Two weeks ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop (drinking organic green
tea), when I overheard a couple of college students talking about
biochemistry, and then physiology. I assumed that they were studying
for careers in the healing arts. Later, the buzzword “chiropractic”
came up and, being just a few feet away, I could not help but
eavesdrop. What I heard was disappointing. It was the same old
gobbledygook started by the American Medical Association (not stirring
things up; just a fact) that permeated throughout the public in the old
days. Despite an anti-trust lawsuit won by the chiropractic profession
25 years ago to stop the libelous, slanderous perpetuation of negativity
by the AMA, you can still see the lines drawn in the sand between
medicine and chiropractic today.
I suppose it makes sense, to a
degree. The two paradigms are, after all, based on fundamentally
different philosophies. It’s just a shame that, in order for one to be
right, the other has to be wrong. Earlier in my career, in trying to
find a balance between sharing the unfortunate truths about the
allopathic/medical model of healthcare and condemning it, I veered far
too strongly toward admonishment. I hope that time has mellowed my
approach and is reflective in the education that I provide both verbally
and through the written word. After hearing the students bash my
profession as “unscientific,” I made it a point to walk by their table
before I left, introduce myself, and hand them my card and a scrap piece
of paper with some suggested reading. Such little gestures can be
powerful agents of change to the uninitiated.
However, to those
of us that have been initiated and that have been trying to help our
families, friends, and peers to make changes, we have a responsibility
to increase our efforts. I recall, a year ago, when Mollie and I were
watching my former protégé turned colleague, Dr. Josh D’Allasandro, give
us a dry run of the New Patient Orientation Class that he would go onto
use when he opened his office in February 2014. At the end, after he
had explained the offer that he would make to people learning about
Upper Cervical Care for the first time, he said something that I’ve said
a hundred times before in our office: “…if you don’t want to make an
appointment, then that’s OKAY.” I highlighted the last two words
because something struck me that night, which prompted me to ask myself,
“Is it really OK?”
Of course, I remain adamant to the
idealization that making decisions about your health should not be
driven by fear. I don’t want somebody to become a patient at Triad
Upper Cervical Clinic because they’re afraid of what will happen if they
don’t. That’s a lousy foundation upon which to build a doctor-patient
relationship. All the same, Upper Cervical Care is not a luxury; it’s
an essential. Remember my story? I wouldn’t be who I am today without
Upper Cervical Care. It was the missing piece of the puzzle to me
getting my life back. It has played the same role for so many of you.
So, again, I posit and slightly rephrase the previous question: “Is it
really OK for us to stand idly by and watch people suffer for another
moment longer than they should, solutionless and without guidance?”
Throughout
the year, I’ve written in many a newsletter about how we need to modify
black and white thought processes about health-related matters. Let’s
do that one more time for 2014. There is a gray area, here, that I
believe we’ve been neglecting. In regards to Upper Cervical Care, we
either spread the word or keep it a secret; we tell someone a thousand
times with as many rejections or just once and leave it be (if we say
anything at all). Why don’t we, moving forward, push a little harder
when the person we’re telling is in dire straits? It would be wonderful
if everyone were completely ready for something different before
walking a non-medical path, but sometimes, the best way to get the truth
out there is just to clearly and definitively state it without
reservation of how someone else might feel about it or react to it.
Those students at the coffee shop? They need to be spoon fed new
information. The chronically ill recipient of half a dozen diagnoses on
several medications per day? Maybe it’s time we not so easily concede,
constantly giving them the ball instead.
I met a woman at our Dinner w/ Doc recently that clearly needed help in
the present and not several months or years into the future (she might
not have that long at this rate). She said, “I’m not ready, yet,” when
we prompted her to come get evaluated. I asked, “With all due respect
and with genuine concern, why aren’t you ready yet?” She didn’t have an
answer. But the ball is in her court. I decided to no longer be “OK”
with everyone who wanted to wait until the perfect time (if any time) to
explore their vast array of “other” options in healthcare beyond
medicine. Our system is, arguably, broken beyond repair. To sit back
and watch people go down with a sinking ship? I’ve reached a point in
my life and career where that’s no longer “OK” with me.
Many of
my patients will vouch that “Dr. Chad listens.” I am always
listening. I’m hyperaware. Just as I hear the students try to piece
together their understanding of complicated body chemistry and spew
false rhetoric about chiropractic, I hear such statements as “I’ll give
Upper Cervical Care a try” or “my friends just don’t get it” or “I just
want to think about it for a little while” or “getting adjusted won’t
help you get over that cold.” I thoroughly observe. I see the kids
that visit the office with their parents and don’t follow through with
getting them checked, the reluctance to stop bombarding their children
with medications despite the statistics that we offer, and the hesitancy
to fully embrace a different model of healthcare.
I want each
and every one of you that personally remains skeptical to read this
message clearly – and pass it along to the skeptics that you encounter:
if you give your body the chance to be well, then I promise that you
will regain your health. It may take time, but you’ll get there.
Remember that the biggest difference between Upper Cervical Care and the
other holistic approaches is that we aren’t aiming to treat the body;
we are helping the body heal. People don’t get truly well by being
treated; they do so by healing. As we exit 2014 and enter 2015, I am
personally enhancing my goal to practice as I preach, to lead by
example, and to make lasting change in this community.
Are you ready?
Thinking good things for you, as always,
Dr. Chad
