HIPPOCRATES – THE FATHER OF CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH CARE
Traditionally, we think of Hippocrates as the father of Medicine, so why would I try to usurp Hippocrates over to the chiropractic world?
First, let me tell you that chiropractors have been around for thousands of years. We were just called other things. Tor example, in 19th century Great Britain, we were called Bone Setters. Going way back, Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient statues in India and the Chinese traditions all depict people pushing their hands on other people’s backs while they were lying face down. The word chiropractor, by the way, means “practice with the hands.”
New modern medicine does two primary things: they do surgery and they give drugs. Chiropractors primarily do two things: they adjust stuck joints of the spine and all over the body, and many also provide nutritional services.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Hippocrates said some interesting things:
"Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases."
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
“Walking is man’s best medicine.”
“Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can cure the patient with food.”
Hippocrates cautioned against the use of drugs. Of course, in those days, drugs were things like hemlock, which was a poison. In small doses, it could be a stimulant. Don’t experiment with hemlock.
Surgeons certainly would need to ease the pain of surgery as much as possible but where medical doctors got into drugs, I can’t tell you.
Anyway, I claim Hippocrates as the Father of Chiropractic. Certainly, he would have provisions in his writings for surgeons, but his main thrust for health would be along the lines of chiropractic. Who is the real father of medicine? Let’s leave that up in the air for now.
Dr. Mike Spearman