This past Saturday, October 6, was a good day - sunny and almost 90 degrees in the Twin Cities. I decided to take my daughter to a local park before dinner. I fired up the minivan and pulled out of the driveway. As we left our neighborhood, I turned the radio dial to one of my favorite AM stations, 980 KKMS.
Whose voice would grace my ears this glorious afternoon? John MacArthur? R.C. Sproul? John Piper? Alistair Begg? Alas, no. Instead, I was introduced to the “Doctors” of Maximized Living. I place the word “Doctors” within quotations, because it seemed that all of these folks were chiropractors.
While I recognize that most chiropractors have obtained a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degree, it has always seemed to me a bit dishonest for a health care professional who has not completed medical school to call themselves a doctor. I dunno… (To be fair, I don’t know anything about these particular chiropractors. One or more of them may have a medical degree in addition to their DC.)
However, I wouldn’t waste this post space merely to rip chiropractic (though a ripping it surely deserves). These chiro-docs nearly ruined my perfect Saturday evening when one of them said, “God did not create our bodies for prescription medicine.” One of the chiropractors then said that God did create our spines to be manipulated in order to remove energy interference. (One of these chiropractors also referred to prescription medications as toxins and poisons.)
I was recently in a chiropractor’s office for work. The office walls were covered with posters extolling the virtues of “natural” medicine (i.e. chiropractic - though, I’ve never understood why having someone manipulate my spine was any more natural than taking an aspirin) and referencing God’s desire for our physical and spiritual wholeness. The not-so-subtle implication seemed to be that God approves of “natural” (chiropractic) medicine and disapproves of “unnatural” (traditional) medicine.
It appears that many chiropractors are discontent with merely manipulating some poor sap’s spine. They are also in the business of spiritual manipulation. By employing God (to be more specific, the Christian God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - this was, after all, an explicitly Christian radio station) to peddle their services, these chiropractors crossed a line. God is not pro-chiropractic or anti-traditional medicine. (Because I believe God is pro-reason, I could argue the opposite, but won’t.)
To imply or explicitly state to a fellow believer that God desires for them to visit a chiropractor, but not a traditional doctor, is to spiritually manipulate that believer. Even more so for someone speaking from the platform of a health care provider.
…
I should state for the record that I believe there are good chiropractors who treat specific back and musculoskeletal problems. I don’t mean to malign these professionals. However, my limited experience with chiropractors suggests these folks are in the minority. It seems most chiropractors subscribe to the theory of chiropractic subluxation.
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Now playing: Guided by Voices - Run Wild [2001]
via FoxyTunes
http://kimolsen.wordpress.com/
Have you seen this article?
Iwant,
Thanks, I had not seen that. While I would not draw all of the same conclusions, the general premise is right. Much chiropractic practices and theories are spiritual in nature. This is why many in the traditional fields of medicine are very skeptical of chiropractic. And this is why I am very skeptical. The Bible gives us no medical prescriptions. Anyone claiming to have derived some kind of diet or medical program from Scripture is immediately on my goofball-radar.
God Bless
My issue with many of these natural medicine or therapies is that they seem to get farther and farther into the new age and eastern mystical areas. I have heard a few of my friends, Christians, say that they aren’t worried when they use these application in their life because they pray that Jesus would be in the middle of the therapy and protect them.
My contention is if they think it is good and safe why do they need to pray Jesus in the middle of it and where is that exactly scripturally? Praying Jesus in the situation.
God tells us to avoid such stuff. O.T. someplace. I ‘ve read it but can’t remember where. And yes I agree, there are some goodball things out there in the medical field all in the name of God.
Blessings
Jim,
I hope this doesn’t duplicate-
I work for neurocritical care and neurology docs.
The one Doc gave a talk to the residents on carotid and vertebral artery dissections and he had a list of causes:
yahoo-sexual intercourse
yeaha-rollercoasters
car accident/seat belt across neck (improper positioning of the belt too high) can’t remember the term he used
yak-vomiting
quack- chiropractors
those are some of the causes
iwant beat me to the link to Kim’s blog-scarey stuff.
-Blessings
Great post. My first experience with a chiropractor was when I messed up my back in high school and had a few vertebrae that were twisted. The chiropractor did a great job of correcting the physical ailment.
However, I’ve found that it’s pretty difficult to find a chiropractor who doesn’t embrace the mystic, “all-natural” approach. Too many of them are of the belief that chiropractic medicine heals everything.
I haven’t found this to be prevalent within most chiropractors practicing within the realm of sports medicine (”most” being the key word), but I definitely make a conscious decision to steer clear of any facility that embraces words like “healing”, “wellness”, etc.
Great blog as well. I’ve been reading you for a few months now and really enjoy it.
