Chiropractic Versus The AMA

The Origin Of Chiropractic, Plus A Fascinating Story About The Challenges Of A New Profession… Deceit, Corruption, Criminal Activity, and More!

This is the story that you probably never heard.

I would like to explain how this all came about.

Like all good stories, this one started a long, long time ago… It began with DD Palmer doing the first chiropractic adjustment to a deaf janitor in 1895.

It was a struggle from the early days of the chiropractic profession.

In the first half of the 20th century, over 12,000 chiropractors were arrested 15,000+ times and 3,300 were sent to prison for practicing medicine without a license.

Of course, they weren’t practicing medicine.

Dr. EJ Nosser was the last chiropractor to go to jail in 1975 (Shreveport, LA).

This was a very short time ago.

The fact that the chiropractors weren’t practicing medicine didn’t matter to the American Medical Association, they had a plan in place to get rid of this new profession as we’ll soon see…

Chiropractic and chiropractors were attacked ruthlessly by the American Medical Association who coerced their members and hospitals to join the effort to try to discredit chiropractic.

The origins of these attacks didn’t come out until someone in the AMA leaked hundred’s of pages of documents from the AMA.

This ended up in a US Supreme Court Case after almost a 100 years of organized medicine viciously attacking chiropractic with an aggressive campaign of false propaganda.

The US Supreme Court case, Wilks vs AMA.

A group of 5 chiropractors sued the AMA in 1976.

The case was settled in 1987, 11 years later and finalized in 1992.

Here’s some of what the Judge found…

The American Medical Association led an effort to destroy the chiropractic profession by depriving its practitioners of association with medical doctors and by calling them ”unscientific cultists,” “rabid dogs,” “quacks,” and worse, a Federal district judge has ruled.

Judge Getzendanner described the conspiracy as ”systematic, long term wrong doing with the long term intent to destroy a licensed profession.”

The decision said the nation’s largest physicians’ group, the AMA, led a boycott by doctors intended ‘‘to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession.”

The following is a summary statement from the court case of how broad and far reaching the AMA’s actions were (direct quote from court)…

“Evidence at the trial showed that the AMA…

• took active steps, often covert, to undermine chiropractic educational institutions,
• conceal evidence of the usefulness of chiropractic care,
• undercut insurance programs for patients of chiropractors,
• subvert government inquiries into the efficacy of chiropractic,
• engage in a massive disinformation campaign to discredit and destabilize the chiropractic profession,
• and engaged in numerous other activities to maintain a medical monopoly over health care in this country.”

In 1987, the judge issued an opinion finding the AMA guilty of long term wrong doing and illegally attempting to eliminate the chiropractic profession.

In September of 1987, the judge issued a permanent injunction against the AMA and all of its members from ever trying to destroy the chiropractic profession through such an illegal boycott again.

Unfortunately, the 100 year AMA campaign to damage chiropractic caused a massive shift in public and MD opinion about chiropractic.

In 1990, the US Supreme Court upheld the trial court and the Court of Appeals’ finding.

In January of 1992, the final settlement took place between the AMA and the chiropractors, thus ending one of the longest anti-trust legal battles in the history of this country.

This was 1992, definitely not too long ago. The decades of attacks had a serious impact on the chiropractic profession. One that has not completely been turned around.

Old habits and thoughts die very, very slowly.

This is why when you go to your MD that they are unlikely to refer you to a chiropractor even though a chiropractor could help you.

They are still influenced by almost a 100 years of propaganda meant to eliminate the chiropractic profession because it was seen as a threat to the medical monopoly on health care.

This isn’t an opinion, this is documented in the AMA’s own internal documents.

Instead of being referred to a chiropractor by your MD, you might be put on various medications, including opiod drugs for something that could be taken care of easily by a chiropractor…

Ultimately you may even be sent out for surgery without ever recommending that you see a chiropractor to see if chiropractic could resolve your problem.

It’s also true that the public’s opinion of chiropractic was also shaped by the decades of attacks from the AMA.

This is why many people, including some MDs, still believe chiropractors aren’t necessary or helpful…

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Fortunately, the public is coming around and an ever-increasing number of people are seeing a chiropractor.

