The Stigma Around Being a Chiropractor
Dr. Super’s House of Health was born in my own home. Starting a new business during a pandemic, with no income, and no savings or financial assistance meant starting small. I quickly needed to get my business up and running and after seeing a few patients a week at my home I saved up enough for a payment on a space to lease, or so I thought. I quickly realized that commercial real estate was expensive, and I was having a hard time finding a space that worked. The biggest hurdles included finding a space with plenty of parking, a working bathroom, and handicap accessibility. After looking at over a dozen offices nothing fit. Nothing felt like home.
I had a friend contact me who knew about a space at our local mall. It was 840 sqft, handicap accessible, had a private restroom, and a kitchen sink. Parking wasn’t an issue since there were hundreds of parking spaces and the space had a private entrance. It even fit my tiny budget! However, I was not excited about being labeled as a “Mall Chiropractor”. I was hesitant. Would people take me seriously working out of a mall? Would I inflict damage on the reputation of our whole profession? Do people even go to the mall anymore?
Our profession has already been discriminated against for over 100 years by other medical institutions such as the AMA, whose efforts were to “contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession and the development of the Chiropractic Committee, which would later become the AMA Committee on Quackery” (Johnson, 2022). At one point, chiropractors were even imprisoned for adjusting their patients (Kimbrough, 1998). The general public as well as other health care practitioners have very little understanding of our profession and often spread misinformation whether they mean to or not. As chiropractors, we have to justify why we do what we do to EVERYONE almost ALL OF THE TIME! No one questions why you need ultrasounds during pregnancy or dental check-ups, so why do they question the need to take care of their spine? It’s hard enough convincing someone why our profession should exist, not to mention why they should take me seriously at the mall. It’s no surprise that chiropractors have to battle to be taken seriously, given that in 1976, an anonymous source known as “Sore Throat” passed along secret documents from the AMA and FDA while pressing the chiropractic profession to file suit against the AMA:
He said that an antitrust suit would inhibit the AMA from destroying documents pertaining to a “secret organization” that involved the AMA, Better Business Bureau, FTC, United States Postal Service, and Food and Drug Administration. He stated that the organization, “… met secretly twice a year for the sole purpose of the elimination of drugless healing in the United States. Chiropractic, being the largest drugless healing body around, was the most discussed subject especially by the AMA.” [28] He said that a private antitrust suit would show results faster than a FTC-led investigation and would lead to a faster injunction to preserve records (Sore Throat, 976)
Now why would the AMA, FDA, and BBB all want to abolish drugless healing in the United States? Not to mention, how could millions of taxpayer dollars go towards abolishing a scientifically backed healing art? Follow the money. In my last blog post we talked about why I do not participate with insurance companies. How could doctors make money off of you if you don’t need prescriptions? How can big pharma make billions in profit if you don’t need opioids? People who discredit or disbelieve our profession would do well to think about who would benefit from the abolishment of our profession. Patient’s would lose out on valuable care (chiropractic) and the FDA and AMA would benefit from patient’s sickness (prescriptions).
After considering what my chiropractic forebears had to go through to practice their healing art, I decided to do something crazy. I decided not to care about the stigma around being a chiropractor and instead decided to focus on being the best doctor I can be. I have always let my work speak for itself and I invest very little in marketing as I rely on word-of-mouth to keep my books full. Why should I be afraid of being a “Mall Chiropractor”? What is wrong with picking a space that allows me to be easily accessible, that puts me in the public eye and allows me to interact with people who have never heard of chiropractic? I decided to see this as an opportunity. I was going to change peoples' minds about chiropractic, what a doctor should be like, and what healing should feel like.
I wear jeans and T-shirts to allow me to move with ease. I put my hair in a scrunchy to keep it out of my face, and wear Dr. Marten’s for added height to help with ergonomics. I always check vitals, perform a cranial nerve evaluation and physical exam before starting dermatologic and orthopedic exams. Before this point my patient and I would have already talked about all of the procedures, what to expect, and answered any of their chiropractic or health questions. They are already comfortable. They already trust this “Mall Chiropractor” more than their family physician. It doesn't matter where my office is, what I am wearing, or how old they think I am (most patient’s ask if I’m old enough to be a doctor already). It doesn’t matter that my profession is still facing repercussions from decades of illegal discrimination by other health care professionals. I am the one my patients trust with helping them on their healing journey, this “Mall Chiropractor”. I will continue to improve my craft, educate my patients, and help heal the sick and injured, all from the mall.
Feel Well and Do Good,
ADIO
Dr. Super
Johnson CD, Green BN. Looking back at the lawsuit that transformed the chiropractic profession part 4: Committee on Quackery. J Chiropr Educ. 2021 Sep 1;35(S1):55-73. doi: 10.7899/JCE-21-25. PMID: 34544155; PMCID: PMC8493528.
Kimbrough ML. Jailed chiropractors: those who blazed the trail. Chiropr Hist. 1998 Jun;18(1):79-100. PMID: 11620299.
Sore Throat. Parker speech. January 17, 1976.