In another thread, the subject of chiropractors who are claiming to be qualified as nutritionists, food sensitivity experts, neurology experts, functional medicine docs, etc., came up. I've often wondered if they were actually qualified, as they claim. Maybe it's time to explore this a bit.
Most of us can remember when chiropractors were actually chiropractors (and nothing more). When (and why) did they decide to reinvent themselves as something else? Apparently, sometime during the last decade or two, they made the decision that they would be better off if they transformed themselves from chiropractors into food/nutrition experts, neurologists, and/or so-called functional medicine doctors.
My take on this is — if they didn't actually want to be chiropractors, why did they choose that profession? Why didn't they choose to pursue an MD degree? Why did they choose to reinvent the profession, instead? My guess is that as always, it's all about money. (After all, that's what capitalism is all about). They just decided that since so many of their clients complained of dietary and digestive issues that their current MDs didn't appear to be capable of adequately addressing, then maybe it was time to broaden their horizons to take advantage of an apparent opportunity.
And realistically, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to do a better job of dealing with digestive system issues than about 99.9 % of the MDs out there (provided that they are willing to spend the extra time learning whatever they need to know in order to pursue this field. Because as we all know, MDs are obviously not willing to devote any significant amount of time to learning about nutrition and digestive system health in general.
Instead of learning how to properly diagnose and treat health problems of this sort, MDs choose to throw prescription drugs at it, pretending that (as always) drugs are the answer, regardless of the question. IMO, MDs have really dropped the ball on this issue, because it's definitely a biggie, and it will continue to be increasingly important in future health decisions of the public. By failing to properly educate themselves about food sensitivities, diet, etc., MDs are writing themselves out of the future treatment programs of many of their patients, IMO.
So are chiropractors qualified to deal with diet and digestive issues? Believe it or not, the educational requirements for a DC (Doctor of Chiropractic) degree are more extensive than the requirements for an MD degree, except in the fields of pathology, neurology, psychiatry/psychology, and gynecology/obstetrics. By contrast, chiropractors receive much more extensive training in anatomy, chemistry, diagnosis, and items such as x-ray and orthopedics (in those last 2 items, MDs receive only a token amount of training). In all, they receive, on the average, approximately 20 % more hours of training before qualifying for a DC degree.
Of course, there's a big caveat here. And that's the fact that like most other doctors, on the average, regardless of what they might claim, chiropractors do not understand microscopic colitis. But at least they are beginning to understand food sensitivities, and I suspect that they are more likely to recognize that the body is a complex assembly of sophisticated systems, all of which can influence the overall performance, rather than trying to pretend that treating individual organs without regard to the rest of the body is appropriate (the typical approach used by virtually all MD specialists).
I'm sure that as is the case with MDs, some chiropractors/functional medicine doctors are/will be much better qualified than others to treat patients who have diet/digestive issues, but at least they seem to be headed in a good direction.
I'm not sure that the chiropractic branch of medicine is the best format for this development, but since all the mainstream docs have made it pretty clear that they're not interested in taking on the educational requirements involved, that leaves a huge slot open that was begging to be filled. So it was probably inevitable that someone would take advantage of the opportunity.
That said, would I ever go to a chiropractor for dietary advice/treatment? Probably not, because too many of them (virtually all of them) are claiming that they can give a patient a series of adjustments/treatments, and "cure" their IBD, or whatever else ails them. A chiropractor used to be one of my food corn customers (his hobby was going to farm shows and small town annual reunions/celebrations and grinding corn meal on the spot, using an old antique stone mill). I got to know him pretty well over the years, and I had told him of my digestive system issues, and how I had resolved them by making specific diet changes. He was a pre-conversion (conventional) chiropractor back in those days.
After chiropractors had reinvented the profession, one day he told me how he had "cured" the infertility problems of a young woman who came to him for treatment, by giving her a series of weekly "adjustments". And he also told me how he regularly "cured" patients who had food sensitivity issues such as mine, again by giving them a series of regular spinal adjustments. Really?
I don't think so.I would really like to believe that they are headed in the right direction, and that someday they will prove to be a great resource for people who have dietary and food sensitivity problems, but in they meantime, why can't they just be truthful?
Few things shake my faith in someone faster than mendacity.Tex
I have been to a chiropractor a couple of times, and even knew a couple of them pretty well some years ago. But today I would not go to a functional doctor who was also a chiropractor. Now you know one of my irrational fears.
