Ok, so I realize that the debate over whether or not Chiropractors are real doctors is and has been very heated. Firstly, I'd like to say that the term "doctor" is not solely reserved for medical physicians. A "doctor" is a person who has received a Doctorate degree, whether the degree be Ph.D, Sc.D, M.D., D.O, D.C, D.P.M, D.D.S., etc... Doctor means educator. Medicine, Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Podiatry, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Psychology (any many others) are all specialized/Terminal branches of education. Anyone with a doctorate degree is first and foremost an educator. They possess the knowledge to inform others in a competent fashion about their specific field.
Many people with doctorates (for the exception of those with research-based degrees) may choose to practice their specific field (practitioners). This is where the term doctor has been skewed. Doctors of Medicine, also termed medical physicians, are health-care professionals whose scope of practice is focused on the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury, primarily through the use of drugs and/or surgery. This is what the general public thinks of when they hear/see of the word "doctor". Medical physicians are widely accepted as the only people to be correctly called "doctor". Obviously, this is a misnomer. For a long period of time, medical physicians were the only source of health-care treatment because at that time, there was not very much research done on human health. Dentists, who are Doctors of Dentistry, are doctors who focus on mouth and tooth health. They were not referred to as doctors, rather as dentists. This was not because they weren't themselves doctors (they of course were/are), but because it was just easier and more common to say dentist. Podiatrists, or Doctors of Podiatry, are health-care professionals who... (You get the picture). All health-care practitioners holding doctorates are REAL doctors. There is nothing fake about any of them, after all, how can there be? All of their degrees are from schools that are accredited by the department of education, aka, THE GOVERNMENT. All of them must pass state exams in order to gain licensure. The only legitimate argument about Chiropractors and Medical physicians is that neither are the other. Chiropractors never claimed to be medical physicians, nor have medical physicians claimed to be chiropractors.
Chiropractors purposely turned down the AMA's offer to become part of their association because they knew they were a separate identity. As far as saying Chiropractors are "quacks", that is a completely uneducated statement. Chiropractors are primary-care physicians who receive nearly identical education as medical physicians, the main difference being pharmacology and surgery. Chiropractors take the same amount of course hours in all of the same basic sciences (chiropractic students take more hours of anatomy than do medical students), and overall, more class time hours. Chiropractors have to take a four-part board exam in order to gain licensure... If you cannot see the progression of this by now... So to say Chiropractors aren't real doctors, that is completely untrue. To say that is to say Podiatrists aren't real doctors, Psychologists aren't real doctors, Dentists aren't real doctors, Pharmacists aren't real doctors, and so on... Clearly it isn't a true statement. Again, the only valid argument would be to say, "Chiropractors aren't real medical doctors", which is completely correct!! Chiropractors, nor any other doctor (besides medical of course) claim to be medical doctors. To do so would be ridiculous.
The requisites to be a doctor are not the ability to prescribe drugs/perform surgery. Unfortunately, western medicine has drilled into our heads that only Doctors can prescribe and perform surgery, so therefore the only real doctors are ones that do so. Look at the state our country is in, we are in the 30's on the list of most healthy countries. Our spending for health-care is astronomical, YETTTTT WE AREN'T THE HEALTHIER FOR IT! I have a deep and honest respect for medical doctors and the services they provide. Without drugs and surgery, many people alive today would not otherwise be. Medical doctors are excellent in treating life-threatening diseases and their emergency care is excellent. Medical doctors to have an ultimate downfall though, for the most part, they are only treating the symptoms of diseases, not the diseases themselves. Many of the diseases medical doctors treat, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, obesity, stroke, etc... which are already far into the diseases progression. Chiropractors, Naturopaths, and Osteopaths (not as many as in the past) are doctors who are more focused on disease prevention. Chiropractors are doctors who are most noted for their manipulation of joints, especially those in the spine. Chiropractic manipulation has been shown to be the most effective in treating back and neck pain, and it is also the least expensive (for the patient and insurance companies).
