DC - Doctor of Cause

Doctor of Chiropractic is written DC and it means Doctor of Cause. That distinction is important in a world where most decisions are made by treating symptoms. The assumption is erroneous that by suppressing symptoms the body will be healthier. What we call symptoms - runny noses, sneezing, headaches, muscle aches, etc. - are intelligent responses by the body to rid itself of an offending substance. The body never makes mistakes. Never. If perfection exists in this Universe then I suggest the human body as a perfect example.

Being a Doctor of Cause means that a Chiropractor is a healer. Healing is not about covering something up, or kicking the can down the road to deal with it later. Its all about doing the right thing, the difficult thing, to correct the underlying problem. That is healing. Its getting to the root cause of the problem no matter how difficult or frightening that might be.

Our culture is in crisis on many levels, esp. financially where we are collectively kicking the can down the road for the next group of people to bail us out or or deal with our debt. The analogy to the human body is pertinent. By going into debt, borrowing beyond our means, encouraging consumption, we have created a swath of financial and moral cancer that is slowly killing the patient - our economy. The debt and materialism are consuming our resources like a metastatic tumor, taking wealth without producing more in its place. Treating the cause of the problem - too much debt, not enough savings - requires touch decisions, personal sacrifice, careful planning and discipline.

Its the same with our human bodies. People want to have a quick fix. A magic pill. The fantasy that a lifetime of wrong decisions can be rectified without any personal effort, growth, or sacrifice is a powerful one - just look at the strong sales of pharmaceutical drugs. The trouble is that a drug without side-effects is no drug at all. Hundreds of millions of people are taking powerful, dangerous drugs for conditions that could be treated with holistic, natural, and safe health care. We are collectively very sick because everything is out of balance in our lives. The great lie is that only Medicine can cure what ails you, and since Medicine is another way of saying drugs and surgery, then that's all you are going to get! With few exceptions, an MD today is mostly just a drug-doctor. That's the only tool they have. Its effective in life-threatening situations, but entirely counter-productive and outright devastating 95% of the time when the root cause of the problem is simply glossed over by taking drugs that mask symptoms.

Listen, I was raised to believe that we are the greatest country on Earth. If that is true then why are we the sickest first-world nation in the world? Something doesn't compute. The issue is not whether or not we know how to fix our problems of disease in America. The issue is are we willing? Sadly there is so much money to be made in the unnecessary suffering of human beings that the task of getting healthy lies squarely on the shoulders of individuals. It will not come from the top down so the issue then is one of individuals choosing the right path, the life that resonates with their spirit - the path of healing.

Chiropractic is the greatest profession of healing ever gifted to mankind. Chiropractors are educated at the same level of scientific understanding and technical knowledge as medical doctors. Philosophy is the difference between those that treat symptoms and those that treat causes. Chiropractic philosophy is based on the premise that the world is inherently a spiritual world manifest in the physical realm. Modern science confirms what Chiropractic has said for a long time - that the mind controls matter. Read Bruce Lipton for more information on that topic.

There is no better healing profession than one where doctors are trained to understand and treat the cause of disease. These are healers. They are unique and powerful persons who are licensed by the law of the land to physically touch another human. The greatness of chiropractic comes from the skills of the hands. Touch is an act of power and should be regarded with utmost respect. A skilled chiropractor will understand the language of medicine and science and apply the latest advances in clinical nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, rehabilitation, neurology, etc. to create health from the inside out. This is the difference between being a Healer and a mechanic.

If you think that the human body is simply a machine, destined to perform preprogrammed functions over and over until the end, then you won't need a healer, you'll need a mechanic. It doesn't matter if you treat the machine like crap for 20 years, you'll just swap out parts as they wear out. This is the attitude people have with their bodies. Just keep abusing it until something needs to be replaced. These same people will be taking better care of their 20 thousand dollar cars that they can go and replace once they wear it out than they will of their own body. We only have a single body, one, and its ours to take care of!

What makes Chiropractic great is that there are no drugs or surgeries involved in getting patients well. Its about changing your life. Health is a reward for correct decisions. By touching patients with their hands chiropractors communicate to the patient on a level few other practitioners ever will. Imagine how powerful a doctor would be if this person knew the skills of the naturopath, the science and biochemistry of the medical doctor, and then combined everything with vast knowledge of caring for the human structure. That is a potent combination that can handle everything life throws at us, save those rare emergencies where medical attention at hospitals is absolutely necessary. Using the principals of treating subluxations, of using nutrition, and of educating patients on being healthy, Chiropractors represent the future of healing. The future of healing is bright for those with the courage and open mind to work with a chiropractor on finding the root cause of disease. Remember, DC means Doctor of Cause.

Toxic Town

We credit the alchemists for coining the phrase "as above, so below". This simple yet powerful statement reveals that the there are universal laws and truths operating at all levels of reality. The planets in our solar system rotate around the sun just like atoms whirl around the nucleus of an atom. There are solar winds traveling through space just like there are jet streams in our atmosphere and ocean currents in our seas. Nations organize human beings into systems just like living things organize cells into organs. What the alchemists were alluding to is the fact that similar phenomenon exist at all levels, micro and macro.

