October 2008

New WCA: Restructured, re-energized, rededicated

As the World Chiropractic Alliance approaches the 20th anniversary of its founding, its leaders are taking a long, hard look at the state of the chiropractic profession today and at the progress it's made -- and failed to make -- over the past two decades.

The result has been a massive revamping of the WCA's structure and mission, along with an infusion of new energy and ideas that promise to increase the effectiveness and influence of the organization for the decades to come.

"I had to come to terms with the reality that all of our professional organizations -- including the WCA -- have tried but failed to bring about significant political change around the world," states Terry A. Rondberg, DC, WCA founder and president.

"The WCA, ACA, ICA and FSCO have collectively spent tens of millions of dollars on public relations and political lobbying," he acknowledges, "yet what have we really achieved? We still have to fight to get paid by Medicare and the insurance industry, we still must go through medical gatekeepers to see patients in the VA hospitals, we still have magazines calling us little more than unscientific charlatans who cause strokes. How many more years or decades are we going to keep fighting the same battles? How many more millions of dollars are we going to have to spend in order to be accepted as mainstream, primary health care professionals?"

These were just some of the questions pondered by the WCA leaders, who engaged in lengthy discussions with prominent chiropractic researchers and leaders aimed at reevaluating how the WCA could have a more positive impact on the future of the profession.

One of the first steps the organization took was to totally restructure its Board of Directors and increase the number of board members from five to a maximum of twenty five. Invitations were sent out to a group of researchers, scientists, practicing chiropractors, activists, and experts and the WCA will soon announce the names of those selected to serve on the board. Resignations were accepted from previous board members in order to allow for a sense of complete change and renewal.

Although the WCA will remain dedicated to its subluxation-centered mission of "Protecting and Promoting the Principles of Chiropractic," it will put an added emphasis on defining the subluxation as a neurologically based entity, rather than strictly a musculoskeletal one.

For nearly two decades, the World Chiropractic Alliance has fought to protect chiropractors' right to focus on correcting subluxations in order to enhance the level of wellness in all people. "This was -- and is -- a noble goal," Dr. Rondberg emphasizes. "But we failed to sufficiently highlight the fact that the subluxation is not simply a misalignment of spinal bones. We failed to continually and forcefully stress the neurological component of the subluxation."

As a result, many doctors still think of adjustments only in terms of making articular changes. The collective consciousness has been on bones and joints, not on the nervous system. This has made it impossible for the profession to end its identification as "bone crackers" who are more concerned with straightening the spine than with altering the body's neurological functioning.

The neurological component

That's not to say the World Chiropractic Alliance hasn't repeatedly discussed the neurological component of the subluxation.

As far back as 1994, The Chiropractic Journal published an article stating: "It is important to teach people that 'subluxations' are structural misalignments that cause neurological dysfunctions..."

Another article that same year stated: "Neurological dysfunction is, by definition, an element of the vertebral subluxation described in chiropractic."

Other Chiropractic Journal articles since then have stressed that:

***  "Chiropractic is the only health care discipline concerned with spinal subluxation and the associated neurological dysfunction."

***  "...neuropathology is the most important aspect of subluxation ..."

***  "Traditionally, a subluxation was defined as having the following components: loss of proper juxtaposition of a vertebra, impingement of nerves, and interference to the flow of mental impulses."

***  "Eliminating the neurological element jeopardizes doctors who use instrumentation to assess neurological function, and contradicts the ACC statement concerning organ system function and general health. Additionally, it does not address other neurological findings as components of, or associated with, the subluxation..."

***  "Although medical authorities acknowledge that neurological complications may result from subluxation, classical chiropractic definitions mandate the presence of a neurological component."

***  "Common to all concepts of subluxation are some form of kinesiologic dysfunction and some form of neurological involvement."

***  "Neurologically based chiropractic must take into account a measurement of how the brain is affected by a chiropractic adjustment."

It's clear that the World Chiropractic Alliance and its leaders have long recognized the neurological component of the subluxation. Yet, for a variety of reasons it failed to place the overriding emphasis on that concept.

Partly, it neglected to do so because its attention was often diverted by political infighting. From the moment the WCA was founded, various factions within the profession attacked the organization, its goals, and its leadership. At the same time, there was a strong movement to distance chiropractic from its history and principles and move it into the medical sphere, as a quasi-medical back pain therapy.

"Our first battle was to prevent chiropractic from compromising its identity as a non-medical health care profession," Rondberg explains. "We were totally absorbed with protecting the public's right to receive drug-free, non-medical subluxation-corrective care. Time and again, we were called upon to fight legislative changes that would have introduced drugs into chiropractic while prohibiting DCs from caring for children, asymptomatic patients, and others."

In addition, until recently, there were no affordable, practical tools to allow chiropractors to accurately and scientifically measure the neurological impact of subluxation or the neurological benefits of chiropractic care.

Technological advances by chiropractic scientists like Richard Barwell, DC, have led to the development of reliable clinical and research instrumentation that can demonstrate the chiropractic functional neurology distortion known as the subluxation, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the chiropractic adjustment in enhancing and optimizing the adaptive capacity of the body's self- healing system.

In recognition of the unique abilities of the instrumentation developed by Dr. Barwell and his colleagues, the World Chiropractic Alliance has strongly endorsed NeuroInfiniti and will work closely with that company to promote neurologically based chiropractic.

The fact is, Rondberg makes clear, the time has come to withdraw from futile and costly war zones to focus on changing what can be changed, and helping doctors find new and better ways to bring about a subluxation-free world.

In the coming months, the WCA will provide additional information on the restructuring of the World Chiropractic Alliance, its newly constituted Board of Directors, and the forward-looking changes it is making in its mission and procedures.

Additionally, The Chiropractic Journal will publish a series of articles on the neurological component of the subluxation, from articles by BJ Palmer to the most current scientific research.

Some doctors will immediately embrace the new direction of the organization while others will take a 'wait and see' attitude. Unfortunately -- yet, predictably -- a few will just as swiftly attack the WCA without even knowing the full extent of its efforts and objectives.

That doesn't concern Rondberg and the WCA's other leaders. "We'll be in good company," he states, referring to the way the profession reacted when BJ Palmer introduced the neurocalometer (NCM).

At the 1924 Lyceum, Palmer noted: "Thousands of friends whom we had succored, gave a professional life of ease to, made fame and fortune for, disregarded our 25 years of true and faithful service in a moment, and deserted us." But, he continued, "Gradually the tide began to turn. Today it is turned."

The World Chiropractic Alliance has earned the respect and loyalty of countless doctors in the United States and around the world. So, while it expects to lose some of its friends, it will gain many more as it continues to use every resource at its disposal to "Protect and Promote the Principles of Chiropractic."