While I’ll be the first to agree that the advent of Web 2.0 and its ensuing social media revolution is chock full of pitfalls and traps, it does have some definite advantages. One in particular is its ability to create strong communities of people united by a common interest that could never have come together otherwise, let alone meet.

Such is the case with social networking platforms, such as Facebook, and the principally-grounded chiropractor.

We chiropractors tend to be isolated islands, busy taking care of the people that seek us out as we proclaim an outlook on health that counters the vast sea that surrounds us. It’s easy to get beaten down at times. And this is precisely how avenues such as Facebook can become a virtual life raft for practitioners like myself.

This outlet has enabled me to connect with hundreds of like-minded chiropractors around the globe — allowing iron to sharpen iron, so to speak, even if it is through cyberspace.

The other day I read a posting from California chiropractor Steve Tullius. Dr. Tullius has been on my internet radio program (SpinalColumnRadio.com) a number of times and has invested more than his fair share of blood, sweat and tears into preserving the purity of our profession.

Last year, Dr. Tullius had the opportunity to take a much-needed sabbatical of world travel with his wife and young son. He shared how, during this time, he was granted a great reminder and lesson in the fundamentals of chiropractic.

He wrote: “After carrying my son on my shoulders and a huge pack on my back for several months, I developed symptoms in my neck and hand similar to after a major car accident from years ago. I received one specific adjustment. No massage, no laser, no extras to address the severe muscle spasm.

“Immediately I had a huge release of pain and tension. Not all, but most.

“The next two days was a beautiful reminder of how restoration of normal cycles, through the specific chiropractic adjustment, allowed a state of ease to return to my body. All spasm dissipated in tune with [Chiropractic] Principle No. 6 [which states that healing takes time] as the mental impulse was free to reach the tissues intended without interference.

“There is nothing more powerful than the restoration of normal cycles.  We must always question whether or not we are truly trusting in this thing we call Innate Intelligence [i.e. the inborn wisdom within our bodies that enables us to function each and everyday] and if our actions in our offices reflect that.”

I absolutely love his insight. Chiropractic is not about neck and back pain. It is about the restoration of normal cycles. It’s about removing the damage of stressful interference on the nervous system — like a 5-year-old on your shoulders for months on end — to allow the body’s inborn intelligence the ability to successfully restore from a state of crisis to one of normal cycles.

The question that Dr. Tullius leaves us with is, “Do you trust it?” Are you willing, when the going gets tough, to trust your body’s ability to restore to normal cycles when interference is removed? Or, to quote our profession’s developer BJ Palmer, “Have you more faith in a knife or a spoonful of medicine, than in the power than animates the living world?”

— Dr. Thomas R. Lamar is a chiropractor at Anchor Chiropractic in the Health Services Center and hosts the Internet radio program SpinalColumnRadio.com.  Lamar can be reached at (360) 297-8111.