The above term is an oxymoron. Sports and chiropractic are in direct contradiction. The objective of chiropractic is to correct vertebral subluxation so the innate intelligence of the body can better express itself in a normal manner. The
objective of sports is to push the body beyond its normal limits (and hopefully beyond the limits of the opposition). While it is true that anyone who participates in sports should be under chiropractic care so their bodies can work at
their maximum potential, doesn’t associating chiropractic with sports give legitimacy to the activity. Are we not saying it is acceptable to beat up, damage, and injure your body and those of your opponents because we have a chiropractor on the sideline who will perform miracles and put you back together?
Jogging is great, playing softball or tennis is probably great exercise and chiropractors should endorse the idea of people getting regular exercise. But chiropractors should not endorse the willful, premeditated activity of stressing
the system beyond its normal ranges. That causes vertebral subluxations and chiropractors should not give tacit approval to vertebral subluxation causing activities. An individual who overworks his or her body working in the steel mill, does not get enough sleep, and abuses the body with improper eating habits needs regular chiropractic care. But we do not condone that activity by specializing in taking care of those types of people. We in fact would probably be happy if that kind of patient made up less and less of our practice. Who wants to take care of people who have no concern about abusing their bodies? Competitive sports is glamorous. The American public is
enamored with sports. It may be ego building to be the “team doctor” or to specialize in sports chiropractic. But the
fact is that the activity is usually not health building and the professional athlete or the athlete looking to a
professional career is usually not health conscious. He is performance conscious and will often us anything and
everything to increase performance, even at the cost of his health. Steroid use is a perfect example. It is nice to
know that chiropractic, while helping to increase performance, has no harmful side-effects, except perhaps
sending out the message that increased performance at the expense of your health and physical well being is an
acceptable idea and does not have long term negative survival value implications.v8n6