Chiropractic Industry Timeline of Events 1895 – September 18th, the first chiropractic adjustment is performed by D.D. Palmer, at the time a magnetic healer, on Harvey Lillard.  Lillard, who owned a janitorial service that worked Palmer’s building in Davenport, IA, had been deaf for 17 years at the time.  When asked how he had become deaf, Lillard replied that one day, when he had bent over his back strained, he heard a pop and his hearing then deteriorated rapidly.  Palmer examined Lillard’s spine and found it to have a misplaced vertebrae.  Reasoning this to be the cause of the hearing problem, Palmer thrust the vertebrae back into place and as he had expected, Lillard’s hearing improved. 1897 – Palmer developed a theory, that he later called Chiropractic, surmising that decreased nerve flow may be the cause of disease, and that misplaced vertebrae may cause nerve pressure, so realigning the spine should bring about better health.  With this Palmer opened the first school of chiropractic, and by 1902, 15 people had graduated from the Palmer Infirmary and Chiropractic Institute (today called Palmer College of Chiropractic).  One of the first graduates was D.D. Palmer’s son, B.J. who would become as memorable a figure in chiropractic history as his father. 1904 – At the turn of the century there was rapid change in health care and medical doctors were requiring licensure to practice and this also was to affect chiropractic.  Chiropractors began to be arrested for practicing medicine without a license, however due to a number of landmark decisions; it was found that they were not practicing medicine, but something different and unique, chiropractic. 1941 – John Nugent, DC director of education for the National Chiropractic Association, established the criteria for accrediting Chiropractic Colleges and 12 schools were accredited that year. 1956 – An analysis of Florida workers compensation found that in 19,666 cases, the average number of workdays lost by injured employees was 9 when treated by medical doctors, but only 3 days when the workers were treated by doctors of chiropractic. 1963 – The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners requires Chiropractic graduates to pass a nationally uniform exam before they can begin to practice chiropractic.   1979 – An 18- month study by the Royal New Zealand commission of inquiry on chiropractic determined the most comprehensive conclusions on chiropractic done to this date: · “Doctors of chiropractic have unsurpassed expertise in caring for neuromusculoskeletal conditions.  The commission found beyond any reasonable doubt that chiropractors have a more thorough training in spinal mechanics and spinal manual therapy than any other health professional” · “Chiropractors are the only health practitioners who are necessarily equipped by their education and training to carry out spinal manipulation.” · “Spinal manual therapy in the hands of a registered chiropractor is safe.” 2003 – The journal Spine a study of chronic back pain sufferers compared drugs (Celebrex or Vioxx) vs. Acupuncture vs. Chiropractic care.  The study conclusively showed that chiropractic was significantly more beneficial.  The drug group showed 5% asymptomatic in 9 weeks, acupuncture 9.4% and chiropractic 27.3%. Even more significance was the change in general health status, with the drug group 18% improved, acupuncture 15% and the chiropractic group 47% improved. 2007 – The Journal of Human Hypertension publishes a landmark study showing that NUCCA Chiropractic (practiced at The Balanced Spine) improves blood pressure.  Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can't feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in.  None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study. The author states: "When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true," Bakris says. "The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."