Mouse in a Room of Tigers (or, a DC in a Room of MDs)

I recently went to a Functional Medicine seminar.  As is true for all such seminars, it is cross-disciplinary, meaning that any licensed healthcare practitioner can attend.  However, most of my previous experience with Functional Medicine training involved classes in which DCs (Doctors of Chiropractic) dominated the landscape, so this particular class was an anomaly for me.

I emerged from that class having gone through a subtle yet significant transformation.

Chiropractic Specialties

In keeping with the multifaceted goal of this blog in that I’d like to engage several different audiences, I figured it’d be a great time to share some information directly with the non-DCs of the board.  Most people outside the chiropractic field don’t realize that DCs also have our own recognized (or soon-to-be) specialties of practice.  While some actual cross-disciplinary fellowships (in which MDs, DOs, and DCs can all co-exist within the same group) exist, these are few and far between and because I don’t know quite enough about them to speak with any certainty, I’ll limit this discussion mainly to chiropractic-specific specialties, known as Diplomates.

Is Chiropractic a Scam?

In a word (okay…two words) absolutely NOT.

Yes, I’m a DC (Doctor of Chiropractic) myself.  Do I have a vested interest in promoting chiropractic?  Not exactly, simply because I don’t do spinal adjusting (all of my work revolves around Functional Medicine, a very high-end neuro-metabolic approach to chronic conditions, endocrine issues, blood sugar problems, fatigue, autoimmune disorders, you name it, that relies mostly on scientific lab testing to identify the physiological imbalances and give a starting point in terms of helping improve those issues).  Yes, it’s true: not every DC touches the spine.  No, we’re not being sacrilegious or wasting our chiropractic degree; we’re just choosing to utilize different parts of our education and develop a different skillset.

So anyway…am I biased?  Maybe.  Do I still have a valid opinion?  Yep.

Why Chiropractic Needs Abraham Flexner

Some of you already know where I’m going with this.  Half are starting to clap, while the other half is drawing up “Wanted: Dead or Alive” posters.

Others of you don’t yet know who I’m talking about.  That’s okay.  I’ll explain.

Dr. Brandon Credeur’s Response to Denver’s Channel 7 Witch-Hunt

There are always two sides to every story.  Sometimes the events go down exactly as the prosecution describes; other times there is an inaccurate, sensationalist, and almost deliberately misleading account of twisted facts and comments taken out of context.

In case you couldn’t tell already, what happened to Dr. Credeur definitely falls into the latter.  He was nothing but honest in his interviews (which he was in no way required to respond to) and he cooperated fully.  And in fact, his office wrote an intelligent, professional, factual letter in response to the story.  Here it is…

Chiro Cleanup – Part 5: Solutions – Part 1

A great quote states: “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

This, coupled with my philosophical policy that I shall not bitch about that for which I do not subsequently offer a solution, are the driving forces behind this entire series of Chiro Cleanup entries, especially this one.  Therefore, in the words of Larry the Cable Guy, let’s “git ‘er done”.