Benjamin’s Musings

chiropractors

 I have been to many chiropractors.  Call it kind of a field experiment if you will.  I wanted to know more about chiropractic for a book I am writing about medicine and such.  I wanted to learn more about the chiropractic field and so I began giving test runs to many Maryland chiropractors.  What I found was that there are so many difference from chiropractor to chiropractor that I was left feeling like I still did not know what chiropractors do. 

In most cases I was given an exam and in some cases x-rays.  In some cases I was given physical therapy and in some cases I was not.  Some people adjust using special equipment like moving tables and a little poppy pen (called an activator).  Some chiropractors just adjust with their hands and that worked well too.  Many chiropractors just wanted to look at adjusting certain areas, while others wanted to adjust me all over every time I saw them.  I know this sounds like a lot but realize I have been doing this kind of research for about 2 and ½ years now, and I am starting to feel like an expert in everything.

After researching Maryland chiropractors for about 2 years I decided that I really needed to take this show on the road and check out some of the other chiropractors in the US.  I was concerned that looking only at Maryland chiropractic was limiting my perspective on the profession so I decided to go to different states and check out other chiropractors and what I found across the US so far has been pretty similar to what I found in Maryland. 

In short my findings are that there are many different ways of practicing chiropractic.  I don’t know how chiropractors are learning such different things being that there are only a limited number of chiropractic schools in the country.  So, I finally needed to ask some questions.  I called a few of the schools and what I learned was that chiropractic school teaches many different techniques but very basically.  They teach the hard core sciences and some chiropractic philosophy, but as far as techniques go, students and new doctors take seminars in the techniques that they wish to specialize in.  That is why they all go to the same schools but practice chiropractic in such different ways.  I really learned a lot by doing this research.