What alternative health

practitioners might not tell you

 

ebm-first.com

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NOTE: The UK regulatory body, the General Chiropractic Council, claims that it is 'protecting patients' and 'setting standards'. However, the legislative framework for the practice of chiropractic in the UK does not specify the style or the scope of practice. This allows UK chiropractors to recommend and administer a number of treatments which are not supported by reliable scientific research (e.g. vitalistic subluxation-based care, craniosacral therapy, applied kinesiology and regular wellness/corrective/preventive maintenance care, etc.).

 

Related links

Latest news UK chiropractic issues Beware the spinal trap
Research and efficacy The Meade Report criticism Vaccination concerns
Risks Various concerns Craniosacral Therapy
Safe for children? Sandra Nette v. Stiles et al Applied Kinesiology
Treating children Chiropractic (questionable)  

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"Chiropractic theory and practice are not based on the body of knowledge related to health, disease, and health care that has been widely accepted by the scientific community...2. Many chiropractors promise too much...3. Our education is vastly inferior to that of medical doctors...4. Our legitimate scope is actually very narrow...5. Very little of what chiropractors do has been studied....6. Unless your diagnosis is obvious, it's best to be diagnosed elsewhere... 7. We offer lots of unnecessary services...8. "Cracking" of the spine doesn't mean much...9. If the first few visits don't help you, more treatment probably won't help...10. We take too many x-rays...11. Research on spinal manipulation does not reflect what takes place in most chiropractic offices...12. Neck manipulation is potentially dangerous...13. Most chiropractors don't know much about nutrition...14. Chiropractors who sell vitamins charge much more than it costs them...15. Chiropractors have no business treating young children...16. The fact that patients swear by us does not mean we are actually helping them...17. Insurance companies don't want to pay for chiropractic care...18. Lots of chiropractors do really strange things...19. Don't expect our licensing boards [regulators] to protect you...20. The media rarely look at what we do wrong." Preston H. Long DC (18th October 2013)

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“U.S. chiropractors have the highest student loan default rates of any healthcare profession. Protect yourself and your family from getting saddled with chiropractic student loans. Five years after graduation, only half of chiropractic college graduates will still be practicing. Meanwhile, chiropractors must pay back student loan debt that is as high as a medical or law school education. And everyone knows that you CANNOT file for bankruptcy on student loans.”

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A comprehensive look at chiropractic. Includes criticism of unscientific chiropractic methods such as Applied Kinesiology, hair analysis to assess nutritional status, activator methods, the Meric System, electrodermal testing, and inappropriate prescribing; a look at the dangers of chiropractic including delay of effective medical treatment, excessive radiation, opposition to vaccination, artery dissection and stroke, and ethics violations; and concerns about chiropractic policy including insurance coverage, chiropractic education, and the lack of public awareness about these concerns. By Jann J. Bellamy JD, The Institute for Science in Medicine (August 2012) [pdf]

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"It will not be enough for chiropractors and chiropractic colleges to substitute such words and phrases as 'joint dysfunction', 'vertebral subluxation complex', and 'subluxation/neuro-biomechanical dysfunction' for the word 'subluxation' if they continue to imply that such disturbances can affect the nervous system to cause illness. A chiropractic subluxation by any other name is still a chiropractic subluxation...Few consumers are aware of the great diversity in chiropractic, and few know what questions to ask when looking for a science-based chiropractor. Until all chiropractic colleges uniformly renounce the vertebral subluxation theory and are upgraded to training musculoskeletal specialists, treatment methods will vary from one chiropractor to another, incompatible with exchange in mainstream health care...The only thing unique about chiropractic is its basic definition as a method of adjusting vertebral subluxations to restore and maintain health. Any other physical treatment method, including generic spinal manipulation, is physical medicine...Many chiropractors feel that if the chiropractic profession discards the subluxation theory and specializes in the care of back pain and related musculoskeletal problems, it will not be able to compete with physical therapists and other musculoskeletal practitioners who use manual therapy." 

Samuel Homola, DC, Science Based Medicine, (30th December 2011)

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"The dilemma with chiropractic is that the entire profession is based on false beliefs about health with liberal amounts of excuses to explain inconsistencies…When the thing you purport to treat doesn't exist then your role in the healthcare system becomes futile and frustrating. Chiropractic institutions are well aware of the threat and utilize classic cult techniques of thought stopping, large group awareness training (assembly chanting, motivational exercises), limitations of matter excuses, loaded language (false biomechanical and ethical terms), threats and extensive propaganda to insulate practitioners from realizing inconsistency. The most powerful catalyst for change is failure, whether monetary or in clinical outcomes. There is nothing like the experience of injuring a patient using a favourite technique, failing to diagnose an underlying complaint, or inducing a stroke to give a chiropractor a good scare and break through the programming. Progress comes in stages." Chirotalk (the skeptical chiropractic discussion forum)

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“There is no good-quality research to suggest spinal manipulation is of benefit in animals. Significant differences in the anatomy of the spine make it questionable whether veterinary patients would experience the same causes of lower back pain as humans or that manipulative therapy would provide the same benefits…No reliable research evidence exists regarding the safety of chiropractic treatment in animals.” SkeptVet website

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Chiropractic Stroke Awareness Organization is a non-profit organization with a mission to raise awareness on the risk of stroke from upper cervical manipulations and, most importantly, to provide a supportive community for stroke victims and their family members.

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VOCA is working in conjunction with other organizations to reform the chiropractic industry and to enforce patients' rights. VOCA has succeeded in sponsoring two pieces of legislation that have become law in the state of Connecticut - mandatory reporting of malpractice claims to the state's Insurance Commissioner, as well as the expansion of the state's online 'Physician Profile' to include chiropractors

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"I fear that chiropractors' views on their very own treatment might not be entirely free of conflicts of interest." Article by Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCPEd, Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies [FACT]

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The entire chiropractic chapter from ‘Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial’ by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst is available to read online via this link.

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A skeptical chiropractic website that invites you to tell your story about the chiropractic profession. Having concluded that chiropractic is not portrayed accurately by colleges, the site is looking to index people's experiences in the profession with the goal of helping to fix the problem. If you are considering chiropractic as a career, the information on this site should help to increase your awareness.

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Irish television programme which contains a 22-minute segment (commencing after 12 minutes) about the dangers of chiropractic neck manipulation. The rebuttals made by Hagan McQuaid, former International Vice-President of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland, are wholly unconvincing. The programme concludes by questioning the effectiveness of statutory regulation:

"In countries where such a system exists it is inevitably used to imply state approval for therapies which may have little or no scientific evidence to support them and may be dangerous. Perhaps what the public really needs are laws that dramatically curtail the claims that any therapist can make and treatments they are permitted to offer."

Prime Time, RTE (5th May 2005)

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An extensive range of skeptical chiropractic articles at Quackfiles Blogspot.

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A website which aims to provide information about the scientific and evidence base for chiropractic, enabling informed decisions to be made about whether chiropractic is right for you.