttons, the ones with the red universal negative symbol are perhaps too negative for us. We promote health. Perhaps that is stretching the idea a little but you get the point.
So, next time you begin to educate a new patient to the philosophy which focuses on harmony, order, organization and all those other positives, think a little more about what the education is doing. You may be intangibly contributing to that individuals ability to get well by the positive philosophy you are teaching them. If that is the case then chiropractic education is not just a practice building tool. It is a vital part of the healing and the health maintenance process. The chiropractic philosophy itself may be a factor in their positive attitude toward life and their lack of fear of disease, and that positive attitude could be the difference between health and illness. Fear and worry are known to reduce the body’s resistance.
There is a danger to this entire idea. We can easily focus on the side effect and slip into mental healing, concept therapy, psychological counseling or some form of positive thinking. But we have that same danger when we focus on the results of the chiropractic adjustment beyond it enabling the body to better express itself. If we go beyond focusing on correcting vertebral subluxations we can easily get pulled into disease and symptom treating and curing. What we must do is educate the patients to the best of our ability and allow them to take that information, respond to it in a positive manner and be benefited on an individual basis however they can. It’s just that it’s nice to know that in giving people a positive philosophy of life and health you are enhancing their lives a little and increasing their health potential. It’s another reason for taking the time and putting the effort into a good patient education program.v6n2
