SHARING CHIROPRACTIC IS A CORE VALUE FOR CHIROPRACTORS. SO MANY PEOPLE DO NOT YET KNOW HOW A SIMPLE AND IMPACTFUL CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENT CAN BECOME THE BEDROCK TO A LIFETIME OF FAMILY WELLNESS AND OPTIMIZED POTENTIAL.
The world is looking for what we have found
BJ Palmer was famous for his ability to create buzz about chiropractic. He knew how important it was to tell the chiropractic story everywhere he could. He bought a radio station (KWOC) and broadcasted the message of chiropractic far and wide. He understood that he needed to think even bigger than the U.S. and he traveled the globe—sharing the chiropractic story across the world.
Life West has a vision for the future of healthcare. We dream of the opportunity for every man, woman, and child to have access to safe, effective, and affordable chiropractic care. That vision sounds simple, but as most simple things are, it requires a lot of work and coordination to make the dream a reality.
Currently, there are about 65,000 chiropractors practicing in the U.S. and another 9,000 in Canada. Most other countries have a substantially smaller representation and there are under 20,000 additional chiropractors worldwide. With a world population of 7.5 billion, this means that we have a lot of work to do if we want this profession to be accessible around the world.
And it’s not just a matter of sending chiropractors into the world. We also have a responsibility to shape the premise and the practice of chiropractic as we bring it around the globe. Chiropractic is a young profession relative to others with a huge opportunity to bring the salutogenic version of chiropractic to the world. It would be easy for others to co-opt our story and relegate chiropractic to back and neck pain, and we see it as our duty and our responsibility to make sure that does not happen. If we want the proliferation of chiropractic to reflect our vision and our brand, then we need to partner up and participate.
Life West Acts Globally
Life West President, Dr. Ron Oberstein, is passionate about bringing chiropractic and Life West to new global communities. This means establishing meaningful and sustainable relationships in places where chiropractic has never been represented. Right now, Life West is focusing our efforts in Fiji, Tonga, and India by setting up not only regular mission trips to bring chiropractic there, but also by developing relationships with governmental officials who can help us co-create a lasting chiropractic imprint and legacy.
This spring, Dr. Oberstein spent two days with the Minister of Health, Dr. Saia Piukala, in Tonga. The visit was so successful that the Minister came to visit the Life West campus two months later when he was in the U.S. This relationship is part of an initiative to bring vitalistic chiropractic to the Fijian Islands and Tonga. Our goal is to set up a permanent Life West health center where we can bring our students to provide care, initially on a mission trip and eventually as a permanent and sustainable clinic. The ultimate goal is to influence and support the Tongan and Fijian government in adding vitalistic chiropractic to their repertoire of health services in their countries.
Life West has also been forging sustainable relationships in India as we set up a permanent chiropractic satellite clinic in Delhi, which will open in 2019. The college sends a group of 25 students, and 25 practicing DCs to the Sant Nirankari Mission twice each year. Each time, the group serves over 11 thousand people in three days on the mission grounds. This relationship has opened up many doors in India—where 1.4 billion people have only ten practicing chiropractors to provide care.
Dr. Oberstein is passionate about Life West’s outreach to India and elsewhere. He places value and resources in these efforts because of his greater vision for chiropractic and a deep sense of responsibility to use the college’s leadership to build something that can last far beyond his presidency.
“The global initiative Life West has started is a huge undertaking with rewards beyond what we could have ever expected. First, we are delivering chiropractic to the women, men, and children that would otherwise never have had the experience of hands-on health care. The healings we see are phenomenal, along with the incredible lives we see changed. Secondly, our students get the opportunity to deliver chiropractic in its purest sense. They truly learn to embody Lasting Purpose and to serve from a place of selflessness. This alone will help shape them into the superstar DCs they are destined to be. By understanding other cultures, rich in diversity, they will develop their inner sense of inclusion, love, and respect. The student experience makes all the hard work worth every second, as it is Life West’s responsibility to produce the greatest chiropractic graduates on the planet.”
Life West graduates cover the globe
Life West is proud of our international student body. We currently boast 84 international students. We have thousands of international graduates in practice around the world, bringing the Life West values and community to nearly every continent.
Life West graduates are everywhere. Europe has many Life West grads, with a number of them practicing in Spain, Italy, France and the UK. We are also well-represented in Asia, especially in Hong Kong and Singapore. Furthermore, Life West grads practice in Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, South America, Central America, and Africa.
Life West students are active in the international scene while they are in school. The college’s very active WCCS (World Congress of Chiropractic Students) is a club which brings our students in contact with other international students learning chiropractic. This experience helps them to understand first-hand the gap between the education they are receiving at Life West and the pain-based model being presented in so many chiropractic colleges around the world. They interact with their peers and begin to build bridges that allow these students to become part of the global solution for bringing vitalistic chiropractic to the world.
Our international graduates tell us that their communities need more of us because the people value the brand of chiropractic we are serving. As chiropractic expands and gains recognition and understanding, the citizens of the world are looking for more vitalistic chiropractors to take the conversation and care beyond pain relief and into empowering families in sustainable health through natural and effective chiropractic care.
You never know how far you are reaching
There are very few chiropractic colleges around the world capable of graduating practice-ready chiropractors. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for Life West to be a leader in graduating exceptional DCs who are ready to spread both our message and our services!
Life West is committed to not only graduating these exceptional chiropractors but also to actively take a leadership role in communicating chiropractic to the governments of countries where chiropractic is newly developing, and in forming lasting relationships in our outreach that will allow the Life West tribe to create a sustainable future for vitalistic chiropractic everywhere we go.
Many places and many people around the globe are searching for solutions to sustainable health. We have one of the most effective and sustainable approaches ever used in health care. We need to show leadership and become thought leaders in international health in order to make a difference for the nearly 8 billion people on this planet.
