Chiropractic is a system of healing that holds that disease results from a lack of normal nervous function caused by a disordered relationship between the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Controversial from its inception, chiropractic has grown into the largest nonallopathic healing profession in the United States, with nearly 35,000 active practitioners. Although considered by many a “marginal” group, chiropractors are licensed in all 50 states, are reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid, and many thirdparty payers, and in 1984 earned an average yearly net income of $55,000. The recent defeat of the American Medical Association (AMA) by chiropractors in a major lawsuit dramatically emphasizes chiropractic’s current strength. The public image of chiropractic has significantly improved, and opposition from medical organizations has abated. Chiropractic has successfully established itself as an alternative healing profession.

At first glance, it seems an unlikely system to have achieved such success. Chiropractic was founded in 1895, just as medicine was being transformed into a dominant profession. Successfully uniting disparate elements of the medical community, the AMA reorganized in the early 1900s and developed into a powerful force, influencing nearly every aspect of the U.S. health care system. The homeopathic and eclectic sects, important mid-nineteenth-century competitors, virtually disappeared during the first decades of the twentieth century. Physicians actively and effectively suppressed competition from patent medicine vendors with pure food and drug legislation. Yet despite the impressive strength of the medical profession, chiropractic thrived. Whereas nearly every other form of unorthodox healing was being suppressed, banned, or co-opted, this system of healing established itself as an independent profession.