A
pair of media stories recently have shown chiropractic in a favorable
light. The first story appeared on October 28, 2002 on a California
television news show. The station, "Action News 8" is out of Salinas,
Monterey and Santa Cruz. The story's title is "Chiropractors Offer Relief
For Moms-To-Be". This news feature tells the story of a pregnant woman who
was experiencing lower back pain. The woman told her story by saying,
"Laying down was very difficult, changing positions was extremely, extremely
painful. I was at the point where I really wasn't functioning very well."
According to the news story a chiropractor found that the woman's pelvis was
out of balance. She explains her story by saying, "I was here three days in
a row (with) a weekend off and (there was a) drastic difference." The story
goes on to explain that there are additional benefits to chiropractic care
for pregnant women. The chiropractor of the woman featured in this news
story ended by saying, "The actual time of labor, the length of it, is
shortened. The delivery was very easy. The baby just literally, kind of,
came out slowly and smoothly. Complications are very rare."
The second news story
appeared in the
October
28, 2002 issue of the Buffalo Business First Newspaper. In this story, the
Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) has established a Department of
Chiropractic, a level of service unique to hospitals across the state of New
York. ECMC medical director Dr. Roger Kaiser gives the reason for this by
explaining, "We recognized sometime ago the importance of offering a broad
spectrum of service to our patients," said Kaiser. "Patients will frequently
access chiropractors and we couldn't ignore that market force. If that's
what the patients want, that's what we'll give them. To deny them that
access just because of a turf battle didn't make sense." Dr. Stephen Zajac
newly named head of the ECMC's Department of Chiropractic, explains the
shift in thinking by removal of a professional wall that has existed between
Chiropractic and Medicine. "Chiropractic is not included as an alternative
(treatment) any more. We can't deny that the wall existed for a very long
time. That wall isn't that solid here as it is elsewhere in the state and
country," Zajac said.