Chiropractic or the original idea of chiropractic was developed in America in 1895 by Daniel David Palmer and has had a somewhat turbulent but very interesting history. Here is a short version of it…
Palmer was an interesting and colourful man, working in various trades during his life. A former green-grocer with little medical training it was while working as a magnetic healer that DD Palmer performed what was to become the first chiropractic adjustment (manipulation):
Harvey Lillard was the janitor of the building in which Palmer worked, and one day he mentioned to Palmer that he had been deaf since an injury to his upper back and neck some years before when he suddenly lifted his head when a loud bang in the street startled him. In doing so he banged his head to the bottom of the sink he was working on at the time and a loud crack occurred somewhere in his neck. He supposedly (as the story goes was deaf in one ear ever since. Palmer supposed that the deafness could have been caused by the spinal trauma, as they were so closely linked, so he examined the man’s back. On finding a bone “out of place” he decided to push the bone back into place in the hope that the deafness could be cured. Sure enough, as history records it, the man’s hearing was restored following the adjustment. Of course, whether this actually happened or even the way it actually happened is still much of a debate amongst chiropractors!
This led Palmer to investigate the effect of the spine on general health. He came to the conclusion that if the spine was not in proper alignment then the nerves around the spine may become impinged or irritated, which could lead to health problems, as he theorized that good communication between the different organs of our body is vital to being healthy. He set about testing his theories apparently with great success. A few years later, he set up Palmer College of Chiropractic, which still exists today. After many years of legal wrangling with the established medical profession, by the 1960′s chiropractic had received legal recognition in all states in the US. Thankfully, chiropractic has now moved on somewhat from the early days of “chiropractic cures all.” Most chiropractors now reject the idea of chiropractic curing diseases, and focus on the musculoskeletal conditions that we know we can help. That said, the philosophy of what we do as chiropractors is fundamentally unchanged: if the body hurts, it is because it’s not working well. This may be due to injury, this may be due to habits, this may be due to the fact that the body simply isn’t working well and is causing you to damage your body more quickly than you can repair it! The chiropractor’s role is to work with people in the latter category, but things aren’t always so clear cut. Particularly over the last two decades things have advanced a great deal in chiropractic and it has become an integrated approach towards movement, movement patterns and abnormal biomechanical stressors which means that we are looking at gait patterns, bite patterns, X-rays, MRI and ultrasound scans and have come to know a thing or two about backs! But it is important to understand that there are many other stressors that need to be borne in mind; think for example about obesity and what that does to your joints, think about stress and what that does to muscle tension,… then you start to understand what chiropractic today is all about.
Chiropractic came to the UK in the early part of the 20th Century. The British Chiropractic Association was set up in 1925 and is still the largest association in the UK. However, the road to legal recognition here was a slow one, with a Government-recognized regulatory body, the General Chiropractic Council (GCC) only being established in 1994. It was not until June 2001 that the professional title chiropractor” became protected by law. Before that time, anyone could claim to be one and many horror stories about chiropractors pre-date this change. The protection of the title means that all chiropractors in the UK must have followed courses approved by the GCC and are therefore properly qualified. Some associations like the BCA and the ECU also require further credentials to guarantee the best care possible to patients.
All things considered, chiropractic is still a little ahead of its time, and the reasons are simple: we are all only human and we often only act on problems when they become a pain, particularly when it becomes a pain worth paying to get rid of. That’s only normal, we eat when we’re hungry, we shelter when it rains, but fundamentally, like with your teeth or your weight, it is better to take action today when the problems are small and easy to treat, than when drastic measures are the only recourse left.
