Page 3 - BackSpace October 2017

Newsletter of the European Chiropractors’ Union
President’s message
Who do you think you are?
MOST OF you, either as students or as practising DCs, have participated in
debates around the question of chiropractic identity. Who are we; what do we do; and what should we not do? Our scope of practice has always been an issue and the debate seems to attract participants with strong opinions.
More than ten years ago, when I was president of the Norwegian Chiropractors’ Association. I was invited by the University Hospital of Oslo to lecture to a group of low back pain sufferers. There would be three speakers – I was the last one to present – and a question and answer session.
I searched the literature, gathered information about the success rate of different treatment modalities, what these different treatments could do for low back
pain sufferers etc., and I made beautiful PowerPoint slides. I felt well-prepared and met a crowd of around 300 patients. The
first presenter was a well-known professor of medicine (MD
and PhD) who had published
asked: “Have you tried all these treatment options?” Again, everybody nodded. I asked: “Have you tried chiropractic treatment?” Everybody nodded.
I suddenly understood how insulting this must have felt to
Søren Kierkegaard, once wrote: “In order truly to help someone else,
I must understand more than he
– but certainly first and foremost understand what he understands.” As chiropractors, this is something we do every day and we are good at it. Chiropractic is not just spinal manipulation or cracking a joint. We have a broad-based education. Chiropractic is what chiropractors do, and this will change over time with new knowledge and new innovations, but the basic truth,
as explained by Kierkegaard,
will not change. Through our education we have the highest
level of competency within many areas related to musculoskeletal conditions. That is why we can communicate in a meaningful way with all types of patients, including those who have tried everything without results. Chiropractic
can and will do great things in
the hands of a dedicated and hard-working person who seeks to understand where the patient is, how they have arrived at that state and what their hopes are.
Make sure you are one of them.
Øystein Ogre DC, FEAC ECU President
Blog address: ecupresidentblog.com
Email: ecupresident@gmail.com
“In order to help someone else I must understand... first and foremost... what they understand.”
numerous articles on low back pain. He gave a great presentation on how many in a population will get low back pain, and what can be done for these patients through different approaches. He showed statistics on the success rate of different treatments like spinal manipulation, rehab exercises, cognitive therapy, massage,
laser treatment, walking in the forest etc. Everything illustrated in a beautiful, colourful, and sometimes humorous PowerPoint presentation.
The next presenter was a physiotherapist with a PhD who did more or less the same thing; slides with statistics: so many, percentage wise, will get well if they just walk in the forest, or with spinal manipulation, or surgery, or rehab exercises and so on. All very well presented.
On my way up to the podium, I got this unpleasant feeling.
I had prepared a very similar presentation, but was I really addressing these people? If you are a low back pain sufferer, is this what you want to hear?
I paused, and then asked them: “You have now listened to two presentations about different treatments for low back pain. Have you tried some of these treatments?” Total silence, but everybody nodded. Then I
them. Here was a crowd of people suffering from chronic low back pain. They had come here to get some hope, and maybe to hear about something which could make their lives a little bit better. And what did we give them? Stories about people who got well. We literally took away from them the little hope they had left.
I put my well-prepared slides out of reach, and started to talk about how difficult it is to live with chronic low back pain and how
it affects lives. How it not only affects the sufferer, but also their job, their whole family and their relationship with friends. How
it felt for many to be deprived of simple things, like taking a regular walk, and how difficult it is to say no to your grandchild who stands in front of you with outstretched arms wanting to be picked up. I talked about those who get some relief from strong painkillers, but find themselves drug dependent, and others who seek pain relief and comfort in alcohol. And I talked about chronic low back pain and the high co-morbidity with other conditions.
When I was done, most of the questions were to me, and people wanted to talk to me after the presentation.
Why am I telling you this story? The great Danish philosopher,
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