The NZ Commission of Inquiry into the chiropractic profession was a global landmark study carried out in the late 1970’s.
It was initiated due to concerns raised on the part of the medical profession – about chiropractic quackery on the part of the medical profession.
The outcome of the enquiry set the gold standard for chiropractic legislation across the developed world.
The commission concluded based on the level of education chiropractors receive that chiropractors are entitled to use the title – doctor.
It also concluded that it was in the public’s interest that chiropractors and the chiropractic profession be embraced by the mainstream healthcare system, which incidentally has already become the case in the UK.
Sadly, for the NZ public – for reasons that are not clear this has still not happened over 30 years later.
Chiropractors are not doctors in the medical /pills/prostate examination sense.
They are doctors in their own sense.
They are qualified to diagnose and treat disorders of the neuro-musculoskeletal system… in the same sense that a dentist is qualified to diagnose and treat disorders of the teeth, gums and jaw.
The traditional way of doing dentistry was to identify painful little holes in teeth and then pull the whole tooth out.
In a far less invasive but similarly basic sense the traditional way of doing chiropractic was to sniff out locked spinal bones – and manipulate them back to full mobility.
Both the dental profession and chiropractors have evolved somewhat since their more simplistic and 1 dimensional beginnings.
Chiropractors now embrace a broad ‘scope of practice’ which includes the management of a broad range of complaints and techniques.
Some chiropractors’ practices consist of as little as 25% pure chiropractic technique and complaints.
The rest of what they do is a broad and flexible approach to pain management that merges chiropractic tools with techniques most people would associate with physiotherapy, acupuncture, fitness coaching and osteopathy. This includes managing a million sprained ankles.
Most healing professions start off with a fairly basic methodology or tool and expand their scope over time.
If you took a peek at what surgeons were doing in Victorian times and then compared it what they can do now you would most likely be a little shocked and amazed.
When surgeons founded their profession, they were essentially in the business of cutting peoples legs and arms off with no anesthetic and no hand or knife washing between patients.
In far less horrifying but similar terms chiropractors started off with some simple procedures and have expanded their scope of practice over time.
The original chiropractic intervention was the mobilisation of a spinal bone which gave an audible pop as it released.
But chiropractic is a profession not a procedure – spinal manipulation is something that chiropractors sometimes do.
Chiropractic is a set of principles, theories and beliefs about pain and the spine which has given rise to many different techniques and tools.
Spinal manipulation is now an absolutely Bonafide treatment for lower back pain and it is part of international guidelines for the management of lower back pain.
Chiropractic is a fully regulated healthcare profession who’s practitioners receive more basic training in the combined sciences of spinal pain, neurology and biomechanics than any other discipline.
Chiropractors have the same fundamental legal standing as doctors and dentists, they are primary healthcare providers. What is alternative about that?
The oldest record of spinal manipulation being used to treat a patient is on 3000-year-old Egyptian papyrus.
Bonesetters are known to have practiced spinal manipulation across many cultures, for untold millennia.
Daniel Palmer was a visionary who founded the chiropractic profession a century ago.
Palmer had noted that spinal manipulation was an age old tool and became interested in developing theories around how it might work.
Palmer subsequently began testing and experimenting with spinal manipulation to great effect.
Palmer’s primary legacy though was the development of a healthcare profession with modern education standards built around the art and science of spinal manipulation. He did not invent spinal manipulations though… far from it.
Give us a call at City Chiropractic on 04 385 6446 to make an appointment now.
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