If I didn’t have a copy of the letter and someone told me this I would laugh and say whose leg are you trying to pull?

But there it is in black and white. The chiropractic regulatory board in Australia says you should not hug your patients because, among other reasons, it’s non-therapeutic. No, I’m really not kidding – read it for yourself here.   

What is left to happen in this profession? What version of Bizarro World have we not entered? We have Advanced Chiropractors, we have drugs and injections. We have the removal of subluxation from standards and/or are not allowed to use the term. Philosophy is out of the curriculum.

And now - no hugs. Not therapeutic. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

I reflected for a couple of moments this afternoon about my years in practice and what would have happened every single day if I had not given the dozens of hugs that I did. Never mind that, what would have happened to me if my patients had not given me all the hugs I got every day from them?!

And don’t anyone dare send me some stupid e-mail about professional boundaries. I run a malpractice risk purchasing group and have defended chiropractors for 20 years on boundary issues. The problem isn’t the hugging.

OMG. I need a hug.

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
matthewmccoy@comcast.net
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

It’s fairly obvious that there is bias in the media. I doubt anyone would deny it. Its actually become amusing for me to compare how the Wall Street Journal reports on world events versus The New York Times. I get a kick out of watching the big three cable news channels to see how they spin world events.

Bias is everywhere, including within the chiropractic media, and it takes the skills involved in critical thinking to sort through all of it and try and find some truth.      

There was a very interesting paper recently published in the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association titled: Quantitative corpus-based analysis of the chiropractic literature – a pilot study.

Translation: they searched the JCCA for word usage. The paper is an interesting read in general but of most interest to me was how many times the word subluxation showed up. In reviewing 98 papers published from 2005 to 2008 it had a collective prevalence of just 0.04%!     

The authors wrote:

“In 12 instances, the word subluxation(s) collocated with the word vertebral. The other common collocation (7 instances) was with the word chiropractic. There was only one instance of the phrase vertebral Subluxation complex. In approximately 40% of instances, the phraseology implied that the meaning of the term Subluxation was apparent from context or common knowledge. In other instances, there was explicit reference to a specific definition or the need for a definition. Interestingly, in approximately 25% of instances, the reference to Subluxation was emotive, politicized and even explicitly disparaging of the term.”

It should not come as much of a surprise though. Wenban, some time back reported that subluxation was used in less than 6% of the papers published in all of the chiropractic journals over a 10 year period! Of course that was prior to my entrance into editing research journals.      

Since my professional career in chiropractic has focused on the clinical, academic and research aspects of subluxation, I find this fascinating and it is clearly evidence of bias - if not professional birth control. While I have not done a similar study of the journals we’ve been publishing I would bet that subluxation appears in nearly every single one of them.

Subluxation is spoken here – why aren’t you a subscriber?

http://vertebralsubluxationresearch.health.officelive.com/subscribe.aspx

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

I’ve been watching with fascination over the past several months as one state after another addresses the drug issue in chiropractic, how our national and state associations respond and how individuals on all sides respond.

I say “all sides” because there clearly are not just two sides. There seem to be about as many “sides” as there are chiropractors. Just a sampling of facebook postings and other articles in the past week saw everything from chiropractic is and should be a religion, threatening to bow out and start another profession (straights and mixers both), calls for physical beatings, public shaming and name calling.  

The latest was in Minnesota where a bill to change the law regulating the practice of chiropractic was shot down to cheers from some quarters and jeers from others. One e-mail I saw contained an expletive not ready for prime time directed at those that helped shoot it down.

Clearly we cannot and most assuredly will not “just get along” and I’ve been saying this for quite some time. Those that still think there is any unity left to salvage in this profession buy and drink Kool Aid by the barrel.

As I’ve said before this profession is not split – it is splintered into hundreds, if not thousands of factions – let’s call them tribes in the current vernacular.  

I wrote a Commentary (Unity Through Tolerance) on this same topic in 2007 and I think it bears a re-reading now. Keep in mind that this was written before this uptick in the expansion of drugs into our scope and before the recent events in the United Kingdom, Australia and in the US with the CCE.

If there are any adults in the room I suspect they are realizing that perhaps mommy and daddy need to get a divorce. Let’s just hope it’s an amicable one instead of destroying the lives of the children (the chiropractic profession) in the process. The thing is there isn’t much evidence that this profession can be civil with itself.

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://www.mccoypress.com

I was recently interviewed on the topic of research in chiropractic and I had one of those moments where you hear yourself talking and start to evaluate what you are saying as you are saying it.

I was talking about all the “mundane” things that chiropractors see results with in their offices with children and where we are seeing some good research as well. Those “mundane” things included ear infections, asthma, even headaches.

