Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast
Welcome to the Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast with your host, Dr. Matt Green! Join us as we explore health, wellness, and the power of chiropractic care to help you live your best life
Village Chiropractic & Wellness Podcast
EP #11: When to See a Chiropractor vs. a Medical Doctor
"Should I see a chiropractor or a medical doctor?" It's a question that reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about healthcare. As Dr. Matt Green explains, this is like asking whether you should see a doctor or a dentist – they serve different but complementary purposes in your health journey.
When it comes to choosing between providers, your personal health philosophy matters tremendously. If you believe your body has the inherent ability to heal itself and view pain as a signal rather than something to simply eliminate, chiropractic care aligns with this perspective. If you seek immediate symptom relief regardless of cause, medical interventions might be your preference. Neither approach is inherently better – they reflect different beliefs about health and healing.
Visit villagechiropracticoakland.com to learn more.
The intensity of chiropractic school and medical school from what I've heard is the intensity of medical school is much greater than chiropractic school, but we're still going to school, for it's a four-year program and we're not only learning about very similar things. My sense is that we are learning about things so that we can identify red flags in order to refer, that we can identify red flags in order to refer, and medical doctors are learning those subjects as if somebody is in front of them and their life is close. Their life is at risk.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast with your host, dr Matt Green. Join us as we explore health, wellness and the power of chiropractic care to help you live your best life. Let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker 3:Welcome back listeners and viewers. Charlie McDermott, producer of the show, here with Dr Matt Green. Dr Matt, how are how you doing today?
Speaker 1:I'm doing great, charlie.
Speaker 3:It's a good subject today you, you continue to just absolutely blow me away. Asi said to you all fair, your, your episodes always speak to me and I saw today's topic and I said that that was me for years not knowing whether I should see a medical doctor or a chiropractor, and so, yeah, it's good to know one. I wasn't crazy, I'm not alone, and you're going to help a lot of people you know in those crossroads, so yeah, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Let's get into it. Yeah, I mean just the first thing that when anybody ever has approached me with that question, the way that I hear it is well, should I see a medical doctor or should I see a dentist? That's good. Well, I think you should see both.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, by the purpose of helping people, and we help people in different ways and to try to um, put them both in the same category. Uh, well, that's why we're doing this podcast to, to, to, to, to peel those apart and to really get clear distinctions so people can have a sense of where has chiropractic come from, where has the medical profession come from and where are there. There's a little overlap, uh, we'll talk about that too. Uh, but mostly we really are distinct and it's just. It's great to have a good team, and having a good medical doctor and having a good chiropractor, uh, is the best yeah, yeah well dr matt, how about if we start from just just?
Speaker 3:I know it's been a few episodes. Uh, since we've gotten your background, I know you're developing quite a following with this podcast. Um, so, for those just jumping in, maybe this is the first episode. How about mine? Yeah, sure, sure, sure, yeah. For people who haven't been listening to you.
Speaker 1:Sure, I've been a chiropractor for 22 years. I walked on my toes until I was 12. And they thought I had muscular dystrophy. I mean, they could not figure out what was going on with me. And when they came up with what we don't know to my parents, my parents took me to their chiropractor and it was just after a few visits that I had this weird sensation of like walking on my heels on my way to school, and that's when it started.
Speaker 1:And when I was in my early twenties I met a rolfer, and the rolfer, who's a very kind of specialized kind of soft tissue work, said that history really threw your whole system forward and we're going to work to correct that.
Speaker 1:And while you're doing that, um, for me to bring my whole structure back into a sense of um, neutrality actually. And so, um, and I was working for I was doing massage at that time and working for lots of chiropractors. I did marketing for chiropractors down in Santa Barbara as well as up here, and it was all around me Um, and then some woman came to me and looked up to me and said what is causing my pain? And it was at that moment I knew that I couldn't. I didn't have the answer for her in the way that I wanted to answer people with. So that was it, and it's been 22 years on my wonderful chiropractic journey and now I have a beautiful space in Montclair Village in Oakland Hills and Village Chiropractic and Wellness Center and been in there for 12 of my 22 years and you know I'm fulfilling my life purpose for really being able to help people.
