CHIROPRACTIC HISTORY: The AMA Agenda To Destroy Competition

Dr. Michael BucknellChiropractic, Education Center, Liberation NewsletterLeave a Comment

Part Two: The Formative Years (1925 – Present Day)

Dr. Mike Bucknell  /  June 23, 2015 / Nutrition,  Chiropractic, Supplementation, Education

This post is a supplement to the workshop published on June 23, 2015 by Dr. Mike Bucknell and can be found on his YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/IILUfWUdpyw.  Due to the quantity of the information, it has been separated into two parts:

CHIROPRACTIC HISTORY: The AMA Agenda to Destroy Competition Part One: The Early Years (1847-1924)

CHIROPRACTIC HISTORY: The AMA Agenda to Destroy Competition Part Two: The Formative Years (1925 – Present)

In this workshop Dr. Bucknell covers the nauseating history filled with corruption that Chiropractic has survived. Organized Medicine has made every attempt over the last century to maintain its power grab. But there is hope looking back at what has made Chiropractic the largest “alternative” health profession in the world today.

In part one, we covered the history of Chiropractic from 1847 to 1924.  In this post – Part Two – we’ll discuss the years from 1925 to the present.

1925 – 1930’s

1925

Wisconsin and Connecticut pass the first basic science statutes.  This is where the “Basis of Education” comes in.  They now state that to practice, within three years and 6 months you must have the basic education: anatomy, physiology, chemistry, biology, etc.

1926

  •  B. J. is not re-elected to the UCA (Universal Chiropractic Association – see Part 1).  One week later he formed a different organization that is now the ICA – International Chiropractic Association.
  • B. J. also opened the Clear View Sanitarium in that same year, and it operated until 1961.  This was an “insane asylum”, but far from the normal.  B.J. saw that other asylums were badly mistreating patients they had put there to die, so he opened his own and treated them with Chiropractic and working to get them back to normal life.  Basically, it was closed by the government in 1961 due to insurance regulations – the mentally ill didn’t have insurance so they couldn’t pay, and the government shut it down.  So now the only asylums staying open are the ones feeding people drugs – imagine that!

1930s

  • Chiropractic becomes the LARGEST alternative healing profession in the United States, and it still holds that spot today.  Nothing else comes close – not massage therapy, not homeopathy, not naturopathy.
  • The National Chiropractic Association (NCA) is formed by merging the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and a splinter group of the Universal Chiropractic Association (UCA).

1933 – 1936

1933

  • Warren Sausser, DC introduces the first upright, full-spine x-ray to further Logan Basic Technique. 
  • Ronald “Dutch” Reagan gets his first broadcasting job at Palmer owned WOC as a sportscaster. So began his media career.  He said of B.J. Palmer, he was a “great and gracious gentleman”.

1935

The B.J. Palmer Research Clinic began 30 years of published study.  Two divisions were set up: Medical for diagnosis and Chiropractic for treatment.  The huge facility had two separate wings for these divisions.  Patients would come from around the world for treatment and care.

A True Story

  • Dr. Charles Mayo (of the famous Mayo Clinic) sent his extremely sick wife to all the best medical centers around the world trying to get her well.  In a last-ditch attempt, he goes to the one place in the world he does not want to go to – the Palmer Clinic.  He addresses B. J. as ‘Mister Palmer’, not Doctor Palmer.  He questioned everything B. J. did.  After his wife was cured, the Palmer Clinic began getting regular ‘secret’ referrals for patients from the Mayo Clinic until Charles Mayo died.
  • One conversation that took place went told like this:

Mayo:       “Why do you take x-rays and just adjust the spine and do nothing else and say the patient is healed?”

Palmer:    “We move the bone, God does the healing.”

Mayo:       “Mister Palmer, you are an ignorant man!”

Palmer:    “No, sir, you are an ignorant man because you think you have it all figured out and you can heal everything.  We are at least smart enough to know that we can’t heal everything!”