What I caught myself doing was downplaying the impact those things have on a child’s life. As chiropractors we get so used to seeing these “miracles” occurring on a daily basis that it just becomes a matter of course for us to know that the child before you is going to get better.

But we really need to stand back for a moment and think about the impact of chiropractic and reducing those subluxations on a child’s life.

We just published a research paper that is the perfect example of this.

http://chiropracticpediatricresearch.web.officelive.com/2011_1079_parasomnia.aspx

The paper is a case study about a 10 year old little girl who suffered from headaches starting at two years of age. Then when she was seven she started having night terrors. Every night, several times a night this poor little girl would awaken screaming. Imagine the impact this had on this child’s life and her family. Eight years of headaches and three years of these horrible night terrors.

Well, guess what? After about eight adjustments to reduce vertebral subluxation this child is no longer suffering.

So what’s the moral of the story?  First, don’t forget how significant event the mundane stuff we do is for those who are suffering. Second, get a copy of the paper and give it to your patients to educate them about the implications for chiropractic. Third, support chiropractic research that supports your brand of chiropractic. Do it today!

As always I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://www.mccoypress.net

I attended New Beginnings this past weekend along with a few hundred other chiropractors. It was a wonderful weekend connecting with old friends and making new ones. The passion for subluxation centered chiropractic was infectious.

At one point as I sat there listening to an empowering talk about chiropractic and the impact it has on people’s lives I had a flashback to my childhood and it suddenly dawned on me that I had been attending and listening to these messages since I was just a young kid. I guess its not such a big realization but for me the reality that I’ve been around this “brand” of chiropractic for 40 years tugged on me a little and since I’m an analytic got me to thinking.

I looked around in the audience and also realized that most of the folks there had not been around this movement for 40 years. For many it was their first time. I tried to imagine what it would be like hearing this message for the first time and I have to be honest it was difficult if not impossible. So engrained am I with the principles of chiropractic that I realized I’m at a point of no return. As I sat there listening, it became clear that I don’t need the passion and energy of the event to get me “pumped up” any more. In fact, I saw that I hadn’t needed that for a really long time. It was and is the fellowship that matters now - the fellowship and the talking about things that matter with people who care. This is comforting to me because I cannot imagine what it would be like to be hearing the message for the first time or needing to hear it again in order to get pumped up and deliver it to my patients on Monday. We need to be really patient and nurturing with those among us where the message of the bigness of chiropractic has not become part of who they are just yet.

And of course all this got me thinking about something else – can you guess? Why research and politics of course!

The data shows that we are losing market share, enrollment in chiropractic colleges is decreasing, incomes are down and that chiropractors are leaving the profession. The Chiropractic Cartel is on a march toward elimination of subluxation centered chiropractic and they have full armor on. Never mind that the public has no idea what a subluxation is nor that it leads to increased morbidity and mortality – many in our profession don’t and 48% want to prescribe drugs.

Having grown up around and been steeped in subluxation centered chiropractic one of the things I’ve always heard is to take it “one spine at a time.” It’s a comforting colloquialism when the battles loom large and the enemy is at the gates. But I’m afraid I’m no longer comforted by the phrase and neither should you.

We don’t have time to change the culture one spine at a time.

Not if we want chiropractic to be the profession that brings the principles chiropractic is based on to the masses. At best we have 20 years – if we’re lucky. The perfect storm of health care accountability and insolvency of the current method of paying for it coupled with the changes within and the shrinking of our profession over that time frame is a stark reality that we need to face. We need to get engaged in serious research into subluxation.

The recent excitement over victories such as defeating drugs in New Mexico, do not bring me solace because once again the subluxation centered camp is being reactionary. Is this how it’s going to be – we react to each state one at a time as drugs get introduced?

We need to get our politics in order.

When is the subluxation centered faction of this profession going to get proactive? When are we going to learn that we can’t change those organizations and groups within the profession that don’t see things our way? When are we going to stop listening to the leaders in our own ranks who tell us we have to work with those that seek to destroy us? When are we going to stop funding our adversaries, endorsing them and giving them a platform from which to speak?

Its time for the subluxation centered community to band together in a show of solidarity. Not to fight for insurance reimbursement, insurance parity, physician status, or inclusion in any health plan. These endeavors do not respect the fundamental principles of this profession which are based on personal responsibility and autonomy. If some faction of the profession wants that – fine. Let them go after it. But subluxation based chiropractors should lead the way in teaching people about personal responsibility for their health and we should lead the way in teaching students and new graduates that they can be successful in practice without abandoning these principles and without signing a deal with the devil because he controls the insurance market in an area.

But the short term, reactionary, righteous indignation that shows up only when there is a street fight has to stop. Let’s get proactive. Our camp has the talent and we have the passion – its time to focus it.

