Pair-a-Dimes

            Today I’m writing about paradigms – pronounced, pair-a-dimes. “What is a paradigm?” you ask. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated; broadly : a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind.” Blah, blah, blah. The Merriam-Webster kid’s version of the definition is a lot easier to understand. It says, “an example showing how something is to be done (aka:  model).” In short, it’s a model around which we build our belief systems.

            I’m writing about this because of the different paradigms in our healthcare system today. There’s a big difference between the chiropractic paradigm we implement here at the office (and in our everyday lives) and the one most commonly seen in other physicians’ offices (medical doctors, osteopathic doctors, pediatricians, and the list goes on). I want to share what is at the very center of our belief system so you can better understand where we’re coming from.

            The two main healthcare paradigms are Vitalistic and Mechanistic. Let me first explain what mechanistic care looks like. Simply put:  it looks like intervention. It is another test to run, another diagnosis to make, another drug or surgical procedure to prescribe. Doctors spend every day looking for problems and a way THEY can solve them. They are working against the body.

            Chiropractors fall under the vitalistic paradigm. As vitalists we believe that humans (and animals for that matter) are born to be healthy and if the body is given the right support, we can continue to be healthy. We believe that the body has an innate ability to heal itself and needs no outside intervention (drugs or surgery). Of course there are exceptions to that, such as a life-threatening trauma where drugs and surgery are needed for crisis care. For everyday illness (colds or flu) and cuts or scrapes, we take a “watch and wait” approach. The body knows what to do. As chiropractors, we are here to remove any interference in the body’s innate healing ability. Chiropractors don’t “treat” anything. We recognize that a patient may have low back pain or trouble sleeping or a sprained ankle, but we are not here to treat it. We can adjust subluxations of the spine so the nervous system can function better and communicate to the body and initiate healing from within. We can also influence the bones of the extremities or the surrounding soft tissue in an effort to assist the body in healing, but it is always your body that does the healing, not the doctor. 

            To us, it is vitally important to live a vitalistic lifestyle.

What have you done to be vitalistic today?

-         Dr. Emily :-)