Why is the safest health care in the world the most feared?

This morning while having my coffee, I began pondering the why and wherefores of 'life'.  What I locked onto this morning was chiropractic, go figure.  Of all the health care systems in place today, chiropractic his the safest and most cost effective health care system with the highest patient satisfaction rating in the world.  Yet people are terrified about the prospect of going to a chiropractor.  That is until they finally, out of desperation and resignation decide to go because everything else has failed.  Even then it takes them months and even years to come in to see the chiropractor because some fool has told them something awful about us. 

When they finally do come in they are usually shaking in fear expecting to be carted off in a body bag.  You think I'm joking?  These people are often surprised I'm not wearing a buffalo head dress, have a bone in  my nose with a leopard skin loin clothe and the 'magic' stick of 'God only knows'.  In truth my wife will not allow me out of the house wearing my loin cloth for some reason muttering things like 'fashionable' and 'oh dear God' shaking her head in despair.  

So what is it that these people are told and from whom and where do they hear it?  I was giving a lecture some years back and a 'person of ignorance' spewed forth this 'comment' "I heard a chiropractor caused quadriplegia in a guy back east".  He was sitting in the back of the room with a smug grin waiting for me to choke.  In all honesty it was difficult for me to not pick up a chair and smash it across his teeth.  However, I maintained and asked him to provide me with a name and location of this source.  He then choked and said he had only heard it from someone he knew back east.  So it is with all such stories, somebody heard something from someone who saw it happen on television...20 years ago. 

My grandmother, back in 1928, was told as a nursing student of the horrible injuries caused by chiropractors.  Such were the stories that she 'hated' and feared chiropractors so much that when her father told he had 30 days to live and decided to go see a chiropractor, was convinced he was suicidal.  My grandmother believed that her father would be killed by seeing the chiropractor.  What did they say to make her think that? 

She tried desperately to convince him not to see that 'heathen quack' because she believed he would certainly die if he did.  In spite of the drama and desperate pleas of my grandmother he went.  She went with him to defend him against the chiropractor.  When he didn't die from the 'adjustment', she was relieved.  However, she was horrified when he was told he'd have to come back.

In less that a month of regular chiropractic visits he was well enough to go back to work. In fact he canceled his own funeral and not only out lived his diagnosis by 30 years, and out lived the Md who'd given him 30 days to live by nearly 20. 

My grandmother eventually swallowed her pride and went to see this weirdo who had helped her father.  First she wanted to apologize for calling him a quack.  Then she wanted to see what it was he did to her father.  His explanation was difficult to accept because it was too simple and made too much sense.  What confused her was the professional demeanor of the 'evil, vile and despicable chiropractor.  It was while sitting in his office that she realized that the stories she had been told were lies meant to scare people away from something that clearly worked better than drugs and surgery. 

My grandmother became a chiropractor because a chiropractor saved her fathers life.  She turned away from medicine realizing that if they had to lie and spread ugly rumors to convince people to scare patients away from the competition, there was something very wrong with their model of care.  So it is today, still, after all these years.  Yet, the Chiropractor is still here black eye and all.  

After 118 years of existence in the health care market chiropractors are still here.  We have a 95% pt satisfaction rating world wide.  We have an accumulated death rate of less than 0.01% covering the entire 118 year span of our existence.  We have the lowest malpractice premiums of all health care systems.  In spite of these facts people keep hearing awful, nasty and scary stories about how terrible the chiropractor is and how they should stay away from that evil, vile and despicable voodoo artist. 

Such stories are meant to scare you away from seeking care that works better and is safer than anything offered in the medicine cabinet.  In short you have been lied to, repeatedly. Think about it. If what 'you' have heard about the chiropractor were true, why is chiropractic still here?  Why do chiropractors still get results 'others' can't explain? 

Are you angry yet?  You should be. 

Dr. Richard Bend.