The Role of the Chiropractor

"Thus the role of the chiropractor is to mobilize the biological resources of the organism, - to allow it to do for itself as much as it is able to do. He does not whip a tired organ into activity by stimulants, nor squelch over-excited nerves with sedatives or narcotics. What he accomplishes is not accomplished at the expense of masking symptoms, side-effects, and the general physical deterioration that so often follows dependence on drugs."

-- C.W. Weiant, DC, PhD

I often use the analogy of a smoke alarm when discussing symptoms and medications with my people. Symptoms, especially pain, are the body's innate way of cueing your brain into the fact that something needs to be addressed. The role of medication is to alter your body's chemistry. A major consequence of this altered chemistry is that the cause of the problem remains, but the signal alerting your brain that something needs to be reevaluated gets turned down or turned off. This is analogous to taking the batteries out of the smoke detector. The smoke detector is trying to tell you that there is a fire in the kitchen. Just because the alarm stops blaring does not mean you have addressed the cause of the smoke.

For me, chiropractic is about helping people to develop strategies to access greater levels of resourcefulness. As Weiant says, to "mobilize" those biological resources. Mobilization is a direct result of establishing and improving clear lines of communication. When the system is clear, the message is clear, and the body can organize - and mobilize - accordingly.

As BJ Palmer, the developer of chiropractic, says in Volume XXXII,

"Have you more faith in a knife or a spoonful of medicine than in the Innate power that animates the internal living world?"

From the Ground Up

When was the last time you looked at your feet? I mean really looked. Like many parts of the body, most people don’t think about their feet until there is a problem. Unfortunately, by the time we sense a problem (pain!), it is often because we’ve forced our feet into bad shoes for too long.  

There are many opinions about footwear. Mine is not particularly driven by fashion, trend, or advertised function. I’ve found that when you apply a rational, anatomically-based perspective to how the body works, things just start to make sense.

Our connection to the ground comes through our feet. If we squish our toes, elevate the heel (to any height), or have lift in the toe, it is impossible to properly bear the weight of the body. Period. Over time, this enforces poor biomechanics through the entire lower kinetic chain. If you have a foot problem, you have a knee and a hip and a pelvis problem. Everything is connected. The brilliance of the body is such that it can and it will adapt, compensate, and put up with the trauma to which you subject it - to a point. From the ground up, this means looking at the relationship of your feet to the floor.  

I recently had the opportunity to meet with and shadow Dr. Ray McClanahan, D.P.M. As a classically trained podiatrist, he employed the needle and knife approach of allopathic medicine to “fix” the “pathology” of the foot issues he saw. A combination of personal experience, exposure to the uncommon perspective of Dr. William Rossi, and a compassionate drive to find a better way heal and improve the quality of life in his patients led him to innovate a product called Correct Toes.    

Dr. Ray McClanahan is an educator. He practices what he preaches and he preaches a Good Word. He believes in employing a preventative and conservative approach to not just alleviate your pain or complaint, but help to position your feet (and by extension your body) in way that honors natural movement and allows for healing to occur.

So check out his website, but more importantly check out your feet. If you draw a line from your first metatarsal to the tip of your big toe, is the line straight? Take the liner out of your shoe and step on it. Is the line still straight? What do you think happens when you cram a foot into a box that is too small for years? For decades? You wouldn’t do that to your hands. You only have one pair of feet. Wear them well.

What is Your Back Story?

The story of your spine is your “back story”. Many people know that the spine helps to protect the spinal cord, the neurological freeway that connects the brain to nerves in the body. The spinal cord is not a separate organ from the brain, and in many ways it can be considered the “back of the mind”.

We experience our world through our nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves, and sense organs). Sometimes, this world can be stressful on our bodies and our minds and this is reflected in the spine. The body will prioritize stability over freedom when it is under duress or if it perceives it is under duress. This means that whether the stress on the body and the spine is material (physical or chemical stress) or psychological (mental/emotional stress), the body and the spine will respond in the same way.

Sometimes it is important and necessary to trade stability for freedom, but more often than not this state is only beneficial when temporary. Life is the expression of motion and motion requires freedom. This is nowhere more apparent than in the spine. If the spine is not allowed to freely express movement through a balanced and coordinated range of motion, the entire communication system of the body becomes challenged. When there is reduced quantity and quality information being communicated within the body, especially when this occurs over long periods of time, we see the consequences of dis-ease manifest.

Dis-ease can take different forms. Dis-ease can look or feel like pain, fatigue, tension, or challenges with how the body functions. No matter what the symptoms, dis-ease in the body indicates a compromise to the body’s internal communication system.

The role of the chiropractor is, therefore, to address the compromise to body's internal communication system. In chiropractic, this compromise when found in the spine is called the vertebral subluxation. The chiropractic adjustment is an information signal delivered to mobilize the innate wisdom of the body, in order to allow the nervous system to reorganize where and how ease and dis-ease are present.

The stories that we write with our lives are the stories that are reflected in our spines. To see the integrated whole, we must acknowledge that nothing exists in isolation, there must be a balance of freedom and stability, and that this process of story writing is ultimately a creative one.