Hi Everybody
A BEST KEPT SECRET- Chiropractic has always been kind of an underground hit. We have a small but adamant group of people who use us regularly and claim better health and better quality of life from doing so. For these people, regular visits are just like getting hair cuts or dental checkups.
Research has long backed this view – it has shown that people who use chiropractors regularly have less hospitalizations, end up on less medications, have lower incidences of overall illnesses, end up saving loads of money on overall healthcare and report a better quality of life from those that do not use Chiropractic regularly. This does not mean that Chiropractic patients are invincible, but that they simply tend to do quite a bit better in general than those who do not use it.
With all this proof you’d think people would be beating down the doors of all Chiropractors, but this just isn’t the way it is. In general, only about 10% of the population use Chiropractors regularly. That doesn’t mean we’re not busy all the time, just that we could be a lot busier. Why is that? The most likely answer is the Media.
DR OZ, DR PHIL- Recently, Chiropractic has been featured on Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil and a few shows connected with Dr. Phil. We haven’t seen the shows, but they seem to have made a big impact. Evidently, just a few minutes on these talk shows has done for Chiropractic what 100 years of research and testimonials has not been able to do.
This has shown us just how powerful the media is. Only 10% of the population has gone against the medical and media bias towards Chiropractic in order to benefit from Chiropractic. Now that Chiropractic has been praised on TV, we are seeing a huge upswing in acceptance.
We are grateful for this seeming change of the tide, but we are absolutely flabbergasted at what a few minutes of recognition on TV could do for a good profession that has tried everything under the sun to get noticed in the main stream for over 100 years. It really makes you wonder what other things are accepted, whether true or false, simply by being on TV. As a side note, did you know that it was estimated around 10 years ago that the average American child had been exposed to over 20,000 hours of drug commercials on TV by the age of 16?
SOME CHANGES- We expect there to be a backlash from the political medical groups over this new-found acceptance, so who knows how long this momentum will last, but here are a few new developments …
The Canandaigua VA Medical Center in Canandaigua, NY has created the first ever Chiropractic Residency program. Chiropractic residents will be working alongside VA providers and experience rotations with specialists in neurology, orthopedics, physiatry, pain management, primary care and physical therapy. Up to this point, Chiropractors have not been allowed into medical residency programs or VA hospitals.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Plan has officially mandated conservative care for low back pain before surgery would be an option. This includes a 3 month trial of chiropractic, physical therapy and medication. If these less invasive options do not work, then and only then would surgery be an option. This is the very care-plan Chiropractic has been advocating for almost a century.
Hope this helps,
Dr Matt and Dr Robin
http://barneschiropractic.wordpress.com (newsletter archives)
This week’s bit of Useless Information: Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem “The Star Spangled Banner” after being inspired by watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to the national anthem.
This email is courtesy of Matthew Barnes, D.C. and Robin Barnes, D.C. Neither this nor any of our emails are intended to be medical advice and should not be taken as such. They are opinion and are for informational purposes only. None of the nutrients discussed here are meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.