Unsubluxated said:
What the hell is a 'sham' adjustment?
It would be part of what's called a /blind experiment/. If you, say, want to test a new pill, you don't just go up to people and say, "Hey, here's this new pill which we think might help! Give it a try!" They might be biased one way or the other, and the data will be tainted. Instead you test two groups of subjects, one who gets the real deal, and one who only gets sugar pills. But both groups /think/ they're getting the good stuff, so you can compare the two and see how well your medicine does or doesn't work.
So the 'sham' adjustment is the sugar pill of a blind study. You would, for instance, certainly agree that I have no knowledge of chiropractic adjustments, so I could be used as a 'fake chiropractor' in a blind experiment, because anything I did would certainly be a sham. You send half the subjects to a real chiropractor, and half to me. Since I, of course, have no real knowledge of how to actually be a chiropractor, the patients sent to me can't actually receive chiropractic treatment. So, you can compare how many of my 'patients' get better and how many of the chiropractor's patients got better, and if there is anything at all to chiro., more of his will get better.
Of course, even I'll admit that it'd be quite dangerous for me to try poking at people's backs. In an actual study, you'd probably send the control group -- the group not actually receiving chiropractic treatment -- to a massage or something.
[Edit] Is it possible to do a double-blind study of chiropractic treatment? That would imply that the treat-ers, as well as the treat-ees, would not know whether or not real treatment was being administered, which seems quite a feat to be performed.