One million served daily: From jail time to defamation – Why are we still having to defend chiropractic?

March 6, 2018 tim@sokyhappenings.com Health & Fitness Comments Off on One million served daily: From jail time to defamation – Why are we still having to defend chiropractic?

by Dr. Brandon Crouch

The first chiropractic adjustment was given in 1895. Since the very beginning, doctors of chiropractic have had to defend the art, science, and practice of chiropractic. The first chiropractors were even thrown in jail for providing chiropractic. A few things have changed over the last 122 years. Instead of just a few adjustments being done each day the number has grown. Chiropractic adjustments are performed around 1 million times every business day in the United States alone. In the U.S., chiropractic is the third largest primary healthcare profession, surpassed in numbers only by medical doctors and dentists. It is the largest, most regulated, and best recognized of the complementary and alternative healthcare professions.1 What’s not changed however, is that chiropractors still have to defend the benefits of chiropractic.

Two days ago, an article came across my desk from a national publication. The author did not take a neutral stance as he attacked chiropractic and osteopathic care. The author’s main talking point was to highlight Medicare data from 2015 where expenses on chiropractic and osteopathic care equaled $564 million dollars. The author proclaimed that any expense spent on chiropractic and osteopathic care was a waste.

The article has had over 90,000 views in just a few days. The reason I’m sharing this with you is because when something so far from the truth is presented, it needs a voice of reason in response. Over 90,000 people have been misled. The author didn’t speak of any personal experience nor did he cite references to back his attack on the chiropractic profession and the patients it serves.

Let’s examine just a few of the erroneous statements in the article and I’ll share the honest facts:

False Statement #1: According to the article, “Most people think that chiropractors’ spinal ‘adjustments’ can relieve pain from injured or aching backs. It turns out that it’s just an elaborate placebo: a back rub at home is likely to work just as well. And that home treatment is probably safer… ”

The Facts:

Ninety-five percent of past-year chiropractic users say it’s effective, and 97% of past-year chiropractic users are likely to see a chiropractor again if they have neck/back pain.2

A review of scientific evidence in 2010 concluded that chiropractic spinal adjustments may be helpful for several conditions such as back pain, migraines, cervicogenic (neck-related) headaches, neck pain, upper and lower extremity joint conditions, and whiplash-associated disorders.3

In 2007, a study of treatment outcomes for 19,722 chiropractic patients in the United Kingdom concluded that minor side effects (such as temporary soreness) after cervical spine manipulation were relatively common, but that the risk of a serious adverse event was “low to very low” immediately or up to seven days after treatment.4

Something else you may not know is that chiropractors are the highest rated healthcare practitioner for low-back pain treatments above physical therapists (PTs), specialist physician/MD (i.e., neurosurgeons, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons), and primary care physician/MD (i.e., family or internal medicine). 5

False Statement #2: According to the article, “Even more alarming is that chiropractic adjustments carry a small but frightening risk of causing a stroke, as a result of tearing the vertebral artery. ”

The Facts: The risk of stroke is extremely rare after a chiropractic spinal adjustment. The most comprehensive study on this topic was published in the journal SPINE. The “Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic” showed that majority of incidences reported of strokes were patients that already had undiagnosed vertebral artery dissection. They were already having headaches and neck pain due to the vertebral artery dissection, which is what leads to the VBA stroke, not the chiropractors. Furthermore, patients were no more likely to have a VBA stroke after seeing a chiropractor than they were seeing a medical doctor. 6

The author did actually “update” his article with the following, “a 2016 study, in the journal Cureus, found that the link between chiropractic neck manipulation and arterial dissection was not causal; i.e., that chiropractic did not appear to cause arterial tears.” 7

More than a half-million treatments over a nine-year period were reviewed at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College outpatient clinic. There was not a single incident of stroke. (“Vertebral Artery Syndrome” published in the book “Upper Cervical Syndrome: chiropractic diagnosis and treatment). 8

Another study from 1965 to 1980 at the National College of Chiropractic Clinic in Chicago showed that not a single case of vertebral artery stroke occurred in approximately five million neck adjustments.9

False Statement #3: According to the article, the 2015 numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that the vast majority of the wasted funds, $545 million, went to chiropractic treatments, with another $19 million going to osteopathic manipulation. Neither amount is justified by scientific evidence.