Remember, Chiropractic healed Mayo’s wife.

Chiropractic Innovators

  • B. J. was a prolific writer.  As he would dictate to his secretary, he didn’t like having to wait while she reloaded the typewriter with a new sheet of paper.  He then went to a company that was pioneering in that field at the time and said, “I need an electric typewriter that can be loaded with continuous paper so that as I’m speaking, there is no pause and my secretary can keep dictating without stopping.”  That “continuous dictation” device was a precursor to the computer!
  • The electroencephaloneuromentipograph was a device created and funded by Palmer to basically detect and read innate intelligence.  Of course, today we know it’s not possible to do that.  However, this machine was a precursor to the modern-day electroencephalogram (EEG) which is still in use today. 

1936

The famous, but not well reported on “Chiropractor” Jack LaLanne opened the nation’s first health and fitness club in Oakland, California.  He did not hold himself out there as a Chiropractor, because he would not have gotten the publicity he had, and he wouldn’t have become famous.  His list of things to do for health: Exercise, nutrition, positive thinking, good habits, grooming, smiling, posture, helping others, relaxation, and faith – and nothing’s changed.  Today, these are the best tenets for good health.  Today’s gyms and health clubs – innovated by a Chiropractor!

1945 – 1950s

1945

  • World War II ends, and thanks to the GI Bill legislation enrollment again skyrockets (same as after WWI).  B. J. wrote, “I wish I could get hold of Hitler’s atlas so that I could give him an adjustment to make this tyrant sane!”  (The atlas is the top bone in your cervical spine, or your neck.)  He had a right to say that because he saw it happen at his sanitarium! 
  • The National Chiropractic Mutual Insurance Company (NCMIC) is chartered as the first to provide malpractice insurance to Chiropractors.

1947

What is now the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) is established.

1950s

  • Profits from penicillin, polio vaccines and others drive standard medicine to power and virtually eliminate all homeopathic professions with the exception of Chiropractic.  All the money is pouring into medicine at this point, full speed ahead – chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgeries and all the drugs started to come into play at this time.
  • At the same time, stories like this started coming in:  Winifred Gardella, the polio poster child, is cured by Lewis Robertson, Doctor of Chiropractic.   She had been used in national campaigns to fundraise money for research because the cry went out, “We need to beat polio! We need research! We need treatments!” So the medical establishment bled the equivalent of millions of dollars today from the general populace.
  • How much did they pay Dr. Robertson to make her well?  ZERO.  The medical doctors tried frantically for 2-1/2 years to cure her until her parents became frustrated.  Then her grandparents took her to Dr. Lewis Robertson, DC.  Within 6 months, she was walking on her own, and they posted pictures in a magazine of her holding his hand and riding a bike.  She maintained function for the rest of her life, yet was “tuned out” by the medical community as it wasn’t their success story.

1956 – 1962

1956

Palmer’s skeletal collection grew to over 25,000 specimens and was valued at over $350,000 – and that’s 1950s dollars (equivalent of Millions of dollars today)!.  He was also an avid collector of other things, such as ancient swords shown in the picture above.  He was also one of the world’s leading scholars on caves and traveled all over the world to every cave he could, and then lectured on the topic.  The bottom line is that B.J. Palmer was an avid thinker.

1961

B.J. Palmer died at his winter home in Sarasota, FL at age 79 from colon cancer.  He is said to have acknowledged that the reason he felt he had colon cancer was that he had a stubborn curve in his lumbar spine that he could never get rid of from earlier on in life, and that led to the cancer.

1962

The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) is founded.  They are still the governing board today. 

