CancerTreatmentBooks.com
Information About Cancer and Cancer Treatment

Chiropractic medicine

Chiropractic medicine is a form of treatment that uses manipulative therapy
to correct subluxation, which many chiropracters hold are the cause of most
disease. Although manipulative therapy has been shown to have some efficacy
in treating back pain, headache, and other symptoms of spinal-related
conditions, the application of chiropractic medicine as a cure or outside of
this specific area is controversial and generally rejected by medical
doctors in most countries.

Practictioners of chiropractic medicine generally hold themselves out as
doctors of chiropratic (D.C.). The use of manipulative therapy by D.C.'s to
treat back pain, headache, and other spinal and musculo-skeletal symptoms
enjoys wide acceptance by government medical authorities in many nations,
where it is covered by many health plans such as Medicare in the United
States. Although some medical doctors (M.D.'s) and many doctors of
osteopathy (D.O.'s) do perform manipulative therapy, more than 90% of the
treatment of back pain by manipulative therapy is performed by D.C.'s.
The studies have shown a high level of patient satisfaction with
manipulative therapy by persons with back problems.

However chiropractic remains controversial. Classical chiropractic theory
holds that the correction of subluxation can cure or treat of most disease.
Although manipulative therapy has been shown to have some efficacy in
treating back pain, headache, and other symptoms of spinal-related
conditions, rigorous, medical studies have not supported the efficacy of
chiropractic medicine as a cure outside of this specific area. Many people
colloquially use the term chiropractic to refer to manipulative therapy of
the spine, even by non-D.C.'s, and are unaware of existence of and
controversy about the application of manipulative therapy to address medical
problems outside of back pain.

History

Although chiropractic medicine has gained general acceptance in the last 20
years as appropriate treatment for back and neck problems, medical doctors
used to regard chiropractic as a form of quackery. In fact, until 1983 the
American Medical Association made it unethical for M.D.'s to refer patients
to chiropractors. The current ethical rules of the American Medical
Association now permit M.D.'s to refer patients to D.C.'s for such
manipulative therapy if the M.D. believes it is in the best interests of the
patients. However, medical doctors continue to regard chiropractic as a form
of quackery when used to treat other conditions such as e.g. asthma.

The term chiropractic literally means "done by hand" and was adopted by
chiropractic's founder, Daniel D. Palmer, to describe a system of therapy
that involved the physical manipulation to move joints and organs that are
out of position, a condition Palmer termed "subluxation." Palmer, a layman
with an interest in the metaphysical health philosophies of his day such as
magnetic healing, phrenology, and spiritualism, embued the term
"subluxation" with a metaphysical meaning holding that Palmer's
"subluxations" interfered with the body's "Innate Intelligence" (spark of
life or spirit).

In 1895, Palmer claimed to have restored the hearing of a nearly deaf
janitor by manipulating his spine. Palmer believed that he had discovered
the primary cause of disease and theorized that 95 percent of all disease
was caused by spinal subluxation and the others by luxated bones elsewhere
in the body. Accordingly to a survey of Canadian chiropractors conducted by
the University of Saskatewan, about one third of chiropracters still believe
in Palmer's philosophy.

Contemporary chiropractic is divided into two basic schools: The traditional
approach is that followed by the faction of the chiropractive movement known
as straight chiropractic See The Federation of Straight Chiropractors and
Organizations. The other school known as mixing chiropractic mixes medical
techniques with spinal and other joint manipulation. Mixing chiropractic is
itself divided into conservative and liberal factions.

The term straight chiropractic is used to more strictly associate with
adherents of Daniel D. Palmer's chiropractic theory, and of those
chiropractic schools who believe that subluxations are the cause of most or
all diseases. Outside of treatment (not cure) of a limited set of symptoms
associated with the spine, there is no medical evidence supporting the
efficacy of straight chiropractic, and some techniques in the past have not
been safe. Doctors who have submitted research backing up the medical
benefits of spinal manipulation have found their claims incorrectly applied
to the entire field of chiropractic manipulation, including straight chiropractic.

Also note the reformer movement discussed below, The National Association
for Chiropractic Medicine (NACM).

Medical risks of spinal manipulation

According to the National Council Against Health Fraud, the conviction held
by chiropractic believers that every spine will benefit from an adjustment
causes them to manipulate spines inappropriately. Among the concerns about
chiropractic manipulation is the widespread use of the explosive "dynamic
thrust" which takes the patient by surprise, as opposed to more conservative
techniques. This maneuver has a greater potential for inflicting injury.

The practice of greatest concern is the rotary neck movement (sometimes
called "Vaster cervical or "rotary break"). This type of manipulation has
led to trauma, paralysis, strokes, and death among patents. Even
chiropractic's legal advisors have warned against its use.

