The best consumer guide to chiropractic therapy available, written by a chiropractor & America’s leading expert on pseudoscientific health care. I am not expressing my own opinions about chiropractic in this article: I am just presenting what the experts have been debating ad nauseam for decades. Who says?Ĭhiropractic is so controversial that this article attracts a lot of shooting-the-messenger hate mail. Ethical, intelligent practitioners of any helping profession will always deliver better care than less competent members of their own or any other profession.Ĭonsumers need to be aware of the issues to help them choose a good chiropractor… or not at all. The most important factor in the usefulness of chiropractic therapy is not the nature of chiropractic as a profession, but the skill and good sense of the chiropractor whose hands are on your neck. It’s obvious that some chiropractic therapy does “work” in certain ways, for some people, some of the time. It is not really a fair question to ask of chiropractic as a whole.īut it is the question that people ask, and so we have to deal with it as well as we can. What kind of chiropractic treatment? Does it work for what? How much of it? For which kinds of patients? Just asking if “chiropractic works” is not specific enough to have a meaningful answer. Most people just want to know if it will help them. David Colquhoun, “Doctor Who? Deception by chiropractors” Until that is decided, all talk of qualifications, regulation, and so on is just vacuous bureaucratese.ĭr. ![]() The first thing one wants to know about any treatment - alternative or otherwise - is whether it works. Many of actually do have interesting notes.Īcupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain. “Boring” footnotes usually contain scientific citations from my giant bibliography of pain science. Despite a few key differences, most osteopaths around the world are indistinguishable from chiropractors as far as patients can tell: they are both alternative medicine practitioners who believe in the therapeutic power of skilled manipulation of joints. This article also strongly applies to osteopathy. But I also respect the judgement of many expert critics who believe that “the concepts of chiropractic are not based on solid science and its therapeutic value has not been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt.” 4 Such criticism is often referred to as “persecution” by chiropractors they also often call this a “hit piece,” just for reporting the existence of the issues. Sometimes I also recommend a little chiropractic therapy to friends and readers. I have an inexhaustible craving for upper thoracic spine cracking. I get chiropractic therapy myself once in a while. This article is a survey of chiropractic controversies that patients (and healthcare professionals) should be aware of. 3 Often inspired by unfortunate experiences, they ask me what I think. ![]() 1 Why? People are curious about the poor reputation of chiropractic, 2 and confused about the nature of chiropractic. A 2006 Gallup Poll found that chiropractic rated dead last among health professions with regard to ethics and honesty. But at the centre of all the controversy is a service that many people are happy to pay for: a spinal joint “pop” can be super satisfying, like “scratching an itch you can’t reach.” Whatever explains this and whether its medically meaningful or not, I believe it’s the true source of chiropractic’s viability as a business. ![]() The profession is strongly divided between progressives and traditionalists - and it’s hard for patients to know which is which. Doubts about the efficacy of treating even just ordinary neck and back pain, plus particularly serious concerns about the safety of neck manipulation.The original “big idea” of chiropractic, still alive and well, is that nearly any health problem can be cured by spinal manipulation - an extravagantly too-good-to-be-true promise.Aggressive marketing, especially unethical pre-paid treatment packages and other forms of over-treatment, even of children and babies.Why is chiropractic perpetually contentious? The chiropractic profession has a long history of scientific and ethical controversies swirling around it.
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