Comments on: Christopractic?

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:14:40 +0000

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!

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:02:56 +0000

“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.

By: IWanthetruth

IWanthetruth — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:11:05 +0000

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….

By: Jim B.

Jim B. — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:19:12 +0000

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…

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:50:35 +0000

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.

By: optimumwellness

optimumwellness — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:01:40 +0000

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.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:07:58 +0000

We’ll be good pastor Jim, pastor Bill =)

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:00:41 +0000

Ever notice how uncomfortable it is when you have an MD and a DC in your congregation?

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:07:36 +0000

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

By: optimumwellness

optimumwellness — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:42:40 +0000

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.