Thanks Joey! There are definitely phrases and terms to look out for, “wellness” being chief among them.
God Bless
As a chiropractor I’m obviously bias towards chiropractic, but I have to agree with the Christopractic post - it is definitely not right to say chiropractic is approved by God and medicine isn’t.
Chiropractic manipulation is about as natural as aspirin as if you live naturally - ie lots of raw fruit and veg (which contain the active components of aspirin) and spend most of your day walking and moving your spine (as opposed to sitting all day) then you will need neither chiropractic nor aspirin.
The best way to think of chiropractic is as an artificial replacement for lack of movement. It is absolutely necessary to move lots every day , otherwise you will fall ill.
I should point out that the official figures for chiropractors causing fatal vertebral artery dissections are about 5 in 100 years of chiropractic. Medical doctors learning manipulation over a weekend course have killed more.
2 medics in Australia actually manipulate the necks of all their patients because they have found that it improves peoples health!
A final point is that any professional with a relevant degree can call themselves Doctor (in the UK anyway). Doctor means educator, so as long as you are educating (hopefully truthfully) you are OK.
Best of Health
Christopher
Christopher,
I will look into the figures your quoted. These Docs though are from Johns Hopkins.
Christopher,
I realize the point of the article was not the statistical chances of receiving carotid/vertebral artery dissections from chiropractic care. Therefore I won’t say anymore unless Jim wantsto hear what this particular doctor I am speaking about has to say.
Sorry for getting off subject.
Mary,
Feel free - I don’t think you’ve gotten too off topic. I am always curious to hear what medical (i.e. real) doctors have to say about chiropractors. (Sorry, Christopher, but I think there is a vast difference in the training received by an MD and a DC. For a DC to imply to one’s patients that he is a “doctor” in the same sense as an MD is misleading at best.)
Christopher,
I should say, however, that I appreciate your comments and your recognizing that chiropractic is no more “natural”, “godly” or “spiritual” than traditional medicine.
God Bless
Hi Jim B,
Just read the comments on my post. Again you are right that it is misleading to call yourself a doctor and not point out that you are chiropractor (or dentist, or psychologist etc) as opposed to an MD ( or GP as we say in the UK ).
In the UK at least we have to make that clear.
However, when it come to our training in general diagnosis, it is almost equal to that of an MD.
When it come to orthopedics it is superior. A study last year at a medical hospital revealed that 3rd year orthopedic residents would fail the equivalent chiropractic exam.
Also, our neurology and neuroanatomy has to be much better than an MD as we deal with the nervous system everyday. A chiropractor called Marc Pick is so advanced in his dissecting skills he is hired to teach neurologists from Japan and the US. Another chiropractor, Professor Carick, has developed such a deep understanding about the inner workings of the brain that he is now hired to bring people out of comas - he has a one year waiting list.
We also have more hours of physical examination, nutrition and psychology.
A final area we study is radiography and radiology. Chiropractors are licensed to both take and interpret muskuloskeletal X-rays, an area which I believe MD’s have very little training in.
We also study more before we even touch a patient (an extra year).
In Australia it is actually harder to become a chiropractor than an MD.
I don’t blame you for not knowing this as it is a common misconception. I only wish MD’s would realize just how much we really do know.
Thanks for reading.
Best of Health
Christopher the Chiropractor
“1 in 20,000 spinal manipulations lead to carotid or vertebral dissections”.
See:
W.S.Smith,S.C Johnson,E.J. Skalabrin, M. Weaver, P.P. Azari, G.W. Albers and D.R. Gress
spinal manipulative therapy is an independent risk factor for vertebral artery dissection.
Hufnagel A, et al Stroke following chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine. J Neurol. 1999;246:683-688.
Vickers A, Zollman C. The manipulation therapies;osteopathy and chiropractic. BMJ 1999;319:1176-1179.
Schievink WI, etal. Cervical artery dissections associated with chiropratic manipulation of the neck: The importance of preexisting arterial disease and injury. J Neurology 1996;243: Suppl 2:S92-S92. abstract
Many of the studies done mention chiropractic manipulation so they can avoid the fact that many of them were not actually done by chiropractors but others practicing it without proper training.
If it really were 1 in 20,000 then I should cause about 1 per year and so should all my colleagues. The fact is there have only been two reported in the past 12 years - one in Canada, which concluded it was going to happen anyway (as one of the symptoms of a carotid artery dissection is neck pain), the other in the UK - the conclusion in this case was that if it had not of happened while coincidently in the chiropractors office the lady in question may well of died.
Studies on healthy neck arteries show that the force needed to damage them in a manipulation would actually break the bone first.
Never the less, I appreciate your concerns. It seems a lot more scary than it really is.
There are many more people who are alive because of manipulation than have suffered because of it.
