How the Flu Saved Chiropractic

In 1917, Chiropractic was very young and barely surviving.  It was still illegal to practice in most states and there were just a handful of chiropractors in the field.  Then something happened…

In 1917-1918 an influenza epidemic swept across the world.  At this time, nothing was known about prevention, protection, treatment or cure of influenza.  Needless to say, at least 20 million people died around the world, 500,000 in America.  But here’s what happened…

People were surviving under chiropractic care

In fact, many of the people who were given up on by medicine, went to a chiropractor and got well.

Here are the numbers in Iowa…

• Medical doctors lost 1 out of every 15 patients with influenza
• Chiropractors lost 1 out of every 910
• Nationally, chiropractors lost 1 out of 866

Word of mouth spread about how chiropractors were helping the people with influenza get well and they began to thrive.

Something else happened.  Many of the people that were saved by chiropractic became the chiropractors with conviction and fire that took our profession forward.  These were the people who believed so much in the necessity of chiropractic in the world that many went to jail for practicing in states where it was not allowed.

This is an amazing piece of chiropractic history and you can read more at http://www.danmurphydc.com/Rhodes_Flu.pdf. There is a health crisis happening right now in America.  The number one cause of death has now become medicine, yet we spend over $7000 per person per year on this failing system.