I typed this response last night, but it didn't post because of system maintenance.
eits, you know as well as I do that drug r&d can't happen without  "big pharma" making a profit, you also know that "big pharma" is a  corporation, and corporations are not capable of having feeling and  emotions, they are highly regulated and are data and profit driven.
Have they made mistakes?  Of course.
Will they make more?  You bet your ass.
Will more people die and have seriously life altering effects from drugs?  Yep.
Do they save lives?  Yep.
Do doctors prescribe drugs for off label purposes?  Yep.
WTF do you want "big pharma" to do?  They get their ass kicked and researchers killed when they use primates and higher mammals, and computer modeling only goes so far, so what they have left is human trials and monitoring after a drug is released.  
The FDA is a miserable piece of crap, but it's one of the best at it's job in the world, they demand data from the manufacturers and research, did you know the FDA does no research?  They review the data given them by the drug companies, it's a complicated process, and people dedicate their lives to making drugs as safe as they possibly can be.
You're a bright guy, and you're likely well aware we're on the cusp of an amazing time of genetic engineering with the human body and some godlike stuff that will happen with stem cell research, and similar technology.  You and I will likely see lab grown organs in our lifetime.  Repeat after me, "Tissue specific drugs are going to change the world as well."
Tell me eits, how many "patients" do you have that come in for weekly/monthly adjustments?
How exactly does chiro help children with ear infections?  Aren't you concerned that you risk damaging children's hearing by causing a delay in their seeking treatment by a bona fide ENT doc?  I can dig up the stats that show that's exactly what happens when myringotomies and PE tubes are delayed by even routine medical management without surgical intervention.
How exactly does chiro help people with fibromyalgia?
Honestly, I think some chiros are pretty cool, but they don't sell  supplements, and they don't offer to treat illnesses that are frankly  ridiculous (and IMHO morally and ethically wrong) for a chiro to treat.
I also suspect you couldn't keep your clinic's doors open without the snake oil eits, and that makes me a sad panda...
pliable, i appreciate your reply and i also appreciate you, for the first time that i can recall, asking how i practice rather than lumping me in with a negative preconceived notion towards other practitioners in my field.
you're right... big pharma does do good things, but they also do evil things.  i can't turn a blind eye towards a giant that hides, distorts, and fabricates research in order to make a buck at the health of patients.
i'm not against all kinds of medicines, but i do think that they promote sickness in this country.  my goal as a doctor is to get people well and living healthier.  medicating patients has just gone wild and i don't thing that putting blinders on and ignoring how to get people healthy is the answer.
most of the patients i see come in for musculoskeletal problems (rib pain syndrome, restless leg syndrome, low back pain, headaches, etc.).  as you saw on my website, there's a process i have for new patients (hx and consult, exam, x-ray, rof) and depending on the problem, age of the patient, severity of the structural misalignment, degree of degeneration, i'd recommend that they get adjusted anywhere from 2-5 times a week (most of the time, it's only 3 times a week) for about 4 weeks.  after 12 visits, i do a re-evaluation, where i consult, exam, and shoot x-rays and i go over my findings with the patient and show them whether or not there's been any improvement based on subjective and objective findings.  if there's no benefit whatsoever and no change on the x-rays, i tell them that there's nothing more i can do for them and that if, in all honestly, they'd just be wasting their money if they continued to come in.  then, i'd refer them to a couple of the orthos and neuros with whom i consult.
ultimately, my goal is to treat patients, get them better, and send them back to living life better than they were when they first started seeing me.  i'm opposed to patients coming in every week or every couple weeks for the rest of their lives, because that means that i'm not doing my job.  the last thing i want is someone saying that they've been seeing me for months and not have any idea why whenever a friend of theirs asks.  i want to fix patients so that when they are hanging out with their friends and their friends ask how they got better, they can say that they saw me and i got them healthy.  then, they become a good word-of-mouth referral source.
i like for patients that have reached maximum improvement to come in every 6 weeks or so just to keep things in check and make sure the problem isn't coming back and to make sure that the patient is continuing their home exercises.
as for ear infections, i treat them very effectively, but only when they're ome.  if a patient or parent brings their kid to me, i check their ears, make sure it's ome and not aom, then i adjust c1.  based on c1's alignment, it could cause some soft tissue differences around the eustacian tubes, which can cause a blockage of drainage.  once c1 is back in order, it drains normally and the infection's gone by the next day.  easysauce.  sometimes, i drop some tea tree oil in their ears and flush them after a few minutes... it's a natural antibacterial and it's completely safe with no side effects. my future step-son's pediatrician actually refers some ome patients to me (the boy had chronic ear infections until I treated him. no more ear infections or diarrhea from constant antibiotics... seriously, he'd get them like once or twice a month... it was horrible)
as for the supplements i had on the table at my booth, those were vitamin k2-d3 supplements.  i figured since it's fall and there's not as much sunlight (hence the reason it becomes cold and flu season), i might as well try and help people fight off colds and flus by offering it.
i try and treat the entire body and not just focus on the spine.  health is more than just proper function of the spine and nerves... it's also cellular.  i promote healthy dieting, proper exercise routines for desired results, decreased physical, chemical, and emotional stress, proper supplementation, and increased awareness for key risk factors i find on any patients medical health history.  for example, patients with bph and haven't had a physical in years, patients i suspect have hypothyroidism, patients with arterial plaquing visible on x-ray (and don't have diabetes), etc.
my view of healthcare is that there's a need for medicine, chiropractic, and physical therapy and that relying on one more heavily than others can be a mistake.  as far as spinal alignment is concerned, the analogy i give my patients is that physical therapy exercises are like a course tuner on a microscope and chiropractic adjusting is the fine tuning of a microscope.  if you do only one, you might eventually get to where you want to be, but it'll take a lot longer.
i hope this somewhat clears a bit about how i treat patients.  basically, the way i view it is this... most people are concerned about managing disease, but they never realize that the best way to treat a disease is to not get the disease in the first place.  if you can't take the time or afford prevention, how the hell are you going to afford disease?  that's where i come in.
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