General Information |
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Q. If chiropractors are causing so many strokes, then why are their malpractice insurance premiums lower than those of medical doctors?
A. This is not a valid comparison. Medical doctors provide care for patients with the most serious and life-threatening illnesses and injuries. They utilize aggressive and highly invasive therapies and procedures in order to save lives on a daily basis. Many of these procedures and therapies are inherently dangerous and when utilized on critically ill patients, less than optimal outcomes do sometimes occur. Chiropractors on the other hand provide care for an essentially healthy patient population; most of these patients are suffering merely from musculoskeletal disorders such as low back pain. A better comparison would be to compare the malpractice premiums of chiropractors to those of physical therapists, who provide a similar type of care to a similar patient population. Physical therapists generally do not participate in the dangerous practice of upper neck manipulation, they don’t cause patients to suffer from strokes, and they tend to have extremely low liability insurance rates.
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Q. My chiropractor told me that I have just as much a chance of getting struck by lighting as having a stroke from a neck manipulation, is this true?
A. The real concern is not the “likelihood” of suffering a stroke; it is that it happens at all. Put another way, it is all about risk/benefit ratio. In mainstream medicine there are lots of risks taken every day, and there are bad outcomes. The difference is, in mainstream medicine, we consider the risk/benefit ratio and will not proceed with a certain type of therapy if we do not believe the benefit outweighs the risk. Upper neck manipulation has no proven benefit for the vast majority of conditions for which it is utilized, therefore, if the risk is death and the benefit is zero, then it is unacceptable to proceed.
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Q. My chiropractor told me that he has the same education as a medical doctor, is this accurate?
A. This is not true. No matter how many years a chiropractor studies for his degree, it cannot be compared to a medical education. First of all, admission requirements to chiropractic colleges pale in comparison to those of medical schools, so in general the students are starting out at a completely different level. Secondly, while many of the chiropractic courses have similar titles to those taught in medical schools, they don’t necessarily have the same content. For example, physiology may be taught in a chiropractic school, but it is taught from a “chiropractic viewpoint”. Additionally the lack of exposure to a diverse patient population in an actual hospital setting makes it extremely difficult for a chiropractic student to gain any valuable experience in the evaluation and management of real patients. Medical students learn to take care of sick patients in VA and University hospitals where they become directly involved in the hands on management of these patients under the supervision of resident physicians and faculty members. Chiropractic students “practice” spinal “adjustments” on “patients” in campus clinics. Many of these “patients” are recruited for this purpose by the student and it is not uncommon for them to consist of friends and family members, suffering from no ailments, who are merely helping the student to meet their quota of “adjustments”. Lastly medical graduates usually undergo an additional four or five years of post-graduate hospital based residency training before beginning practice. Almost all chiropractic graduates begin practice immediately; post graduate education generally takes the form of “weekend seminars”.
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Q. My chiropractor has never mentioned the possibility of suffering an injury from neck manipulation. Does this mean that it is safe?
A. This is one of the biggest failings of chiropractic, the absence of informed consent. In mainstream medicine patients are generally advised of all potential benefits as well as the potential risks associated with any procedure or therapy prior to initiation, they are also advised of other options including doing nothing. This is termed informed consent; the patient ultimately determines whether or not to proceed based on an understanding of the risks, benefits, and alternatives. As a general rule, chiropractors do not practice informed consent and therefore the patient is largely unaware of the potential risks that he or she is being subjected to.
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Q. If chiropractors are causing so many strokes, why has this procedure not been banned much like Vioxx was recently taken off the market?
A. Chiropractic is a self-regulated profession. There is no FDA equivalent for chiropractic. If upper neck manipulation were a drug, the FDA would have banned it long ago. Unfortunately those responsible for “policing” chiropractic are the chiropractors themselves, and they have to date not been willing to do anything to stop the deaths and injuries of otherwise healthy young people undergoing chiropractic upper neck manipulations.
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