The overuse of x-ray by chiropractors poses potential patient harm. Of
primary concern is the 24' x 36' full spine x-ray. This technique exposes
patients to a substantial amount of radiation. Exposing the body trunk to
x-rays can have serious long-range consequences and should be avoided.
Further, according to NCAHF's chiropractic advisors, such radiographs have
little or no diagnostic value.

Criticism of chiropractic claims

The National Council Against Health Fraud, an American private, non-profit
health care organization issued a report in 1985 critical of chiropractic
medicine.

Sixty-two clinical neurologists from across Canada, all certified members of
the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, have issued a warning to the
Canadian public and provincial governments about the dangers of neck
manipulation.[5]

Mainstream medical doctors and scientists reject the claims of most
chiropractic associations and schools as pseudoscience; many refer to their
claims as fraud. Recebtly, however, a chiropracter from the Canadian
Memorial Chiropractic College, in Toronto, and two professors at Los Angeles
College of Chiropractic also came to this position; they hold that all
chiropractic organizations engage in and promote 'quackery".

Yor University at one point attempted to affiliate with a chiropractic
school. The scientists and medical doctors at this school rebelled against
the plan, and even created their own website explaining why this would be a
bad idea. They enlisted the help of Nobel prize winning scientists to
explain to the school's administration, and public at large, why
chiropractice is unscientific.

There are many investigations and lawsuits underway in Canada for false
advertising, deceptive practices and claims, injuries and deaths.

Misuse of science reports

Some doctors who have submitted research backing up the medical benefits of
limited forms of spinal maipulation have found their claims incorrectly
applied to the entire field of chiropractic manipulation. Perhaps the most
well-known case of this occurred in response to The RAND report on The
Appropriateness of Spinal Manipulation for Lower-Back Pain. This scientific
study was a meta-analysis of 22 controlled experiments; the conclusion was
that certain forms of spinal manipulation were successful in treating
certain types of lower-back pain. Many chiropracters seized upon these
results as proof that chiropractic theory was sound and that chiropractic
medicine had reliable results; in fact, the authors of the report had said
no such thing. Misuse of this report reached such an extent that the RAND
report authors were forced to issue a public statement. In 1993 Dr. Paul
Shekelle rebuked the chiropractic industry for making false claims about
RAND's research:

     "...we have become aware of numerous instances where our results have
     been seriously misrepresented by chiropractors writing for their local
     paper or writing letters to the editor....RAND's studies were about
     spinal manipulation, not chiropractic, and dealt with appropriateness,
     which is a measure of net benefit and harms. Comparative efficacy of
     chiropractic and other treatments was not explicitly dealt with."

Reformers

A small percent of chiropracters have rejected the metaphysical beliefs of
mainstream chiropracters. They view the beliefs of mainstream chiropractic
medicine as metaphysical and religious, and having no scientific validity,
and as a profession which may be danergous. In contrast, the hold that there
are scientifically defensible uses of spinal manipulation for medical
benefits. According to their website:

     The National Association for Chiropractic Medicine (NACM) is a consumer
     advocacy association of chiropractors who confine their scope of
     practice to scientific parameters and seek to make legitimate the
     utilization of professional manipulative procedures in mainstream
     health care delivery. The NACM offers consumer assistance in finding
     member practitioners. The first and foremost requirement for membership
     in the NACM is that a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine renounce the
     chiropractic hypothesis and/or philosophy; that is, the tenets upon
     which their scope of practice is based. The original chiropractic
     hypothesis, stated simply, is that "subluxation is the cause of
     dis-ease." Modern day chiropractic associations may have expanded and
     changed this simple statement for the public, but the reality is that
     this remains the backbone of chiropractic education and practice to
     this day. In clarification, the term "subluxation" has never been
     defined by the profession in a way as to have universal acceptance
     within the chiropractic profession. Chiropractic "subluxation" is not
     the same as medical subluxation, which represents a partial dislocation
     of joint structure and would be a contraindication to "adjusting" or
     "manipulating" the joint structures. Chiropractic "subluxation," not
     having universal definition, and, thereby, not having received
     universal scientific status of existence, has evolved into a
     metaphysical status. Further, the profession has neither defined nor
     outlined what disease or "dis-ease" that the correction of the
     "subluxation" might cure or affect. Because the hypothesis has found no
     validity in universally accepted, peer-reviewed, published scientific
     journals, belief in the hypothesis, then, is essentially a theosophy.
     Science has not found any organ system pathology which "adjustment" or
     "manipulation" of spinal joint structures has effect; that is, no
     disease or "dis-ease" process is affected.

Cancer - List of Famous Cancer Patients - Medical Topics - Medical_Terms - Medicine - Alternative Therapies -