Dorland’s Medical Dictionary^[2] defines resistance as:

 “The natural ability of an individual to ward off the deleterious effects of such noxious agents as poisons toxins, irritants or pathogenic microorganisms.”

 Our study of medicine will consist of comments by two medical doctors.  I feel their comments accurately reflect the state of medical care.

 Rudolph Alsleben M.D. Ph.D. has stated:

 “I would be inclined to divide medical practice in this country into three parts.  On one extreme we have acute and traumatic medicine: broken bones, gunshot wounds, and acute illnesses such as the flu and pneumonia.  Medicine is well equipped to handle these problems.  On the other extreme, we have terminal, catastrophic diseases, such as cancer, sclerotic heart disease and arthritis.  Medicine is well equipped to handle these also, not by helping them, but by writing death certificates.  In the middle, between these two extremes of acute and terminal illness, lays a gigantic no man’s land where supposedly healthy people live, without ‘apparent’ disease.  According to that incredible philosophy of orthodox medicine, you do not qualify for a treatment until you have a disease.  These people must first become acutely ill or terminally sick before they can expect to find help from their medical purveyors.  The medical world has abandoned these people and left them to their own devices to maintain health.  But what devices do these people have?  NONE!  Medicine has not provided doctors with the expertise to maintain health and prevent disease mainly because of medical ignorance in these vital areas.”

 From his book, How to Get Well^[3], Dr. Paavo Airola states on page 17:

 “The rapid development of the chemical and physical sciences in the last two centuries has had a most negative influence upon medical thinking, and has slowed down the progress of the healing arts.  Unbelievable as that may seem, the twentieth century concept of disease is not much different from the primitive voodoo concept.  The only difference is that the ‘evil spirits’ have been replaced with ‘evil germs,’ the bacteria or virus that attacks the unfortunate and undeserving body.  We believe that disease ‘strikes’ the unsuspecting and totally innocent body.  We talk about disease as being ‘caught’.  The job of modern medicine-man is to kill or drive out the evil intruders, the germ or virus, with the magic medicine power from his medicine bottle or injection needle, and thus, save the innocent victim from this vicious attack.”

 As you will see, the primary cause of disease is not the bacteria or virus, but the weakened resistance brought about by man’s health-destroying living habits and physical and emotional stresses.  This fact is brought out in Burrow’s Textbook of Microbiology,⁵ 10th edition, p. 258 as it states:

 “In general, resistance is at its height when the organism is functioning normally in every respect and is reduced by a variety of factors which interfere with and alter the normal physiological state.”

 The scope of Chiropractic analyzes the spine.  It is thought that he is limited to spinal conditions such as wry neck, sciatica, lumbago or sacroiliac strain.

 This, however, is not the full scope of CHIROPRACTIC.  The spine is the anatomical focus of our analysis, but it is the nervous system which holds our interest.  The spine houses the spinal cord.  The brain and spinal cord together are called the central nervous system.  Chiropractors have known the importance of the relationship of the nervous system and the spinal column since the beginning of Chiropractic in 1895.  

 D.D. Palmer, the founder of the science and art of Chiropractic, wrote:

 “Chiropractors do not treat, cure, heal or diagnose disease.  As a science it is unlike any other system; it will not mix with any other… having analyzed the case, they adjust to relieve the confined nerves.  They do not wait for special symptoms to develop in order that they may determine the disease so that they may decide on the proper treatment.”

 To wait for symptoms to gauge health is folly.  One must ascertain the integrity of the human body machinery.  Why then does Chiropractic center its analysis on the nervous system/spine relationship?  

Gray’s Anatomy states on p. 4 of the 28th edition:

 “The function of the nervous system is to control and coordinate all the other organs and structures and to relate the individual to his environment.”

 This control of “all the organs and structures” dictates the nervous system as the overall controlling factor in the body machine.

 Gray’s Anatomy⁴ goes on to state the following about the nervous system:

 “The nervous system is the most complicated and highly organized of the various systems which make up the human body. It is the mechanism concerned with the correlation and integration of various bodily processes and the reactions and adjustments of the organism to its environment. In addition the cerebral cortex is concerned with conscious life.”

 Thus, “its structure and activities are inseparably interwoven with every aspect of our lives: physical, cultural and intellectual.”

 The integrity of the spinal cord depends upon its relationship with that which houses it.  The central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord, are the only two structures of our body completely encased in bone.  This feature alone emphasizes their importance. The brain may be damaged by a head injury or concussion. The spinal cord is slightly more vulnerable. The housing of the spinal cord is composed of 24 individual structures called vertebrae. Due to this construction, plus the fact that there is hardly a moment that goes by that our spine is not in supportive or active use, the spinal column of vertebrae can more easily interfere with the normal function of the cord, which transmits the nerve impulses.  This interference with normal functions of the nervous system will reduce the control that the nervous system has over “all the organs and structures” in the body machine.

 The ability to adjust or adapt to environmental stresses is mediated and balanced by the nervous system.  Therefore, a properly functioning nervous system is essential for the proper adaptation of the organism to the environment.  This principle is the constant and major factor in the maintenance of health for the organism since it pertains to every person on the face of the earth.  The need for an unimpaired, undamaged healthy nervous system sits along with proper rest, exercise, and diet in the overall picture of health care.

