The Integrated Chiropractic Clinic

Have you noticed a shift occurring in health care recently? I compare it to a wave growing in size and momentum that can't be stopped!

Let's look at the emerging signs.

One sign is that pharmaceutical companies are placing ads for prescription drugs in general public magazines, with hope that a patient will try to convince his/her doctor to prescribe that drug. The doctor often agrees for fear the patient will go elsewhere if he doesn't.

Is this health care or marketing?

Physicians grouping together is another sign. Lessening patient loads, higher overheads and more insurance and government red tape are turning physicians into administrators for survival in the market place.

Drug and retail stores are now providing larger and larger areas devoted to vitamin and natural product sales. Market forces are driving pharmaceutical companies towards the manufacturing of "natural products."

If you have noticed the above, you are on top of the wave. If you understand the reasons for this shift, consider yourself ahead of the rest.

There is a strong movement in Canada driving health care towards its grass roots; a more philosophical, innate, gentle, non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical approach. One of the reasons for this shift is an ever growing discontent among the public with our present-day health care delivery system.

I use the term "health care" with chagrin; nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, the word "health" does not even appear in many medical dictionaries. Dr Patrick Gentempo, President of the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance, a noted lecturer and friend, states that "medicine is actually sick care, not health care. When sick care is applied to a society disguised as health care, we end up with a sick society."

The medical answer to our health crisis has been to create more specialties, more technology and more expense. In North America, we have the best medical technology in the world, yet hospitals are always full. The system is failing!

"You can't solve this problem with the same level of thinking that existed when the problem was created," Gentempo says.

It is a paradox, yet that is exactly what is happening.

This discontent is causing ordinary people to pose a threat to the authority of the family doctor and the sanctity of the specialist. Today's patient is well educated. She asks questions. What is even more threatening is that she wants answers. Most medics are having difficulty providing answers that make sense.

Crisis Control

The public is beginning to realize that the practice of medicine is essentially "crisis control" and is based on symptom attenuation, changing body chemistry, and fear. It is not health care. At best, there are only four viable options available to most family physicians when faced with a patient who has a health problem:

• Wait for it to go away on its own or "live with it."
• Prescribe medication in the hope that this will minimize symptoms.
• Refer for surgery or other radical procedures.
• Physiotherapy
• There really are no other allopathic options.

Today's patient is no longer satisfied with this approach to health. Gone are the days when a patient is appeased upon hearing said or implied "I'm your doctor. I know what is best for you. Trust me."

As more and more people become aware of the failure of medicine to help them with their health concerns, they turn to chiropractic, vitamins, herbs and other natural remedies. The old "take a pill and make it better" mentality is still one of the most dangerous side-effects of medical indoctrination we face in society. We think that as long as we take a potion that stops our nose running, we're better; that if gulping down laxatives keeps us regular, we're improving the condition of our bodies. We need to stop thinking in terms of treating illness and disease and start thinking in terms of staying well! Real health is not just the absence of symptoms, It is something we create from the inside, not something we can achieve from a pill, a herb or a surgery.

Health is more than just a period between illnesses. Health is judged by the way your body adapts to its internal and external environment. For example, if a healthy body is exposed to a flu "bug" it should be able, if it's working properly, to neutralize the effects of the "bug" without breaking down. If it cannot adapt, you get "sick."

Chiropractic Approach

Chiropractic philosophy is based on this common sense. People like the logic, the simplicity and the rationale of this approach to health. Nothing is added to the body and nothing is taken out. We simply remove interference so it can function optimally.

Even Dr Albert Schweitzer realized that "each patient carries his own doctor inside him."

That's what doctors of chiropractic do. They help your inner doctor by removing subluxations which interfere with the flow of information along your nervous system. It's a different approach. It defies allopathic domination. And it's why chiropractic is the fastest growing drug-less health care profession in the world.

Real health is everyone's natural, normal state. The body was created with all the mechanisms needed to maintain its health–regardless of how much you were led to believe otherwise. The goal of the doctor you choose should be to allow your body to function the way it was meant to and to enhance that function. That is the next paradigm.

Integrated Health Centres Abound

One sure sign of the new medical paradigm is the emergence and proliferation of centres where the healing ability of the body is enhanced naturally and the main focus is health maintenance through a variety of modalities.

These clinics are founded on the principle that the body is designed to heal itself. They often have a reference library or a reference centre which can be used by both patients and the community, containing information on available alternative treatments, controversial medical treatments, both sides of the vaccination controversy, colitis, asthma and so on.

Wellness centers often employ a variety of practitioners including massage therapists; family therapists; biological, mercury-free dentists; chiropractors; naturopaths; and homeopaths.