In this episode of the Surviving Healthcare podcast, you will hear a very active and wide-ranging discussion of chiropractic care, including its origins, its status when it comes to medical care and its future. Our guest for this episode is Dr. Erik Korzen, a chiropractic physician at Dynamic Physical Health.
Our conversation begins with the principles of chiropractic care and what that means, including the philosophy behind it, as well as its evolution. He explains the two schools of thought and why some chiropractors are considered “straights” and others are considered “mixers.” We also discuss the dynamic between science and philosophy with regard to chiropractic care and what chiropractic care entails.

You will hear Dr. Korzen straighten out some of the misconceptions people have about chiropractic care, why some of the worst misconceptions persist and how they can sometimes lead to patients not getting the care they actually need. That leads us into the science of chiropractic care and what that means to a practice like Dr. Korzen’s, and how his “mixer” approach to chiropractic care is more effective than simple “spinal alignment.”

We then discuss what patients should look for in a chiropractor and how state laws and licensing restrictions vary. The variation results in chiropractors who practice in a wide variety of ways, some of which I found surprising, and I’m sure you will, too. We then talk about the training that chiropractic physicians undergo and what is required at various schools, as well as how that’s changed over the years, with more medical training and more requirements for internships and clinic work.

The next area we get into is very interesting, as we discuss the attitudes of patients toward chiropractic care, including people who swear against it and those who won’t go to any other type of physician, as well as everyone in between. This is where we talk about the main tensions between traditional medicine and chiropractic care, which parallel those between science and philosophy.

We end our discussion with some advice for people who might want to look into becoming a chiropractic physician, including a discussion of the best chiropractic schools in the country that he would recommend. We also discussed standards, and how those are changing and whether things are becoming more equal nationwide and how things work with regard to insurance, as well as Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and how reforms are changing the way chiropractors are paid.

Resources:
Dynamic Physical Health
Dr. Erik Korzen
drkorzen@dynamicphysicalhealth.com
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