Speaker 3:Both there and beyond at this point, with this podcast, which I know you've certainly been very passionate about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then, for the average Joe or Charlie, as I said, this was me. Let's start with you know what is a chiropractor, what is a medical doctor, and, and the differentiation between the two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a very clear distinction is that a medical doctor, their schooling, their education is about learning about what's called the pathophysiology of what happens when the body gets sick, what happens when the body begins to deteriorate and how can we evaluate what that problem is and how can we treat that. So, and specifically, how can we treat the symptoms of that process. And the chiropractor is designed and educated about learning about the spine and the nervous system and coming with a philosophy that the body has the ability to heal itself and working to find out what's in the way of the body not being able to function at its best. Really, that's the kind of uh, at 30 000 feet high level, uh, difference there between the two.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, yeah. So then, when it comes to schooling and training, because I, I would imagine the, the average, again the average joe or charlie, not knowing this, would think oh yeah, you know, you just read a few books and get your certificate.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was first started, someone said, really, I was actually teaching, uh, anatomy and physiology at a massage school and somebody came up to me and said listen, I don't know anything about chiropractic. Is it like this six month kind of like weekend program and that was fine. I mean, if you don't, if someone hasn't told you, then you don't know. So there's some similarities in terms of hours, in terms of when you look at the schooling of a chiropractor and the schooling of a medical doctor. The hours are fairly similar. However, we have in our schooling a period of time when we're working in the clinic with school. There Medical doctors and medical students not only do all their schooling, then they have residency programs which you know chiropractic does not have.
Speaker 1:Chiropractors have much more heavy emphasis on anatomy and physiology and philosophy and adjusting. Medical doctors have much more emphasis on learning about the disease processes and pharmacology. The intensity of chiropractic school and medical school, from what I've heard, is the intensity of medical school is much greater than chiropractic school, but we're still going to school, for it's a four-year program and we're not only learning about very similar things. My sense is that we are learning about things so that we can identify red flags in order to refer, and medical doctors are learning those subjects as if somebody is in front of them and their life is close, their life is at risk and death is much closer to the patients that a medical doctor sees than a chiropractor sees. Uh, and I think that reflects the intensity of the schooling. Um, but you know, still I was, it was, that was a difficult thing for me to get through, uh, and there were four state boards and it was a four year process and it was, um, challenging and really tested my resolve to get through the process.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Wow. So so then the scope of practice chiropractic versus a medical physician, what does that look like in the different you?
Speaker 1:know medical doctors. If we look upon a scale and we go all the way from a horrible, horrible car accident all the way to an Olympic athlete, medical doctors are at their best at much more at the crisis emergencies end of the scale. That's when they're at their best. That's where they have all their diagnostic tools, that's where they have all their treatment. For as we start to move away from that emergency crisis end of the scale, they have less and less tools and we have more and more tools to take over from there. This is, I think, a basic understanding of this scale in terms of when people are starting to decide where do I go, who do I see, what are my goals? What's happening for me?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great distinction. Yeah, so how about some examples of patient complaints for which provider you know? What do you hear?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's see, I mean, the first thing that comes to me is just like pain management, and because that's where we cross over. And there are patients that come into me that have the philosophy that I believe that my body has the ability to heal itself, and the pain that I'm having right now is a clear alarm and clear signal that my body is telling me. And I'm going to listen to those signals and I'm coming to you because I want you to help me and guide me through that process and I want to be fully present through all of that. I just have a lot of respect for those people. It takes an incredible amount of courage. The there are patients that do not either have that kind of awareness or have a clear path of I'm not interested in that or have a clear path of I'm not interested in that and I want my pain gone ASAP. Then they're going to go to a medical doctor and look for the tools that they have developed, which personally has been pretty I'm fascinated with, which is amazing, with pain management and with muscle relaxants, all the type of pharmacology that's been developed in order to decrease that pain. And, if I haven't said it before, I have no judgment either way, and that's why I'm excited to do this podcast here. I really want to just make that distinct. There's not one path that's better than the other and there's not one. Clearly. There's not one path is better than the other. I think it's just good to know what your problem is and what your philosophy is, and then that'll make it clear in terms of which path, which path to go. Yeah, we have. You know, chiropractors are primary care physicians, and so we have the ability to refer out to x-rays, refer out to labs Not every chiropractor does, but we have the ability to do that can refer out to MRIs as such. So that's what I mean. There's a little overlap Now.
Speaker 1:If you break your arm, you have cancer, you have diabetes, if you have major problems with your veins or your arteries, you know, medical doctor is the clear answer, and I think a majority of the people know that. But in terms of where's that crossover, in terms of I'm having a lot of pain, what do I do? If you have a sense of trust of who you're going to see, you have the philosophy that that, okay, the body has ability to heal stuff. I'm going to go find out what's in the way of doing that and I also know that a chiropractor has the ability, if, if I show up there, that he or she, if they distinguish that they can't, it's not within their scope that they have the clear ability to refer to a medical doctor, and the chiropractor is a clear choice.
