Just caught a minute of CNN Wednesday morning (June 25) about chiropractic and strokes.
The news anchor interviewed CNN’s resident M.D., Dr. Sanja Gupta, who reports on a specific stroke victim, Britt Harwe. He refers to an “advocacy group” for other stroke victims of chiropractic, and uses the term “Chiropractic Stroke.” He also interviews a representative from the American Chiropractic Association who gives a pretty lame presentation.
So, to start off with, the piece is slanted negatively.
Then, the M.D. recommends that viewers only see chiropractors who have been licensed and who have attended chiropractic colleges, which are 2-4 year programs. I may have missed something, but I have never seen, or heard of a chiropractor who has attended a two year D.C. program. Again, another slant covertly snuck in.
But then I checked: this lady had a stroke FIFTEEN years ago! CNN is Cable NEWS network. What about this is news?
To be fair, Gupta had a nice piece about chiropractic a few years ago. And, not to pick on CNN, as I saw at least one negative article at another network’s web site.
While a stroke can be tragic, as in the case of Ms. Hawre, a quick glance at at least one study shows that chiropractic patients are no more likely to suffer a stroke following chiropractic treatment than they would after visiting their family doctor’s office.
Stroke victims deserve all the help, understanding, and care possible. The chiropractic profession needs to always honestly review their standards of care for improvement, as does any profession or business.
But for a negatively slanted piece to come out 15 years after the fact belies the real motivation of the report. We have seen the medical establishment try to contain chiropractic in the past. This has been proven in the Wilk’s case.
The chiropractic profession is, and has been, the leader in the Wellness Revolution. But it has not been easy. There are and will continue to be sucker punches thrown at you and your patients.
Not supported by pharmaceutical funding, the responsibility of chiropractic public relations has to be shouldered by chiropractors and their professional staff.
I thought I would bring all this up because of your patients. They hear garbage like this and it can dull their appreciation for chiropractic and what it and you have done for them.
You have to know what you are up against, as do your staff, as do your patients.
Educate them. Stay in the fight. Get a little outraged. It is good for you. Makes you strong. Tell your story and the chiropractic story. Improve your services and pursue your greater purposes.
This is the real point of this post: protect your patients by educating them. Get them through their care and onto wellness care. Have them join the fight.
We put together a poster regarding strokes in case they bring it up to you for your use in patient education. Down load it and use if you want. You can get more data at the A.C.A. site here.