Alternative Health & Pain
   

 

 

Lecture Series

About Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care is among the safest of the healing arts. Many experience chiropractic as a natural, drug-free way to get healthy. Chiropractors help by removing serious interferences in your life and health – vertebral subluxations – which prevent you from functioning at your best. Free from these interferences, you can live the best of what life has to offer, in the most healthy way possible.

Common problems treated by Chiropractic care:

  • Auto accident injuries
  • Back pain
  • Sciatica
  • Headaches
  • Painful joints
  • Neck, arm and shoulder pain
  • Numbness or tingling in arms, legs and feet
  • Diffculty Sleeping
  • Ear infections
  • Infertility
  • High blood pressure
  • TMJ
  • Whiplash
  • Migraine headaches
  • Colic in children
  • Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Sports injuries
  • Pinched nerves
  • Work injuries
  • Plantar Faciitis
  • Eczema

spine

 

Chiropractic Education

In some recent surveys it was surprising to note that some people were unaware of the educational level of a Doctor of Chiropractic. The basic question was, "Is the education of a Doctor of Chiropractic at the same level as a Medical Doctor?" The correct answer is, of course, yes. Doctors of Chiropractic undergo a rigorous and demanding professional education equivalent to any other primary care provider. To obtain a Doctor of Chiropractic degree, they must complete several years of prerequisite undergraduate education and spend nearly the same number of classroom hours at a fully-accredited chiropractic college as MDs do in medical schools. Student doctors are thoroughly trained in the appropriate use of sophisticated analytical equipment including X-rays, examination procedures, and state of the art chiropractic investigative technologies. Before they can practice, all Doctors of Chiropractic must pass a series of National Boards, as well as a licensing exam for the state in which they choose to practice. Even after all that, most states require the doctors to attend clinical continuing education programs for annual relicensure.


 What does it take to become a Chiropractor?

According to many sources Chiropractic is the second largest health care profession.  Some articles and authors have referred to chiropractic as “alternative”.  This label may not fit in the face of the growing numbers of people seeking chiropractic care.  In the 1998 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine is an article on chiropractic that makes a profound statement, “Even to call chiropractic alternative is problematic, in many ways it is distinctly mainstream.”
Even with all this growth and increased usage, many people are unaware of the rigors of a chiropractic education.

In order to become a “Doctor of Chiropractic” chiropractic students must go through college and a chiropractic program every bit as strenuous and in-depth as other health care practitioners.  To help demonstrate this better, the following charts are given.

 


Comparison of Hours of Basic Sciences Education in Medical and Chiropractic Schools

Subject Chiropractic Schools Medical Schools
  Hours % of Total Hours % of Total
Anatomy
570
40
368
31
Biochemistry
150
11
120
10
Microbiology
120
8
120
10
Public Health
70
5
289
24
Physiology
305
21
142
12
Pathology
205
14
162
14
Total Hours
1,420
100
1,200
100


Comparisons of the Overall Curriculum Structure for Chiropractic and Medical Schools

  Chiropractic Schools Medical Schools
  Mean Percentage Mean Percentage
Basic science hours
1416
29%
1200
26%
Clinical science hours
3406
71%
3467
74%
Chiropractic science hours
1975
41%
0
0
Clerkship hours
1405
29%
3467
74%
Total Contact Hours
4822
100%
4667
100%

 

Source for both above charts: Center for Studies in Health Policy, Inc., Washington, DC.
Personal communication of 1995 unpublished data from Meredith Gonyea, PhD.

 

Copyright 2009 Alternative Health & Pain Center | Dr. Richard Novak -- Website design by Cork Tree Creative