Chiropractic Quackery?

Chiropractic is a pseudoscience founded by D. D. Palmer, a magnetic healer, in 1895. In his book The Chiropractor, Palmer claims to have learned the science of chiropractic by channeling the spirit of a deceased physician. In The Science of Chiropractic: Its Principles and Adjustments, Palmer claims that it is impossible to have disease without instances of the spine putting pressure on nerves and asserts that all disease is caused by spinal subluxations.

Palmer College, the leading chiropractic school, defines chiropractic in an introductory video thus: “Chiropractic maintains that the body has the ability to heal itself or maintain good health if there are no misalignments in the spine. A healthy nervous system equals a healthy body.” This is the core claim of chiropractic: that spinal health fosters overall health and helps to prevent illness and disease. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this claim is true.

Chiropractic originated in a time when scientists and doctors did not fully understand disease. We did not yet understand how viruses and bacteria cause disease. We did not yet understand what cancer was. Scientists and doctors now have a better understanding of the causes of disease and how the immune system fights disease.

Chiropractic has a lot of overlap with the anti-vaccine movement insofar as it is a pseudoscientific field of alternative medicine that claims that disease is caused by “vertebral subluxations” (slight misalignments of the spine) and that disease can effectively be treated with chiropractic adjustments of the spine. In his book The Science of Chiropractic: Its Principles and Adjustments, D. D. Palmer claimed that vaccines are "poison" and advocated making it a "criminal offense to vaccinate" children. Because of the pseudoscientific claims of chiropractic, there are still chiropractors that advise their patients against vaccinating. Since chiropractic is equally effective as vaccination at preventing one from getting viruses (or so some chiropractors claim), vaccination is unnecessary. While most chiropractors are cautious not to make such bold claims, such claims are perfectly consistent with the claims of D. D. Palmer and with the principles of chiropractic. As the video above—which is from a leading chiropractic college—asserts, chiropractic claims that the body’s ability to heal itself and maintain good health is predicated on a lack of misalignments of the spine, and chiropractic adjustments can “help support the body’s immune system and maintain good health” by fixing misalignments of the spine. The problem is that there is no real scientific evidence to back up these claims. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to suggest that chiropractic adjustments make one less vulnerable to pathogens like viruses and bacteria, nor is there any evidence that it makes you less likely to get cancer. In short, the claims of chiropractic are bullshit.

While there is evidence that chiropractic adjustments can relieve lower back pain and help with other musculoskeletal issues, it must be remembered that the ability to do such things is not what chiropractic claims to be about. Science has proven chiropractic to be partially beneficial for something other than what chiropractic is really supposed to be for. Chiropractic is supposed to keep you from getting sick or heal you if you are already sick. There is absolutely no evidence to substantiate that chiropractic adjustments have any positive effect on overall well-being and health. Furthermore, chiropractors are not real medical doctors. They do not attend medical school. And, there are legitimate doctors that specialize in spinal and skeletal health that can perform adjustments to help with lower back pain and other issues. If you have pain or stiffness that you go to a chiropractor for, you can go to an orthopedist or a physical therapist who would be able to provide better evidence-based treatment.

Chiropractic is related to the discipline of osteopathy. Osteopathy is a similar pseudoscience, which differs from chiropractics primarily in metaphysical doctrine. Both practices involve the same sort of spinal manipulation and adjustments. Osteopaths historically held that disease was caused by misalignments obstructing the flow of blood, whereas chiropractors claimed that subluxations block the flow of vital energy and thereby cause disease. However, in order to use the title "doctor" in the United States, osteopaths are actually required to attend medical school, whereas chiropractors are allowed to call themselves doctors without having any scientific medical training.

In addition to the lack of evidence for chiropractic, there is some evidence to suggest that chiropractic may be positively harmful to the patient. According to Dr. Harriet Hall MD, it is estimated that 1300 basilar strokes are caused by spinal manipulation in the United States each year.

If you are considering seeing a chiropractor, perhaps you should inquire with your doctor about seeing an orthopedist or physical therapist; maybe seeing an osteopath might even be better than seeing a chiropractor, since osteopaths often have real medical training in spite of their pseudoscientific discipline.