Twenty Things Most Chiropractors Wont Tell You

Published Friday 18 October 2013

The following is a guest post by Preston H. Long. It is an excerpt from his new book
entitled Chiropractic AbuseA Chiropractors Lament. Preston H. Long is a licensed
chiropractor from Arizona. His professional career has spanned nearly 30 years. In addition
to treating patients, he has testified at about 200 trials, performed more than 10,000
chiropractic case evaluations, and served as a consultant to several law enforcement
agencies. He is also an associate professor at Bryan University, where he teaches in the
masters program in applied health informatics. His new book is one of the very few that
provides an inside criticism of chiropractic. It is well worth reading, in my view.

Have you ever consulted a chiropractor? Are you thinking about seeing one? Do you care whether your tax
and health-care dollars are spent on worthless treatment? If your answer to any of these questions is yes,
there are certain things you should know.

1. Chiropractic theory and practice are not based on the body of knowledge related to health,
disease, and health care that has been widely accepted by the scientific community.

Most chiropractors believe that spinal problems, which they call subluxations, cause ill health and that
fixing them by adjusting the spine will promote and restore health. The extent of this belief varies from
chiropractor to chiropractor. Some believe that subluxations are the primary cause of ill health; others
consider them an underlying cause. Only a small percentage (including me) reject these notions and align
their beliefs and practices with those of the science-based medical community. The ramifications and
consequences of subluxation theory will be discussed in detail throughout this book.

2. Many chiropractors promise too much.

The most common forms of treatment administered by chiropractors are spinal manipulation and passive
physiotherapy measures such as heat, ultrasound, massage, and electrical muscle stimulation. These
modalities can be useful in managing certain problems of muscles and bones, but they have little, if any,
use against the vast majority of diseases. But chiropractors who believe that subluxations cause ill health
claim that spinal adjustments promote general health and enable patients to recover from a wide range of
diseases. The illustrations below reflect these beliefs. The one to the left is part of a poster that promotes
the notion that periodic spinal adjustments are a cornerstone of good health. The other is a patient
handout that improperly relates subluxations to a wide range of ailments that spinal adjustments
supposedly can help. Some charts of this type have listed more than 100 diseases and conditions, including
allergies, appendicitis, anemia, crossed eyes, deafness, gallbladder problems, hernias, and pneumonia.

A 2008 survey found that exaggeration is common among chiropractic Web sites. The researchers looked
at the Web sites of 200 chiropractors and 9 chiropractic associations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each site was examined for claims suggesting that chiropractic
treatment was appropriate for asthma, colic, ear infection/earache/otitis media, neck pain, whiplash,
headache/migraine, and lower back pain. The study found that 95% of the surveyed sites made
unsubstantiated claims for at least one of these conditions and 38% made unsubstantiated claims for all
of them.1 False promises can have dire consequences to the unsuspecting.

3. Our education is vastly inferior to that of medical doctors.

I rarely encountered sick patients in my school clinic. Most of my patients were friends, students, and an
occasional person who presented to the student clinic for inexpensive chiropractic care. Most had nothing
really wrong with them. In order to graduate, chiropractic college students are required to treat a minimum
number of people. To reach their number, some resort to paying people (including prostitutes) to visit them
at the colleges clinic.2
Students also encounter a very narrow range of conditions, most related to aches and pains. Real medical
education involves contact with thousands of patients with a wide variety of problems, including many
severe enough to require hospitalization. Most chiropractic students see patients during two clinical years
in chiropractic college. Medical students also average two clinical years, but they see many more patients
and nearly all medical doctors have an additional three to five years of specialty training before they enter
practice.

Chiropractics minimum educational standards are quite low. In 2007, chiropractic students were required
to evaluate and manage only 15 patients in order to graduate. Chiropractics accreditation agency ordered
this number to increase to 35 by the fall of 2011. However, only 10 of the 35 must be live patients (eight
of whom are not students or their family members)! For the remaining cases, students are permitted to
assist, observe, or participate in live, paper-based, computer-based, distance learning, or other reasonable
alternative.3 In contrast, medical students see thousands of patients.

Former National Council Against Health Fraud President William T. Jarvis, Ph.D., has noted that chiropractic
school prepares its students to practice conversational medicinewhere they glibly use medical words
but lack the knowledge or experience to deal appropriately with the vast majority of health problems. 4 Dr.
Stephen Barrett reported a fascinating example of this which occurred when he visited a chiropractor for
research purposes. When Barrett mentioned that he was recovering from an attack of vertigo (dizziness),
the chiropractor quickly rattled off a textbook-like list of all the possible causes. But instead of obtaining a
proper history and conducting tests to pinpoint a diagnosis, he x-rayed Dr. Barretts neck and recommended
a one-year course of manipulations to make his neck more curved. The medical diagnosis, which had been
appropriately made elsewhere, was a viral infection that cleared up spontaneously in about ten days.5

4. Our legitimate scope is actually very narrow.

Appropriate chiropractic treatment is relevant only to a narrow range of ailments, nearly all related to
musculoskeletal problems. But some chiropractors assert that they can influence the course of nearly
everything. Some even offer adjustments to farm animals and family pets.

