Reasons for Optimism

I’m reading the book, Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, by Kevin Trudeau (Alliance Publishing Group Inc). The book has spent many weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and has sold more than 3 million copies as of this writing. The author’s main premise is that the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry have a big interest in keeping people sick rather than healing them.

Trudeau repeatedly states that, “It’s all about the money” and writes that the medical profession does not want to heal people because that would hurt the bottom line of the millions of medical professionals in practice today.

The book goes on to state that natural cures exist for almost every disease, but that government organizations such as the US Food and Drug Administration are suppressing these cures. Trudeau writes that pharmaceutical companies are only in business to make big profits for shareholders.

Trudeau is also a big fan of chiropractic. One of the items on his list of natural-cure recommendations is to “get a chiropractic adjustment.” He promotes the benefits of chiropractic several times throughout the book and writes, “Realigning the spine allows energy to flow throughout the entire body.” Also on his list of recommendations is, “Use foot orthotics.”

The fact that so many people have read this book is one reason for the chiropractic profession to be optimistic as we enter a new year. The success of this book means that millions of people are looking at alternatives to drugs and surgery for treating disease. The book is serving as free publicity for chiropractors across the country.

Of course, not all news is rosy for the chiropractic profession. We have run news items about chiropractic managed care networks that are setting strict limits on patient visits and terminating DCs who don’t follow these limits. This is hurting DC practices and the patients who are trying to improve their health.

But we have other reasons to be optimistic. Just about every month in the news pages of this magazine, we feature different studies that offer further proof of chiropractic’s effectiveness. An example is the study by the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics showing that chronic lower-back-pain patients who underwent chiropractic treatment showed higher pain relief and satisfaction with the care and lower disability scores than a group that underwent medical care.

The year 2005 was a good one in other ways. In April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched a 2-year demonstration project to expand Medicare coverage of chiropractic services in five states. This was great news for seniors, the Medicare program, and the entire chiropractic profession.

These news items, along with the high readership of Trudeau’s book, shows that there are many reasons for optimism. I hope that you continue to become more involved with your profession so we can keep the momentum going. CP

Daryl Lubinsky
dlubinsky@ascendmedia.com