Doctors at war with chiropractors over treatment of babies and children

[progressoid]

Doctors have declared war on chiropractors amid outrage over an "eye-watering" video showing a Melbourne chiropractor manipulating a newborn baby's spine.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has told its members to not refer patients to chiropractors and is calling for the federal government and private health insurers to stop paying them for questionable treatments.

The powerful group which trains GPs says it has taken a stand against chiropractors this week after a video emerged on YouTube of Melbourne chiropractor Ian Rossborough​ manipulating a premature baby's spine to treat colic and reflux.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/doctors-at-war-with-chiropractors-over-treatment-of-babies-and-children-20160428-gohlc9.html#ixzz47VTM3SbJ

Good gawd. That video is troubling to say the least.

[frogmarch]

1. Thanks for posting this, progressoid.

I shared it on Facebook, especially so that my two granddaughters will see it and read it. One has a baby and the other is expecting one in July. I don't think either of my granddaughters would ever go to a chiropractor, much less take their baby to one, but I hope they read it and watch the video, just in case.

[progressoid]

5. My mother went to one a long time ago.

But after she missed a couple of "treatments" she realized it wasn't actually doing any good. Has never been back.


Also met a woman in her 30s who was suing her chiropractor. He caused her to have a stroke. The last time I saw her she was walking with a cane and learning to tie her shoes again.

[LibDemAlways]

3. Years ago I was invited to the home of an

old friend from school days who had become a chiropractor. Her husband was a chiropractor, too. After dinner, they lead me into their living room where they proceeded to put a tape into the VCR extolling the virtues of chiropractic. It was narrated by Peter Graves and blamed all (and I mean all) of the world's problems on people's spines being out of kilter. I shit you not. There was even a shot of the atomic bomb being detonated, as though spinal problems drive nations to war. Seriously, these people are disturbed.

Needless to say, I was happy to get out of there and have had no contact since.

[gollygee]

4. Holy crap!

My older daughter (now 14) had colic and I had friends tell me to take her to a chiropractor for it. I am glad I didn't feel comfortable with that.

I did take baby massage classes though. That was helpful. No cracking of any kind! Poor baby.

[azmom]

6. A chiropractor injured my spine and left

Me disabled. It's been a nightmare.

[Archae]

7. Were you able to sue the quack for malpractice?

And is he/she still "practicing?"

[matt819]

8. I gotta tell you, I'm a fan

There are quacks even among those with MDs. Remember Dear Abby's line, half of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class. Same goes with lawyers. Etc.

But I've had good experience with chiropractic and alternative therapies. I like acupuncture and PEMF and massage. Don't get me wrong, I like my GP and see her when needed - big fan of certain medications - and of course I have my regular appointments with my urologist and eye doctor. I'm not going to touch homeopathy here on DU, so no comment on that.

[progressoid]

9. Regarding Dear Abby's line,

I expect if you compared the bottom half of doctors, most would out-perform the top half of chiropractors.

To be clear, I don't put all my "faith" in doctors. People aren't perfect. But the science behind medicine is more conclusive than the science behind chiropractic. And I have a problem that chiropractic pretends to be medical treatment. It ain't. While message therapy my help with some problems, most other chiropractic treatments are based on hopes and speculation and not verifiable science. Of course, if I need a good back rub, I can just go to a masseuse and not have to deal with all the other potentially dangerous pseudoscience.

[matt819]

10. Gotta disagree with you

Here's a fact: Half of all professional school graduates are in the bottom half of their class.

Here's an opinion: The bottom half are still better than the top half of chiropractors.

Here's another fact (well, possible fact): More than 251,000 deaths in America are due to medical error. By medical, I mean hospital/doctor/nurse. (I found that on the internet, so it must be true.) Of course, a closer reading of the data suggests that that number is inflated, but, still, the number is high (that's more like an assessment than a fact or opinion). https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-the-third-most-common-cause-of-death-in-the-u-s/

I will venture a guess that chiropractors and other alternative providers don't account for nearly that number of deaths. So the question is do they do any good. My experience is that they do. And I will argue that this is as much because of the work they do as well as the time they spend with you - sometimes it's more important that someone just spend time caring for and caring about you. What they do is almost secondary. And the alternative provides do that. Yes, sometimes these providers cross the line, as do doctors. And, yes, sometimes (often) you have to turn a critical eye to some of the things they do/recommend. For example, many (most?) chiropractors have got into various supplements, cleanses, and more. Clearly another revenue stream for them. So maybe that's an occasion to think twice. But, again, sometimes you have to exercise the same judgments with respect to your conventional medical professionals.

[progressoid]

11. I've read that statistic.

Seems like Gorski at the SBM link does a pretty good job of showing how vague and unreliable that number is. Of course there is also no reliable data on chiropractic errors so its pretty difficult to make the assumption that it is less dangerous.

"So the question is do they do any good"

Indeed. Anecdotal evidence isn't proof. After over a hundred years of chiropractic, there is virtually no verifiable studies of its efficacy. Some chiropractors are even willing to acknowledge this.

After 12 years of teaching and research at several chiropractic colleges, I can say with confidence that chiropractic is both science and anti-science. Yes, there is a meaningful science of chiropractic, but just as surely there is an anti-scientific mind-set and even a cult within chiropractic (for example, the cult of B.J. Palmer, son of the founder of chiropractic). Moreover, if University of Connecticut sociologist Walter Wardwell, Ph.D. is correct (Wardwell, 1992), the belief systems of a majority of DCs lie somewhere between these two poles: chiropractic as science vs. chiropractic as unscientific, uncritical dogma and circus. ...https://web.archive.org/web/20070928211752/http://www.sherman.edu/research/rsch510/FaultyLogic-in-Chiro.pdf

If the profession continues to publish theory, in the absence of scientific support, and continues to waste its funds on outrageous advertising rather than investigate the truth of the theory in meaningful scientific studies, then the enormous progress made by the profession and its leadership over the last 20 years will have been wasted. A philosophy is no substitute for rational thought and a desire for business is no substitute for meaningful supportive research.
http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=43170

[matt819]

12. I know about anecdotal evidence

I wasn't claiming any sort of proof. I was just saying that my experiences have been positive.

[HuckleB]

13. So why not find a cheaper, less time and money consuming placebo?