Some states have allowed chiropractic injections for more than 30 years and ‘the efficaciousness of these treatments is exhaustive’
The question of chiropractic physicians administering nutrient-based injections nationwide is receiving more and more discussion within the discipline. Factual history surrounding the topic, as well as what the inclusion of the authority is and has actually been doing for patients in “real time,” is also a consideration.
As Benjamin Rush, MD, co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, said, “Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic.”
That statement was prophetic.
The “Father of Chiropractic,” D.D. Palmer, said, “A chiropractor should be able to care for any condition which may arise in the families under his care, the same as a physician.”
Thus, he opened his second large chiropractic school, which was the D.D. Palmer College of Chiropractic (1908-1910, now Western States University) in which his curriculum included dissection, minor surgery and obstetrics to accomplish that goal.
Further, Palmer stated, “But as soon as the human mind is capable of absorbing a still more refined and advanced method (of dealing with human ailments) and human inspiration demands it, it will be delivered to the denizens of the earth.”
This topic fits well into Dr. Palmer’s concept.
Where chiropractic injections are legal
States such as Oklahoma, New Mexico, Idaho and Utah (along with several other states desiring the same expanded conser-vative rights) have already been administering chiropractic injectable treatments to patients for decades. For those DCs who may have a degree of trepidation pertaining to these rights, understand that these states highly respect the discipline’s principle that the chiropractic adjustment is the foundation of the healing art (and we continue to deliver that treatment to all our patients). However, to have the belief that the chiropractic adjustment is also the ceiling of our beloved discipline may be slightly misdirected.
For example, in Oklahoma, which was the first state in the country to attain the statutory authority for chiropractic injectable nutrients, it is estimated that well in excess of two million intramuscular, intra-articular and trigger-point injections have been administered with natural medicine agents that far outperform allopathic steroids, and without risk of side effects.
Further, at least one million nutritional intravenous treatments have been administered by Oklahoma chiropractic physicians. The efficaciousness of these conservative, chiropractic-based injection (parenteral) treatments is exhaustive. Along with the appropriately delivered chiropractic adjustments, the combination has been proven to help patients get off their allopathically-prescribed meds, where appropriate, up to at least 70-80% of the time.
The results for a variety of conditions from chronic fatigue to chronic viral infections, from enhanced recovery from significant trauma to degenerative arthritis, from vascular conditions to shortening post-surgical recovery and many, many more ailments, are nothing short of amazing. And after almost 40 years of use (at least in Oklahoma) there are no dead bodies from these interventions administered by the appropriately-trained chiropractic physician. Just healthier, pain-free patients who otherwise may not have recovered at all or perhaps in a less timely manner without these chiropractic-injectable protocols.
Another level of care
The judicious clinical utilization of chiropractic injectable nutrients has allowed the chiropractic physicians in those states the legal authority to profoundly help an ever-increasing number of patients who otherwise may have never experienced what chiropractic medicine can offer. In fact, in many instances, chiropractic physicians with these rights have become the conservative primary care providers of choice to many patients.
Some examples of what we are talking about could begin with German neural injection therapy for surgical scars, which are a known “chronic pain generator” following surgery. Injecting simple B12 into the longitudinal axis of the scars associated with surgery in the patient who continues to have chronic pain following his or her surgery can, in some cases, provide instant relief. We see it all the time.
Then there is the elderly patient who has been taking acid-blocking drugs for decades (patients are only supposed to take for a maximum of 14 days) who has not absorbed protein or minerals for years. Their body compensated by stealing protein and minerals from their muscles and bones until they reached the critical point of total collapse (no wonder they can’t hold their adjustments). Administering only targeted, oral nutritional supplementation to an atrophied G.I. tract won’t get the job done. We must bypass the G.I. tract and administer intravenous concentrated nutrients such as 8.4% free amino acids, ascorbate (vitamin C), B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, trace minerals, etc., to provide building block nutrients in a timely manner.
Chronic infection and trigger points
How about the patient with low-grade chronic infection (typically EBV or CMV) who is constantly drained? Intravenous, compounded H2O2 is an oxidative therapy and has been administered for more than 100 years beginning with the 1918 influenza epidemic and was written up in The Lancet in 1920. Understand that viruses cannot produce catalase and thus do not have any protection from oxidative stress. Often, these patients will alternate with I.V. vitamin C, which upregulates the immune response in five different parameters in humans.
Then there is the stubborn trigger point. You used ultrasound, IASTM, etc., and it just won’t let go. Our allopathic colleagues will inject it with a steroid and lidocaine. Chiropractic injection treatment would use B12, magnesium and homeopathic agents. This would make short work of the stubborn trigger point and would be accomplished in a conservative, biologically-compatible manner consistent with conservative chiropractic roots. And, of course, it is understood that chiropractors will always adjust the patient. There are literally hundreds of these protocols.
It will be exciting to see what the next 40 years holds for the wonderful healing art of chiropractic.
Michael Taylor, DC, DABCI, APC, FICC, is a board-certified chiropractic internist and certified advanced practice chiropractic physician. He has been in practice for 40 years and is the president of Marion Medical PC, in Tulsa, Okla. He has taught chiropractic injection courses for over 30 years and lectures on other advanced clinical diagnostic and treatment topics including chiropractic pharmacotherapy. He can be reached at drtaylor@marionmedicalpc.net.
