Chiropractors: Stay Off the Injured List
(Originally posted on May 20, 2012 by Dr. Bill)
We are all conscious of the need to conserve natural resources. But how conscious are you of the need to conserve and protect your own personal physical resources?
Most of us, especially when we are young and enthusiastic, think that we are invulnerable, that we are ten feet tall and bulletproof. We work hard as we strive to build a practice and a life.
I personally worked crazy hours seeing a ridiculous number of patients per day with no thought of the toll it was taking on my own body. I was not alone — most of my friends were doing the same thing. We were hooked on the ego trip of being able to attract a high volume of patients. We were making a lot of money and most of us were living up to it, buying expensive toys, working hard and playing hard.
It was a rude awakening when one morning my body staged a revolution. I suddenly found myself on the floor in excruciating pain as I was adjusting a 120 lb. woman. I had heard of this sort of thing happening to other Chiropractors, but of course never thought it would happen to me.
The fact is that traditional full spine adjusting, or as I have come to call it — Full Contact Chiropractic — is indeed a rough game.
I was amazed when my friend Ed Miller, owner of Impac Inc®, told me that the Chiropractic profession has an attrition rate similar to professional football – and for the same reason — injuries. Tragically, many disabling injuries apparently occur during
Chiropractic school, well before the DC degree can even be awarded. That is very sad and unnecessary.
Being a Chiropractor shouldn’t mean that we have to sacrifice our own health or live in pain to help others. That is not a fair exchange. I live with pain every day because of my past excesses, thinking I was superman.
The good news is that if you are a young DC, you won’t have to hurt yourself to help your patients. I can still enjoy practicing today because of advanced Chiropractic technology. If I had to practice the way I did for my first 30 years, I simply could not do it.
In the past several years I have interviewed some of the contemporary masters of Chiropractic Technique. Each of the techniques I discuss are “doctor friendly” in that they
are easy on the doctor’s body. The articles I wrote following these interviews have appeared in The American Chiropractor Magazine, and I am currently planning more interviews and articles.
I am also working on a soon to be completed book called Conversations with Chiropractic Technique Masters. It is a collection of those articles with additional material and commentary on my personal experience using those techniques in my practice.
Conversations with Chiropractic Technique Masters will soon be published and available as an e-book from Amazon Kindle. BOLO, I think you will like it.
