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Chiropractic:
One of the health care's fastest growing
professions on a global basis, chiropractic has
earned recognition for its remarkable
effectiveness using natural, nonsurgical, and
drugless methods of treatment. Chiropractic is the
nation's third largest primary health care
profession, surpassed in numbers only by
practitioners of medicine and dentistry.
As of 2005, there are approximately 69,000
active chiropractic licenses in the United States
alone, with many more throughout the world.
Doctors of chiropractic refer patients to and from
medical practitioners, and can provide a viable
alternative to drugs and surgery. Its place in
modern health care is largely attributed to Dr.
Daniel David Palmer who founded the first
chiropractic college in 1895.
Principles of Chiropractic:
An estimated 16% of Americans consult a
chiropractor for treatment each year. However, the
chiropractic approach to wellness typifies a
changing attitude toward health care in the United
States. Chiropractic is a natural, conservative,
medication-free, and nonsurgical form of health
care. Chiropractic is also based on the premise
that the body is capable of achieving and
maintaining health through its own natural
recuperative powers, provided it receives the
necessary health maintenance components, including
proper food, water, adequate rest, exercise, clean
air, adequate nutrition, and a properly
functioning nervous system.
Chiropractic tenets also include the principle
that an individual's nervous system is very
important to health and that interference with
this system impairs normal functions and lowers
the body's resistance to disease. Chiropractic
principles are applicable to a wide range of
conditions.
Education:
Government inquiries, as well as independent
investigations by medical practitioners, have
affirmed that today's chiropractic training is of
equivalent standard to medical training in all
pre-clinical subjects. A doctor of chiropractic's
training generally requires a minimum of six years
of college study and an externship prior to
entering private practice.
Efficacy of
Chiropractic Care:
A review of research literature on chiropractic
care demonstrates that chiropractors provide
effective, readily available treatment that is
caring and sympathetic, low cost, low risk, and
non-invasive. In an article published in the
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological
Therapeutics (June 27, 2004), Richard Sarnat,
M.D., and James Winterstein, D.C., reported their
analysis of a managed care network in which
doctors of chiropractic as primary care physicians
were integrated with allopathic physicians.
The results showed that doctors of chiropractic
provided care at a substantially reduced costs for
patients when compared to care given by medical
doctors and osteopaths. Furthermore, over a
four-year period comparing the chiropractic
patients with patients who exclusively saw medical
doctors, those who saw chiropractic physicians
demonstrated the following results:
- A 43.0% decrease in hospital admissions
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A 58,4% decrease in hospital days
- A 43.2%
decrease in outpatient surgeries
- A 51.8%
decrease in pharmaceutical costs, and
- A
higher rating in patient satisfaction
The authors state that the results of their
study show”…a non-pharmaceutical/non-surgical
orientation can reduce overall health care costs
significantly and yet deliver high quality
care.
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