Remembering those Who Sacrificed
Dear Editor:
Thank you for Dr. W.F. Stiers' letter telling of his 1923 experience as a pioneer chiropractor enduring the incarceration trials of establishing our profession. It's a valuable reminder to doctors today to take pause to consider if they, too, value what they have to the extent they would take on such sacrifice.
This earlier prolonged period of personal dedication to a new profession, a new idea whose time had come, hides multitude of stories that may never find public television documentary exposure, but those heroes join the exalted spirits of the past who gave for the benefit of mankind yet unborn.
We owe it that the profession never be permitted to forget.
D.C. McKnight, DC
Ankeny, Iowa
Dear Editor:
I read with interest the letter from Dr. Russell Gibbons in the December 3, 1993 Dynamic Chiropractic "We Get Letters." May I please correct him. The founder of the American Bureau of Chiropractic was Dr. William H. Werner of Richmond Hill, New York, not his nephew Dr. Albert Werner. Also note, its Werner not Warner. Yes, the ABC did fill Madison Square Garden with laymen promoting the chiropractic cause, plus many, many other events ... i.e., a float in the Rosebowl Parade (which won a prize), and in its prime had 157 auxiliaries meeting once a month all over the country, auxiliaries run and funded by "Laymen Organized for Health Freedom," the catch cry of the ABC.
It's truly a pity that there are so few "fire and brimstone" chiropractors left, those whose only concern was for the patients right to go to the doctor of their choice for the care of their choice. Dr. Werner was a staunch believer in patient education, or how else can one make an intelligent decision. Dr. Werner would turn in his grave if he could see how this great profession has sold its soul to the insurance companies, with chiropractors (tsk, tsk) quaking in their boots for fear that they might bill the wrong code. Insurance companies supposedly run by chiropractors for chiropractors who don't understand that chiropractic offers the only true health insurance through maintenance. Pardon me if I get carried away on this for you see, I knew Bill Werner up close and personal for 12 years. I wish I could have known him better and certainly more of his history, but I was too young. You see ... I am his daughter.
Anyway, next time you write an article on the ABC hopefully you will now spell his name correctly. He at least deserves that for his 40 years of dedicated service.
Marlene Faulkner, nee Werner
San Jose, California
Dear Editor:
I was at the California State Board of Chiropractic Examiners meeting last Thursday (December 9th). There were 22 members of the public at the meeting: 18 doctors of chiropractic, one office manager, the president of the CCA, the executive director of the CCA, and a woman representing pediatricians. Each doctor who spoke, with the exception of the CCA president, argued against passage of the regulation which would limit the freedom of choice of patients to select chiropractic care in the treatment of infectious disease and punish doctors who attempt to use natural methods to treat the patients. You now know that the vote was tabled until the issue of conflict of interest involving several Board members has been decided by the Fair Political Practice Commission.
It has never been established that there is a necessity for this regulation;
Please continue to cover this issue. There is no unbiased forum in California for the delivery of information. And there is more than one side to the story, as the December 9 meeting tells.
Kathleen M. Power, DC
Pasadena, California
Editor's note: See "Calif. Board Adopts Emergency Regulations under Treat" in Sept. 1, 1993 issue.
Dear Editor:
"There is far too much potential benefit in this largely unknown phenomenon we call chiropractic for us to dismiss favorable clinical outcomes on merely theoretical bases."
Did Dr. Joseph Keating borrow that or did he arrive at it on his own? If it is his, he is showing progress. Congratulations are in order.
But the question remains, "How does saying, 'It works,' before triple blind studies are done in quadruplicate 'destroy' the credibility of the scientific process?" Did the first cave man who got burned trying to pick that strange red flower that ate sticks (fire) destroy the credibility of the scientific process by saying, "It burns," or has fire been properly evaluated since then?
Anyway, keep it up Joseph, you're making progress!
John G. Watson, DC
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Editor's note: The quote in the opening paragraph of this letter is from Dr. Keating's article, "A Strategy for Clinical Research: Theory Based but Outcome Oriented" (Dec. 3, 1993 issue).
Dear Editor:
As an avid reader of your newspaper, I want to thank you for the contemporary articles about our profession that keep me informed about the politics and issues facing chiropractic. Unlike any other periodical, your newspaper is on the cutting edge.
However, I must admit I miss RHT. Dr. Richard Tyler's columns were great -- humorous and enlightening.
Please bring back RHT!
James C. Smith, BS, MA, DC
Warner Robins, Georgia
Dear Editor:
I am once again writing a letter to the editor regarding the article in the November 19th, 1993 edition: "A Description of the Common Compensatory Pattern in Relationship to the Osteopathic Postural Examination," by Guy Defeo, DC and Laurence Hicks, DC. Their bibliography cites many authors dating from 1954 into the early 1990s.
It would seem that the authors believe this is a heretofore undiscovered phenomenon of spinal distortion.
Yet, Mortimer Levine, DC, in his tome, The Structural Approach to Chiropractic, published in 1964, cites Willard Carver's "discovery" of the typical distortion described in his writings of the early 1920s. Levine describes the two curves on each side of the body gravity line counterbalancing the basic distortion, which is the inherent weakness of the right sacroiliac joint. He further states why this weakness occurs in the human family has not been determined.
However, the very principle described by Defeo and Hicks has its roots in Carver's early writings.
A.M. Goldschmidt, DC
New York, New York
Dear Editor:
Preparations are currently being made to celebrate the chiropractic profession's centennial birthday, and what a celebration it will be. Many dues have been paid and many sacrifices have propelled us into the 20th century, still alive, still growing. However, our profession has outgrown its childhood ways and is now a mature profession. It is necessary that we unite into one strong organization in order to withstand the challenge of health care reform, medical ignorance, and prejudice, and take our rightful place in health care.
As a unified profession, we could accomplish more with less duplication and greater focus. Surely, we also have matured individually so that one organization could house different views as long as we emphasize our agreements rather than our disagreements. Every republican or democrat does not share every plank in the party platform, but when election time comes they all join together. We have long passed our infancy and have gotten through our childhood slightly bruised but still intact. We can no longer afford the luxury of division. Now is the time as a "young adult" profession to honor each other for what we have accomplished, both individually and collectively, and utilize all of our talents while marching together under the banner of chiropractic unity. What a great birthday present that would be.
Gerald B. Zelm, DC
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
