Chiropractic is type of alternative medicine. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) defines alternative medicine as \u201cmedicine that is not generally considered part of conventional medicine\u201d. The reason that it Chiropractic not considered part of conventional medicine is because, like other forms of alternative medicine, the claims of the practice lack observable, repeatable, and scientifically rigorous evidence.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say that there isn\u2019t any<\/em> evidence (there\u2019s a bunch of anecdotal evidence); it is to say that the evidence is not scientifically established nor is it repeatable. So one of the NCCAM\u2019s missions is to study through scientific investigation the usefulness and safety of complementary and alternative medicine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), chiropractic is a health care profession<\/a> \u201cthat focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, and the effects of these disorders on general health\u201d. It is the practice of seeing how the nervous system and disorders of the muscular and skeletal system affect (not spinal health but rather) general health. Then they list what is the common used of\u00a0 Chiropractic without limiting the scope to the following areas: back, neck, joint, arm and leg pain as well as headaches.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll therefore find that chiropractic is also used to offer solutions regarding high blood pressure, bedwetting, irritable bowel syndrome, scoliosis, menstrual pain, phobias, asthma, PMS, colic, and so on.<\/p>\n Chiropractors, they say, provide a hands-on, drug-free, approach to health care that focuses on exercise, nutrition, lifestyle counseling and \u201cspinal manipulation\u201d or \u201cchiropractic adjustment\u201d.<\/p>\n The basis of this \u201cspinal manipulation\u201d is the theory of subluxation which chirocolleges.org defines as \u201ca complex of functional and\/or structural and\/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health.\u201d<\/p>\n The World Health Organization differentiates between medical subluxation and chiropractic subluxation. Medical subluxation is a \u201csignificant structural displacement\u201d that is visible in static imaging.\u00a0 Chiropractic subluxation is a \u201clesion or dysfunction in a joint or motion segment\u201d which alters the function or movement of said joint while the contact between the joint surfaces remains intact. They say, \u201cit is essentially a functional entity, which may influence biomechanical and neural integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n A majority of practitioners<\/a> within the profession would maintain that the philosophy of chiropractic includes, but is not limited to, concepts of holism, vitalism, naturalism, conservatism, critical rationalism, humanism and ethics (9). The relationship between structure, especially the spine and musculoskeletal system, and function, especially as coordinated by the nervous system, is central to chiropractic and its approach to the restoration and preservation of health (9, 10:167). It is hypothesized that significant neurophysiological consequences may occur as a result of mechanical spinal functional disturbances, described by chiropractors as subluxation and the vertebral subluxation complex (9, 10:169\u2010170, 11).<\/p>\n The American Chiropractic Association states (rather than actually tracing) the roots of Chiropractic to ancient Chinese writings. They then quote Hippocrates, \u201cGet knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.\u201d Afterwards they hop to Daniel David Palmer who<\/a> \u201cwas well read in medical journals of his time and had great knowledge of the developments that were occurring throughout the world regarding anatomy and physiology.\u201d<\/p>\n If you read Palmer\u2019s autobiography, you\u2019ll find that for years he was a magnetic healer who had discovered that many diseases were inextricably linked<\/a> to the \u201cderangements of the stomach, kidneys and other organs\u201d.<\/p>\n Keating says that Palmer thought he had a gift that gave him insight on \u201cinflammatory lesions\u201d in a person and thus could cool off the tissue by pouring excess magnetic force into the diseased area. It was during this time that Palmer wondered if dis-ease (as he later called it) was connected to the displacement of internal parts\u2014sort of like a machine that runs better when all the parts are in the right place.<\/p>\n For years DD Palmer wondered why you could have a person with pneumonia, typhoid or rheumatism while a fellow right next to such a person didn\u2019t have it. The question, he says, was answered when he met a Mr. Harvey Lillard who became (partially) deaf after exerting himself in a bad physical position. After an examination, Palmer noted that the man\u2019s vertebra was moved from its normal position so he used a lever to move the man\u2019s spine. Several days later, the janitor reported that he thought his hearing was improved: Palmer says that the man\u2019s hearing was healed.<\/p>\n Afterwards he says he was able to alleviate a case of heart trouble by moving a vertebra that was pressing against nerves.<\/p>\n Palmer said the reason for the connection is that \u00a0\u201cspirit, soul and body compose the being, the source of mentality. Innate and Educated, two. mentalities, look after the welfare of the body physically and its surrounding environments.\u201d<\/p>\n Wikipedia says that speaking to a patient and friend, Samuel Weed, he had help in naming the practice: cheriros<\/em> and praktikos<\/em>. Originally he planned to keep the discovery a secret, but then he added it to his magnetic healing school thinking that this was the solution to all sicknesses.