An extremely biased, relatively insignificant study was published last week in the journal Neurology about how neck manipulations are supposed to increase the risk of strokes in some people.  The article was in the Macon paper, and a friend asked if I had seen it.  I had not, and asked him what it said.  He told me, and I brushed it off as nothing.  Chiropractors are accustomed to defending our work, and I assumed that everyone already knows that.  Three patients of ours, however, saw the article too and asked if I would explain what it was about and how chiropractic is safe.  I don’t love writing defensively, but I will attempt to shed more accurate light on the whole issue of the bias against chiropractors and the truth about neck manipulations.

Chiropractors offer drug-free, cost-effective conservative care that assures nervous system health.  It is exceptionally effective for lower back troubles, neck troubles, and headaches in addition.  According to Dr. Terry Rondberg, president of the World Chiropractic Alliance, “Millions of people are turning to chiropractic for their health and wellness care.  That’s millions of dollars that won’t go for risky medical treatment or expensive drugs.  The medical and drug industries have a strong incentive to scare people away from chiropractic.”  A person can be seen in my office for an entire year for about the same amount as it costs for a single MRI.  Natural remedies that can do as effective a job as many pharmaceuticals are cheap and offer no built-in profit for big conglomerates.  It is all about money.  In 1990 in Wilk vs. AMA, the American Medical Association was found guilty of conspiring with other medical organizations in a “lengthy, systematic, successful, and unlawful boycott” designed to eliminate chiropractic as a competitor.  Since the AMA cannot directly launch an all-out assault on chiropractors anymore, the assault comes in the form of media exaggeration of a comparatively small issue.  The media has an interest because, according to Dr. Rondberg, “Drug companies and other medical firms spend more than 3 billion dollars yearly to fill newspaper and magazine pages, saturate radio and television airwaves, and blanket the Internet with ads.”

 The paper published last week involved 51 stroke victims who had had neck manipulations in the same time frame as their strokes occurred.  This could mean the same week, day, or month.  “Just because there was a temporal relationship between the events does not mean that one caused the other,” said chiropractic researcher Dr. Christopher Kent.  The media also failed to distinguish the difference between neck manipulations and chiropractic adjustments.  Some of the manipulations performed by medical doctors, physiotherapists, and osteopaths were incorrectly blamed on chiropractors.  Numerous prior studies, some involving thousands of patients, directly contradict the findings of the study which was published last week.  In fact, chiropractors have the lowest malpractice premiums in the healthcare profession.  This is an indication of the safety of chiropractic procedures.  If it were so unsafe, the premiums would be outrageous to protect the public from all of the risk.  According to the April, 1998 Journal of the American Medical Association, medical treatment and drug errors account for more than 100,000 deaths per year with another 350,000 adverse drug interactions, many of which are fatal, in nursing homes. This is why many medical doctors are leaving practice, limiting their practices, or eliminating surgical procedures. Malpractice insurance rates are correlated with the amount of risk a practitioner poses to the public.

I do not want to appear to be anti-medical.  I am not.  I do get frustrated when my profession is misrepresented.  We are highly skilled, well-trained doctors.  We know when something is out of our scope of practice, and when to refer to someone who knows more than we do about one condition or another.  The first part of our oath as doctors is, “First, do no harm.”  We also remember that the word “doctor” in Latin means “teacher”.  We take the time to teach our patients about their conditions rather than dictate to them their treatments.  We have tests which are specifically for determining a patient’s risk of having a cerebrovascular incident, or stroke.  We have specialized cervical techniques which target specific areas of the spine and were developed to reduce patients’ risk.  I know that chiropractic won’t heal everything from skin cancer to hemorrhoids, but I also know that if my nervous system is free of interference caused by vertebral subluxations my body has a greater chance of healing and recovering from a host of ailments.  I love what I do.  I love those that I serve, and by the grace of God I will continue to defend the merits of chiropractic until my job on this earth is done.  Treat your body well.