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

Now What?

In the wake of the victory in New Mexico and the ensuing jubilation that rang out it’s easy to forget a few things.

That there are already “Advanced Chiropractors” practicing there and chiropractors in New Mexico can already utilize what can only be described as drugs. No doubt those that want to change the nature of the entire profession in New Mexico will continue to try and do so. We can only hope that those subluxation centered chiropractors practicing in New Mexico will now keep a tight lid on this as well as a watchful eye from this point forward so that such efforts are stymied long before they get to the point they did again. 

And while it’s easy to be giddy about the victory in New Mexico – its just one state. Since the majority of the states are controlled by the Chiropractic Cartel it’s only a matter of time before the next emergency arises.

What needs to happen at this point is for the subluxation centered community to get engaged once and for all in politics and stop the whining that you don’t want to get involved for any of a number of the reasons you tell me all the time. You’re too busy. Politics is negative. You’re focused on your practice. You’re a lover not a fighter. I could go on but you get the point. While you sat around with your excuses, the Cartel took over the profession.      

There are three broad tactics as part of the overall strategy for taking back the profession. Politics, research and the media.

Politics: While this area has numerous subheadings and action items the most important and urgent is that subluxation centered chiropractors must get appointed to state boards and remove the language that gives the CCE the monopoly on accreditation of chiropractic educational institutions. If we cannot reproduce out own kind we are doomed to extinction. PERIOD. Nothing else will matter. Please be crystal clear about this as there is no time to waste.

Research: The subluxation centered community must fully engage in and fully support subluxation centered health outcomes research. We have 20 years, at best, to pull this together. This means you have to start writing checks to support this kind of research and stop writing checks and doing business with those vendors in the profession who are clearly not on our side. It is a moral crime to support your own destruction. Start with the ICPA – can you name any other group or organization that has been as good a shepherd of the profession’s principles when it comes to research – or anything else for that matter?     

Media: We need to get the lifetime, family, subluxation centered message to the masses. Not neck pain, back pain or headaches. And not through athlete or celebrity endorsements – no matter how much we want to believe it Oprah will not save chiropractic. Anyone even remotely familiar with health communications will tell you that in order for people to take action in regards to their health they have to perceive a risk. In order to perceive a risk they have to know there is a hazard. But that’s not enough. They have to be outraged about it.  They have to know the risks of not taking action and they have to know the benefits of taking action. Pain and pleasure – pure and simple. More on this in the near future.

So, the message is not to go back to your cave and think the war is over. It’s not. This was one battle on one front.

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

In a recent interview with Sanjay Gupta, MD on CNN Gates made the following statement regarding the vaccine-autism link:

“So it's an absolute lie that has killed thousands of kids. Because the mothers who heard that lie, many of them didn't have their kids take either pertussis or measles vaccine, and their children are dead today. And so the people who go and engage in those anti-vaccine efforts -- you know, they, they kill children. It's a very sad thing, because these vaccines are important.“

Gates appears to have recently taken on vaccines as his sunset cause in life. While the Gates Foundation has been deeply involved in vaccination campaigns in third world countries for some time he seems to have shifted into high gear lately stating he is going to eradicate polio once and for all – despite public health experts who say it can’t be done.

His interview with Gupta was the first time I’ve heard Gates disparage American families who choose not to vaccinate. If you read or watch the interview its pretty clear that Gupta – a self proclaimed vaccination advocate – baited gates by throwing in a question about Andrew Wakefield in an interview that was really about vaccination in third world countries. But you will recall CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s charade of an interview with Andrew Wakefield when that story first broke and his follow-up with “expert in everything health care related” – Sanjay Gupta.

CNN claims to be the anti-wacko when it comes to news. I’m waiting for their real investigative piece on the vaccine industry, personal autonomy and the right to choose.

Sadly I sit here writing this in Microsoft Word and Windows. Perhaps its time to get that Mac.

On Thursday, February 24 at 11:30 am, advocates, parents, and professionals will gather for a press conference at Microsoft's NYC headquarters at 1290 Avenue of the Americas (52nd Street and Sixth Ave, southeast corner). Show up if you can and let Gates know how you feel. For more info contact the folks at Vaccine Epidemic

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and questions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

The decision was hailed by the American Academy of Pediatrics which represents 60,000 doctors: “Childhood vaccines are among the greatest medical breakthroughs of the last century," said Dr. Marion Burton, the group's president. "Today's Supreme Court decision protects children by strengthening our national immunization system and ensuring that vaccines will continue to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in this country."  

Protects children? What mental and moral gymnastics do you have to do to come up with that assertion?

