Robert D. Jackson, DC For the Love of Chiropractic
INTERVIEW
The American Chiropractor
Dr. Rob Jackson graduated from Life Chiropractic College in October 1982 and became licensed to practice chiropractic in Colorado and Missouri in 1982. He has since been in private practice at the Applewood Chiropractic Health Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, where he first started as an associate. He bought the practice in 1985 when his field doctor, Larry Bridge, DC, left to become a chiropractic missionary. He cofounded Back Talk Systems, Inc. in 1989 and has been serving the profession with patient education and marketing materials (offered in seven different languages), helping to promote chiropractic and increase utilization worldwide.
In an interview with The American Chiropractor (TAC), Dr. Jackson (RJ) provides some insight on how we can better instruct the profession in order to increase Chiropractic exposure around the globe.
TAC: What are your goals for the chiropractic profession?
RJ: I would like to see the profession continue to grow and expand as we become a more understood and better utilized primary access point for health care worldwide. The profession is now nationally, as well as internationally, four times larger than it was when I graduated. And yet, for some reason, we have not really increased consumer utilization at the same pace as our growth within the profession. My number one goal for our profession is to see appropriate growth and utilization of our goods and services.
TAC: What is the most common problem you see among chiropractors today?
RJ: I think the most common problem I encounter when I am out speaking or meeting with other chiropractors is “the bottom line”—how to successfully run their business so that it can pay the bills, or how to generate a profit while helping
^The business side of my practice was an easy transition for me, and yet, that seems to elude so many young doctors today, and the debt loads that many graduate with can be stifling. 5 J
more people with the knowledge, goods, and services that they have to offer. I was lucky enough to acquire an undergraduate degree in business finance. The business side of my practice was an easy transition for me, and yet, that seems to elude so many young doctors today, and the debt loads that many graduate with can be stifling.
TAC: What is the biggest problem you see in the chiropractic profession today?
RJ: I think the biggest problem we face in the chiropractic profession today is identity. We no longer know who we are or what we really do as healthcare professionals. For too long, we have allowed other healthcare
professionals, including insurance companies, to define who we are and at what capacity we operate. This inability to define ourselves and the apathy we express as we allow others to define us has undermined our identity as chiropractors.
TAC: Tell us about the newest challenge you see in your clinic regarding lumbar degeneration?
RJ: As a baby boomer myself, I see that there are 70,000,000 others just like me who have spent more than 40 years beatmg up their bodies. Whether through sports, recreational activities, or a repetitive work activity, it has created and is continuing to create an unlimited supply of degenerative lumbar, cervical, and disc issues that need chiropractic services more now than ever! Today, however, more of my existing and or prospective new
‘ * Sometimes there is absolutely nothing else that compares to experience and perspective. J J
patients come to my office having already read numerous articles online about neck pain, lower back pain, and disc-related challenges. This information makes them think that they already know what their problems are and what they feel I need to do to correct them. This constant second-guessing on my working diagnosis and recommended treatment plans makes every existing or new patient encounter an interesting dance. We both have to figure out who gets to lead and who has to follow. The internet can be both a fiiend and a foe, depending on which side of the equation you might be on.
TAC: Do you recommend any supplements to your patients?
RJ: Yes, we do offer supplements to our patients who re-
quest information about what options may be available for their unique circumstances or situation. I actually co-owned a nutrition company for five years and worked closely with the medical advisory board to create the products that we offered. We enjoyed a high level of success during that process. Since I was raised on a farm, I have a deeper understanding of where our foods come from. I understand the benefits or deficiencies that can occur when certain practices are used or not used for the best nutritional values possible at harvest time. It just makes perfect sense to me to try and replace any of those lost benefits with supplements, when they are no longer found, or have been genetically modified and no longer serve their best nutritional purpose.
TAC: Where do you see the future of chiropractic headed?
RJ: I think there has never been a better time to be a chiropractor! That is why I am still recommending to my patients, and to anyone who asks, that they consider joining our profession. With over seven billion people on our planet now, I recognize that they all have spines and may need some of our attention to attain or maintain optimum health. With only about 100,000 licensed chiropractors available worldwide, there is no way that we could possibly take good, quality care of all who need our goods and services. I am more excited about being a chiropractor every day when I wake up because I know that there is an unlimited market for me to tap into. All I need to do is find the best and most profitable ways to do this, and my earning potential is unlimited. I don’t know of many other professions where that kind of opportunity exists.
