Brief History Chiropractic

D.D Palmer

Throughout the course of my profession I must have told this story thousands of times. Still I never tire of the account as I feel it is a duty of mine to share with patients the origins of not only my medical philosophies, but my chosen profession and lifestyle.

So in a truly Andy Rooney fashion I thought it would be rather beneficial to share with the web a readers digest version of the story.

Chiropractic was founded in the 1890’s by D.D Palmer. Sept 17th 1895 to be precise, oblivious to most Canadians, D.D Palmer its founder and one of its must revered practitioners was a fellow countrymen. Born in Pickering Ont, in 1845 to parents Katherine and Thomas.

At the age of 20 D.D moved to the United States to pursue his interests in alternative health philosophies.

He held many jobs as a young man from grocery clerk to school teacher and even a stint as beekeeper. D.D was an ambitious man who spent all of his free time reading up on anatomy, magnetic healing and other various modalities.

As the story goes that day Sept 17th, while working in Davenport, Iowa the deaf janitor Harvey, of the office building where he worked as a magnetic healer, exhibited a sizeable lump on his back.

Palmer quickly hypothesized that the lump and the hearing deficiency could by related. By a series of palpations on the spine Palmer was able to restore the mans hearing in a eureka like moment.

Palmer began to ponder if other ills could be related to the vertebrae and Chiropractic was born.

It is miracles like these that we get to see everyday and fortunately get to share with our patients.

While my minute is up, I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief story and if you would like to learn more I would be happy to discuss this and any other issue.

Thank you and have a great weekend.