1963

1963

  • The current ACA is formed by merging the NCA and some of the ICA.  So today there are two, the ACA and the ICA.
  • This is huge: According to official federal court transcripts, prompted by the growth of Chiropractic after licensure, the AMA secretly forms the “Committee on Quackery” designed to “contain and eliminate” the Chiropractic profession.  This was a huge turning point in Chiropractic.  At this point it was all out war.  Some of their goals were:

Ensure that Medicare does NOT cover Chiropractic.  They failed at this, but not altogether, because although it is covered, it’s only for adjustments – 25 of them per year – they won’t pay for exams and x-rays.  They will only pay for “medically necessary” adjustments, but they won’t pay for exams or x-rays to prove medical necessity! There is hope that this could change if the Medicare Modernization Act ever passes.

Ensure the US Office of Education does not recognize or list a Chiropractic accrediting agency.  They failed on that one.

Encourage continued separation of the two primary national Chiropractic associations.  They’re still holding ground on that one, because there is still fragmentation within the profession.

Encourage state medical societies to push for laws limiting Chiropractic.  Now they’re getting individual states involved to continue legal battles in the courts.

1971 – 1974

1971

The National College of Chiropractic achieves federally recognized accreditation, gaining CCE (Council on Chiropractic Education) recognition from the US Office of Education.

1972

US Congress authorizes payment for Medicare to Chiropractors.

1974

  • CCE is recognized by the US Commissioner of Education
  • Louisiana becomes the final state to pass statute for Chiropractic
  • Life University is founded by Sid Williams, DC in Marietta, GA

1975 – 1987

1975

“Sore Throat” releases secret AMA documents to the press, prompting “Wilk vs AMA” to be filed in 1976.  No one knows who “Sore Throat” was, just that he was an insider within the AMA who had access to documents.  Finally, someone had the guts to say, “This isn’t right!” He confiscated a box of documents and handed them over to the media through a Chiropractor.

1987

  • After a long twelve-year legal battle, Judge Getzendanner finds the AMA guilty of violation of the federal Sherman Act for “engaging in unlawful conspiracy in restraint of trade”.   So, officially at that point it became illegal for medical doctors and the American Medical Association to attack Chiropractic and Chiropractors and try to shut them out of practice. However, it still happens today.
  • Stephen Barrett (pictured above) was a former psychiatrist who lost his license.  Have you ever come across a website called “quackwatch.com”?  Most of us probably have.  How is it that this Barrett – a discredited, unlicensed, sued in multiple cases former psychiatrist – gets this website that’s consistently #1 on Google when researching Chiropractic?  How does that happen? You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that there’s a big machine behind that website!  He doesn’t make money on the site because he doesn’t sell anything, he must be getting the money from somewhere!

1992 – 2002

1992

The first Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program is established at the University of Southern California.  This was an obvious attempt by the AMA to “copy” what Chiropractic was doing and call it their own, even though the two professions are nothing alike.  When did nutrition and exercise become something that the AMA encouraged?  Only in recent times, unlike Chiropractic which has always done so.  So, when they saw that they were not going to win the battle against Chiropractic, they began to do their best to just “absorb” it, to make it their own. The philosophy of Chiropractic is missing from the PT profession, that’s what will continue to separate them.

1994

The US Agency for Health Care Policy & Research recommends “spinal manipulation therapy” for low back pain.  So now the US government acknowledged that the number one prescribed treatment for low back pain should be what?  Adjustments!  Digital Motion X-ray (DMX) gains US FDA approval.  There’s a whole other story on the money spent and the legal battles by the AMA to keep DMX suppressed because it would revolutionize our industry.

2002

Life University has its accreditation temporarily removed. Why?  Because they wouldn’t give up the philosophy of Chiropractic..again the major differentiator from PT.

2010 – Present (2015)

2010

  •  â€œObamaCare” is enacted with unexpected outcomes for all professionals, and they’re still coming. Alabama’s ObamaCare Health Insurance Exchange costs were set to skyrocket and go up even further next year.
  • There’s an unexpected outcome.  Chiropractors have always said the medical doctors have always been paid whatever they want for what they do.  Chiropractors do not get paid for what their services are worth.  If the two practices were on a fair playing field – where people had a choice – go to the medical doctor and your bills are covered, or go to your Chiropractor and your bills are covered, what would happen?
  • In a short period of time, most people would be turning to Chiropractic, and the medical profession would suffer an extreme blow.  It’s all an owned system, designed to drive profits in one direction and contain the flow of money.  A recent article showed that after ObamaCare was enacted, the system was so overinflated that hospitals are charging north of 10 times the actual cost of patient care.  The average restaurant is only 3 times the actual cost!  And some of the pharmaceutical companies are charging 570,000 times their cost!