A recent Gallop poll on Americans opinion about Chiropractic found…

• 57% of Americans would see a chiropractor for neck or back pain.
• 61% of Americans thought chiropractic was effective for neck pain/back pain.
• Over 33 million Americans have seen a chiropractor in the last year.

The reality is that chiropractic has a long way to go.

Chiropractic can help people with so much beyond neck pain and back pain.

It does tend to be pain that first drives someone to try chiropractic.

This tends to range from a recent injury like a car accident, sports injury, or work injury to headaches, spinal problems, problems in the extremities, nerve problems, and more.

In my practice, because of my background in from taking hundred’s of hours of post-doctorate neurology I see other more complex cases like vertigo, balance issues, migraines, fibromyalgia, scoliosis, and more.

I also help people improve their general health and wellness whether they have a chronic disease (many of my patients do) or not.

Many people are still seeing their Medical Doctor and being put on multiple medications for a problem that chiropractic can solve.

This has led to a huge amount of suffering including unnecessary surgeries, the opiod crisis, people losing their jobs and becoming disabled, and much more!

This is not to say that medicine is ‘bad.’

It’s not.

Different treatments are necessary for different people.

However, for so many people chiropractic should be a part of the treatment.

It’s also not to say that individual MDs are ‘bad.’

This is about a massive organization in the AMA and various state associations attempting to further damage chiropractic.

The last thing I would like to say is that the large medical associations are still attacking chiropractic.

This has been especially true in Texas where the Texas medical association continually takes the chiropractic profession to court in an attempt to control and limit the profession.

Over the last several years, the Texas medical association has managed to get TX chiropractors to no longer be able to be called physicians, across the street in AR this is not the case, nor is it the case in most states.

They did this apparently to try to limit insurance coverage.

They’ve gone after the chiropractic profession’s ability to diagnose concussions so that chiropractors couldn’t be team doctors for sports teams in TX.

They’ve attacked chiropractors ability to to nerve tests, eye tests, and much more.

Currently they’re attempting to remove the ability to diagnose and treat neurological conditions from chiropractors in Texas.

This would mean things like migraines, headaches, vertigo, ‘pinched’ nerves, and arguably many pain based conditions would suddenly be outside the scope of chiropractic only in the state of Texas.

Instead the patients suffering with these problems would be unable to get chiropractic care for them and instead could get more medications.

This is despite the fact that chiropractic has always since it’s very first day included neurology. It was the basis of chiropractic from the beginning.

It simply doesn’t make sense.

This is evidence of the ongoing battle that the large well funded medical associations supported by a trillion dollar industry are making against an under-funded chiropractic profession.

It’s about political power and still trying to take out the competition. Now legislatively instead of through undercover means that were used in the past and talked about above.

Ultimately if successful it’s the people who could benefit from chiropractic that suffer needlessly due to this ongoing attack on the chiropractic profession

Chiropractic’s Current Threat By The TX Medical Association

A recent lawsuit brought by the Texas Medical Association could prohibit chiropractors from treating conditions with a neurological component, like sciatica, pinched nerves, and, arguably, low back pain (conditions chiropractors have always treated) potentially destroying the chiropractic profession in Texas.

HB 2733 defines “neuromusculoskeletal system” within the Chiropractic Act and includes the neuromusculoskeletal system within the practice of chiropractic.

This bill maintains the status quo as it pertains to chiropractic scope of practice, but provides much needed clarity, precluding a chiropractor from treating conditions that are purely neurological, while ensuring Texans can continue to receive treatment from chiropractors as they have for decades for conditions like headaches, sciatica, ‘pinched’ nerves, and maybe even low back pain.

This is evidence that tells us the original intent of the large medical associations to limit or destroy chiropractic has not really changed regardless of the US Supreme Court ruling.

This type of ongoing attack has transitioned from behind closed doors into legal action to threaten chiropractic. Unfortunately chiropractic associations are massively underfunded compared to medical associations and the court battles are costly. This appears to be the current philosophy to damage chiropractic.

Of course, the real people who suffer are all the patients that could be helped by chiropractic but instead are led to believe that drugs and surgery are the only alternatives… they’re not.

The reality is that all treatment has a place for the right person.

The other reality is that for so many suffering with musculoskeletal / neuro-musculoskeletal problems… chiropractic should be the first line of recommended treatment because it works very well and is very safe compared to other more aggressive alternatives.