Pfizer similarly applauded the decision while paying token sympathy for the victim and the family. Pfizer Executive Vice President and General Counsel Amy Schulman said, "We recognize, however, that the Vaccine Act provides for full consideration of the liability issues through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Here the Vaccine Court concluded that the petitioners failed to prove their child's condition was caused by vaccination."

According to Reuters, writing for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia, said Congress set up a special vaccine court to handle such claims as a way to provide compensation to injured children without driving drug manufacturers from the vaccine market. The idea, he said, was to create a no-fault system that spares the drug companies the costs of defending against parents' lawsuits. Scalia said that when a vaccine is properly prepared and is accompanied by proper directions and warnings, lawsuits over its side effects are not allowed under the 1986 law.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Nothing in the 1986 law "remotely suggests that Congress intended such a result," Sotomayor wrote, taking issue with Scalia.

Over the past several years the government and vaccine manufacturers have pushed for more vaccine development and stricter enforcement of mandatory vaccination. The Emergency Health Powers Act and other similar strategies to remove the last vestiges of personal autonomy in matters of health care are well entrenched.

Do I need to remind everyone that the person in charge of public health in this country wears a military uniform and is a General?

With no one fighting for and protecting this autonomy – not the government, not the courts, not even your family doctor what will you do when the decision needs to be made?

It is a sad day today.   

For more on the decision including a copy of it CLICK HERE

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

Abraham Lincoln
One month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation

Over the past decade or so I very often found myself wondering – what will it take? What will it take for the silent majority of our profession to spring into action? What will it take for the tens of thousands of chiropractors who do not support the political and research infrastructure underlying the practice of subluxation centered chiropractic to start doing so?

I have to say that the time for sitting on the sidelines is over – of this I have no doubt.  Over 50% of this profession wants to shed the drugless designation and bring pharmaceuticals into our clinical armamentarium.

The controlling cartel within the profession is delivering on that request.

The profession is now effectively and officially tiered – the changes in New Mexico have seen to that. The profession’s only academic accrediting agency has removed subluxation from its accreditation standards, cemented chiropractic as another type of primary care physician, removed drugless from our unique role and opened itself up to accredit other types of programs i.e. Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine.

Some were excited to report that 3000 chiropractors responded to the CCE’s open comment period on the new standards with criticism. I was saddened. Saddened that only 3000 felt strongly enough about such a radical change in the very nature of our profession to respond. Saddened that such a small response can only hint at either the deep apathy within the profession or the deep desire within the profession to abandon its fundamental tenets or – both.

Its probably grandiose to look at what is happening in the middle east and try and compare it to the chiropractic profession but I can’t help but do so.  What tipped those scales? Why now? What will the outcome be? How long will their determination last? Will it last long enough?

I think these are all relevant questions for those within the subluxation centered community of our profession.

I have to ask – where are you? Why are you not in the square demanding change?

In June 2009, 26 year old Neda Soltan said goodbye to her mother as she left to join her friends in the streets of Tehran to protest the rigging of the Presidential elections there. Her mother begged her not to go. Neda told her mother “If I don’t go, who will?”

Her mother never saw Neda again as she was shot in the throat that night and died.

The chiropractic profession has been hijacked by a controlling cartel whose goals involve changing the fundamental nature of the profession. It is succeeding greatly because no one is stopping them. Again, I have to ask – where are you and if not you, then who?  

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx

At their annual meeting in November 2010 the American Public Health Association (APHA) adopted a new Policy supporting the implementation of requirements for all health care workers to receive an annul influenza vaccination. Why should you as a chiropractor care?

The policy as adopted by the APHA states:

Policy # 201014 Influenza Vaccination of Health Workers

Supports implementation of requirements for all health workers to receive an annual influenza vaccination. Urges providers, employers and other organizations to implement comprehensive infection control programs, including vaccination training and education, housekeeping and standard respiratory precautions in keeping with infection control standards. Emphasizes that vaccination of health workers is important for their own protection not just patient safety.

Let’s put aside for a moment any of the issues related to safety and efficacy of the flu vaccine and save that for another day. Bear in mind that this policy is talking about a requirement aka mandate that all health workers (that means chiropractors too) be vaccinated.

Now is the time to dust off your copy of the law, policies and rules regulating the practice of chiropractic in your state, Chances are it says something about abiding by all public health measures.

Scary stuff, huh? Especially scary concerning the move towards drugs into chiropractic and the general move away from traditional, conservative chiropractic by our regulatory boards, educational, accreditation and testing organizations.

In fact the only thing that surprises me so far is that chiropractors are not jumping on the bandwagon to adminster flu shots - but I'm sure that will come soon enough.    

Read more about the move to force health workers to get flu vaccines.

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and questions.

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx