This particular commentary is from Palmer’s Law of Life, Volume 36. It reflects, in part, B.J.’s view of the vitamin controversy.
In the last paragraph on page 27, B.J. talks about those “who live outside the main stream of contemporary life” referring to those of us who have not embraced the outside-in philosophy and its application in the health field, the medical model. I tend to look at it differently than the Developer. I believe that what we straight chiropractors adhere to IS mainstream. I believe that the ADIO philosophy is the norm. We do not represent a departure from current thinking. Current thinking is a departure from the norm. Before there was science, there was reason. Before there was the authority of the medical model, there was common sense. Before there was the worship of the educated brain, there was the recognition of the innate intelligence of the body. Somewhere along the way the world has lost its direction. It has strayed from the path of truth. As chiropractors, we are still on that path and asking those who are lost in a jungle of confusion to join us on that path. The Anacin example that B.J. uses, in which he describes people conforming to the prescription of the medical doctor is, I believe, more correctly, people conforming to a deviation from the norm. We as straight chiropractors are the ultimate conformists. We have conformed to the law of life. We are following the dictates of the law as it applies to human function. We attempt to conform our thinking to what the innate intelligence of the body would want for each person as an individual. Anything else is rebellion. It is disregard for the law of life. It is the ultimate nonconformity.
Today, in chiropractic we see the profession traveling in two opposing directions: one established by the law of life (chiropractic) and the other dictated by expediency (medicine). Each chiropractor needs to continually “check his slipping” as B.J. said. Are we headed down the wrong road? Have we gotten off the path of chiropractic? B.J. mentions that the use of vitamins by chiropractors conforms to the medical model. This further addresses what we have been discussing throughout this chapter. Not too long ago medicine rejected the use of vitamin supplements. (I am inclined to believe that is at least partially responsible for chiropractors’ willingness to embrace the idea). Vitamin supplements are outside-in. That is why medicine has so easily reversed their opinion of them. It does not represent a change in viewpoint, it is a change within that viewpoint. As far as the chiropractor is concerned, vitamins can never be chiropractic. They are simply not above-down. They depend upon the chiropractor establishing a norm for the patient. Yet many so-called traditional chiropractors are embracing the idea of prescribing nutritional supplements. B.J. did not condone the use of vitamins and nutritional supplements in 1958 any more than he did the use of surgery in 1960. But what he did tell us is that both are outside-in approaches and as such have no place in the practice of chiropractic.