Patrick Gentempo on January 23, 2001

This section is compiled by Frank M. Painter, D.C.
Send all comments or additions to:    Frankp@chiro.org

Good evening. My name is Patrick Gentempo. I'm a chiropractor and chief executive officer of the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance.

My topic for this brief presentation is the importance of understanding chiropractic as a principle and distinct profession rather than a modality.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to allow me to present these concepts, which I find to be a critical and defining value. Let me start by saying I perceive this White House Commission to be of great importance and know that the conclusions you draw will mean the difference between life and death for countless thousands of people. I see this as a serious endeavor and suspect that you adequately embrace the power and importance of your roles. Market forces have demonstrated the need and desire for expanded and different views and philosophies towards health care.

As a part of my introduction I would like to make a distinction between health care and sick care, both of which are important services to our culture. In short, even though it's referred to as health care, I look at the traditional practice of allopathic medicine as sick care. It is the diagnosis and treatment of disease and crisis intervention. Health care, on the other hand, deals with quality of life, performance, and potential. This brings me to a distinction that I have this brief time to make.

Some people, both inside and outside of chiropractic, view it as a part of sick care paradigm. In essence, they see it as a modality spinal manipulation that is used to ameliorate musculo-skeletal symptoms. As such, this mechanistic approach becomes a sub-specialty of allopathic medicine. With this view there is little distinction between chiropractors and other providers that perform spinal manipulation. Although there are some chiropractors who choose to limit their practice to back and neck pain treatment only, there should no way be a limitation that is imposed on the entire profession lest the masses be deprived of a remarkable, non-duplicated service.

An argument for chiropractic being restricted to this view is that there is no scientific evidence to support it otherwise. In my very limited time here today, I cannot reasonably address this issue, but suffice it to say, based on the evidence and any sense of rationality, I strongly disagree. In exploring the subject we would have to define what science is and what one would accept as proof. Chiropractic in its traditional in its most widely-practiced form is vitalistic in nature. It is not in any way, shape, or form a duplication of allopathic medical services, but possesses a unique philosophy, science, and art. Chiropractic views the body as a three-dimensional non-linear chaotic biological system. Therefore, linear mechanistic views do not apply. In essence, chiropractic's culture possesses independent metaphysical views towards biological systems, and congruent with these views in a pistomlogical(?) system that results in a practical application as matchless and powerful.

All this culminates into a phenomenon branded by chiropractic referred to as vertebral subluxation. Two axioms used in chiropractic are (1) the body is self-healing and a self-regulating organism, (2) the nervous system is the master system and controller of that body. Taking the above into consideration, we must conclude that if there is disturbance in nerve function, there must then be disturbance in the ability for the body to heal, regulate, and adapt. By definition, a vertebral subluxation is a spinal segment or group of segments that are mal-aligned, and related to this is a disturbance in neuro function. The clinical goal of chiropractic is detection, correction to vertebral subluxation for the purposes of optimizing health, well-being, and quality of life.

Let me emphasize this distinction. Chiropractic is not the diagnosis and treatment of disease, but rather the detection, correction of vertebral subluxation. This means that a person may receive chiropractic care, regardless of disease, for the purposes of improving overall health and well-being and quality of life. Whether a person has no symptoms or a debilitating disease, they should have the option to choose chiropractic service to express more life. I thank you for your time today and happy to receive any questions.

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