Is Chiropractic A Cult?
Are Chiropractors Practicing Un-Scientific Methods?

All Is Revealed – Here.

Q. Why should I see a Chiropractor?
For spinal problems, no other profession – not medical, not the osteopathic majority, not physiotherapists, not anybody – has engaged as much time and specificity, in formal curriculae and daily practice on the spine and its associated articulations, and neural components, in diagnosis and treatment.

Q. So Why should I bother to see a physiotherapist then?
All professions help, as long as they are government accredited and professionally qualified. Why would anyone discourage you from getting the help you need? I refer to physiotherapists whenever I can not get results, or to another chiropractor even, or if the physio does some sort of specialty I prefer not to.
Would any physiotherapist ever discourage you from seeing a chiropractor? I know one that wards people away from my door. Its OK with me, its a free country for “them” to give advice.
But…Many espouse that mobilisation is safer than manipulation. This is like saying surgery is safer than not having surgery: but if you need it, what would you do? Mobilisation is not a substitute of manipulations or certainly a chiropractic adjustment. Ever. Appropriate diagnosis governs appropriate care, where possible.

Q. Does a Subluxation exist?
The major reality in chiropractic is the patient. The patient who either wants to get well or be better than they are is the center of chiropractic. A subluxation is just a word that the chiropractor gives to define what was not functioning correctly in the spine, causing a health problem or functional disturbance. Therefore it exists as the theoretical premise behind why people get better under chiropractic care, and evolves every day through research – what it physically is, is a healthy debate within the science of chiropractic.

It appears that certain facts can be agreed upon as characterising a vertebral subluxation:

1. it involved joint alignment. Eg: the head, neck and body posture is affected
2. affects the nervous system. Eg: muscle spasm is chronic because of a neurological imbalance
3. impedes innate healing. Eg: may mimic or exacerbate the process or signs of any disease

Q. How is the subluxation removed?
A subluxation is removed by an adjustment to the spinal or other joint involved. Quite simply, the subluxation is a chiropractic term often used for its implied meaning. Problematically, there are some varied definitions. Many medical people remove joint restrictions, physiotherapists mobilise joint dysfunction, osteopaths work on lesions within the neuro-spinal system. This can all be equated in the most basic description of what is analogous to a subluxation.

Q. So then what is the real difference with chiropractors?
As stated, the focus, with chiropractors, is more often the spine. Not other therapies, though many cover these areas. The key word is “focus”. Whether they mention subluxation or not, and many do not, the focus is the nervous system and its relationship to the spine.

Q. Is there any scientific evidence that a subluxation exists?
More importantly there is a growing number of exceptional studies supporting the ability of chiropractic to alter health outcomes.

There is no definitive evidence at this point that states exactly what subluxation is.

We only know that people get well with chiropractic care for a great many things and over a great length of time – over 100 years. Governments, third party payors and skeptics have been forced to accept the delivery of chiropractic based on public preference and success. This will inject more future funds into the miniscule amount set for non-medical therapies – which evidently people are flocking to in greater numbers than mainstream.

Q. Can a subluxation kill me if I don’t get it adjusted?
There is no evidence of this.

Q. Can nerve system disorders or impairments cause tissues and organs to malfunction?
If you cut a nerve to the muscle the muscle will die, with absolute certainty. If you put some pressure on the nerve to the spleen, it has been shown to cut normal function. So the answer is YES. Now the question is: do chiropractors have a role in this phenomenon by removing the subluxation? That is what needs more investigation. We are not sure.

Q. Why do you have to keep going back to a chiropractor?
Guidelines on frequency and duration of care vary for conditions of differing nature and chronicity. Where people seek to elevate their current experience of health, or to promote feeling good in the absence of symptoms, it is possible for chiropractors to detect spinal problems at a sub-clinical level. This may take the form of a regular check up at a monthly frequency, for example. There is only preliminary evidence that this has any merit, but very few have even questioned it within medical science.

Q. But if there is nothing wrong with me, what would be done on a monthly check up?
Think of checking for spinal problems more focusing on function than symptoms.

If the nuts on your car wheel are on, just because it has not fallen off does not mean one or more are in need of tightening. A stress/exercise ECG at the cardiologist can detect an abnormal circulation or heart rhythm before the first symptom: death! A chiropractor can check your spine anytime to assess its function – really quite a magnificent thing! Especially if it comes up perfect.

Q. So if I get checked every week, will it prevent all disease?
There is no evidence of this per se, but it has been found in recent studies that people under chiropractic use hospitals, medicines and medical care less. Remarkably, we can say that it does not prevent disease, but can assume people are generally healthier, based on these limited studies, and can fight disease off within their own innate processes.

Q. Are medical doctors against chiropractors?
Are chiropractors against medical doctors?
Equally irrelevant question.
The fact is that superb research is currently being done by Medical Doctors WITH Chiropractors. For example: Journal of Whiplash & Related Disorders, Journal of Human Hypertension, and Chiroweb.com, to name a miniscule few.

ANY other questions? Let me know.

Joe Ierano BSc DC MACC BCAO