Check out articles on the Influenza epidemic of 1917 and the most successful two therapies - people seeing osteopaths or chiropractors were 40x more likely to survive.
Christopher,
I am not a doctor, I have never been to a chiropractor. I am a vascular technologist. But I do know this: the other causes for dissection he mentioned- sexual intercourse, rollercoasters, vomiting and heavy coughing (which I forgot to add) can cause dissections without the force to break neck bones.
In any cause I am sure you are a highly trained conscientious chiropractor.
God Bless.
Mary
Ever notice how uncomfortable it is when you have an MD and a DC in your congregation?
We’ll be good pastor Jim, pastor Bill =)
Maybe I’m just trying to have the last word, but carotid dissections when associated with roller coasters etc. were probably all going to happen anyway due to the vessels being in a weakened and diseased state. I believe they are also associated with “nothing”, and these seemingly traumatic events were just the last straw.
Anyway, even though I think that cervical rotary manipulations only cause an insignificant risk I still prefer using other methods first as I want the risk to be absolute zero, not just near it.
This is more than could be said of normal doctors who still prescribe aspirin which kills 20,000 people a year in the USA alone. Which means 1 in 700 who take it regularly will die from it. This is supposed to be a safe medicine, but it is still more dangerous than the most risky part of chiropractic. (Source: Proceedings of the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, October 15, 2007).
Anyway, whatever way you choose to be healthy, just become informed.
Hey Christopher,
You can have the last word about carotid dissections. I’m not really interested in bantering back and forth about it. Though the literature I have says those with carotid dissections were 5 times more likely to have been to a chiropractor, there was no proof that the chiropractor caused it but maybe exacerbated the dissection and caused stroke/TIA. Thus those with neck pain who may already have a dissection go to the chiropractor to relieve the pain
perhaps. Thus the need for imaging tests beforehand I guess.
Anyway I care more about your personal spiritual state with God than I do winning any arguement. This is a christian blog.
Funny thing about that statistic, optimum, is that you can only find it on chiropractic and anti-traditional medicine websites. For example, I found it headlined at http://www.wddty.com/ - “wddty” is an acronym for What Doctors Don’t Tell You. I also found a similar article at Planet Chiropractic.com (http://www.planetc1.com/) with this lovely headline - “Kill the Pain and Maybe Your Baby“. Sigh…
[This is my problem with most (not all) chiropractors - they intentionally instill a fear and distrust of MDs in their patients. (This has the convenient effect of giving the chiropractor more business.) I have no patience for these fear-mongering quacks.]
I was unable to find the context in which this information (20000 deaths attributed to aspirin) was found. Have you read the details of this report, optimum, or are you parroting what you have heard from other chiros? It just seems fishy to me that no alarm bells are being rung among traditional MDs (the research was done, after all, by traditional Docs), yet it is all over the online universe of paranoid alternative medicine practitioners.
I smell pseudo-science…
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0815/is_n212_v22/ai_19252475
Hey Jim,
Look at this article, but notice all of the drugs listed….
“vessels being weakened and in a diseased state”
Dissections can occur due to vessels being weakened and in a diseased state but they are not restricted to aging blood vessels.
Dissections occur due to trauma where the artery walls are torn apart. Blood collects between the layers and if clots break off and lodge in the brain stroke or TIA occurs. In the case of trauma there is no respector of age and it can occur in an otherwise healthy artery.
As a T5 term chiropractic student I am not surprised at all by the discussion on this board. I’m obviously going to have a skewed perception of my future occupation; however I will completely and wholeheartedly agree with your initial discussion(way before the DC vs. MD banter). Religion should have very little or no part in health care, except through family beliefs etc. (where faith and positive thinking are crucial for recovery). There is nothing wrong with pairing belief with healing when preached IN church (I would hear it every single Sunday in church), and it should NOT be included in the doctors office. Lets just leave religion to pastors etc., and health care to doctors. I feel it is very unfair that an entire occupation is judged over a radio broadcast or a couple of “hokey pokey” offices. There are questionable people in ALL occupations and we should all be aware of that when making judgments. Maybe the saying is true….”ignorance is bliss” Please become better educated on the subject at hand before bringing in statistics and “facts” from the internet. Bottom line: If chiropractic care enhances someones health, is this not a success?
Also just a little background on education requirements for becoming a DC. I needed a minimum of 90 credits of prerequisites from UW. This includes all of the chemistry and biology courses shared by pre-med students. Once accepted into the college of chiropractic I have to go approximately 3.5 years year-round. (10 trimesters) Here is some info on the courses. http://www.nwhealth.edu/edprogr/chiro/cusched.html
Sorry for preaching everyone, just speaking my mind and would rather not start any more banter. Thanks for reading!