The Facts: In 2017, the American College of Physicians released updated low back pain guidelines. They recommended first using non-drug treatments, such as chiropractic spinal adjustments, for acute and chronic low back pain. 10

Another medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, in 2017 supports the use of spinal adjustments as a first line treatment for acute low back pain. 11

In 2016, the U.S. healthcare expenses reached 3.3 trillion dollars. When combined, chiropractic, physical therapy, optometry, and podiatry only utilized 3% of total expenses. To put it in perspective, hospital services used 32% of the 3.3 trillion dollars. Medical physicians used 20%. Prescription drugs used 10%. Even dental services, home health care, and nursing facilities individually utilized more expenses than did chiropractic, physical therapy, optometry, and podiatry did as a combined group. 12

Chiropractic plays an important role in reducing time lost from work, reducing healing time, and saving money. 13 Do you think the author ever mentions that? Of course not. He cites no sources for his biased defamation of the chiropractic profession.

Millions of people get relief with chiropractic care. You would also be hard pressed to find a healthcare profession as large as chiropractic that has the same impeccable safety record.

Lastly, research provided by The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that replacing a visit to a doctor with a visit to a chiropractor for back or neck pain, could actually save Medicare $83.5 million every year. 14 Always be careful what you read and who you believe. Get the honest facts and make informed decisions when it comes to your healthcare decisions.

About the Author:

Dr. Brandon Crouch is a chiropractor with Crouch Family Chiropractic. He is an advocate for being proactive when it comes to your health and encourages people to make healthy informed decisions. For more information or questions you can contact him online at or find him on facebook at www.facebook.com/CrouchFamilyChiropractic.

 

Sources:

  1. National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE)
  2. Gallup-Palmer College of Chiropractic Annual Report: Americans’ Perceptions of Chiropractic. Gallup and Palmer College of Chiropractic. http://bit.ly/2jrr7TG
  3. Bronfort G, Haas M, Evans R, et al. Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report. Chiropractic & Osteopathy. 2010;18(3):1–33.
  4. Theil HW, Bolton JE, Docherty S, et al. Safety of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine: a prospective national survey. Spine. 2007;32(21):2375–2378.
  5. Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. Relief for your aching back: What worked for our readers. ConsumerReports.org; March 2013.
  6. SPINE Volume 33, Number 4S, pp S176–S183 ©2008, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
  7. Church. Cureus. 2016 Feb; 8(2): e498. Published online 2016 Feb 16. doi:  10.7759/cureus.498
  8. Upper Cervical Syndrome, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1988 195-222
  9. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 1980; 3: 213-19
  10. Qaseem, A., Wilt, T. J., McLean, R. M., Forciea, M. A., & for the Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians. (2017). Noninvasive Treatments for Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 166(7), 514.https://doi.org/10.7326/M16-2367
  11. Paige, N. M., Miake-Lye, I. M., Booth, M. S., Beroes, J. M., Mardian, A. S., Dougherty, P., … Shekelle, P. G. (2017). Association of Spinal Manipulative Therapy With Clinical Benefit and Harm for Acute Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA, 317(14), 1451–1460. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.3086
  12. CMS. National Health Expenditures 2016 Highlights. Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems
  13. Blanchette MA. J Occup Rehabil.2017 Sep;27(3):382-392. doi: 10.1007/s10926-016-9667-9.
  14. Davis. J Am Board Fam Med July-August 2015 28:481-490; doi:10.3122/jabfm.2015.04.150005

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