A Brief History of an Ancient Practice

The Chiropractic Way: How Chiropractic Care Can Stop Your Pain and Help You Regain Your Health Without Drugs or Surgery
by Michael Lenarz, D.C., Victoria St. George

(Page 2 of 2)

Manipulation and/or adjustment of the spine have existed since the beginning of human civilization. An ancient Chinese text indicates that manipulation techniques were being used in that country as early as 2700 b.c.e. In Egypt, a fragment of papyrus dating from 1600 b.c.e. describes a treatment for a dislocated jaw: "Put your two thumbs upon the end of the two rami of the mandible [jawbone] inside his mouth and your fingers under his chin, and you should cause them to fall back so that they rest in their places." Societies all over the ancient world-Babylon, Syria, India, Tibet, Japan; Native American tribes such as the Sioux, Winnebago, and Creek; South American groups of Mayan, Aztec, Toltec, Tarascan, and Zoltec Indians, and the Incas-practiced manipulation as a means of relieving pain and restoring the body to normal function.

Conventional Western medicine, however, traces its roots back to ancient Greece. Over twenty-four hundred years ago, around 400 b.c.e., in the school of the great physician Hippocrates (the legendary father of what we call today "conventional" medicine), students were taught that disease was not a result of supernatural forces or the displeasure of the gods, as had once been believed. Instead, the Hippocratic philosophy was based on the premise that a human body was subject to the same forces and laws as nature itself. Therefore, it was possible for humankind to have a role in the curing of disease and the maintenance of health.

At the school of Hippocrates, the beliefs of conventional medicine and the principles that today underlie chiropractic were one and the same. As described in the Hippocratic text On the Nature of Man, a healthy body is one that is "in balance," and illness is the result of an imbalance in one of the body's systems. The job of the Hippocratic physician was to help the body preserve its balance through healthy living, or to restore the balance once it was disturbed through accident or illness. But how? Mostly by relying on the healing power of nature. Instead of focusing on the disease itself, physicians were directed to get the patient healthy primarily through exercise, diet, manipulation, and rest, and then the disease would be eliminated. Another text, On Ancient Medicine, states, "Our natures are the physicians of our diseases." Physicians were directed, first, to "do no harm" (a phrase still found in the Hippocratic oath every doctor takes), and second, to ease symptoms to allow the body to heal itself. Because the human body was greatly revered, cutting into it was considered close to sacrilegious. Therefore, physicians had to rely upon observation and natural means to effect a cure.

One of these natural means was manipulation. In the sixty or so works and fragments that constitute our entire knowledge of what was taught at the Hippocratic school, several of them-including On Fractures, On Setting Joints by Leverage, and On the Articulations-describe contemporary knowledge of the musculoskeletal system and its treatment. "Get knowledge of the spine," says one text, "for this is the requisite for many diseases." These texts explain the difference between complete dislocations (luxations) and partial dislocations (subluxations) of bone. There is also a description of manipulation of a hump on a patient's spine: The patient was to lie facedown on a surface covered with soft material, and the physician then would apply force to the hump using his hand, his foot, or even a board. This would push the bone back into its natural position.

Physicians in ancient Greece, and later in the Roman Empire, drew upon the knowledge and texts of the Hippocratic school to treat disease and preserve health. (Remember, both these societies idolized the athlete as the height of the expression of humankind, so the maintenance of health with diet, exercise, and clean living was promoted-or at least given a lot of lip service.) But with the fall of the Roman Empire and the resulting loss of much of the knowledge of ancient times, medicine retreated to its roots in superstition and ignorance. Western medicine was kept alive by Islamic physicians and dedicated monks in far-flung monasteries, who preserved texts and doggedly continued to observe and treat illness as best they could. But for hundreds of years-even as late as the eighteenth century-the primary treatments prescribed by physicians for illness included purging (with laxatives or emetics), bloodletting (draining the body of excess or "bad" blood), and cupping, where glasses were heated and placed on the body to scald the affected areas and pull the diseased "humors" out of the body.

People who didn't live close to monasteries (or couldn't afford doctors) still got sick, however, and often they turned to folk medicine practitioners for help. Many of these practitioners prescribed a wide variety of efficacious herbal-based remedies to treat illnesses. Another category of "lay doctor" was the bonesetter. Bonesetters didn't just fix broken legs or arms, however; they also were experts in manipulating the spine and other joints. Like most professions, bonesetting was passed from father to son (or daughter-women could be bonesetters, too; one of the most famous bonesetters in eighteenth-century England was Sally Mapp, who did well enough at the profession to be consulted by the gentry for her skills). Even as late as the twentieth century, bonesetters were still practicing their art in small rural villages in Europe.

By the nineteenth century, however, Western medicine had begun more closely to resemble the profession we know today. Physicians would use their own experience and prior training in medicine to diagnose illness based on their observation of the patient's symptoms. They then would prescribe a combination of drugs, surgery, and (occasionally) lifestyle changes that would alleviate the patient's symptoms and perhaps even cure the underlying condition. But medicine, while becoming more refined as a practice, was still a fairly risky endeavor for the patient. The number of drugs available was small (opiates, such as laudanum, and purgatives being the main categories), and their effects often harsh and imprecise. Surgery was an even more dangerous option, with few remedies for the infection that often set in afterward. For the general population, a visit to the doctor was the last resort rather than the first response to an illness, usually undertaken only after trying every possible folk remedy or patent medicine available. This is not to say that advances in medicine didn't benefit the population as a whole; medical understanding of the nature, causes, and treatment of infectious diseases was an enormous boon to humankind. However, there were still many physical problems nineteenth-century medicine was unable to treat effectively.

Copyright © 2003 by Michael Lenarz, D.C. with Victoria St. George.

About the Author

Michael Lenarz received his doctor of chiropractic degree from Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he received the B. J. Palmer Philosophical Distinction Award. He is an extension faculty member for Sherman College and for Logan Chiropractic College in Kansas City, Missouri, and a committee member for the Blair Chiropractic Society. Dr. Lenarz has been in practice for fifteen years and operates three chiropractic offices in Seattle and western Washington. Dr. Lenarz is also a practice management consultant for chiropractors and speaks at chiropractic events nationwide.

Victoria St. George is a writer and editor living in Santa Monica, California. She is also a partner in Just Write, a literary services firm with offices in California and Virginia.