I would maintain that there are six distinct approaches to the practice of chiropractic which coincide with the profession’s vision (or lack there of). With the exception of a very few insightful individuals throughout chiropractic history, chiropractic vision five and six have been virtually unheard of until only recently. Let’s compare the six visions.
Chiropractic vision one. This group includes chiropractors who see the adjustment as a relief for symptoms. Care ends when the symptoms are relieved. These chiropractors usually see only musculoskeletal conditions and eventually incorporate therapeutic procedures to make up for the failure of chiropractic to give relief in many situations.
Chiropractic vision two. This group of chiropractors treats medical problems with their adjustments. They explain to the patient that chiropractic can help their medical condition. Usually they will also end up using therapies and care ends when the chiropractor concludes’ through his diagnostic procedures’ that the medical condition is gone. When that occurs, symptom relief has already been accomplished.
Chiropractic vision three. These chiropractors claim that they are not treating symptoms or medical conditions but correcting the cause of medical problems. They confine their care primarily to adjusting. They may make more of a contribution to the individual’s life experience. Generally speaking, they see the patient for a longer period because the patient is told that correcting the cause (the subluxation) takes longer than just treating the condition it has caused. Care ends when the patient decides that the cause has been corrected. A decision based upon the cost of care and time involved. In other words, when the patient no longer wants to come. If the condition returns, they will return to once again have the cause corrected. Prior to correcting the cause, the symptoms and their condition have been alleviated which has made the patient happy and the chiropractor happy, although he strongly maintains that was not his objective.
Chiropractic vision four. The group of chiropractors that have this vision promotes the idea that vertebral subluxation is the cause of disease and by having subluxations corrected you can prevent medical problems. The relatively few patients who buy this theory will usually end care when they come down with a medical condition they thought chiropractic was supposed to prevent. Meanwhile, medical problems and the symptom that the patient presented with may have been temporarily alleviated.
Chiropractic vision five. These chiropractors promote chiropractic as an approach to health, not disease. While this level of care promotes lifetime maintenance patients, it ends where the patients commitment to maximum health ends. To many people, health is not a priority.
Chiropractic vision six. This relatively small group of chiropractors sees regular care as a means to improve every aspect of a person’s existence, to enable the person to receive the maximum from life. The only limitation to the benefits of this care is the limitation of the individual’s own body and the limitation the individual puts upon himself or herself. Care never ends and is as limitless as the person’s innate intelligence.