"Chiropractic Medicine" -- What On Earth???

Now I have been in the healthcare industry for over 26 years now, and I have never heard of a branch of medicine called "chiropractic". Yet, there are some chiropractors, some chiropractic schools, and even at least one state board of chiropractic, that insists that such a branch exists. Thus, they invented a degree called "Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine". No wonder why so many medical doctors are still NOT warmed up to chiropractic as a whole. I certainly wouldn't want to go to a medical doctor who calls himself a Doctor of Medical Chiropractic! To me, calling yourself a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine sounds just as far fetched, and even silly, as calling yourself a Doctor of Basketweaving Medicine.

I guess it's an ego thing. For those chiropractic doctors who feel that they need to be accepted by the medical profession, because they have this illusion that they are not accepted, they need to include the rather antonymous word "medicine" to their title. I don't hear dentists calling themselves "Doctors of Dental Medicine". They are DENTISTS. And, for goodness sake, chiropractors are CHIROPRACTORS. I practice chiropractIC. I don't practice any sort of medicine in any way, shape, or form. This rather obscene play on words is one of the reasons why, even when asked, I never wanted to practice in the state of Florida. I could never fathom calling myself a "Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine" when I, in fact, do not practice medicine!

But I am not the first to have such a rant on this topic. The first, as far as I know, was Dr. Patrick Gentempo, a chiropractOR. He is the president and one of the founders of the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance. I am right on par with him when he says that calling chiropractic "chiropractic medicine" is ridiculous. Medicine is the practice of administering substances and therapies, including surgery, for the treatment of disease and injury. Chiropractic is the practice of correcting, by hand alone, bone misalignments (subluxations) that impinge upon the nerve system, which is the master regulator of all body organs and functions. Man, medicine and chiropractic certainly sound like two very different things to me!

So, it's rather interesting, and not in a positive way, to hear some chiropractic doctors themselves refer to themselves as "Doctors of Chiropractic Medicine." Now I can understand this happening in the general public. After all, medicine is the dominant healthcare paradigm here in the U.S., and therefore people may make that mistake. I forgive them, and then I correct them. But for an actual DOCTOR to make this mistake? Hmmm. I am certainly NOT going to forgive them!