Chiropractic Live

Chiropractic Live

Message to the “Guardians of chiropractic” The horse has bolted”

I got an anonymous letter from a group calling themselves “Guardians of Chiropractic” last week. The reported some shocking goings on at the GCC but as I have not been able to confirm the story or who wrote the letter I will not be publishing its content. What I will say if its true its bad news for the UK profession, but its far to late to do anything about Margaret Coats and the GCC.

That horse bolted a few years ago, and its because chiropractors like these guardians were “chicken” and did nothing. They knew what was going on and kept their heads down and their mouths shut and allowed Dixon, Coats and Brown bring the chiropractic profession to its knees.

The guardians claim “We represent a group of troubled chiropractors, deeply concerned at the way our profession is heading” and “It is time for us to make a stand”

“We want the profession to know about this latest development and ask you to post this letter on chiropracticlive but at this time we wish to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions; however expect to hear more from us in the future.”

I have no interest in hearing from people who wish to hide from Coats et al. Whatever my opinion of Dixon and Brown, they are chiropractors who believe they are acting in the chiropractic professions best interest. At least they put themselves forward to pursue their goals rather than hoping an anonymous letter might offer an alternative for chiropractors.

Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org