5. Very little of what chiropractors do has been studied.

Although chiropractic has been around since 1895, little of what we do meets the scientific standard
through solid research. Chiropractic apologists try to sound scientific to counter their detractors, but very
little research actually supports what chiropractors do.

6. Unless your diagnosis is obvious, its best to get diagnosed elsewhere.

During my work as an independent examiner, I have encountered many patients whose chiropractor missed
readily apparent diagnoses and rendered inappropriate treatment for long periods of time. Chiropractors
lack the depth of training available to medical doctors. For that reason, except for minor injuries, it is usually
better to seek medical diagnosis first.

7. We offer lots of unnecessary services.

Many chiropractors, particularly those who find subluxations in everyone, routinely advise patients to
come for many months, years, and even for their lifetime. Practice-builders teach how to persuade people
they need maintenance care long after their original problem has resolved. In line with this, many
chiropractors offer discounts to patients who pay in advance and sign a contract committing them for 50
to 100 treatments. And chiropractic pediatric specialists advise periodic examinations and spinal
adjustments from early infancy onward. (This has been aptly described as womb to tomb care.) Greed is
not the only factor involved in overtreatment. Many who advise periodic adjustments are true believers.
In chiropractic school, one of my classmates actually adjusted his newborn son while the umbilical cord
was still attached. Another student had the school radiology department take seven x-rays of his sons neck
to look for subluxations presumably acquired during the birth process. The topic of unnecessary care is
discussed further in Chapter 8.

8. Cracking of the spine doesnt mean much.

Spinal manipulation usually produces a popping or cracking sound similar to what occurs when you
crack your knuckles. Both are due to a phenomenon called cavitation, which occurs when there is a sudden
decrease in joint pressure brought on by the manipulation. That allows dissolved gasses in the joint fluid
to be released into the joint itself. Chiropractors sometimes state that the noise means that something
therapeutic has taken place. However, the noise has no health-related significance and does not indicate
that anything has been realigned. It simply means that gas was allowed to escape under less pressure than
normal. Knuckles do not go back into place when you crack them, and neither do spinal bones.

9. If the first few visits dont help you, more treatment probably wont help.

I used to tell my patients three and through. If we did not see significant objective improvement in three
visits, it was time to move on.

10. We take too many x-rays.

No test should be done unless it is likely to provide information that will influence clinical management of
the patient. X-ray examinations are appropriate when a fracture, tumor, infection, or neurological defect is
suspected. But they are not needed for evaluating simple mechanical-type strains, such as back or neck
pain that develops after lifting a heavy object.

The average number of x-rays taken during the first visit by chiropractors whose records I have been asked
to review has been about eleven. Those records were sent to me because an insurance company had
flagged them for investigation into excessive billing, so this number of x-rays is much higher than average.
But many chiropractors take at least a few x-rays of everyone who walks through their door.

There are two main reasons why chiropractors take more x-rays than are medically necessary. One is easy
money. It costs about 35 to buy an 8- x 10-inch film, for which they typically charge $40. In chiropractic,
the spine encompasses five areas: the neck, mid-back, low-back, pelvic, and sacral regions. That means
five separate regions to bill fortypically three to seven views of the neck, two to six for the low back, and
two for each of the rest. So eleven x-ray films would net the chiropractor over $400 for just few minutes
of work. In many accident cases I have reviewed, the fact that patients had adequate x-ray examinations
in a hospital emergency department to rule out fractures did not deter the chiropractor from unnecessarily
repeating these exams.

Chiropractors also use x-ray examinations inappropriately for marketing purposes. Chiropractors who do
this point to various things on the films that they interpret as (a) subluxations, (b) not enough spinal
curvature, (c) too much spinal curvature, and/or (d) spinal decay, all of which supposedly call for long
courses of adjustments with periodic x-ray re-checks to supposedly assess progress. In addition to wasting
money, unnecessary x-rays entail unnecessary exposure to the risks of ionizing radiation.

11. Research on spinal manipulation does not reflect what takes place in most chiropractic
offices.

Research studies that look at spinal manipulation are generally done under strict protocols that protect
patients from harm. The results reflect what happens when manipulation is done on patients who are
appropriately screenedusually by medical teams that exclude people with conditions that would make
manipulation dangerous. The results do not reflect what typically happens when patients select
chiropractors on their own. The chiropractic marketplace is a mess because most chiropractors ignore
research findings and subject their patients to procedures that are unnecessary and/or senseless.

