The following is an answer by Dr. Drew Hall to a question I asked him in an interview last year.
Dr. Brandon Harshe: Except for a select few, most chiropractic colleges do not expose their students to Upper Cervical Chiropractic. Yet they drive home the idea of using modalities and functional assessment protocols to “treat” the patient. What is your opinion on this?
Dr. Drew Hall: “It is a DAMN ABOMINATION against the principles set forth by our founders.
To tell you the truth, it makes me sick. It shows a lack of awareness, a lack of skill, a lack of common sense on the part of those involved in the degradation of our profession.
I have no problems with physical therapy. I have no problems with functional assessment. I have no problems with surgeries and drugs when they are absolutely necessary.
I do have a very BIG problem with people who come into our profession and try to change it into something other than what it is. CHIROPRACTIC IS ONE THING. IT IS THE ART, SCIENCE, AND PHILOSOPHY of removing nerve interference by adjusting a vertebral subluxation. THAT IS IT.
Do we see people go to medical school and get told that drugs kill people? And if we did, would the teachers stand up, or the instituional heads stand up and say, “Man you are right. We should all adjust people instead!” No, they say, “What in the hell are you doing here and if you don’t do what we do get the hell out.” This is what we need to do.
The only difference is that we actually have a solid cause, to defend what is ours. We have a principle that is the truth. And WE have let mental midgets ruin our profession.
If they do not like what chiropractic is then they should go into some other profession. It is okay if they think it is nonsense. It is not okay for them to try and change what we do because they are too ignorant and educated to see the simplistic truth of [Above-Down-Inside-Out] chiropractic!
Our profession has moved closer and closer to the medical model. It is a result of too may people not understanding the big idea. TOO many people lose their way as result of chasing money and not sticking to the principle. It is the result of too many people not doing specific work and as a result their results on patients do not reflect what their philosophy told them.
And so, instead of blaming their technique or themselves as the cause for their lack of results, they take the low road and blame chiropractic. When in reality what they should do is go do something else.
If you are incompetent at getting the sick well you should move on or get better. It is not the incompetents’ job to change what the competent are doing.
And I am afraid this is what is happening in our profession. WE are graduating thousands people that are so lost they haven’t the foggiest idea of what chiropractic is.
And as a result our profession is moving further and further away from what it was founded on. THIS IS A VERY BIG PROBLEM for those of you that LOVE the TRUTH. It is our job to take back what is ours and get rid of the people who have no vision, no foresight.
They can go start some other profession. That is what they should do. The functional assessment people should go to PT school. The diagnostic people should go to medical school. The rehab people should become personal trainers. That is my opinion.
Our profession is going down a very dangerous rabbit hole that is looking more like medicine than chiropractic. B.J. [Palmer] said, “Someday chiropractors will be practicing medicine and medicine will be practicing chiropractic.” I see that happening faster and faster. And something needs to be done or straight [Upper Cervical] Chiropractic will be DONE!”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Well said, I could not have said it better. If you don’t believe in chiropractic, have the balls to get out and start your own profession and leave us chiropractors to our business.
I love upper cervical chiropractic and chiropractic in general.
These are the very same chiropractors who will not be successful in practice.