My Perspective
By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Enjoy our first featured article of 2001. Join us as we look back on the incredible chiropractic year that has just past. This article is a great way to test-drive many of our new features and view our new site design. Thank you for your continued support, which makes all this possible.

Remember Y2K? I remember it well. I spent the week before the New Year searching for bugs in our computer systems. I was especially concerned about our news service, as we had thought the news articles might possibly go from a date of 1999 to 1900. Well, that never happened. Instead, our news server thought the year was now 19000! We had some quick work to do, and thanks to Grant (the main news programmer) we had a solution in a few hours. For the most part, fears of Y2K just fizzled away.

January
It was in early January when we reported with news that U.S. health spending in 1998 had increased by more than five percent over the previous year. I'm sure we will hear that this year's spending was even greater than that reported last year.

On Monday, Jan. 17th, 2000, we lost a great chiropractic leader. Dr. Galen Price.

Dr. Price was the fourth president at the Palmer College of Chiropractic, and was the first president who is not a member of the Palmer family. Remembering Dr. Price, the current President of the College, Dr. Guy Riekeman, offered the following:

"Galen Price changed the world by planting ideas in generation after generation of chiropractic students. He taught my father, he taught me, he taught the profession. He was kind and gentle, witty and caring, strong in principle; a colleague, a mentor, a friend. The world and our profession have lost an irreplaceable gem; today we will mourn, tomorrow we will celebrate, but for all time let's not forget the gift he gave - the gift that was his life."

It was in January that we brought you news of an article that appeared on a web site, suggesting that accidental death was more likely from an M.D. than a gun owner. The article stated that a medical doctor was approximately 9000 times more dangerous than a gun owner.

February
On the Monday morning of February 7th, 2000, the chiropractic profession lost one of the most determined and principled individuals the profession had come to know. Dr. Herbert Ross Reaver. Dr. Reaver was widely known as the world's "most jailed chiropractor" as he stood strong for the principle that was his life. I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Reaver and his wife Millie back in 1997 while I was a chiropractic student. It was a memorable experience.

It was in February that the New England Journal of Medicine publicly apologized for reportedly violating their conflict of interest policy 19 times during the past three years. We were to hear many related articles of conflict of interest, medical journals, drug companies, and the FDA, throughout the year.

March
In March, Dr. Will Brooks brought us photographs from his chiropractic mission to Nicaragua along with an article describing his "stuck" experience.

"My patients in Nicaragua were a mixed lot. Young to old, healthy to infirm, mothers suckling their babies that they would hold as I adjusted them, people on crutches that would wander over in curiosity from the bus stop in front of the church, ministers, members of the group that I was traveling with, announcers from the local radio station who were at the church to cover the meetings for their listeners, a welder that momentarily stopped his repair of the axle of a horse-drawn wagon, shoe cobblers at their benches in open air markets, and a seemingly endless procession of people with deep, beautiful brown eyes."

On March 31st, news that the medically based, multimillion dollar funded web site DrKoop.com was in financial trouble. Who would have known that the market would take such a downturn for so many dot coms from that point on and throughout the rest of the year?

And if you were watching basketball or CNN in late March, you would have seen none other than Dr. Sid Williams, President of Life University in Marietta, Georgia, featuring a big, smiling face. The Life University basketball team had just won their second straight NAIA basketball title. CNN reported, "Something decidedly different is going on at Life Chiropractic University."

April
In April, Arnold Schwarzenegger D.C., (honorary) once again was a featured speaker at the International Chiropractors Association Symposium on Natural Fitness. The symposium also featured eight times Mr. Olympian champion, Lee Haney.

It was also in April that Dr. Michelle Whitney was voted the Canadian Chiropractor's Chiropractor of the Year. Dr. Michelle stated that "Chiropractic is based on this vitalistic principle, not some watered down, mainstream model which has been proposed in order for chiropractors to become accepted as a profession."

May
On May 22nd, 2000, twenty-two chiropractors from across the United States tended to thousands of people in the country of Costa Rica. It was another CREW chiropractic mission. The mission was the result of hard work and determination from many, but mostly from Lina Ocon and Drs. Luis Ocon and James Sigafoose.

June
In June, the chiropractic profession received word that Dr. Reggie Gold had suffered a stroke. Thankfully, Reggie recovered back to his philosophical self and was recently in Orange County California to close out the OCCP Philosophy Society's monthly chiropractic event. Listen to Reggie's message for the millennium.

