"Are You Saying There is no Need for Medical Doctors or Medicine?"
“If you go to a Chiropractor, is there no need for medical doctors or medicine?”
As a Chiropractor, I would not say that.
Yes, there is a time and place for medical doctors and medicine. If anything, the problem, in my opinion, is that the ‘time and place’ for medicine is overstepping its bounds and pervading all aspects of healthcare.
Healthcare is more than just medicine. Healthcare is also more than just Chiropractic. Medicine is a part of healthcare and Chiropractic is a part of healthcare. Healthcare is more than the sum of its parts.
Medicine has perfected the pathogenic model of healthcare.
The pathogenic model emphasizes the treatment of symptoms and sickness. Treatment tries to regulate and control a condition. It can only do this by isolating the condition and ignoring other aspects of the patient’s health. Treatment involves trying to suppress symptoms, fix the condition or try and make it better.
The pathogenic model though is just one aspect of healthcare.
Chiropractic adheres more to the salutogenic model of healthcare.
The salutogenic model emphasizes adaptation, homeostasis and healing in the individual. The doctor or health practitioner encourages and supports the patient while providing holistic care. Holistic care aims to enhance function and support the healing process.
I think medicine’s monopoly of healthcare stems from the false identity that medicine is synonymous with healthcare. And with that false pretense, anything that falls outside the approved orthodox medical model is considered “quack.”
Healthcare though should not be owned or controlled by a single model that ignores other models of healing. Health does not come from a pill, powder, or potion. And to continue the thread of fairness, health does not come from an adjustment either. Health is controlled by the individual’s ability to adapt to itself and its environment. Any service that aims to improve health, first must try and improve this adaptation quality.
Society and the culture have started to push back against the saturation of medicine in healthcare. The steady increase of ‘alternative medicine’ is a prime example. But the truth is, ‘alternative medicine’ should not be considered an alternative TO medicine. Chiropractic or ‘alternative medicine’ is not meant to take the place of medicine. Chiropractic is a separate and distinct health service.
There is a need for medicine. There is a need for Chiropractic. There is also a need for healthcare practices that are not medical or Chiropractic in nature. What we really need when it comes to healthcare is the proper balance and proportion of the different healing arts and models to best optimize our overall health and well-being.
- Dr. Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP
Related Blogs:
Health, We Salute You!
Adaptability and Resistance: The Currency of Health and Well-Being
Chiropractic: 101
No Pain? Great! Healthy? Not Quite!