What many people may not know is that Chiropractors are trained in nutrition, exercise, natural supplements, and lifestyle guidance so that they can teach patients about how to live the healthiest life they are able to live. Most of the diseases medical doctors treat are diseases of affluence; obesity, diabetes, heart disease, some cancers. These diseases all stem from leading unbalanced and over-indulgent lifestyles. Obviously there are genetic components to each of the diseases, but that is because their parents/grandparents also lived similar lifestyles, and thus passed on the gene for disposition. The argument that Chiropractors claim to treat aids, cancer, etc.. are completely ridiculous. Chiropractors do in fact treat AIDS patients. They do not treat the disease itself, rather they work on pain management, diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices that will help the patient live a healthier life and therefore have a better chance at beating the terrible disease. The same goes for the cancer argument. Chiropractic does not cure cancer obviously, but it is completely possible that it may prevent it (through the diet, exercise, and lifestyle guidance). Nearly every chronic disease is 50/50. 50% nature, 50%nurture. Meaning that even though we may be genetically predisposed to certain diseases, does not dictate that we will get them, hence the focus on prevention. A healthy lifestyle is obviously the best "medicine". Chiropractors help patients to make their lives healthier and thus reducing the chance of getting diseases. Medical doctors help patients that already have the diseases by treating their symptoms. The delineation between the two disciplines is clear.
For those who say that Chiropractors are quacks because of DD Palmer (in the 1800's) claiming he could cure every disease, are basing their opinions on something that is essentially medieval thinking. If basing a profession on its founding fathers were realistic, then medical doctors are also "quacks". In the 1700's and 1800's, medical physicians believed that all diseases were due to "tainted" blood and therefore their treatment plan consisted of bleeding patients out by either cutting vessels and draining blood from them, leaches, emetics, and diuretics. If the blood loss didn't kill them from the blood letting, then the electrolyte imbalance from the emetics and diuretics surely did the trick. Clearly what happened hundreds of years ago cannot be the deciding factor on today's world. There is far too much research on health today for that to be the case. For those who say, show me the double blind clinical research on the efficacy of Chiropractic, I'd say read the JAMA and its findings on Chiropractic and how it was the MOST effective treatment for low back pain. For those who say "well a part of your philosophy is the infamous vertebral subluxation and its so-called ability to hinder our innate intelligence, therefore reducing our level of health". This is the weak point of Chiropractic. Not only is there a lack of adequate funding for such research to be done properly (thanks pharmaceutical companies!), but also the design of such an experiment would be extremely complex if not impossible. In-vivo research is really only possible when looking at biochemistry. It is relatively easy with today's technology to find the agonist/receptor complex. It is a clear and definable entity. This is where medicine gains it merit. It is not the fault of Chiropractors that vertebral subluxations are so hard to study. One cannot receive a "placebo" adjustment. In drug studies, participants receive either the actual drug, or a placebo, and regardless they are receiving drug. In Chiropractic research, one cannot just give one group adjustments and the other... I dont know, a crossword puzzle ...(just a little joke).
The general public believes that we (scientists/medical doctors) can find the cure to EVERYTHING in a lab, which is clearly untrue (at the moment). Although science has made incredible strides in research on health, we are, at the end of the day, only human. We are not capable of finding every answer to every question. Just because there is not a peer-reviewed journal article on a treatment, does not mean that it is not effective. It just means that A. It hasn't been thoroughly studied, or B. We don't understand it, and therefore haven't found a way to study it yet. Even when the FDA approves drugs for release, and even though they know how the drug works, there are still unforeseen adverse side effects that may surface (look at all of the drugs taken off of the market because they were found to be unsafe). Again, there is no such thing as perfect ANYTHING: no perfect research, no perfect treatment, no perfect drug, no perfect doctor, NO PERFECT HUMAN!. Science is only capable of one thing: disproving. Those who say it is "scientifically proven" don't understand the downfalls of the scientific method. Science proves absolutely nothing, it merely shows trends. Anyone with a Ph.D will tell you this. I realize Ive gone off on a tangent here but people only pick bits and pieces of info and base their entire opinion on a subject using them. For those who believe that Chiropractic is unsafe because of vertebral artery dissection in the upper cervical spine, here is an interesting tidbit. (
http://www.chiroandosteo.com/content/14/1/16). Many of the reported cases of people having strokes due to upper-cervical manipulations were not patients under the care and supervision of CHIROPRACTORS. They were under the care of either a. people pretending to be chiropractors, b. physical therapists/physiotherapists, or c. osteopaths. Alright, I am getting off of my soapbox now. I would really appreciate it if people were to respond to my post (in a professional and respectful way of course). Thank you for your time.
