DD Palmer, our profession’s founder, explained his reasoning process after comparing the Lillard case to a heart case.i
Shortly after this relief from deafness, I had a case of heart trouble which was not improving. I examined the spine and found a displaced vertebra pressing against the nerves which innervate the heart. I adjusted the vertebra and gave immediate relief—nothing “accidental” or “crude” about this. Then I began to reason if two diseases, so dissimilar as deafness heart trouble, came from impingement, a pressure on nerves, were not other disease due to a similar cause, Thus the science (knowledge) and art (adjusting) of Chiropractic were formed at that time. I then began a systematic investigation for the cause of all diseases and have been amply rewarded.”
The six decades following DD Palmer’s original reasoning process were a time for thousands of real-life observations of what disorders adjustments would, and would not, assist.
By the 1960s and during my education there was no suggestion that subluxations were the cause of ‘all diseases’. Chiropractors recognised that the influence of subluxations is as diverse as the influence of the spine-related nervous system.
Patients commonly consult a chiropractor about subluxation-related symptoms. Subsequent vertebral adjustments may relieve a range of other subluxation-related symptoms or syndromes that patients never thought chiropractic could help.
Each year Palmer Chiropractic College hosted a lyceum in a massive tent. The profession was defining what subluxations-related symptoms and syndromes responded well to chiropractic care. Practising chiropractors presented a wide array of patient cases that had either responded well or did not respond, to adjustments.
One notable guest speaker was the daughter of the original chiropractic patient Harvey Lillard. Other speakers included chiropractors who had defied the medical monopoly laws and served time. All of these chiropractors and guests welcomed Palmer’s students talking to them at length.
When the chance presented itself, my wife and I made various trips to interview practising chiropractors about their experiences of correcting that cause. They confirmed DD Palmer’s original premise, that subluxations cause a great array of subluxation-related symptoms and syndromes.
The decades of a philosophy-subluxation-based chiropractor’s career prove that “adjusting the cause” relieves a wide array of subluxation-related disorders.
See Neurodynamics of vertebrogenic somatosensory activation and Autonomic Reflexes, https://www.attadalechiropractic.com/resources/
i Palmer DD. Portland Printing House; Portland, OR: 1910. The Science, Art, and Philosophy of Chiropractic.
