Category: Chiropractic
Chiropractic and Stroke: The question is not answered
I am off to Chicago for 5 days to wow the SMACC crowd with my ID/SBM acumen. I hope. Given that most of my multiple-personalities do not seem to be able to get any work done, I am forced to write a brief post this week, limited by the battery life on my MacBook Air. Whatever I get down on paper? pixels?...
Functional Disc Rehydration for Chronic Back Pain
A chiropractor in Illinois named Jeff Winternheimer claims to have discovered an effective way to heal herniated discs by rehydrating them. He calls it Functional Disc Rehydration and he offers it through a network of four offices in the Chicago area called the Illinois Back Clinic. He has lots of testimonials and one sorry amateurish attempt at a scientific study that claimed...
Dubious MTHFR genetic mutation testing
Naturopaths, along with some chiropractors, acupuncturists and a few “integrative” physicians, are advising patients that they should be tested for MTHFR genetic mutations. Typically, the naturopath will start with the pitch that “conventional” medical doctors are ignoring your genes as a possible source of your health problems. (And it is mostly naturopaths who are doing this – just Google “naturopath MTHFR genetic mutation”...
Chiropractic Manipulation of the Neck Linked to Stroke in a 6-Year-Old Child…
The risk of suffering a stroke when undergoing aggressive chiropractic manipulation of the neck is not a new concern. We’ve discussed it several times on the pages of Science-Based Medicine over the years, most recently in November of 2014 when Steven Novella covered the death by chiropractor of 30-year-old Jeremy Youngblood, whose fatal brain injury occurred while seeking treatment for a sore...
Chiropractic Nose Balloons
You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. But you can’t pick your friends nose. Unless you practice Nasal Cranial Release. There are so many pseudo-medicines, it is hard to keep track. New variations appear, new combinations of old SCAMs occur, old pseudo-medicines wax and wane, although no pseudo-medicine ever dies. Except phenology? Maybe? I find a few phrenology sites...
ACA: Six Key Elements of A Modern Chiropractic Practice Act
In February, 2015, the American Chiropractic Association House of Delegates ratified “Six Key Elements of A Modern Chiropractic Practice Act.” For what it’s worth, this means that the “Six Elements” are part of the official “Public Policy” of the ACA. 1. “Chiropractic Physician” and “Chiropractic Medicine” as the Regulatory Terms of Licensure. 2. Scope of Practice Determined by Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Education,...
“Finally…The Low Back Pain Solution”: A Chiropractor Makes Questionable Claims
The ads in my local newspaper are a never-ending source of questionable health claims, most often from diet supplement manufacturers and chiropractors. There’s no single spokesman like Dr. Oz, but as a group they remind me of Oz’s unending series of weight loss miracles, each one the perfect solution until the next one comes along. The proliferation of chiropractic ads is bad...
The DC as PCP? Drug Wars Resume
Chiropractors are once again engaged in intra-fraternal warfare over the chiropractic scope of practice, a saga we’ve chronicled before on SBM. (See the references at end of this post.) Every time it looks like the warring factions have buried their differences, they come rising to the surface like zombies. The International Chiropractors Association (ICA), representing the “straight” faction, wants chiropractic to continue...
Bias and Spin: Acupuncture and Chiropractic
We all construct our narrative based on our biases and spin the facts so that the narrative confirms our biases. Among other characteristics, what separates an SBM provider from a SCAM provider is realizing that biases are always active and apply to me as well as everyone else. My biases are simple: I am skeptical that humans can reliably understand reality without...
The Straw Protocol: A Chiropractor’s Aggressively Promoted Neuropathy Treatment
Full-page ads promoting free dinner seminars addressing the topic of “Non-surgical, drug-free approach to relief from Peripheral [sic] Neuropathy [sic]” appeared last year on at least nine Sundays in the main news section of the print edition of The Los Angeles Times. The seminars were scheduled at various restaurants in Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Inland Empire. The Los Angeles Times...