Something happened to me this weekend that really shook me up, so I felt compelled to share my thoughts with you, or maybe just to get it off my chest. I hope it reaches someone who needs to be empowered to stand up for TRUTH and to stand tall and brave when someone of “authority” is adamantly, verbally criticizing you (in public).
My team and I recently spent the entire weekend at our local Home & Garden Show where we got to engage with members of our great community, advertise our brand new location, and most importantly, connect with families/individuals who are looking to improve their health and want to do so by a non-invasive, more holistic approach. Our Purpose is to Save, Enhance, and Create Life by naturally optimizing health - so events like this allow us to connect with people who are eager to know more about what we do! We worked hard, we kept high energy, we stood on our feet for 18+ hours, we performed over 100 spinal screenings, and we had a fantastic time…except for one little, tiny thing….
I noticed an older man staring at one of our banners with a smirk on his face, so I assumed he was in a happy mood and I approached him with a smile, “you sure look happy today, standing here smirking at our banner, what’s the smile about?” Now, before I go on – you have to understand how many AMAZING people we met this weekend! People who came up to us and expressed how much they LOVE Chiropractic, and how big of a “believer” they are. One lady even said, “Chiropractic care is a NECESSITY, all that other stuff is just luxury,” (what she meant by other “stuff”, I don’t exactly know, but she was a sweetheart)! So anyway, I was just expecting him to share a happy thought with me, or just say that he’s a smiley guy; I even thought maybe he was one of those ol’ guys that just have a permanent smile on. Well, let me tell you, I was WRONG! Boy, did I open up a can of worms….the rest of our conversation lasted more than 10 minutes, but felt like an eternity!
***DISCLAIMER, let me be the first to say that I don’t TREAT any diseases or conditions. Nor does any Chiropractor, for that matter. In fact, I have never claimed to TREAT any single condition. I actually despise that word, treat. That comes from a very mechanistic, outside-in approach to healthcare; and we believe the body heals itself from the INSIDE-OUT. The ONE thing I do as a Chiropractor is detect and correct subluxation in the spine (or extremities). Period. With that being said, IF subluxation is CAUSING symptoms in your body, then of course your symptoms will likely improve with Chiropractic adjustments! (The lifestyle and nutrition counseling we provide to our patients is an added bonus, but our most important job is finding and correcting subluxation).***
One of our banners lists some common complaints that we see in our clinic: Stress, Infertility, Digestive Complaints, Weight Loss Problems, & Sleep Struggles. Our goal with this is to inform people that conditions such as these might actually be coming from nerve irritation along the spine! This guy answered my question with, “I’m just sitting here wondering how in the world Chiropractors have anything to do with infertility.” From there, I tried explaining very briefly about the philosophy and principles of Chiropractic, explaining subluxation in layman’s terms as I had been doing to everyone else that weekend, because I obviously was unaware that he was a Medical Doctor at that moment. I also tried to bring up the nutritional aspect of infertility cases, but before I could go on, he immediately pushed back at me, challenged me, and even proceeded to ask me about the anatomy and physiology of a situation like infertility. So I grabbed the spine model and tried explaining, but it’s all a bit of a blur for me now. Even typing about it now makes my heart race. At one point, we were talking about the Sacrum and he tried saying that the sacrum only has about 2-3 degrees of movement, so he doesn’t think an adjustment in that region would even be effective….to which I said, “have you ever had a specific adjustment? I’ll tell you right now, 2-3 degrees of movement from a large bone like that is noticeable!” Let’s be real, if he could feel it from my perspective – the one moving the bone- he’d be shocked at how much movement comes from an SI joint adjustment.
Here’s the thing, after he left, I thought of hundreds of things I could have said differently, but I can’t go back. Eventually I just told him that it seems our training and education is obviously very different and there is nothing I can say to help him understand, as we view health through a very different lens. I was at Cal Jam in February, where one of the featured speakers was a Dr. Zach Bush MD, and from stage he straight up told all of us Chiropractors, “STOP fighting with Medical Doctors, you guys are already beyond us, when you fight with us, it brings you down to our level. Don’t waste your time.” So instead of letting myself ponder over this conversation and drive myself crazy about it, I’m going to take his advice and move on. I’m going to keep living my mission and practicing my purpose and helping more people. He can be the bitter, unhealthy, angry man that he is, but I choose to rise up and move on.
Just so you’re aware too, Chiropractors won a lawsuit against the American Medical Association in 1987. Back then, the AMA was trying to claim that Chiropractic is a practice of “quackery” and they were aiming to dismantle our profession. But, they lost! And they will continue to lose when it comes to attacking our profession if I have anything to say about it. As BJ Palmer’s last written words to Chiropractors stated, “you have in your possession a sacred trust, guard it well.” (the Developer of Chiropractic) You got it, BJ!
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Signed from an empowered Chiropractor,
Dr. Heather Smith DC CACCP
Apr 17, 2019 at 6:21 PM
As with most everything in life, there are skeptics. We can share why we believe what we believe and the other person has a choice to believe it or not. We all have made choices and know why we have made them. I have chosen you, Dr. Heather, to help me regain a better quality of life. I have also chosen a medical dr. To help where I needed. If we only could all join together to help people get the best possible quality of life and not fight one another, each has their place. Keep up the good work, Dr. Heather, keep pressing on helping those that want your quality of care!!
Apr 17, 2019 at 1:04 PM
Absolutely! Thanks for letting me be a part of your health care team!
Apr 18, 2019 at 7:17 PM
Great post Heather. Thank you for sharing that. I love your passion and certainty. Honor and respect to you and Marley!
Apr 18, 2019 at 12:21 PM
Back at you, Jared! Thanks for the comment. Glad to know we have other ChiropracTIC warriors in our town!
Apr 18, 2019 at 9:38 PM
Fantastic article. We are all in our own little bubbles. Some of us are happy there and some want to break out and experience more. Keep helping the ones that want to be helped Dr Heather.
Apr 19, 2019 at 7:25 AM
Thank you so much for your words of support!
Apr 19, 2019 at 11:09 AM
Keep up the great work! Expect miracles.
Apr 19, 2019 at 7:25 AM
That's exactly right! I appreciate you! Looks like you are doing fantastic things in Illinois - I love following your journey as well :)
May 20, 2019 at 9:31 PM
I did enjoy reading this, and Dr. Heather I believe in what you do. I come to you for my back after a bad car accident, and I can tell you I had been to doctors trying everything they could think of. I had to think it was pain I have to live with with nothing to help. Well then my doctor said go see a chiropractor and see if the will help. So that's when I started my treatment with you and I can say it helps my SI joints and gets me through each day along with doing things around my house. I'm thankful for all you do to help me just like that day I came to you when I woke up and couldn't move my neck you made that feel better and I was so relieved. Dr Heather I will continue to have you treat me as long as it helps my pain.
May 20, 2019 at 3:04 PM
Thank you Marta!! I am so glad you found our clinic and I am honored to help you get as close to pain-free as possible!!
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