How To Choose The WRONG Chiropractor

This past week my wife Bianca had a terrible episode with her lower back. She had been sore for a couple days, and then she went to her massage therapist. After her session, she was in such severe pain that she couldn’t get dressed, go out the door, or get into her car without assistance. She called me to ask what she should do. I told her to take her time and come home. Since she had the massage therapist to help her there, I would take it the rest of the way once she arrived home. After taking forever to get out of the car, I took her right into the breezeway of our house, which is where my chiropractic office is set up. Although I knew quite well what the problem was, the possibility of her needing to have x-rays or even an MRI done were coming to the forefront of my mind. I worked on her in my office, doing what I could by hand alone, wondering if it would be enough. Just a few minutes later, she was significantly better. Over the course of the next four days, both chiropractic care and a full Reiki session brought her back to almost 100% health. No x-rays, no MRIs, no electric stimulation, no ultrasound machines, no mechanical traction, and no gimmicks were used. My intuition, knowledge, and my hands were all that were needed.

Then, I thought back in time to a couple similar situations that happened back in 2001 when I was still practicing in Pennsylvania. Patients with similar problems came to me where other chiropractors and even medical providers have failed them, only to be completely healed. How did these things happen? It’s not magic. Not even close. It’s just that I do what I do using the basics and using my heart. I really care about the people that walk into my office. My primary focus is on getting them BETTER. When they are better is the time that I turn my attention toward talking to them about maintenance care, chiropractic philosophy, and bringing their family in for care. Also, I do it all without any gimmicks, just as I took care of my wife this time around.

A question that arises now and then is how do you tell the difference between a “good” chiropractor and a “bad” one. Speaking generally, this formula applies to doctors and health care providers of ANY kind. Not just chiropractors. First I should point out that the American Medical Association has succeeded to a great extent at brainwashing the people of the U.S. into thinking that chiropractors are uneducated quacks. They did so by forming a committee in 1963 called the Committee Against Chiropractic. It was later renamed to the Committee Against Quackery to include professionals of other non-medical healing arts as well. It took a group of seven chiropractors in the state of Illinois a federal lawsuit against the AMA, which the Chicago Seven so valiantly won in 1989, for the organized slander to come to an end. But the damage was done, and organized medicine continues its nonsense in underground and backhanded ways. How did the AMA lose this antitrust lawsuit? It was pretty much a no-brainer when study after study was presented in court showing how amazingly beneficial and effective chiropractic care is for a variety of reasons. The evidence spoke for itself.

Speaking of chiropractors in particular, the REAL one will talk to you like a person. That’s first and foremost. They will greet you by name, ask you what your concerns are, and will then proceed with care. From there, the answers are all very different because not all chiropractors have the same philosophies about what they do. It is helpful to steer clear of the ones who say, “We’ll adjust you three times, and if that doesn’t work we’ll try muscle stim, ultrasound, reverse traction, or (insert your nonsense here) instead.” This chiropractor has no faith in what he does. Likewise, the one who starts by telling you that this nerve controls that organ and that correcting the subluxations in your spine is going to help you function better and has you all confused with big anatomy and physiology terms and hardly breathes between words just like this sentence is going is likewise somebody to be avoided. This person is an idealist and really doesn’t care about the pain you are in.

Physiotherapy equipment such as electrical modalities, cold lasers, and roller tables do not belong in a chiropractor’s office. Most of the people I’ve ever seen in my office say that those things either never did a thing for them or actually made them worse. These things are awesome ways for the chiropractor to pad the bill that he’s going to send off to your insurance company. Another question I often get is if x-rays are really necessary. The answer, in general, is “no”. However, there are certain chiropractic techniques that are entirely dependent on x-rays for specific analysis of your skeletal structure. And, if you were just involved in a vehicle accident and hit your head against the windshield right before walking into my office, you better believe that the first thing I’m going to do before doing any kind of adjusting or manipulating (there is a difference!) is have you get x-rays! The chiropractor who does x-rays on everyone that walks through his door is afraid he might make a mistake. He has no intuition, and he has been told that people are sue-happy. Then there’s the chiropractor who wants you to sign up for a year’s worth of care up front, or he pressures you to buy his line of products. This to me is unethical.

