Anatomy Of A Chiropractic 'Miracle'
It's a famous quote, by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.The same holds true for miracles.What is a miracle?
When something wonderful happens when we can't quite explain how it happened.
In chiropractic, however, though there are lots of wonderful results throughout the profession, we shouldn't leave the details out of the story.
Let's look at a couple of stories that are easily accessible on the internet.
One is a news clip from an Iowa TV station showing a man's blind eye having sight restored following chiropractic care. He had been blind in one eye for a decade that suddenly began to intensely water and see again after a chiropractic adjustment.
The other story is told in a YouTube video we looked at recently, of a chiropractor in Australia, seeing a patient that couldn't stand or breath without tremendous pain.
Both patients had great results, and both patients managed to have their stories shared publicly in one way or another.
Though you likely first saw them here, you can see they both have been viewed thousands or even millions of times.
On the surface of it, while both were life-changing for the patient and their struggles, one was dramatically different in how they achieved the outcome.
At least based on what they tell us.
Let's take a look at what we learned from watching the two videos of these chiropractic miracles. The first, and arguably more dramatic case, was the patient who had blindness in his eye reversed after an adjustment.
You can see the first video here:
The doctor, in an interview, explains the underpinnings of how chiropractic works: the spine, in an unhealthy, or subluxated, state, stresses the nerves traveling through the spine, disrupting communication and function.
"It interferes with the messages and the energy that the brain sounds down to the rest of the body."
He does a beautiful job of explaining the underlining basics of chiropractic. That is a key fundamental concept, and overall I think this entire experience this video captures is fantastic. But what specifically did he do?
We are left wondering.
Let's look at #2. Let's look at Dr. Rahim in the second video and what he details about his findings.
You can see the second video here:
Exam findings such as swelling in the soft tissue around the spine. Specific motion findings. Variation in soft tissue tenderness. They spend several minutes detailing the examination that went into finding the most specific source of the problem, to get the highest chance of a great outcome.
He's pinned down a precise location of the problem and can effortlessly communicate exactly what that problem is.
Where the problem is, where it was likely caused, where the bone has gone, and where it needs to go.
He then shows the details of how that shows up in the body.
What we need to do is explain the principle of chiropractic - how the spine protects the nerves and helps the body heal - and we also need to be able to explain that there is a very specific process by which it happens.
To understand how these 'miracles' happen, it's the details matter.