Things get interesting!

  • Once medical costs were so inflated, the costs started to become more than people could pay and the cost system deflated quickly.   Now things are starting to get interesting!  Chiropractors are really good at creating value and communicating with patients.  We’re good at forming relationships and understanding what it really takes to get people well and keep them well because we’ve been doing it for 100 years.  So, a host of medical doctors, instead of learning how to do those things, are retiring! 
  • We’re seeing some really interesting dynamics happening now that have never come into play before.  It’s natural progression – survival of the fittest.  Everyone knows the current medical system is not sustainable.  We’re not going to be doing things the way we do them now 100 years from now.

2015

  • A new discovery.  The immune system and lymphatics are in fact controlled by the brain.  Medical doctors have forever said, “The brain does not control everything in the body, because look at the immune system, look at the lymphatic system!  They’re not connected to the brain.”  Well, they are – just as Chiropractors have been saying for many years! 
  • Now Chiropractic is being practiced in all the major countries of the world – despite overwhelming efforts to squelch it by the medical community.  The graphic above shows that despite those efforts, Chiropractic is growing very quickly.
  • When you consider the history we’ve just explained, and you see all the onslaught and stomping that’s happened over the last 100 years, consider where we are now – in all the world’s major countries and there are over 75,000 practicing Chiropractors in the United States!

The Future…

Our battles over the next 20 years, I believe, will be as follows:

  1. We need more ChiropracTORS practicing ChiropracTIC!
  2. Chiropractors will continue to see greater diversification and specialties like medicine.
  3. Where MDs are splintering into private practices, Chiropractors MUST start working together the gain a market advantage that medicine has always had.
  4. Medicine will use DPT’s (physical therapists) in the attempt to undermine Chiropractic by assuming the field when in reality, there is room for all.
  5. Chiropractors will NOT see better insurance coverage, but neither will MDs.
  6. Healthcare is unsustainable so, as costs balance, patients will determine the market.
  7. Chiropractic is in the balance, and the next 20 years will either BOOM or BUST.

Our Vision

  • Our vision should be to start pioneering and developing that kind of a system where we stop “eating our young”.  Some of us bring out new graduates and then don’t give them what they need to continue learning and flourish.  We must nurture and protect them and act like they’re our children.
  • We need to come together and work together to teach all Chiropractors the skills needed to become successful.  Rather than separating into fractioned offices of practice, we should create practices where there are several doctors who share a larger facility, thereby cutting costs.  We should be willing to have the mindset that, “If you win, I win,” rather than everyone being out for himself, which contributes to splintering. 
  • We should create a model based on these premises that can be branched out universally, to show everyone how it can be done and how everybody wins – Chiropractors and patients.  This isn’t a new model.  Some of the big medical clinics out there, such as The Cleveland Clinic, follow this model and work together, paying their doctors a salary instead of paying them based on procedures they complete.  The focus should to be, ‘We’re here for the patients, we’re not driven just to do what’s profitable.’
  • Ultimately, it’s the patients who drive the market.  It’s in the hands of the population.  Wherever you spend your money and resources, that is your vote on what happens in the future.

About Dr. Michael Bucknell

Doctor Bucknell is a licensed and board certified Doctor of Chiropractic, well-known wellness expert on radio and TV, accomplished author, patent-holding inventor, and entrepreneur. He is extension faculty of Life University, served as the USA Judo, Wrestling, and Weightlifting team's Wellness Advisor and Team Doctor, and NBC Local 15 Gulf Coast's correspondent at the 2012 London Olympics.