Chiropractic.
Alternative medical con/scam. Chiropractors "manipulate" their clients
(eg, by popping neck and back vertebrae, etc) to prevent or treat real or imaginary
ailments. In opposition to the scientific evidence (see this 
Times
article), many chiropractors claim that all sorts of things can be successfully
treated, including asthma, bed wetting, colds, etc, and especially a particularly
dangerous – and fictitious – condition called a vertebral subluxation. Chiropractors
are divided on just what a vertebral subluxation is. Some chiropractors say
they are too small to see, some conveniently claim their nature means they don't
show up physically. A vertebral subluxation has never been seen on an
x-ray, but the complete lack of physical evidence doesn't stop chiropractors
diagnosing them. Chirobase
has an interesting article Chiropractic's
Elusive "Subluxation" by Stephen Barrett MD:
Subluxation is also a medical term. The medical definition is incomplete or partial dislocation – a condition, visible on x-ray films, in which the bony surfaces of a joint no longer face each other exactly but remain partially aligned. No such condition can be corrected by chiropractic treatment.
(Emphasis added.) The report concludes:
My advice about "subluxations" is very simple. If a chiropractor purports to locate and fix them – "killer" or otherwise – seek treatment somewhere else.
If you're interested in following up this issue, we suggest a chiropractic research project: Call your local chiropractors and ask to see some examples of vertebral subluxations on x-rays. Let us know your results (see the Contact page).
Quotes from a television
debate:
"I do not believe that anybody can manipulate the spine – and that includes physicians who claim to be able to do it – without it jumping right back because it takes several hundred pounds of pressure to manipulate the spine. You may move it temporarily, but it's gonna go back to the same position." – Dr. Reuben Hoppenstein, neurosurgeon at the Orthopedic Institute of the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. He is co-chief of its Problem Back Service. His entire practice is devoted to microsurgery of the spine.
"Actually, it's been disproven that you can influence the nerves by manipulating the spine. An anatomist at Yale took people within a few hours after death and hooked them up to a machine and found that the only way you can twist the spine to cause the nerve to be interfered with – like chiropractors say – is to rupture the ligaments, and that would kill a person." – Dr. Stephen Barrett is a psychiatrist, a consumer advocate and a medical writer.
"... there's a lot of clearance where the nerves come out of the spine and you'd literally have to do a lot of disruption of ligaments and exert 2,000 pounds of pressure in order to try and damage that nerve or relieve any pressure on that nerve." – Dr. Reuben Hoppenstein.
The simple (and understandable) aim of chiropractors is to make money. The way most do this is to get as many clients as they can returning for regular treatments. Chiropractors don't even try to hide this, but try to avoid the question by claiming that chiropractic treatment should be regular and ongoing, and imply that serious health problems may result if treatment is not taken regularly. This is basically the opposite of a GP who (ideally) wants his/her patient to get better so they don't need to be seen again (although government funding practicalities mean they like patients to visit once a year). Since most people need no special treatment, by signing on for ongoing chiropractic treatment a patient is effectively offering the chiropractor their open wallet.
According to Consumer
magazine a few New Zealand chiropractors (15 out of 300 total chiropractors
in NZ) are now adhering to an American set of business practices called Waiting
List Practices (WLP) to enlarge the size of their client base. The result is
healthy people being conned and/or scared into paying around $2,000 for a whole
year of treatment they don't need. The Caution rating is given because
of the huge amount of money wasted on chiropractic treatment (for a family of
four, this could be over $5,300 per year). The New Zealand Cult List acknowledges
that some back treatment may be required in some circumstances, but we suggest
you see your family doctor first. Let them refer you to a physiotherapist if
they deem it appropriate, not a chiropractor.
See Quackwatch
and Chirobase
for more information. Of particular interest is Chirobase's article on the placebo
effect and chiropractic. The article explains how Chiropractic also utilises
the "nocebo" effect (see placebo in the
Glossary) by playing on fear that
a person's health may suffer if treatment is avoided. This is a mind
control technique.
Of interest to those who have trouble understanding why any New Zealand tertiary
institutions would offer Chiropractic degrees, is the write-up of Concerns
About Chiropractic at York University. On the Introduction
page they quote the British Medical Journal (editorial from 18 July 1998):
"we can conclude only that the effectiveness of chiropractic as a treatment for low back pain has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt," and, "[o]n the basis of current evidence, it seems uncertain whether chiropractic does more good than harm."
In July 2018 Stuff reported that New Zealand "Taxpayers are forking out hundreds of thousands of dollars treating sprains, fractures and bruises suffered at the hands of chiropractors." Richard Street, president of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association, is quoted in the article saying "It's a very difficult area because chiropractors effectively speak a slightly different medical language to orthopaedic surgeons. Their belief in what causes pathology is different than the traditional western medical approach and it doesn't have the same evidence-based, critical scientific analysis behind it."
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Printed on 20 January 2021 at www.cults.co.nz.
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