Speaker 1:If you're fearful of a chiropractor, you're not sure what's going to happen. You don't know anybody, you don't have a good referral, you have more of thel. I want that pain gone now. And the answer is going to come from outside in go see your medical doctor first. Because some people come to me and they've like hey, I got my MRIs, I got my x-rays, I got my labs, I've ruled out all of the serious things, I'm now ready to see you. Then they have a clear, they have a clear conscience. Now they're here and they're ready to hear what I have to say.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. Now this next question. You already touched on and maybe you answered it already, but I just want to make sure we don't miss anything, because with your following I'm sure you've become a trusted advisor in many ways and that probably people come to you your patients for advice. Should I see a medical practitioner? So what have you seen over the years?
Speaker 1:you know that that are like the red flags that indicate a referral to a medical doctor, sure, sure, I would say, um, uh, hip replacements and knee replacements are, um, that's the first thing that comes to my mind. Yeah, I've had many of those that they're wondering hey, is it time for surgery for me? And again, I think that it happens along a spectrum and my encouragement is to do things that you start on the one side of the spectrum that has the least risk of side effects, start there and work your way all the way across. I'm just thinking of Allison, my one patient boy. I felt like she did everything she possibly could. I'm talking until I said listen, I really think you need hip surgery. You're showing all of the. We've seen the x-rays. I feel that hip I know that that's what's good.
Speaker 1:She's like I'm still not ready. I still got. I got to do more with my diet, more with this, and she did everything she could. And then she said, okay, now I'm ready. And she went and did surgery. You know what that surgeon said I've never seen anybody heal as quickly as you Interesting After one of those. So I would say that's probably the most common conversation that I have with people in terms of, hey, should I see a medical doctor? Should I see an orthopedist in terms of you know, do I need a joint replacement?
Speaker 3:Do I need a joint replacement? Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah, again, you're bringing back memories of my wife. She did get a knee replacement, but that was a challenging time. You know when should I get it and you know seeking out the right people that could advise her, and you know seeking out the right people that could advise her. So she made that decision, you know, based on you know something other than well, I think I should get it right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, right, and it's a stress itself. It's a stress that surgery is a stress just like a marathon or just like any other kind of stress, and it's something to be, to be trained for if you want the best, if you want the best outcomes. You know, I think that you know, as we're talking about this, I was thinking about, like, what other kind of referrals do I make? You know, I have a very close friend of mine who's a great chiropractor, dr agibon, shout out.
Speaker 1:Um, she has a lot of relationships with orthopedists, with neurologists, with family practitioners, and she does a lot of referring back and forth with them. She's very much in that world and very educated about who is covered by which insurance and such. She's very deeply set with that. So that's much more of her realm and her specialty For me. I'm much more along the. You know the people that come to see me. I don't have a lot of these emergency cases, a lot. I tend to attract a lot of people who are fairly high, well, are highly functioning, but that have these problems and that want to get rid of those problems so they can go back to being really operating at their optimum.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, really operating at their optimum, yeah, yeah. So, on the kind of the same theme of referrals, I, my Lord, I thinking back to the eighties my good friend went to chiropractic school. He's still practicing today, but back then, you know, the chiropractor was not I don't know what the right wording is, but but I'm just going to use the word respect. You know, not necessarily respected by the medical community, right, and I know that was a battle that you know in a good way, that he made sure that he was respected in the community to the point where he became an advisor for the Philadelphia Eagles football team. But it's a little different today. You know that you don't have that. There is that, and I know your philosophy is, you know, chiropractors and doctors certainly aren't enemies, they're teammates. But totally, yeah, tell us more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that, oh, I kind of lost my train of thought here in terms of oh, I know, here's our. Our diversity is our greatest strength the chiropractor's ability to come into school and to figure out which direction and which way that they want to specialize and how they want to help people. Like I said before in one of the past podcasts, there's a registered like 124 registered chiropractic techniques. So there's such diversity and it's our greatest strength. It's also our greatest weakness. The public has a very difficult sense of getting to have. The public has a very, a difficult time having a sense of what.
Speaker 1:What is chiropractic? And I think we've come to that time with allopathic medicine now has a sense of chiropractic, of okay, you guys are here to stay, you're not leaving. There's a credibility, credibility. You've been here for 120 something years, okay. The question now is okay, what do you do and how do I refer to you? Because it's much easier. It's very easy to refer to a physical therapist. They all do basically the same You're going to refer to. It doesn't really matter which physical therapist you refer to. They're going to do basically the same scope of practice, same thing even now with an acupuncturist. The same scope of practice. Same thing even now with an acupuncturist. Medical community now can refer to acupuncturists in a much easier way because they're fairly standardized.
