The Wild History of Spinal Care: From Ancient Bonesetters to Modern Adjustments
Ealy chiropractic physicians needed to dodge the law if they wanted to keep adjusting patients. There is even documentation that chiropractors would protest by donning prison stripes and then would march down city streets waving at the crowds like medical outlaws.
After those demonstrations police began to raid chiropractic offices. Those raid motivated the chiropractors on to become creative. They began to use secret hand signals and have hidden treatment rooms and underground clinics. These weren’t games, these were survival tactics.
At this point you’ve only heard about part of what early chiropractic medicine was like. Chiropractors lived their lives and practiced their field like the wild West of medicine. Several of them swore that they could cure anything with a spinal adjustment. This included headaches, asthma, and reoccurring bad luck. No matter what a prospective patient was experiencing the chiropractor’s answer was always the same, “Give me a minute, and let me check your spine.” As wild as these old-school claims sound to us now, in the old days they drew crowds of people who were desperate for relief from their pain, as well as their problems, that nobody else could cure.
That was the practice of chiropractic medicine. Now I’d like to tell you a bit about the personalities of these practitioners. They were bold, big, and over-the-top. Chiropractors whose practices rivaled each other would hold public debates that were only half medicine. They were largely Broadway-worthy performances. The Chiropractors would buy radio stations so that they could broadcast their message to anyone who was listening to the radio. Their messages weren’t just about health – “It was about making noise, making headlines, and making chiropractic impossible to ignore.”
The bottom line of these spectacles, as difficult as it is to believe, actually paid off. It paid off because the stubbornness of those chiropractors and their relentless fight for legitimacy forced the upright members of the field to get serious about science, research, and authentic results. Today, those early wild and crazy claims are gone and have been replaced by “evidence-based care and rigorous professional standards!” Chiropractors, today, are licensed health professionals who are trusted by millions of patients and are referred to by physicians for every kind of issue from back pain to recovery after an injury.”
What began as a quirky, controversial and hilarious movement is now an important part of modern medicine. Dr. Livingston works shoulder-to-shoulder with physicians and physical therapists, to improve the quality of life for patients here in the Cleveland area. Livingston Chiropractic is centered in the heart of healthcare. We are not just accepted as another chiropractic office; we are respected and relied upon as a patient’s best alternative to pain!.
So, the next time you are at Livingston Chiropractic remember that beside receiving the best in chiropractic care, you are also experiencing an entertaining and humorous slice of history.
You’re putting your health in the excellent and capable hands of Dr. Livingston whose field first battled for legitimacy then came out stronger, smarter, and very indispensable. Call us at 440-528-0005 #1.