Did you hear? Chiropractic is about more than just back pain! 

The first recorded chiropractic adjustment was performed on September 18, 1895, more than 114 years ago, by Dr. Daniel David (DD) Palmer, a teacher, self-taught scientist, and magnetic healer. At the time, Dr. Palmer was trying to understand the cause and effect of disease. His first chiropractic patient, Harvey Lillard, was a deaf janitor working in the same building as his office in Davenport, Iowa. He found Harvey’s plight interesting because his daughter explained that his hearing loss had been the sudden result of his back popping while he was bent over under the stairs some 17 years ago. Upon examination, DD found a “lump” on Mr. Lillard’s back and suspected that a vertebra might be out of place causing pressure on a nerve going to his ears. With an admittedly unrefined chiropractic technique, DD adjusted the vertebra with a gentle thrust, he regained some hearing immediately. After several such treatments, much of Harvey’s hearing was restored.

This dramatic beginning caused much excitement, some entitling it the “crack heard around the world”. Soon exaggerated claims surfaced from activists and chiropractic zealots. Even Dr. Palmer himself thought at first that he had discovered a cure for deafness. As these "miracle" stories became commonplace, the controversy surrounding chiropractic began. While it might have been reasonable for chiropractors and their patients to assume major diseases had been "cured", in many cases the problem was an error in the original diagnosis. The doctor making the diagnosis may have assumed the patient had a heart problem when in fact the pain in the patient's chest resulted from a rib sprain, not a heart problem, which is what his second patient experienced. He realized through the trial and error of adjusting, that other patients coming to get adjusted didn’t get their hearing “cured” like Harvey. He did find those patients expressed a reduction of digestive troubles, sciatica, menstrual trouble, migraine headaches, epilepsy, heart problems, neck pain, back pain and many other conditions that responded to spinal care but not as a “cure”, it was then Palmer realized that he had discovered something more far-reaching indeed.

One of Dr. Palmer's patients, a minister, is credited with creating the name "Chiropractic" for this new art and science of manipulation. He took the Greek words for "hand" (cheiros) and "done by" (praktos) and put them together to create Chiropractic, meaning "done by hand".

Without the leadership of the founder's son, Dr. Bartlett Joshua (BJ) Palmer, chiropractic might not have survived. Chiropractic has rapidly grown to be third only to medicine and dentistry as the largest primary health care provider in the western world. The original Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa grew from 24 students in 1906 to 3,100 in 1923. Today, there are more than 23 chiropractic institutions throughout the world, including colleges in Canada (Toronto, Trois Rivières), the United States, Australia, Japan, and England. Current enrollment at chiropractic institutions now exceeds 10,000 enthusiastic and dedicated students.

The science of chiropractic has progressed significantly especially since the 1970’s. Today the advanced diagnostic procedures, sophisticated equipment, scientific research have cultivated a growing acceptance among patients, governments and health care professionals have made chiropractic a popular health care choice.

Sources: http://www.chiro.org/Plus/History/Persons/PalmerDD/PalmerDD%27s-Lifeline-chrono.pdf, http://dockerychiro.com/what-is-chiropractic/, http://www.spineguys.com/why_chiropractic/whatisit.asp, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic_controversy_and_criticism

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