An Epistolary Debate

One of my colleagues handed me the Spring 2003 issue of his alumni magazine, Ithaca College Quarterly (www.ithaca.edu/icq/past/imagepages/ issue30.htm). The cover story was about alternative health care and interviewed Ithaca College graduates, one of whom, Christopher J. Colloca, DC, Phoenix, is a chiropractor. The article covered different complementary and alternative medicine’s (CAM) practices and the steady increase in their popularity.

A response to the article was published in the Fall 2003 issue (www.ithaca.edu/icq/2003v4/letters.htm)  from Harry Nafpliotis, PhD, PT, Teaneck, NJ: “... we, the physical therapist graduates of Ithaca, are trying hard to disassociate ourselves from chiropractic. I, along with the majority of the medical community, believe very strongly in our traditional Western ways based on the Aristotelian laws of empirical studies and research.”

Nafpliotis’ vitriolic letter continues in this vein: “We are practicing a very noble profession. Every other so-called health care professional has attempted to practice [their profession] not necessarily for its nobility but mostly for its financial rewards—rewards dispersed to everyone except to the physical therapist.”

The Winter 2004 issue Letters section continued this debate with a spate of angry responses from chiropractors, physical therapists and even a USN Lt Commander. Colloca wrote that Nafpliotis’ statements were “professional bigotry from a physical therapist holding on to values indoctrinated in him 40 years ago.”

Does this bring to mind Wilk v AMA, the 1976 antitrust lawsuit where the AMA’s goal was to eliminate one of its competitors? The chiropractic profession is still being harassed and belittled by those in the Westerm medical profession who find it easier to perpetuate old thinking rather than re-educate themselves as their patients are doing.

This reminds me of a testimonial from a patient in a recent weekly email newsletter from my chiropractor, Jeffrey E. Ptak. He asked Ptak to come to the hospital because one of his newborn twins was having trouble nursing. After being adjusted, the baby began to nurse. Both his obstetrician/gynecologist and family pediatrician were out of town, so the on-call staff pediatrician was supervising. His response to chiropractic care was, “I will not allow these types of therapies to be performed on children that are under my supervision.” The patient replied that he and his wife made the decisions for their children’s health, not the doctors. This exchange spread all over the hospital and by the end of their stay, more than 30 staff members—nurses, doctors, clerks—stopped to share their chiropractic stories.

People like Nafpliotis are the minority and will find their beliefs obsolete—financially and authoritatively—as the public continues to embrace CAM practices, especially chiropractic. I believe this is due to the power and efficacy of patient education, which chiropractic has taken to a new level. CP

Miwon Seo
mseo@medpubs.com