"A Scientific Critique of Chiropractic"

[Eos of the Eons]

Speaking of chiropractic, I will be giving PowerPoint presentations on "A Scientific Critique of Chiropractic" to the Oregonians 4 Rationality on
Friday, May 5th in Portland,

and "Natural Medicines" in Eugene Oregon on May 6th.

Both talks are free and open to the public.
Details at http://www.o4r.org/
Harriet Hall, MD

Man, I would love to see those!

 

[Serenity]

The Oregonians for Rationality site has an interesting link to the Oregon Vortex. I’ve always wanted to visit that House of Mystery - not much mystery in optical illusions really. I remember reading an article on it years ago. Spook Hill in Florida was another one of those places I wanted to see.

*Back on topic* My Dad was seeing a chiropractor until I nagged him about the high rate of flim flam in the industry. http://www.chirobase.org/ has been an indispensable resource in raising my awareness on this issue. The quackery runs thick in my family. I think I’ve made a slight difference though in making everyone in the family more mindful of skepticism, except maybe my Mom. How I ended up so skeptical coming from her is a mystery in itself. It’s sad how reasonably intelligent people can buy into all that psychic New Age babble.

As for the presentation, if I wasn't 3000 miles away I'd probably attend.

 

[Blue Wode]

If Harriet Hall’s articles are anything to go by, then those PowerPoint presentations are sure to be excellent.

For anyone else who would love to see them, but can’t, there’s always this online critique of chiropractic by John Jackson of UK Skeptics. It’s a great read:

http://www.skeptics.org.uk/article.php?dir=articles&article=chiropractic.php

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Awesome links, thanks guys!

I hate how the miseducated chiros go onto miseducate the public. Even Charlie Sheen is completely anti-vaccination, and tried to get his chiro to convince his wife not to vaccinate his kid.

A lady at work stopped seeing a chiro, and thinks the chiro complicated scarring problems in her neck that resulted from a car accident. She now sees a physical therapist that used to be a chiro, but he decided to go to a real school. He now puts down chiropractic, and treats her far more effectively. That doesn't stop other co-workers from thinking chiros have something to offer, especially along the alt med lines with their various herbal products.

I admire the ex-chiros who move onto something better. I often wonder how many actual reformers there are.

 

[Blue Wode]

Dr Hall’s critique is now online:

“Tracking down the truth about pseudoscience and health”

http://drspinello.com/chiropractic

(The frames download slowly, so don’t click through the left-hand bar too fast.)

 

[mycodenameismilo]

Thanks for putting these links up folks, they are fascinating. I have to confess I wasn't aware just how silly the basis of chiropractic is. I've recently become aware of a trend for veterinary chiropractic - someone I know socially told me about it, apparently it's the new growth area for these charlatans. I suppose it just goes to show that where there are credulous people with too much money, someone will come and find a way to relieve them of it... Although I would be impressed with anyone strong enough to manipulate the spine of a Clydesdale!

 

[Physiotherapist]

The whole basis of chripractic is a load of complete and utter nonsense. I speak as a physical therapist who has spent some time studying in the States.

I work a lot with the soft tissues, connective tissues and muscles and people get more relief from physical therapy. Just stop to think about the mechanics and you will see that physical therapy makes a lot more sense that just jumping on someone and crunching them - especially the neck. What relief does cracking someone bring? None whatsoever as far as I can see.

 

[Blue Wode]

Physiotherapist, do you have any idea why the General Chiropractic Council seems to be turning a blind eye to the activities of the following two UK chiropractic associations whose members, apparently, still believe in ‘subluxations’, ‘innate intelligence’ and ‘vitalism’?

http://www.united-chiropractic.org/modules/content/index.php?id=4

http://www.mctimoney-chiropractic.org/mca_objectives.htm


[Edited to replace links with ones that work]

 

[hipparchia]

The whole basis of chripractic is a load of complete and utter nonsense. I speak as a physical therapist who has spent some time studying in the States.

What relief does cracking someone bring? None whatsoever as far as I can see.

To add a bit to the topic: What roughly translates as "chiropractor" from the Bulgarian has nothing to do with the American version of the profession. In my neck of the woods, a chiropractor would be a person who had a folk knowledge of bones and would set sprained limbs. I had a friend in primary school who had her sprainer wrist set this way. Old grandmas in villages do it. Recently though some of those people start to advertise bone cracking, even claiming to reset displaced spinal disks.

Now about cracking...well, I can crack my own neck all too well. I don't know how healthy this is, but it certainly takes something off the strain. Also, in Aikido training we used to crack people's spines after training and it felt good. I don't know about long-term relief, but I have a very crack-able skeleton and the occasional bone pop is kinda cool. Otherwise I really can't think of benefits.

 

[Physiotherapist]

No, I didn't know about the vitalism. Old hat now days!!

Think I prefer to stick to my soft tissue and myofascial stuff really. I'm not into bone crunching.