Dear Family, Practice Member, and Friend,

During the week when I get home from the office, most evenings are spent with the kids. We finish their dinner, walk the dogs or pick something from the backyard garden. Once both kids are in bed the wife and I get a chance to catch up eat and get a little quality time. Being the night owl I am… I log a few hours at the computer with the TV on in the background.
When I can find it, I prefer beach volleyball, but most sporting events will do for background. If you ask my wife she would say MMA is my first choice, but because of its popularity… it just seems to be on all the time.

So last week, as I sifted through one of the social networking sites I happened to have the Jets-Ravens pre-season football game on. On the very first series, the Jet’s rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez took the snap, was hit hard by a linebacker, and was intercepted for a touchdown. Worse than the interception, he was still down, the stadium waited in silence as the future of the Jets franchise, recently signed for tens of millions of dollars, gingerly got to his feet.

But rise he did, and played credibly, and after the game, when asked about the hard hit, he replied without hesitation that he was taken immediately to see the team chiropractor, and that he was fine.

This may seem a small off-handed comment, but it speaks quietly to how far we have come as a profession, that a billion-dollar team puts their trust in the chiropractor to examine, adjust and be responsible for its largest investment, and that the results are fulfilling for all concerned.

Like the healing time of any chronic case we see in our offices, the tide of public opinion turns slowly. The concept of “things natural” is seeping into common awareness, and with it, an opportunity to at long last offer our safe, gentle, miraculous healing art to a broader constituency. Pioneers in wellness are noticing chiropractic and other lifestyle-centric approaches as superior to crisis intervention, not just scientifically, but where it really counts these days, economically.

A study by Richard Sarnat MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Alternative Medicine Integration Group, found that chiropractic was significantly more cost effective than “mainstream” care. Dr. Sarnat is featured in a new ad sponsored by the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, quoted as saying that regular chiropractic care could cut the cost of health care by almost 50%.

A visionary in his own right, Dr. Sarnat concluded, “It is now time to call and email your congressmen … and make sure that those engaged in the political process understand that there is a national consensus for whole person healing; that it is not enough to increase our funding and focus on acute, crisis disease care, while ignoring the root cause of all disease. We must make sure that our voices are heard loud enough, that the well-heeled vested interests within the ‘stagnant quo’ will not be successful in derailing true health care reform.”

To do your part and follow through on this challenge, please sign up at www.ChiroVoice.org and/or www.AdjustTheVote.org, and doctors enroll yourself and your practice members in the nationwide mobilization effort to influence the legislators. It’s free — please do it now.

I am only in my second decade in this profession, but I look forward to the time
where everyone gets chiropractic wellness care as a normal part of their lifestyle. On days like this, I am encouraged and hopeful that day may soon come. Let’s work toward it — just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something. Take action, stick up for our rights, and recruit your circle to do the same.
We only have disease and infirmity to lose.

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