While Plane and Pilot may be popular with the aviation crowd, it probably won't find many friends within the chiropractic profession.
The tone of editor Lyn Freeman's article becomes crystal clear as early as the second sentence: "In California, homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic are now considered a reasonable substitute for real health care. But that's not even the scary part: California health insurance companies have actually started paying these people."
Freeman then tells readers how, after a recent back injury, his company's health plan referred him to a chiropractor and "several other 'medical professionals' [who] made up kind of a one-stop voodoo shop." His description of his first, and presumably only, encounter with the DC is no less critical: "... the chiropractor wheeled out an x-ray machine that I'm pretty sure I saw last week at the swap meet. Within a few minutes, he was showing me 'subluxations,' and explaining that the changes he saw in my spine were causing my back pain (thatta boy!). ..." Freeman is so busy getting readers to laugh that he fails to mention the chiropractor's specific findings, recommended course of care or success in resolving his pain.
Freeman, apparently his own expert on health care, continues his diatribe by explaining "... how all this happened to our health-care system." He compares the advent of alternative health care to a "blue-light special" in which business owners "grabbed the last health-care package from the shelves" and proclaimed "What a deal! Health care without the cost of doctors!"
He also compares the human body to an aging airplane, asserting that "... the line guys [presumably chiropractors and alternative health practitioners] are now doing all the maintenance," then praises the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) because it "... won't allow any of this alternative medical clan to work on pilots or airplanes." Freeman concludes his rant by emploring, "Just keep our medically trained doctors working. The 'alternative' isn't pretty. In fact, it would be homeopathetic."
Sadly, the editor of Plane and Pilot just doesn't seem to get it. Sadder still, he, and no doubt at least a few of his readership, will never experience what millions of others do: the remarkable benefits of chiropractic care.
Werner Publishing Corporation is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. To comment on Mr. Freeman's editorial, contact the publisher at (310) 820-1500. You can also e-mail the editors of Plane and Pilot directly:
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Dynamic Chiropractic editorial staff members research, investigate and write articles for the publication on an ongoing basis. To contact the Editorial Department or submit an article of your own for consideration, email
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