 Dr. Sandra M. McLanahan, M.D. who works alongside a chiropractor, nutritionist and massage therapist at their practice, Integrated Health Services of Putnam, CT defends their unique collective approach to health care:

“Our understanding is that health is not merely the absence of disease.  A healthy person is someone who has all the aspects of life balances and integrated.  A healthy person is conscious of how the physical, nutritional, emotional and environmental aspects of life can affect their health.  Pain or disease is a warning signal that an imbalance exists.  Looking past the cause is essential if health is to be restored.  Once the imbalance is identified, use the most natural and efficient approach possible to correct it and help the body/mind heal itself.”

 The integration of these various disciplines is designed to meet, fully and completely, the needs of its community.  Dr. McLanahan points out that the doctor must look past the symptom to the root cause.  The medical approach does not go the far on its own.  It just establishes and structures the symptomatology of the ailing patient.  The exam is completed when a collective “name,” for the symptoms is established.  This is also known as the name of the disease.  Furthermore, treatment is geared to relieve the symptoms, not the cause.

 Todd Koren, D.C. points out that:

“Symptoms are not the real problem, but the result of the body’s functioning.  If the body is functioning improperly or ‘diseased,’ simply getting rid of the symptoms doesn’t affect the cause.  Symptoms, however, are often the last state in a disease process.  According to the U.S. Public Health Service, seven out of ten Americans over the age of 48 have a chronic disease.  Often, these are conditions that they’ve had for years and didn’t know it until symptoms presented themselves.  So you see, waiting for symptoms is hardly a safe gauge for health.”⁶ 

We have seen two options for health care, one of which makes its determination of your health based on the presence or absence of symptoms. To receive care from this profession first you must be sick.  As a matter of fact, when you make a medical appointment, you already know that something is wrong; you just don’t have a name for it yet.  The doctor tells you what it is by running tests.  Then to treat the malady, drugs and/or surgery is usually prescribed.  This is the profession of medicine.

 In the other profession we have studied, it is most imperative to ask and subsequently answer two questions: What? and Why?  Why does this person’s body not function properly?  What went wrong with the ‘Controller’ (i.e. the nervous system) of all the bodies’ functions and organs?  Why is this person sick?  This profession deals with the “Quality of Life.”  It works to keep people healthy.  It asks patients to be responsible to themselves, use common sense and not wait until they are ‘sick,’ i.e. symptomatic, before seeking professional help.  It says, “GO TO THE DOCTOR TO STAY HEALTHY.”  This profession is CHIROPRACTIC!  Chiropractic is necessary and not a luxury, since it alone deals with health and not with just symptoms.  When one is ill, time and money are lost from work and family life.  To remind one of the obvious- when one is sick, the body mechanism is not working correctly; therefore, inherently shortening future livelihood and life span.  Chiropractic does not just offer ‘hours and hours of temporary relief.’  Chiropractic offers answers to your health problems.  It offers solutions to health problems that nothing from a bottle can give you.  It offers CORRECTION, RESTORATION, AND MAINTENANCE of the body machine.

 Chiropractic will be a necessity as long as health is a necessity.  The emphasis today is on ‘pain relief.’  Instead, it should be removal of the cause, for this is the real underlying factor in the maintenance of the human body.  In 1974, a study conducted by the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Utah College of Medicine, concluded:

 “On the basis of our study and others, it appears that the Chiropractor may be more attuned to the total needs of the patient than his medical counterpart.”

 Let me conclude with a very reflective and inclusive statement made by Dr. R.C. Schafer, D.C. in Chiropractic Health Care:

 “Only when all the healing arts begin to study a patient as a total being in relation to their environment, rather than from a purely chemical and organic viewpoint, will health care be able to meet its primary challenges.  A comprehensive health care system must be more than an attempt to hide symptoms or remove diseased organs. While a drug may be helpful in easing the pain, or while surgery may be necessary to remove a pathological organ, it does not address itself as to why the organ failed to function normally.  The suppression of symptoms or the removal of disease by products cannot be considered actions which automatically return a person to optimal health.  Chiropractors feel that a comprehensive health care approach must be a great deal more than relief, repair or removal.”

1. Schafer, R.C. Chiropractic Health Care.  The Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, 1978.

2.  Sanders, W.B. Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary.  25th Edition, 1974.

3. Airola, Dr. Paavo,  How to Get Well. Scottsdale, AZ: Health Plus Publishers. 1974

4 Gray, Henry,  Anatomy of the Human Body. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1918; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/107/.

5. Burrows, William, Freeman, Bob. A., Freeman, William.  Burrow’s Textbook of Microbiology.  W B Saunders Co. 1985.

6.  Koren, Todd. D.C. “The Best Diagnostician,” The American Chiropractor, Vol. 2 #3, March 1979.

7.  9th edition of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and    Technology Copyright ©2000, 2001, 2002 The McGraw-Hill     Companies.www.accessscience.com

8.  Boyd, William.  A Text-Book of Pathology: an Introduction to Medicine.  6th Ed. Lea & Febiger, 1953.

 For further reference:

http://todayschiropractic.com

http://www.life.edu

 Books:

Chiropractic First by Terry Ronberg, D.C.