“As a doctor of chiropractic and a board certified neurologist, I focused my practice on chronic pain disorders,” Fors shares. “Seeing that every day got me to look more deeply at the disorder and try to understand where it was coming from. More personally, my own daughter suffered with fibromyalgia, so it made it a personal quest to find why individuals develop these very disabling and chronic myofascial pain disorders.”

Because of that quest, Dr. Fors has since gained unparalleled expertise in the understanding of the underlying mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of myofascial pain disorders, as well as fibromyalgia.

“There's a huge market out there of individuals who experience chronic myofascial pain that's not being addressed,” states Fors.

Fors says the chiropractic profession's focus on sports medicine and other specialties is often detrimental to chronic pain treatment. This is alarming, he says, because studies have shown that the majority of cases seen by chiropractors are everyday individuals plagued by some kind of recurrent pain disorder.

“The patients we're seeing are typically in their fourth, fifth, even sixth decades,” Fors explains, “They're sedentary. They're not the elite athletes; they're the typical American individuals who have this recurring pain problem. A lot of times those issues aren't being addressed as specifically as they should be.”

It's not necessarily the individual chiropractor's fault, he adds. So far, there's been a lack of education addressing the problem.

“As we look through our trade journals and see seminars being offered, there aren't many showing us how to treat the individuals who are in their late 40s, work desk jobs, and have back pain, neck pain that's been with them for ten years,” says Fors. “It is a whole different way of looking at the musculoskeletal system of that individual and addressing those specific underlying causes.”

The lack of education is something Fors hopes to change. To that end, he speaks at many industry seminars, including Karl Parker's International Chiropractic Appreciation Mega Event (ICAME) in January.

“I think it's a really important thing for chiropractors to begin to focus on, because it's a healthcare epidemic that is not being properly addressed, medically or in many other professions,” he says.

Not a moment too soon, either. Studies show that as many as 90 million Americans suffer some kind of chronic muscle and joint pain disorder. Ten million American adults are currently diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Not only that, but Fors says such disorders are connected to even more deadly health problems.

“It is something that is affecting our population in greater and greater numbers. But research also shows that the underlying metabolic causes for this development of myofascial pain are the same causes of the disorders that are actually killing us…degenerative diseases,” he stresses.

While some might see that as depressing, Fors sees even greater possibilities—if chiropractors start making ground with chronic pain.

“That's what makes it so exciting,” Fors says. “If we start to address this, we become not only a real avenue for healing the pain of our patients, but also an avenue for real wellness in their lives.”