It is hard to deny the popularity of Chiropractic in the United States today. It is the third most commonly used form of health care in the country, next to traditional medicine and dentistry. Currently there are over 60,000 chiropractors in the US alone, operating in all 50 states. Millions upon millions of people visit chiropractors every year. But where does chiropractic come from?
The practice of chiropractic is a little more than 100 years old. It was invented by a man named Daniel David Palmer in the mid 1890’s. After working various jobs, Palmer began working as a magnetic healer in the mid 1880’s in Davenport, Iowa. His primary goal was to find the ultimate cause of disease. While studying and using magnetic healing, his ideas began to turn from magnets to the spine.
To put it in a nutshell, Palmer became convinced that problems with the spine were the cause of almost all diseases. This is his explanation of the theory in his own words from his book: The Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic:
“A subluxated vertebra… is the cause of 95 percent of all diseases. …The other five percent is caused by displaced joints other than those of the vertebral column.”
Subluxations of the spine, then, are, according to Palmer, the ultimate cause of practically all diseases, although a few diseases are caused by dislocations of other joints. To cure someone of any disease or ailment, then, all that is required is to readjust the spine. And that is what chiropractors in the early years did: whether you were suffering from headaches or pneumonia or just have a cold, the cure was to readjust your spine. Palmer even believed that ailments such as poisoning could be cured this way, and even “cured” a case of food poisoning in his own wife through chiropractic. Even mental illness, according to Palmer, is the result of spinal misalignment.
Beyond being based on the belief that all ailments are caused by misalignment of the spine, Palmer also believed that there was a religious element to chiropractic. In 1895 Palmer sued one of his patients, identified as “N. Wiltamuth,” for refusing to pay his debt for the chiropractic services Palmer had provided. Wiltamuth’s defense was that Palmer was not a licensed medical practitioner and thus he did not owe him any money. Palmer’s rebuttal was that chiropractic had absolutely nothing to do with medicine or in fact any earthly knowledge, because he had been taught the art from “High Heaven.
Furthermore, in a letter written in 1911, Palmer stated: “…we must have a religious head, one who is the founder, as did Christ, Mohamed, Jo Smith, Mrs. Eddy, Martin Luther and others who have founded religions. I am the fountain head. I am the founder of chiropractic in its science, in its art, in its philosophy and in its religious phase.” Chiropractic, according to Palmer, is not just a method of healing but a philosophy and even more so a religion.
Over the years, most of what Palmer taught has been neglected by those studying chiropractic. Even most chiropractors will not claim that almost all diseases and ailments are caused by subluxations of the spine. Today, chiropractors are generally viewed as fancy masseuses more than anything else. The vast majority of patients visiting chiropractors go for treatment of back problems, particularly in the lower back.
In order to legitimize chiropractic, many chiropractors today have distanced themselves from most of Palmer’s theories, focusing mainly on spinal manipulation therapy (SMT). This is recognized as being a legitimate method of treatment for some ailments, although one that is not usually practiced by most doctors since there are usually other treatment methods available.
There are still some chiropractors, however, who believe everything taught by Daniel David Palmer. Should you run into such a chiropractor, claiming the mystical benefits of spinal manipulation and spouting the idea that almost any disease can be cured by playing with your spine, it is best to avoid them. These ideas have absolutely no medical value to them whatsoever, and it is not recommended that you should let such a quack play around with your vertebrae.