Consider then the community of cells we call the human body. Our cells respond to toxic food, excessive stress, and emotional suffering just like human beings respond to fear, violence, and poison. Lets consider what would happen to normal, healthy individuals in the following scenario:

Imagine a dense urban environment, called "Toxic Town", where we remove all the nutrition from the food supply and replace it with processed sugar only; place drugs into the drinking water; pollute the air; tear down the lines of communication to the rest of the world; and finally wall off that part of the city. What do you think the health of those citizens would be like in a few days? A few weeks? A few months?

We took normal, healthy people and changed their environment. In this walled-off part of the city people suffered greatly from dis-ease as they were unable to escape the health negative effects of their environment. Anyone subjected to the above reality would likely experience degeneration and dis-ease. Without the ingredients for health available in the immediate environment, and without the ability to flee, is there any doubt as to the fate of these imaginary people?

Keeping with this train of thought, how might today's medical authorities deal with this situation? If we follow the orthodox medicine point of view then our remedy would be to send in ANTI-BIOTIC foot soldiers to "wipe the floor" with these sick people. Or perhaps a SURGICAL air strike would effectively wipe this dis-eased Toxic Town right off the map. When we consider that cells are like people, orthodox medicine becomes violent very quickly. And how are we going to heal each other, if we practice violence against ourselves?

The citizens of Toxic Town didn't do anything wrong and obviously don't deserve to get obliterated by medical intervention. They became victim to their environment - an environment that made it impossible to experience health. In our own bodies it is not the fault of our cells that they become diseased, anymore than it is the fault of the people in Toxic Town. And like the people stuck in this toxic part of town, our cells cannot up and move to a cleaner part of our body.

We should consider then how vitally important is the environment. Whether we are an individual human being or an individual cell, our health and our fate is fully dependent upon the support of the immediate environment. Mother nature has made it simple for us to keep our cell environment healthy. All that is required of the average person is to avoid things which are made by people in labs and factories and to eat fruits, veggies, and meats growth in an organic and sustainable manner. By selecting foods rich in vitamins and minerals we will be assuring that our cells are awash in the biochemicals they depend on to function at their best.

We have all heard that the body is our temple. That means that if we respect, cherish, and love life that we will keep that temple clean and healthy. No one benefits from living in a Toxic Town. And no cells can thrive living in a toxic body. We can change cars when we wear them out. We can move into a new house if we wreak the one we have. We have but a single body and it needs our love, respect, and attention.

What Is Health?

This simple yet elusive question is one I often return to in order to re-center myself in this effort. Is health a measure of the “absence” of something? Or is it better understood as the presence of something? In terms of absence, we refer to symptoms as a guide. We reduce the human organism to a series of histological, microscopic, and physical findings as to whether dis-ease is present. Orthodox medicine doesn't know what health is, only what the presence/absence of symptoms can tell them. This reductionist approach has resulted in a medical culture seeking methods to remove symptoms, and in their eyes, restore health. But what if there is more to the picture? What if removing symptoms results not in health, but merely the removal of outward signs of disease and dysfunction?

It must be said that symptoms, as commonly recognized by orthodox medicine, often occur near the end of the disease process, preceding many phases of dis-ease and dysfunction. It should be clear then that the removal of symptoms through pharmaceutical drugs or surgery (remove a wounded part of the anatomy and the symptom disappears...) is not what can be described as “health”. Rather, being symptom-free is just the beginning of the journey towards health.

Now if we consider health as the presence of something, a new paradigm of understanding is available for us to utilize. Instead of poking, prodding, and turn-your-head-and-coughing to find symptoms, health professionals with a vitalism approach will have a very different perspective. Looking at health through the lens of holism, determining health would involve gaining an appreciation for a person's physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. A passion for life, loving nature, kindness, generosity might be looked for in the healthy person. Instead of stating what is missing, doctors might diagnose and treat based off a person's energy level, range of motion, cranial symmetry, breathing, and/or spinal structure.

The crux of the matter is that orthodox medicine thinks in terms of what is NOT present. Following that line of reasoning we can view the allopaths as “taking away” symptoms or tissues (often times they take our immune strength and well-being instead). D.C.'s and other holistic healers view the patient in terms of what IS present. They look at the whole person, looking for avenues of giving, seeking ways to give more to the person so that after treatment the person is more “whole”. The underlying reality to this additive, whole-person model is the understanding that within each of us are better, more healthy versions of ourselves. More specifically, the goal of treatment for the chiropractor is to give to the patient in such a way that the patient's own body can more fully express health. This giving often comes in the form of adjustments, using bare hands or simple tools, which help alleviate disturbances in the body's nervous system – the body's master control unit. Chiropractors can also utilize advances in our understanding of nutrition and detoxification, which can help cleanse and nourish patients bodies, giving support to the fuller expression of health.

Health can then be better understood as not only the absence of symptoms but a more complete, full expression of the innate intelligence of the human body. To many this will be easy to understand, as the same forces which create health in our body create balance and plenty in the world around us. To many this concept is too large and too powerful to fit into their narrowed world-view. Health is a journey as we living beings are in constant motion. Health is not some tangible “thing” but a direction toward a better future for humanity. Relieving pain and symptoms is part of this healing process, only it is just the beginning. The destination is not the absence of symptoms but the presence of the innate intelligence of the universe through the human body. This is the foundation of chiropractic.