12. Neck manipulation is potentially dangerous.

Certain types of chiropractic neck manipulation can damage neck arteries and cause a stroke. Chiropractors
claim that the risk is trivial, but they have made no systematic effort to actually measure it. Chapter 9
covers this topic in detail.

13. Most chiropractors dont know much about nutrition.

Chiropractors learn little about clinical nutrition during their schooling. Many offer what they describe as
nutrition counseling. But this typically consists of superficial advice about eating less fat and various
schemes to sell you supplements that are high-priced and unnecessary.

14. Chiropractors who sell vitamins charge much more than it costs them.

Chiropractors who sell vitamins typically recommend them unnecessarily and charge two to three times
what they pay for them. Some chiropractors center their practice around selling vitamins to patients. Their
recommendations are based on hair analysis, live blood analysis, applied kinesiology muscle-testing or
other quack tests that will be discussed later in this book. Patients who are victimized this way typically pay
several dollars a day and are encouraged to stay on the products indefinitely. In one case I investigated,
an Arizona chiropractor advised an 80+-year-old grandma to charge more than $10,000 for vitamins to her
credit cards to avoid an impending stroke that he had diagnosed by testing a sample of her pubic hair. No
hair test can determine that a stroke is imminent or show that dietary supplements are needed. Doctors
who evaluated the woman at the Mayo Clinic found no evidence to support the chiropractors assessment.

15. Chiropractors have no business treating young children.

The pediatric training chiropractors receive during their schooling is skimpy and based mainly on reading.
Students see few children and get little or no experience in diagnosing or following the course of the vast
majority of childhood ailments. Moreover, spinal adjustment has no proven effectiveness against childhood
diseases. Some adolescents with spinal stiffness might benefit from manipulation, but most will recover
without treatment. Chiropractors who claim to practice chiropractic pediatrics typically aim to adjust
spines from birth onward and are likely to oppose immunization. Some chiropractors claim they can reverse
or lessen the spinal curvature of scoliosis, but there is no scientific evidence that spinal manipulation can
do this.6

16. The fact that patients swear by us does not mean we are actually helping them.

Satisfaction is not the same thing as effectiveness. Many people who believe they have been helped had
conditions that would have resolved without treatment. Some have had treatment for dangers that did not
exist but were said by the chiropractor to be imminent. Many chiropractors actually take courses on how
to trick patients to believe in them. (See Chapter 8)

17. Insurance companies dont want to pay for chiropractic care.

Chiropractors love to brag that their services are covered by Medicare and most insurance companies.
However, this coverage has been achieved though political action rather than scientific merit. I have never
encountered an insurance company that would reimburse for chiropractic if not forced to do so by state
laws. The political pressure to mandate chiropractic coverage comes from chiropractors, of course, but it
also comes from the patients whom they have brainwashed.

18. Lots of chiropractors do really strange things.

The chiropractic profession seems to attract people who are prone to believe in strange things. One I know
of does aura adjustments to treat peoples bruised karma. Another rents out a large crystal to other
chiropractors so they can recharge their own (smaller) crystals. Another claims to get advice by
channeling a 15th Century Scottish physician. Another claimed to balance a womans harmonics by
inserting his thumb into her vagina and his index finger into her anus. Another treated cancer with an
orange light that was mounted in a wooden box. Another did rectal exams on all his female patients. Even
though such exams are outside the legitimate scope of chiropractic, he also videotaped them so that if his
bills for this service were questioned, he could prove that he had actually performed what he billed for.

19. Dont expect our licensing boards to protect you.

Many chiropractors who serve on chiropractic licensing boards harbor the same misbeliefs that are rampant
among their colleagues. This means, for example, that most boards are unlikely to discipline chiropractors
for diagnosing and treating imaginary subluxations.

20. The media rarely look at what we do wrong.

The media rarely if ever address chiropractic nonsense. Reporting on chiropractic is complicated because
chiropractors vary so much in what they do. (In fact, a very astute observer once wrote that for every
chiropractor, there is an equal and opposite chiropractor.) Consumer Reports published superb exposs in
1975 and 1994, but no other print outlet has done so in the past 35 years. This lack of information is the
main reason I have written this book.

References

1. Ernst E, Gilbey A. Chiropractic claims in the English-speaking world. New Zealand Medical Journal
123:3644, 2010.

2. Bernet J. Affidavit, April 12, 1996. Posted to Chirobase Web site.

3. Standards for Doctor of Chiropractic Programs and Requirements for Institutional Status. Council on
Chiropractic Education, Scottsdale, Arizona, Jan 2007.

4. Jarvis WT. Why becoming a chiropractor may be risky. Chirobase Web site, October 5, 1999.

5. Barrett S. My visit to a straight chiropractor. Quackwatch Web site, Oct 10, 2002.

6. Romano M, Negrini S. Manual therapy as a conservative treatment for idiopathic scoliosis: A review.
Scoliosis 3:2, 2008.