Raising the Value of Our Profession: Moving From Pain to Brain
By Clint Steele, DC, CSCS
Why did you become a chiropractor? Really, why?
I became a chiropractor because I knew that medication was not the answer. No one told me; I just innately knew since I was a kid. For me, becoming a chiropractor was about helping people at the cause. My professors at Logan University would say that DC stands for “doctor of cause,” and I knew I wanted to address the cause of people’s health issues.
While at Logan, we were taught that the cause of disease was the vertebral subluxation. However, as I continued to ponder this idea of the vertebral subluxation being the cause of disease, it did not make sense to me. I slowly deduced that something had to cause the vertebral subluxation, so it could not be the cause. Something had to move the bones; something had to tell the muscles how to move the bones. Ultimately, I concluded that it had to do with the brain, but how?
As I continued through the Palmer “Green Books,” reading more chiropractic history, one thing kept sticking out to me — thoughts, trauma, toxins. The three Ts.
Stress! Was that it? As I continued to dive deep, I came across a book published in the 1950s by an endocrinologist named Hans Selye titled The Stress of Life. As I investigated the work of Dr. Selye, I was blown away by the research he was doing on what he eventually referred to as the “stress response.” Not only did he talk about physical stress, but he also had numerous studies on how chemicals created a stress response, and later on, that emotional stress (thoughts) also created a stress response. The three T.
That was it; that was chiropractic! The cause of disease, the cause of the vertebral subluxation, was stress and the brain’s inability to recover from stress. This was chiropractic and what D. D. Palmer had spoken about more than 100 years ago.
Today, simply google just about every disease you can think of along with the word “stress.” You will find research that connects the two. The NIH has stated that over 90% of all diseases are due to stress. Dr. Bruce Lipton and many other experts have stated that 100% of disease is due to stress if you include generational stress.
However, I am sure you know stress is not the killer. Stress is not bad; it is needed for us to survive. The problem comes when the brain and nervous system cannot recover from the amount of stress being placed upon it.
I then wondered if the cause of the vertebral subluxation is stress affecting brain and nervous system function, then can correcting the vertebral subluxation improve brain and nervous system function? It would lead to better coordination of physiologic functions. Was my adjustment much more powerful than I had given it credit for? Did my chiropractic adjustment influence brain function?
As I asked these questions, the universe answered. Somehow, I came across Dr. Dan Sullivan talking about the brain and some of the research around it. Dr. Richard Barwell was talking about the brain and inventing amazing technology (the NeuroInfiniti). Dr. Heidi Haavik, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, was talking about the brain and proving her theories with her research. This was the proof that changed everything and when all the pieces began to come together for me. I got it!
As I “got it,” I began to change what was coming out of my mouth. The “hard bone on soft nerve” model didn’t fly with me anymore. The posters on my walls talking about degeneration of the spine and osteophyte formation did not match what I now knew. My website, my ads, my assessment, my ROF — none of it matched up. It was incongruent.
As I aligned my truth with practice procedures and systems, my practice began to explode. I went from seeing 140 a week in my old “pain-based” practice to now seeing over 500 a week. Instead of being dependent on insurance, I was now cash-only, and people were and are paying for it. My PVA jumped from 12 to over 250. My case averages went from $1,200 to over $10,000.
Most importantly, people began coming to see me for things other than neck and low back pain. I was getting amazing results with things like anxiety, depression, diabetes, early onset dementia, IBS, Crohn’s disease, bladder issues, and more. I’m not claiming that I can cure these things, but when I got the brain and nervous system to function so much better, amazing things happened — not only health changes but also life changes.
The bottom line is that I raised my value. I went from being a pain doctor/back doctor/musculoskeletal doctor to being a brain and nervous system doctor. My identity changed, and, in my own mind. so did my processes and systems. My habits changed.
I stopped telling people I was a chiropractor because when I did, they assumed I was a back/pain doctor. I replaced it with, “I am a brain-based chiropractor,” which differentiated me from what they thought chiropractic was and what they thought chiropractors did.
I replaced anything that had a picture of the spine with a picture of the brain.
I replaced doing spinal screenings with brain screenings.
Instead of just doing ROM, ortho tests, X-ray, posture, and thermal of the spine in my assessments, I added measuring the brain and nervous system using the NeuroInfiniti. I could show patients how their brain problem was the cause of their spine/posture/ROM and pain problems.
I began giving care plans directed at what was best for each patient’s brain and nervous system function instead of just symptom relief/spine correction-based care.
I stopped relying on insurance and what insurance companies dictated for care to the patient. I increased the value of patients’ care so much that they agreed to pay out of pocket.
The list goes on and on, but it boiled down to me raising my value. I was taking care of the cause just as I intended when I became a chiropractor. I also came to the conclusion that, as a back pain doctor, people only valued me until their pain was gone. As a brain doctor, people continued to value me long after their symptoms were gone. People make time and pay for what they value.
When you make what you do about the brain instead of the spine/pain or musculoskeletal issues, you make it more valuable, leading to more people wanting what you have, more people accepting what you do, more people following through, more people referring others, and more people willing to pay for what you do, even if that is out of their own pocket.
This is what I did in my own practice and what I do now with doctors all over the world. I help them raise their value so they have a better business and, more importantly, save more lives.
Raise your value! As more of us raise the value of chiropractic, we raise the value of the profession. So when we go out and ask 100 people what chiropractors do, instead of saying they take care of bad backs, many will say they take care of the brain. Let’s save more lives!
In six months, Dr. Clint Steele went from selling Kirby vacuums to seeing over 500 PVW, starting with less than $1,000, by measuring, caring for, and tracking the adaptability of the brain and nervous system. He now trains practitioners worldwide to move from pain to brain. Learn more atwww.brainbasedhs.com.