Also in June, Planet Chiropractic brought you photos from the May mission to Costa Rica. And in late June, we received word that Elizabeth Hurley was going to play a D.C. in the movie "Double Whammy", starring Elizabeth, Denis Leary, and Steve Buscemi.

July
July's big news was of Lance Armstrong and his second victory in the Tour De France. While the world heard the story of Lance, his victory, and his battle with testicular cancer, Planet Chiropractic brought you news of Lance Armstrong and his chiropractor, Dr. Jeff Spencer. Armstrong stating that "he could not have won without Jeff's help."

But the biggest news in July was that of the Gerry Factor. In a year when some chiropractic colleges changed their names to suit their mediocrity and decline in student enrollment, Dr. Gerry Clum stood tall, and along with hundreds celebrated the opening of a new multimillion-dollar Life West Chiropractic College campus.

August
Summer was a time of Olympics and an Olympic commitment from Dr. John Johnston, chiropractor to the Clark sisters. Many chiropractors cared for Olympic athletes this past year. It was in August, at the Florida Chiropractic Society annual summer event that I was reminded of our Olympic commitment to our great chiropractic family.

September
With September came chiropractic awareness month, and a month-long celebration of 105 years of glorious principled chiropractic. And on September 18th, we celebrated that 105th birthday worldwide. It was in late September that we brought you news of Barbara Loe Fisher speaking out on vaccination at New Beginnings, a chiropractic philosophy weekend program that just kicks philosophical butt.

October
The beginning of October marked our most controversial article to date. I still chuckle thinking about. We reported on Youthful Tendency Disorder also known as YTD. While YTD was a made up diagnosis, (what di-agnosis isn't?) some took the article very seriously. Guess what? Chicken butt!

Also in October we brought you news of Drs. Douglas Di Siena and Robert Schuller and the publishing of their HarperCollins book titled Possibility Living: Adding Years Your Life and Life to Years with God's Health Plan.

For myself, October was one of the most magical years of my life. I was on my 5th chiropractic mission along with DC's that over the past few years have become some of my closest friends. This time we were back in Panama and we were not alone. Twenty-six chiropractors in Panama City during a period of about 36 hours, along with the help of dozens and possibly hundreds of organizers, adjusted and bonded with some 90,000 Panamanians. Hard to believe, but the solidified knowing of this experience has permeated every fiber of my being. It was the salt in my chiropractic knot. Thanks to Panama Cable and Wireless, a Sony VX 1000, and some laptop computers, Planet Chiropractic News didn't miss a beat. We logged more volume on our web site during that week from chiropractors worldwide, tuning in to follow the event, than ever before. Just one more example of the power of the Internet and the power of chiropractic!

November
It was news of Phenylpropanolamine, also known as PPA, hitting the worldwide news wires that gave our news service its greatest test yet. I remember spending the weekend scouring for information as to what over-the-counter medications contained this PPA ingredient. The volume on our web site after the release of our first public service announcement took us to new levels and attracted an entirely new audience. Hundreds of people searching the internet were asking what we knew of PPA, and more importantly, people were asking us where they could find a chiropractor.

December
In December we published an article by Dr. Jeffrey Needham, which highlighted his thoughts on the "misdirected faith." Dr. Jeffrey wrote a fabulous chiropractic article. We also brought you Reggie and his chiropractic message for the millennium; Reggie said chiropractic is like sex...

In December, we also published several articles authored by Dr. James Sigafoose, along with 30 minutes of audio that was listened to during the holidays at points many thousands of miles away from the computer in which the zeros and ones that were to become the message from Dr. Sigafoose to the world.

I found both Reggie Gold and James Sigafoose to be highly appropriate messengers to wrap up our year in Chiropractic 2000. Be sure to visit our multimedia page so that you can listen to both Reggie and Sig.

And now it's 2001

But where do we go from here? What's to be of chiropractic and Planet Chiropractic this year? Will we grow as chiropractors? Will our profession come together as a team and accomplish greatness? Will you affect positive change on the world this year?

I look forward to the year ahead and welcome you in becoming an active participant on Planet Chiropractic this year.

The best to all of you, to your family, and your community in this abundant and healthful year!

-- Michael

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