TAC: What is the most interesting patient experience you’ve had, or most interesting patient you have treated?
RJ: I had a new patient come in one Wednesday that looked pretty much like death wanned over. He looked like he was on his last leg and ready to give up. As I went through his history, he shared that he had leukemia and had been treating with every medical approach known to man, but was still failing. When they told him he had only three days left to live, he finally decided to give chiropractic a try. I was a little shaken by his testimony and his situation while his wife was sitting there with him, crying the whole time, as he was relating his medical history to me.
I felt a little out of my league, so I excused myself and went to call my mentor, Dr. J. Clay Thompson, to ask him what I should do.
When I got Dr. Clay on the phone, I asked hhn what bone I should adjust for leukemia. He responded by asking who I was again and I reminded him that it was me, his closest protege, Rob Jackson. He responded by saying, “No you aren’t! Rob Jackson would never call me and ask a dumb-ass question like that! He would know to use the technique analysis I taught hhn and find where die primary subluxations are and then adjust them! You can tell him I said that if you talk to him!” And dien he hung up on me. I was totally in shock for the next 60 seconds until I realized I had been totally schooled and “reeducated” by Dr. Thompson!
That is exactly why we all need a mentor at times. I had forgotten all diat I knew to be true and got spellbound by the diagnosis that
Based on that realization, he came back to me and said he was there to stay, figuring that somehow I had impacted his body’s ability to deal with leukemia. J J
this prospective patient came in with. Instead, Dr. Thompson got me back on track. I went in and completed a detailed examination, took the appropriate X-rays based on my exam findings, and then I adjusted him and told him I wanted to see him again in two days on Friday.
Friday came and he didn’t keep his appointment. I thought about calling him and then figured that he may have just quietly passed away, so I put him out of my mind and went back to work. One week later on the following Friday, this patient showed back up in my office again and poked me in the chest saying, “You are doing something to me! ” I got a little scared and thought I might be
getting sued for something, but then he explained what he meant. After my first adjustment, he went back to see his oncologist on Friday and did blood work again, and his white blood cell count came down 200,000 from his last visit. His doctor told him that it looked like his medications were finally starting to work, so he didn’t keep his appointment with me and went home to rejoice with his wife. Then, over the next week, his levels went right back up again and the only change in his routine was the one adjustment that I had given him the week before. Based on that realization, he came back to me and said he was there to stay, figuring that somehow I had impacted his body’s ability to deal with leukemia.
I adjusted hhn thr ee times weekly for the next two months and his white blood cell count came down from over 600,000, with pus oozing out of sores on his legs, to between 14,000 to 18,000 where it has stayed stable for the past 10 years.
He told me that he was going to go down to the oncologist’s office and tell all the leukemia patients that I could cure leukemia. I told him “Stop! I never treated your leukemia. I only treated your subluxation complex, and through a better functioning nervous system, your own body eliminated the symptoms of leukemia. I was just the mechanic. Your body was the true healer and is now doing what God intended for it to do. Make sure that this is how you explain what I did for you and not the other way around.”
To this day, his oncologist still thinks that chiropractic had nothing to do with his “spontaneous remission,” and that is fine with me. This patient moved out to a farm where he and his wife live happily, and he gets adjusted about once monthly when he feels he needs it.
For me, this was a reminder that we are really nerve doctors and not just bone doctors, and that the nervous system controls the function of every cell, tissue, organ, and system of our entire body. That means that we are not restricted to only caring for lower back problems or neck pain, but instead, we can help the whole body and might be able to assist those with any number of issues that have an origin related to a damaged nervous system or spinal biomechanical dysfunction.
TAC: Any final words for our readers?
RJ: Being a doctor of chiropractic has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. It has opened the doors for many other opportunities, both business and personal, that I never would have experienced, had it not been for my practice. Find and keep a great mentor or coach who can help you when you get stuck, or just flat out don’t know what else to do, and then listen to them carefully when they share their ideas and solutions with you. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing else that compares to experience and perspective. Honestly, the internet can’t always give that to you. Start every day with a positive affirmation, and prepare to be the most successful version of you that you can imagine!
TAC: Our sincere thanks to Dr. Rob Jackson and his team. You may contact him via email at: [email protected]
