The Role of the Chiropractor

"Thus the role of the chiropractor is to mobilize the biological resources of the organism, - to allow it to do for itself as much as it is able to do. He does not whip a tired organ into activity by stimulants, nor squelch over-excited nerves with sedatives or narcotics. What he accomplishes is not accomplished at the expense of masking symptoms, side-effects, and the general physical deterioration that so often follows dependence on drugs."

-- C.W. Weiant, DC, PhD

I often use the analogy of a smoke alarm when discussing symptoms and medications with my people. Symptoms, especially pain, are the body's innate way of cueing your brain into the fact that something needs to be addressed. The role of medication is to alter your body's chemistry. A major consequence of this altered chemistry is that the cause of the problem remains, but the signal alerting your brain that something needs to be reevaluated gets turned down or turned off. This is analogous to taking the batteries out of the smoke detector. The smoke detector is trying to tell you that there is a fire in the kitchen. Just because the alarm stops blaring does not mean you have addressed the cause of the smoke.

For me, chiropractic is about helping people to develop strategies to access greater levels of resourcefulness. As Weiant says, to "mobilize" those biological resources. Mobilization is a direct result of establishing and improving clear lines of communication. When the system is clear, the message is clear, and the body can organize - and mobilize - accordingly.

As BJ Palmer, the developer of chiropractic, says in Volume XXXII,

"Have you more faith in a knife or a spoonful of medicine than in the Innate power that animates the internal living world?"