<\/p>\n Eventually he developed his theory by stating that the cause of dis-ease was<\/a> \u201cthose anatomic displacements involving osseous pinching of nerves, i.e., the subluxation.\u201d . He believed that 95% of all diseases was caused by subluxation.<\/p>\n Palmer\u2019s son, BJ Palmer, ran with this theory as Palmer writes<\/a> \u201cB.J. Palmer was the first person who learned that a light pressure produced inflammation, an excessive amount of heat, over functional activity; while a heavy pressure caused paralysis, lack of function. This new thought brought much light on what was otherwise obscure. It explains why mental and physical magnetic influence returned the functions of nerves to their normal amount of action, the healer controlling, more or less, the nerves of the patient…\u201d (Palmer, 1906). Indeed, BJ eventually stopped speaking to his father but admits that it has to do with personal reasons and not professional ones.<\/p>\n Finally, reports Keating, David Palmer came up with a new idea whereby he rejected his earlier ideas that vertebral subluxation was pinching nerves. Rather he embraced the thought that \u201cthe misalignment of joint surfaces anywhere in the body produced nerve-impingement, thereby altering the tension of the affected nerve and changing its vibratory frequency. Palmer held to a vibrational theory of impulse transmission, a notion that was one of several explanations of nervous system function offered by physiologists of that time.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 1907, chiropractic was fraught with legal battles. First, it battled osteopathic practitioners, then it battled other chiropractors, then it fought a political battle where it sought licensing in all states (Kansas, 1913 \u2013 Louisiana, 1974). Indeed, as late as 1987, the American Medical Association (formed in 1847) labeled chiropractic quackery (1966) and later \u201can unscientific cult\u201d (1983<\/a>) until it lost an anti-trust case (Wilk vs American Medical Association ,1987) with a permanent injunction.<\/p>\n Judge Getzendanner\u2019s statement for the plaintiff was interesting<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cThe plaintiffs clearly want more from the court. They want a judicial pronouncement that chiropractic is a valid, efficacious, even scientific health care service. I believe that the answer to that question can only be provided by a well designed, controlled, scientific study… No such study has ever been done. In the absence of such a study, the court is left to decide the issue on the basis of largely anecdotal evidence. I decline to pronounce chiropractic valid or invalid on anecdotal evidence.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Judge also noted that:<\/p>\n \u201cThe plaintiffs, however, point out that the anecdotal evidence in the record favors chiropractors. The patients who testified were helped by chiropractors and not by medical physicians.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But then proceeded to add:<\/p>\n \u201cThe defendants have offered some evidence as to the unscientific nature of chiropractic. The study of how the five original named plaintiffs diagnosed and actually treated patients with common symptoms was particularly impressive. (Tr. 2208-319.) This study demonstrated that the plaintiffs do not use common methods in treating common symptoms and that the treatment of patients appears to be undertaken on an ad hoc rather than on a scientific basis. And there was evidence of the use of cranial adjustments to cure cerebral palsy and other equally alarming practices by some chiropractors. (Tr. 917.)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But, in the end the judge stated:<\/p>\n \u201cI do not minimize the negative evidence. But most of the defense witnesses, surprisingly, appeared to be testifying for the plaintiffs. Taking into account all of the evidence, I conclude only that the AMA has failed to meet its burden on the issue of whether its concern for the scientific method in support of the boycott of the entire chiropractic profession was objectively reasonable throughout the entire period of the boycott. This finding is not and should not be construed as a judicial endorsement of chiropractic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n All of this is to say that chiropractic is diverse but can be split into three main camps: straights, mixers, and reformers.<\/p>\n In editing The Chiropractic Adjuster, BJ Palmer, David Palmer\u2019s son, felt compelled to edit his Father\u2019s writings by removing any of the personal attacks against him. He reasoned that the field needed his father\u2019s work, unpolluted, with his personal views and attacks against other persons to allow chiropractors to gain deep knowledge about the field. In some cases, BJ couldn\u2019t remove the personal attacks because it was central to the thought-flow, but at the core he tried to include only the things that were central to chiropractic.<\/p>\n Therefore, BJ kept this in, the fact that David Palmer describes chiropractic as a moral and religious duty. Palmer says that the practice of chiropractic is a religious right protected by the Constitution\u2019s freedom of religion clause.<\/p>\n DD says this is the case because chiropractic, when properly understood, actually treats with the character and attributes of God\u2014the All-pervading Universal Intelligence. Chiropractic possibilities are without limit and able to lesson disease, poverty, crime and prepare people for the after-life. He says this is so because the ideas of chiropractic \u201coriginated in Divinity, the Universal Intelligence, and constitute qualities of life which, having begun in this world, are never ending.\u201d<\/p>\n In its mission, Chiropractic literature uses technical terms with the purpose of teaching people about Universal Intelligence, which, he points out, the Christian world has decided to label as God.