Speaker 1:Some differences, obviously, but chiropractic holy cow, you have no idea who you're referring to and what their scope of practice is. I think that's our biggest challenge. It's our biggest challenge. The presidents of all the chiropractic schools are all working together to attempt to get a standardized sentence that speaks to the public and says this is the problem that we solve and this is what we do. But, man, we are a bunch of real strong individualists who really love to just kind of do our own thing and make our own path, and so I would say that's the biggest challenge of the day and doing things like this. I feel like, hopefully, this is doing my part in putting out that message out into the world to have people get more and more, more clear distinction of do I see what's the difference between medical doctor and chiropractors and why do chiropractors have this not such good public perception?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, both allopathic and chiropractic all came to fruition around the same time in the like late 1800s, early 1900s. And chiropractic really came into fruition in speaking out against what was happening with these allopathic doctors that were starting to form. So it started from the very beginning and our philosophy is the healing comes from inside out. Body has the ability to heal itself from inside out. Philosophy of allopathic medicine is like the healing comes from outside in. Ooh, how do you blend those two? It's a big challenge and and, uh, you know, I'm watching, I'm watching and I'm, and I'm, I'm, I'm cheering it on, and I hope that whatever is happening on the kind of like on the top, high end tiers of those differences of philosophy, um, can get resolved so that people's needs can get fulfilled and people can have a clear sense of like I have this problem, I go here, I have this problem, I go here, yeah, and that chiropractic as a profession can help to steer people, uh, in the right direction. Love it, love it yeah, any other.
Speaker 3:Uh, and again, you already touched on some of these miss, misunderstand or yeah misunderstandings out there in the community that, uh, we missed. That would be helpful for your listeners uh, I'm not sure here.
Speaker 1:Let's see, can I make a note or two about those. I I really I feel like that was the yeah, those, that was the main one there that I really wanted to make sure is that distinction? If people can have a clear sense of that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well then, the importance. I mean you know, and I love we touch on this just about every episode we talk about self-care, the importance of being proactive with your health. What do you have to say about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like we just talked about with the challenge. I think I always laugh about the podcast that we did about self-care. I just thought we were going to really dig into it but in a very short period of time we came to oh, we do self-care so we can feel good and do the things that we want. It's pretty straightforward. It's just the challenge is how do we get there when we're not in that awareness, in that state, in that flow of self-care? And that it's pretty simple.
Speaker 1:You know there are stresses. There are physical stresses, there are chemical stresses and there are emotional stresses that we are always encountering. And what are we doing to counteract that? And these people that come to see me, that are in their forties, fifties and sixties, with the conversation like, well, I guess I'm getting old. Well, yes, you are, yes, we are I include myself in that. Yes, we are what are you doing to counteract that stress? Because it's inevitable.
Speaker 1:The stress of gravity and the stress of time and the stress of the emotional stresses that we have, the chemical stresses that we have, all of those are all weighing on us and the people that are thriving are the ones that have that clear realization of I have those stresses and I'm going to counteract them and I'm going to do things that are even just that. I counteract them even more so that I'm in the clear, so that I am buoyant'm in the clear, so that I'm uh, I am buoyant and I'm free free of those. Those stresses don't have me. I have them. So, and chiropractic care is key and central to that, not only in the actual adjustment but in the guidance that a chiropractor has, that lives, that self-care, that holistic, that body, that philosophy. The body has ability to heal itself, um, carries, uh, and that's, and that's great, and that's great to have a guide like that.
Speaker 3:Awesome, awesome well, dr matt, once again, uh, very, very helpful for me and, more importantly, your audience. Thanks, charlie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's a passionate subject.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. For those who live in your neck of the woods, what is the best way or ways for them to reach out? Get in touch, sure.
Speaker 1:It's Village Chiropractic and Wellness Center. We're located in Montclair Village, a very quaint, cute community up in the Oakland Hills where I have free parking directly across the street. A student came to me and did a whole interview with me from chiropractic school and he's like what's your secret to success? And I said a parking lot that's free right across the street. And I'm passionate. Um, yes and uh.
Speaker 3:Phone number they can call us 510-281-1708 I have a quick story about free parking. As you know, I had a chain of health clubs and uh yeah whenever we were busy the the busy season and you had to park, you know, further away from the front door, we would hear it. The comical part is people are coming in to work out, to exercise. They would complain about parking too far away.
Speaker 1:Totally Right, right right. That funny Facebook meme was the 24-hour fitness, with two escalators going up the front door.
Speaker 3:That's great, yeah, well, thank you once again. Thanks.
Speaker 2:Charlie.
Speaker 3:We'll see you in the next episode, right on.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning in to the Village Chiropractic and Wellness Podcast with Dr Matt Green. For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit our website at villagechiropracticoplincom or call us at 510-281-1708. Stay well and we'll see you next time.