As the host of “Forever Young,” Bill Frank has made it his personal mission to promote chiropractic
By Mark Farmer
Bill Frank may just be the most enthusiastic cheerleader for chiropractic—who’s
not himself a DC—that you’ll ever meet. Frank hosts his own TV show,
called “Bill Frank’s Forever Young,” seen Friday mornings
at 7 a.m. on the Discovery Network. With a demeanor, physique, and volcanic
energy that belie his 61 years, he travels the world seeking out information
and experiences to entertain and educate his audience about wellness and keeping
a youthful attitude and body. The program previously ran for three years on
the Fox Health Network and now he’s made it over as a vehicle for not
only spreading the word about chiropractic, but removing some of the mystique
for viewers unfamiliar with the discipline.
Although a relatively recent convert to chiropractic, having had a bad adjustment
as a younger man, Frank is now determined to advance the message. As part of
that effort, he’s developed a web site for consumers, billfrank.com, which
features a referral network of chiropractors, as well as a site for doctors,
billfrankprovider.com.
He recently spoke with Today’s Chiropractic about his mission:
Today’s Chiropractic: What’s the philosophy behind
your show’s title, “Forever Young”?
Bill Frank: The concept of “Forever Young”
is to show you all the ways to take care of your mind, your body and your spirit—that
spirit being the kind of attitude that you choose for yourself in life, that
whether you live to be 75, 85 or 90, you’re living each and every one
of those days as a young person.
When we’re young we have hopes and dreams and we go for challenges and
we like to do things and everything is always a new experience. Somehow as we
put some chronological years on us we seem to go away from that. The idea is
to keep that attitude fresh in your mind and have the body and the energy levels
to keep up with that. I really want people to live and not just exist.
Today’s Chiropractic: How does that philosophy tie in with the
wellness concept?
Bill Frank: Wellness is a clear and unobstructed operation of
this miracle that God gave us called the human body. Sickness disease or anything
like this is an obstruction and interference with this body operating at the
level it was designed to do. If you’re to be well, and operate as you
were intended you have to operate unobstructed. It is not self-serving, it is
not narcissistic, it is not selfish to take care of that human body.
I do the same things that I did when I was 25 or 30. I run with the same gait.
I lift the same weights. There are a lot things that I do simply because I’m
well. I don’t have sicknesses. I don’t have interference. Now, I’m
not unique. I may be in the minority, but I’m not unique. Anybody who
practices the things that I do, they experience the same thing because that’s
the natural state.
Today’s Chiropractic: You often refer to chiropractors
as wellness providers. How do you see chiropractic linked to wellness?
Bill Frank: For 108 years chiropractors have fought
an unbelievable battle to get an equal position (with medical doctors) when
in reality, they should have had to fight to get the equal position. Medical
science should have been battling to see how it could support the very natural
way that this miracle (the body) was created and should be sustained. [Chiropractors]
should have the leading role in prevention. Chiropractic keeps this miracle
that God created in its natural state to do the things that it is intended to
do.
The brain as the neurological center is sending out every signal of response
and re-response in the body. It comes from the brain, but it must be fired down
through that neurological system. Anytime that is interfered with, someone has
just dug a big hole in our highway or taken down a bridge and we cannot transport
whatever it is need to transport from one point to another.
Then, that part of the body suffers some sort of an interruption or some sort
of disease.
Today’s Chiropractic: You seem to have taken on promoting
chiropractic as a personal mission, yet you had a negative experience with chiropractic
earlier in life and then became a convert after a recent adjustment helped you.
How did that adjustment lead to the new direction for your show?
Bill Frank: Everyday I started feeling better and
better and I didn’t know I could feel any better! Things were starting
to happen that were pretty amazing. I began speaking at seminars and meeting
the chiropractors in the field, the men and women out there actually doing the
job. I fell in love with these people. These are my kind of people. I decided
I wanted to do something about changing the image, because there are millions
and millions of people thinking what I thought for many years, and a lot worse.
My show exists to go out and give the chiropractic message in language that
Joe and Joan Consumer can understand. The whole concept is to take this information
and put it in layman’s terms and put it to use. Information only has value
when you can put it to use.
I came to the chiropractors to ask them if they wanted to sponsor my show, instead
of my previous sponsors. I could have them again, they’re standing there.
I wanted to really make a difference. I wanted to be a soapbox guy for what
I really believe to be a wellness revolution.
Today’s Chiropractic: Why do you think you’re the
one to do this?
Bill Frank: [The audience] has been watching me for
years and now I have a following. I’m saying I’ve been searching
for anything that helps you stay young. Some people say you’ve sold out
to chiropractors, Bill, and I say, no, I’ve sold out to the truth.
I’m a person who’s been all over this world working with great athletes,
celebrities, different people who have seen the results of what we preach. And
my research in the real market place, the science of real people doing real
things tells me that the men and women of chiropractic are the gatekeepers to
total wellness and living life to its optimum level. This is only going to come
when the perception of the consumer is changed.
Chiropractors need a third-party endorsement. I’ve heard people say (chiropractors)
need to create some commercials. No, MDs don’t create their commercials.
The pharmaceutical industry creates their commercials. That’s why my show
is called Forever Young and not Come Watch Chiropractors.
I’m a 40-year friend of Jack La Lanne. In my opinion one of the great
leaders of wellness because he’s done it by walking the talk. [He’s]
90 years old, and don’t challenge him! You’ll have a humiliating
experience. I hope before I’m called home I can make some impact like
that.
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