<\/p>\n \u201cChiropractors declare that God is the All-pervading Intelligence, that each individual, segmented portion of spirit is a part of that intelligent creative principle; that only matter changes its form; that spirit modifies its environment, and dissolution is but a process of reproduction.\u201d (p. 14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course, Palmer goes on to say that Chiropractic is not being re-labeled as a religion because all religious are based upon superstition. The reason Chiropractic isn\u2019t a religion is because it\u2019s not based on superstition: it\u2019s based on the knowledge of principles and facts. (p. 16)<\/p>\n Indeed, DD Palmer said all of this thinking wasn\u2019t developed in a void. He said he got the idea of chiropractic from the spiritual world<\/a> the same way that Mrs. Eddy did in Christian science. Indeed, Palmer unabashedly says that he\u2019s the religious head of this religion. He\u2019s like Christ, or Mohammed or Martin Luther.<\/p>\n He says<\/a>\u00a0 that as he spoke to his long dead friend, he got the idea of this physical phenomenon:<\/p>\n \u201cThe knowledge and philosophy given me by Dr. Jim Atkinson, an intelligent spiritual being, together with explanations of phenomena, principles resolved from causes, effects, powers, laws and utility, appealed to my reason. The method by which I obtained an explanation of certain physical phenomena, from an intelligence in the spiritual world, is known in biblical language as inspiration. In a great measure The Chiropractor’s Adjuster was written under such spiritual promptings.\u201d (p. 5)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Noting the greatness of his discovery, he boldly claims that he has \u201canswered the time-worn question\u2014what is life?\u201d<\/p>\n B.J. Palmer, allowing all of these writings to stand, eventually writes a pamphlet asking \u201cDo Chiropractors Pray?\u201d The answer? Not to some exterior intelligence but rather to the innate intelligence within man. The views continue today when Mike Reid in \u201cThe Seven Laws of the Power of Attraction\u201d writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are spiritual beings who are a piece of an entire bigger picture with a purpose in life … As chiropractors, we already know that the universal intelligence lies within us as innate intelligence, causes our heart to beat, digests our food, and allows us to think as free people … Listen to your innate … Sit in a lotus position with your palms opened up. See yourself as one and the same with the universe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n From within the ranks, several Chiropractors state that their profession<\/a> \u201chas an obligation to actively divorce itself from metaphysical explanations of health and disease as well as to actively regulate itself in refusing to tolerate fraud, abuse and quackery, which are more rampant in our profession than in other healthcare professions\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Here they cite Carter R: Subluxation – the silent killer. J Can Chiropr Assoc 2000, 44(1):9-18.<\/p>\n Indeed, the AMA at one point labeled Chiropractors \u201crabid dogs<\/a>\u201d and the practice as\u201cquackery<\/a>\u201d before losing an anti-trust lawsuit (Wilk vs. AMA). You can read through the Quackwatch site and view the Chirobase<\/a> with significant data reports.<\/p>\n Here are some facts:<\/p>\n From the chirobase<\/a>: \u201cChiropractic’s legitimate scope of practice is too limited and its adherence to pseudoscience is too entrenched to promote optimal physical medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n If you have gotten this far through the post, you probably have enough evidence to know the problem areas. Chiropractic is based on no consistent observation, it seems to have originated in a vision from the dead, it was promoted as a catchall solution for all diseases, promoted as a religion, and there is actual science-based medicine that is safer. All of this should have Christians quickly agreeing, \u201cThis is not something a Christian should be participating in\u201d.<\/p>\n That was actually the case some thirty or some forty or so years ago\u2014but it has all changed.<\/p>\n Today, not only do Christians visit and recommend Chiropractors, some have even opted to become Chiropractors.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019m fairly sure this post will meet with no small amount of resistance. I\u2019m sure this will even come from Christians who, in some cases, are openly hostile against Halloween (or Christmas!) because of its (alleged) pagan origins.<\/p>\n Theologically there is something going on that is currently reflected in the culture today. After all, Christian Chiropractic<\/a> is only one color on the spectrum. Today we also highlight Christian Yoga<\/a>, Christian Reiki<\/a>, Christian Buddhism<\/a>, and even Christian Wicca<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recently, Albert Mohler had a conversation with Candy Gunther Brown\u00a0 ( \u201cAre We All Syncretists Now?<\/a>\u201d) highlighted some of these troubling aspects in our culture.<\/p>\n Brown noted that Christians rejected yoga and chiropractic as idolatry because of a sort of divide between actions and intent. She said that Catholics have historically believed in conveying belief through actions and symbols but Evangelicals focus on intent: if no one says it is religious then Evangelicals tend to think it isn\u2019t religious.<\/p>\nThe History of Chiropractic<\/h2>\n
The Religion of Chiropractic<\/h2>\n
The Science of Chiropractic<\/h2>\n
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But I\u2019ve Visited a Chiropractor And It Worked (or My Theological Problems with Chiropractic, Yoga, Reiki, and Anything Else that Works)<\/h2>\n