Know Your Chicken Sandwich

By Sid Mouk, D.C.

Becoming a Master at Adjusting the Spine Gently & Painlessly

Becoming a HEALER requires devoted study and training in all of the aspects of healing. One of the most important of these aspects involves the actual correction of the spinal subluxation. The top practitioners in Chiropractic have always been masters in the correction of the subluxation.

The founder of the highly successful Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain was recently asked what was the secret of his great success. He thought for a while and answered, “Know Your Chicken Sandwich.” He expanded on this to say, “find what you are good at, learn everything you can about it, and then make it even better.” Chick-Fil-A did it with the chicken sandwich and the rest is history.

Dr. Arlan Fuhr of Activator Methods puts this principle another way. He says, “the way to become known as a genius is to learn more and more about less and less.” Pick a certain field and study and learn as much about it as you possibly can until you are an absolute expert in that one particular field. That is your “Chicken Sandwich.”

Our “Chicken Sandwich” in Chiropractic should be something that is totally unique in healthcare. This leaves out physical therapy (since there are Physical Therapists out there who are better trained than we are in that field and, at least in the public’s mind, know what they are doing). It leaves out massage therapy since there are people out there who are excellent at that and are comparatively well trained. And it certainly leaves out the use of prescription medication since the M.D.’s have been doing this for quite a few years and are “fairly” competent at it. The one unique thing that we do in Chiropractic is the “correction of the spinal subluxation.” How well we know it, how well we do it, and how well we present it to the public largely determines our success in this field as Healers. This doesn’t mean we can’t use other methods to assist us in healing but that we should always concentrate on “the correction of the subluxation” as the key in our healing practice..

Although this is our “Chicken Sandwich”, we as a group do not agree on what a spinal subluxation actually is. There is still a great deal of controversy about whether the subluxation involves a “pinched or irritated nerve” – or if a subluxated vertebra can actually irritate a nerve. Further research is obviously needed in this direction. But unfortunately, some of the research being done in our Chiropractic colleges is not focused on learning more about the “subluxation” and its correction but on subjects that have been done or can be done by others in the medical field (such as the “Effect of Vitamin C on the Integrity of the Disc”, etc.). Let’s research and find out more about the “spinal subluxation.” Sick people are waiting for and desperately need this knowledge – and we’ve been chosen to give it to the world. Let’s research our “Chicken Sandwich”, not someone else’s.

But does it really matter to those of us working in the field exactly how a subluxation damages the nervous system and the body? We know it does and we know how to fix it (there are many excellent techniques being taught in Chiropractic that can correct this destructive lesion) and that’s all that matters to our patients. Major DeJarnette — one of the top researchers this profession has produced — often said “Learn how to correct the subluxation and don’t bother with why — how will get your patients well, why is of interest only to those doing the research.” He was so right. The correction of the subluxation is what dramatically helps patients get well. Anyone in practice for any length of time (and who knows how to correct the subluxation) can attest to the fact that it not only works but works powerfully and consistently. And certainly not just for sprains & strains, but for helping really sick people get well.

Our explanation to patients that “the vertebra moves out of place and pinches the nerve” seems to give our medical critics (and many Chiropractic researchers) much grief since they claim it’s impossible that it happens this way. But our patients don’t really care if this explanation is exactly correct. They only want to get a basic understanding of their problem and how it affects their health — and they want to get well. And don’t our friends in the medical profession do the same thing for their patients? What is a “slipped disc?” Does a disc actually slip? No, but it’s simple for the patient to think of the disc as a “hockey puck” that can slip out of place and cause trouble. The Osteopaths have used the term “sacroiliac slip” for many years — it’s not totally correct but it does paint a picture the patient can visualize. The majority of patients only want an explanation that seems “logical” to them and that they can understand. Other than that, they just want to get well. Certainly let’s research the “subluxation” and find out why it’s so damaging to health and how to correct it even more effectively than we do now — but in the meantime, let’s fix it and get sick people well.

We Chiropractors are at a crossroads in the history of our profession. The insurance companies and their Managed Care are causing some of us to look in other directions besides Chiropractic as a way out. We have something that is enormously powerful as a tool for healing but some of us have failed to recognize this and want to leave and go into areas that are already more than adequately covered by others — and in which we would always be viewed as second-rate (while we can always be first-rate, the very best, at the “correction of the spinal subluxation”).

So it is incumbent upon each of us as Chiropractors to learn as much as we possibly can about this health-destroying lesion called the “spinal subluxation” and to become a master at correcting it. There are brilliant and creative D.C.’s out there who are willing to teach us this essential information if we don’t already know it. Let’s learn how to normalize the nervous system by correcting the subluxation painlessly and then watch miracles happen (and they will happen when we fix the subluxation). Powerfully effective Chiropractic techniques are taught at many seminars all over the world. Let no one in or out of this profession tell us that Chiropractic doesn’t work or that we need to dispense drugs to our patients to help them get well (or even to relieve their pain). If we’re not seeing miraculous results in our practice then it’s us that’s not working, not the Chiropractic principle that’s not working — and we need to learn how to correct the subluxation (which we’re not doing if we’re not getting the results we want). It requires effort, study and prolonged practice on our part to become a master adjuster but the results will be unbelievably rewarding to our patients, to us, and to this entire profession.

Pick a Chiropractic technique and devote yourself to learning it totally and completely. There are incredibly successful adjusting methods being taught in this profession the mastery of which will help to make us a Healer/Chiropractor. Diversified adjusting works but you may find it’s only the “tip of the iceberg” while the great mass of the iceberg is not even known to many of us in our own profession. Let’s each of us search for and uncover the rest of the Chiropractic iceberg — learn it thoroughly and use it to Heal the sick people of this planet.

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