“Systematic reviews of controlled clinical studies of treatments used by chiropractors have found no evidence that chiropractic manipulation is effective, with the possible exception of treatment for back pain.[8] A 2011 critical evaluation of 45 systematic reviews concluded that the data included in the study “fail[ed] to demonstrate convincingly that spinal manipulation is an effective intervention for any condition.”[10] Spinal manipulation may be cost-effective for sub-acute or chronic low back pain, but the results for acute low back pain were insufficient.[11] No compelling evidence exists to indicate that maintenance chiropractic care adequately prevents symptoms or diseases.[12]”
YSK that Medical Doctors are also not Chiropractors. This is why the letters after their names are different. M.D. means Medical Doctor, and D.C. means Doctor of Chiropractic. The major differences in their educations being Surgery, and Drugs for the MDs, and Nutrition, Physical Therapy, Manual Therapy are studied more by DCs. Depending on licensure laws both can order imaging, laboratory testing, and prescribe massage or physical therapy. Also the MD will only have 3-7 minutes to spend with you, and the DC will have much more time to do intake, history, therapy, and to explain what is going on with you and what can be done to improve your situation. Here’s a fun fact for ya, some of the injuries attributed to joint manipulation, and this is well documented, were from barbers, kung fu teachers, and yes, MDs and PTs who went to a weekend course in manipulation, instead of the numerous semesters of learning that a DC will have as part of their normal coursework.
@NataliePortland, what’s your issue? Why do you care so much about this particular topic?
Yeah NataliePortland, why do you care that people are getting ripped off and, in some cases, injured or killed for no benefit? They’re not even you, it makes no sense.
I could start spending my time bashing various professions, I suppose, but I’ve got better things to do. However, since you are obviously interesting in people being ripped off, injured or killed here’s this, the first article that came up on search from PubMed:
Our prescription drugs kill us in large numbers
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25355584/
Abstract
Our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States and Europe. Around half of those who die have taken their drugs correctly; the other half die because of errors, such as too high a dose or use of a drug despite contraindications. Our drug agencies are not particularly helpful, as they rely on fake fixes, which are a long list of warnings, precautions, and contraindications for each drug, although they know that no doctor can possibly master all of these. Major reasons for the many drug deaths are impotent drug regulation, widespread crime that includes corruption of the scientific evidence about drugs and bribery of doctors, and lies in drug marketing, which is as harmful as tobacco marketing and, therefore, should be banned. We should take far fewer drugs, and patients should carefully study the package inserts of the drugs their doctors prescribe for them and independent information sources about drugs such as Cochrane reviews, which will make it easier for them to say “no thanks”.
It is a free article, so you can read the whole thing, if you wish to be better informed.
The second one is from US News and World Report:
Death by Prescription
https://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2016-09-27/the-danger-in-taking-prescribed-medications
Enjoy.
No professions are being bashed here, just liars and thieves. One can be a professional thief, of course, but it’s not a respectable line of work and I won’t waste too much time hand-wringing over what they and their supporters feel about what I say.
Here’s one simple test: for a risk to be acceptable, there must be a benefit which can be achieved through taking that risk. Low risk, high benefit is good and high risk, low benefit is bad. I’m not going to defend the whole prescription drug industry because obviously it has its share of shitheads. Still, the broad range of products tends to fall on the favorable side of the risk/benefit balance when used as intended which is something I can’t say for no-benefit practices like chiropractic, osteopathic or any of the other imitation medicine offerings out there.
I’ve been cracking nearly every joint in my body for my whole life. So, I understand that it can feel amazing when you get 10 good pops down your spine.
On two occasions (over 40 years) my neck was so stiff, it caused incredible pain to move it at all.
Both of those times, someone I know recommended a chiropractor. Each time, I went in for an initial appointment and a follow up, and every single time, I left feeling exactly as miserable as when I walked in the door.
The first guy karate chopped my neck, which made it hurt more for the rest of the day. And the second guy just put some electrodes on my back and left the room while the machine zapped me for ten minutes. Neither of them ever claimed to know what was wrong or how to fix it. They just said, “We can try this and see how you feel. 🤷🏻♂️”
I’ve seen no evidence that they can do anything more than what I was able to figure out with a chair in 4th grade.
They know they’re giving you a placebo. Sometimes it “works”, other times it doesn’t.