Founded on Tone

Article with citations by Terry A. Rondberg, DC

The words Founded on Tone are inscribed on the opening page of D.D. Palmer’s 1910 text [1]. “Life is the expression of tone. In that sentence is the basic principle of chiropractic,” he writes. “Tone is the normal degree of nerve tension…consequently; the cause of disease is any variation of tone – nerves too tense or too slack.” He continues, “Impingements, poisons, and intense thinking, auto-suggestion, unrelieved change of thought, insufficient rest and sleep, increase or decrease the momentum of impulses.”

Furthermore, Dr. Palmer states [1]: “…We no longer believe that disease is an entity, something foreign to the body, which may enter from without, and with which we have to grasp, struggle, fight and conquer, or submit and succumb to its ravages. Disease is a disturbed condition, not a thing of enmity. Disease is an abnormal performance of certain functions; the abnormal activity has its causes.”

B.J. Palmer focused his attention on the interference component of the subluxation, and that it was the chiropractor’s duty to remove interference, not straighten spines. B.J. Palmer also states that the misalignment is but an osseous symptom of a subluxation, and any attempt at re-alignment would be a treatment upon effect, and not an adjustment of cause. [2]

In 1931 B.J. Palmer wrote [2]: “…it is generally believed that you could locate a subluxation by palpation; with an x-ray; by the location of tender nerves, taut fibers, or contractured muscles. None of these can locate a subluxation. Any or all of these will locate misalignments. The majority of chiropractors work with the concept that they are the all important feature of “adjusting subluxations”; that it is what they do that replaces a subluxation; and it is with this thought they proceed to push vertebra into positions they think they need to be pushed into. ‘Adjusting’ in their minds means pushing bones into adjusted positions.”

Dr. Palmer continued, “I never have such a concept. To me adjusting a vertebra is what happens when my hands leave the back; it is that reaction that occurs when innate recoils in the body of the patient, which resets the bone into ‘normal’ position. My work is an enticement to get INNATE to make the adjustment. Invariably, when Innate adjusts the subluxation, it stays longer and the (NCM) reading remains absent much longer and the patient gets well quicker, and I can take more dangerous cases and get them well, where otherwise anything I did would have failed.”

“A shove and push adjustment, where we want to feel something ‘move’ and hear something ‘crack’, think we know where it ought to be put, and proceed to put it there. This chiropractor wonders why his case gets better, gets worse, and might get well by accident; but leaves him up in the air as to what actually happened. He knows chiropractic is right because it occasionally works.”

So how do you answer the age-old question of subluxation vs. mis-alignment? How do you know if there was interference and whether or not you removed it? If there existed a tool that would allow you to have a window into your patient’s nervous system not only before or after an adjustment (analyzing neurophysiologic responses such as an EEG, HRV, respiration, peripheral skin temperature, galvanic skin response, or dynamic sEMG, as well as the standard, static spinal EMG or thermal readings), but also (if you choose) during your adjustment to allow you to see the effects of your adjustment upon your patient’s nervous system, would that interest you?

If a computerized neurophysiologic evaluation that your staff can perform in a few minutes would inform you on your first encounter with a new patient, how their nervous system was functioning or how they respond to stress (remember Hans Selye [3] stated that stress was not in the event, but rather failure to recover from the event) which dramatically impacts their response to your care.

What advantage would it allow you in recommending your care plan if you knew more about their nervous system, on such an intimate level, before you perform the first adjustment? Could it mean reassurance for you? How could it improve your patient education and retention? What would it mean for your self-esteem knowing that your walk does match your talk? Would you stand a little straighter, more proud to be a chiropractor? Could you handle more difficult cases with ease?

This exam will improve patient care which will generate more income, more referrals, increase retention and extend care plans. You’ve never seen anything this good. It is called
NeuroInfiniti and is available now.

[1] 1910 Text-Book of the Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic by D.D. Palmer
[2] 1931 “The Hour Has Arrived”, reprinted in Vol 24: The Fight To Climb by B.J. Palmer, D.C. PhC
[3] 1936 General Adaptation Syndrome in the British Journal, Nature