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Patients and Friends,
Several years ago in New Zealand, a government Commission of Inquiry into Chiropractic carried on extensive research into the chiropractic profession, and came up with 377 pages of results that have been internationally acknowledged. Among other conclusions they looked into the field of training for chiropractors and physiotherapists who learned spinal manipulation. Some of the conclusions acknowledged: 1. The manipulative therapist, learning techniques in a fragmented fashion—first very sketchily at a physiotherapy school, then in a course spread over three years or more in small sections—contends that while practice is essential there is little point in over-refinement of what is only a strictly limited range of techniques. 2. The chiropractor, on the other hand, in his or her four or even seven to eight years at college, has a much greater and more systematic exposure to techniques. He or she naturally believes that the expertise achieved before using these techniques, unsupervised, on patients, must with further practice give a greater ability to help those patients. 3. The commission holds that in order to acquire a degree in diagnostic and manual skill sufficient to match chiropractic standards, a medical graduate would require up to 12 months full-time training, while a physiotherapist would require longer than that. 4. The conclusion was that chiropractors are the only health practitioners who are necessarily equipped by their education and training to carry out spinal manipulation therapy. The responsibility for spinal manipulation therapy for other health professionals should not be encouraged. Therefore, when your spine or extremities need an adjustment you are best to see a trained professional chiropractor who has years of constant training. And, as I say many times daily, don’t wait for pain or pathology to happen -because then it may be too late. Michael Fritz, D.C., N.D. Cert. Applied Kinesiologist & Microscopist read more from the April Health Bulletin... read more from previous newsletters... |