In the end, you are a consumer looking to purchase a service. It would be wise to shop around until you have found the person that you feel most comfortable being with. Go with your instincts! When I was still practicing in Pennsylvania in 2001, I had worked as an associate doctor to a well-liked chiropractic speaker. It became evident, though, that this person missed the mark when it came to actually caring for patients when I was the one receiving complaints about her! After that point in time, I realized that I had a unique gift – a piece of myself that I could offer, with sincerity, to people in need. I could especially understand people because there have been so many times in my life when I was the patient, lying in a hospital bed, not knowing if I was going to live or die. I feel that people who can actually EXPERIENCE such an event, let alone more than once, make more intuitive healers. All in all, I certainly know enough that I can be confident to speak up and write this article!

Enter The "Holistic Physician"

Last week while I was working at my security job at the Guthrie Theater, I got talking to a couple of the ushers. Most of the people I work with already know that I am a chiropractor. But what they don't know is that I am very holistic in how I care for my patients. "I address all of my patients' health concerns," I said at one point in the conversation. At that moment, one of the ushers I was talking to perked up and started asking me all these questions about her high blood pressure problems. She wanted to know what natural ways there are to take care of it. I then thought to myself that THIS is why I became a doctor -- to help people with their health concerns in a holistic way. I didn't become a "back pain specialist," and I really hate being mistaken for one. Even though my business card says that I am a "holistic chiropractor," the word "chiropractor" insinuates, in most people's mind, that I take care of only back pain and headaches. I've been in health care for over 26 years now in many different capacities. I certainly never intended to limit myself by becoming a chiropractor!

What people DO understand is the word "physician". D.D. Palmer, the founder of the chiropractic profession, always frowned on chiropractors who would call themselves "chiropractic physicians". Many medical doctors with an ego would also frown upon a chiropractor considering himself to be any kind of physician. I've always been neutral to using this term because, as the Latin origin of the word "physician" implies, a physician is a practitioner of a "natural science". (Source: the Online Etymology Dictionary) So the question would then be, could I simply call myself a "holistic physician"? To answer that, I turned to the good ol' internet, that magical land where all knowledge can be bestowed. Alas, I came up with an article who answered that question with a profound "yes". Here is the link to the article: http://www.radicalmedicine.com/holistic_physician_defined.html .

According to the article, there are six different healing professionals that can use the title "holistic physician": medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, dentists, and acupuncturists. Therefore, I feel at ease to change my business cards to read "Dr. Patrick V. Suglia, Holistic Physician". Then, to be in accordance with Minnesota state law, I would list chiropractic care among the services that I offer. I do offer a slew of others, such as health status testing (which the American Holistic Medical Association calls functional medicine), routine and specialized physicals, Reiki healing (which the AHMA refers to as energy medicine), and others. I won't go into detail about them here because you can always see everything I do on my website at http://sufletesc.twicmn.org .

People haven't quite made the full paradigm shift yet to fully comprehend and appreciate the words of Thomas Edison: "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." The human frame IS the specialty of the chiropractor, and the other mentioned items are the concern of any holistic physician. The paradigm shift started only 18 years ago when in 1991, for the first time, more visits were made to practitioners of "alternative" medicine, with chiropractors leading the figures, than to general practice medical doctors. Yes, the paradigm is still shifting. More and more people are learning about the wonderful HOLISTIC benefits of chiropractic care, while the current being created by the medical establishment, who is trying to hold on to their dying ego, continues to try to push us further from the public's interest. Until the paradigm shift is complete, which I hope I live to see, I will, for now, call myself a Holistic Physician.