From: Terry A. Rondberg, D.C.,
President, World Chiropractic Alliance

To: All WCA members and subluxation-based doctors

The National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine 
(NCCAM)
has just released its first "Strategic Plan" and the verbiage sounds 
as
if it was written by medical doctors or the most medically oriented
chiropractors in the profession.

That very well may have been the case since the only chiropractors
listed as members of the NCCAM Council are Drs. Dana Lawrence and 
Bill
Meeker.

Chiropractic is referred to as "chiropractic therapy" and the word
"subluxation" doesn't even appear in the Plan's listing of areas which
the NCCAM is investigating.

According to Stephen E. Straus, M.D., NCCAM director, the NCCAM is
"providing the opportunity to comment on this draft before it is
finalized... thus completing the first step in an ongoing planning
process."

The deadline for comments is June 21.

Below is a sample letter explaining to Dr. Straus and the NCCAM why 
it
is so important for subluxation-based chiropractic to be equally
represented on the Council.

Please go right now to http://nccam.nih.gov/nccam/strategic/ Use 
the
link on the bottom of Dr. Straus' message to leave your comments. If 
you
like, you may use your "copy" and "paste" commands to excerpt 
portions
of the sample letter into your own message to Dr. Straus.

But PLEASE, don't delay. If we are to have any input into the 
membership
or Strategic Plan of the NCCAM, we must FLOOD Dr. Straus with 
comments.
He must be made to realize that thousands of doctors around the 
country
-- and hundreds of thousands of their patients -- do not feel
represented by Drs. Meeker and Lawrence.

__________________________________

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear Dr. Straus:

There are two major schools of thought in the chiropractic 
profession.
The first considers chiropractic to be a limited medical specialty 
for
the treatment of certain musculoskeletal disorders.

Proponents of this position embrace a broad array of therapeutic
interventions including manipulation and physical therapy 
modalities.
This necessarily encroaches on the practice of medicine and physical
therapy.

The second school of thought is committed to positioning 
chiropractic as
a separate and distinct discipline in the healing arts, which does not
duplicate existing medical services. It is directed toward the
correction of vertebral subluxations, which interfere with the 
function
of the nervous system. Emphasis is placed upon wellness and
quality-of-life issues, rather than the treatment of specific medical
conditions.

The current focus of chiropractic involvement in the NCCAM appears 
to
emphasize manipulation as a treatment modality rather than 
chiropractic
as a unique school of thought. Subluxation correction is not 
synonymous
with manipulative therapy.

The following specific suggestions are made:

1. Broaden the composition of the Advisory Council to include
chiropractors who embrace the subluxation-centered wellness 
model.

2. Develop projects that examine the effects of vertebral 
subluxation
correction on wellness and quality-of-life issues.

3. Utilize objective outcome assessments to determine the presence 
and
correction of vertebral subluxations in all chiropractic research
programs which involve clinical interventions.

4. Involve a broader array of chiropractic institutions than those
currently listed, to include those which espouse the
subluxation-centered wellness model.