COVER STORY CENTENNIAL Century of growth L Celebrating 100 years of chiropractic in Alberta B y M ari -L en D e G uzMan MARI-LEN DE GUZMAN is the editor of Canadian Chiropractor magazine. You can reach her at [email protected]. 16 Canadian Chiropractor July 2017 Progress Chiropractors in Alberta agree the chiropractic profession in the province has progressed well from the low awareness rate www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo credit: ACAC Archive ike many chiropractors practicing in the early 20th century, Dr. Murray Bowman had to face and overcome many challenges that younger generation of chiropractors today can only im-agine. One of the worst ones, Bowman recalls, was when his daughter, then in second grade, came home from school one day declaring that she can no longer walk to school with her friend Ian because Ian’s dad was a medical doctor and didn’t want his son associating with the daughter of a chiropractor. “That’s how bad it was,” Bowman says. It was so bad that he discouraged his four children from going into chiroprac-tic. As a father he did not want his children to experience the “agony” he had to go through as a chiropractor in those days. He is now 92 years old and retired since 2010, but the stories and memories from his 62 years in practice still linger. Bowman attended the Centennial Gala celebrating 100 years of chiropractic in Alberta, held at the Calgary Com-monwealth Centre last May. The Alberta College and Asso-ciation of Chiropractors (ACAC) hosted the gala event commemorating this milestone. Formed in 1917, the ACAC was pioneered by 12 chiropractors in the province, and spearheaded the eventual legislation of chiropractic in Alberta, the first province in Canada to ever do so. So much have changed since the early days, Bowman says, and all for the better. When he went to chiropractic school at Palmer College in Davenport, Iowa, he completed his program in 18 months. He would later realize as he started his practice that the chiropractic education he received was not sufficient. “It was devoid, quite frankly. So I started taking post-grad-uate courses every time I had a chance and I promised The Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors Council in 1961. myself I would take it at least every year,” says Bowman, who served as a Canadian Air Force pilot during World War II prior to enrolling in chiropractic college. Today’s chiropractors are much more educated and now benefit from significant research that has been accomplished in recent years supporting the value of chiropractic care. Dr. Metro Kuruliak is another old-timer, who has been in practice for 60 years – and still an active member of the ACAC. He acknowledges the chiropractic profession has come a long way in the last several decades. “There has been a tremendous amount of recognition now from when I got started,” says Kuruliak, who still runs a chiropractic practice in Edmonton with his son Dr. Greg Kuruliak. He recalls the going rate for a chiropractic visit when he started his practice was $2, and the surveys indicated that only less than 10 per cent of the population knew anything about chiropractic. “The recognition that we have now is just overwhelming compared to what it was before,” Kuruliak notes. “All we heard before were derogatory remarks.”
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor July 2017: Page 16
