Dangers of Chiropractors

There once was a time I believed in going to chiropractors regularly. My views on this practice evolved after a documentary on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) hosted by Alan Alda aired in which ex-chiropractor John Badanes discussed why he changed his profession. On the show Scientific American Frontiers, Badanes claimed roughly 400 people a year ended up paralyzed after visiting chiropractors. Alarmed, I asked my chiropractor about the statistic. Although she did not dispute the claim, she did say there are many kinds of chiropractors and that injuries often result from hacks with no real medical training claiming they can fix back problems. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of documented cases where well experienced chiropractors also have had their mishaps.

Case in point, a friend of a friend became temporarily paralyzed after a chiropractor messaged his back. As it turns out, he messaged broken bone fragments into his muscles. To be fair, most chiropractors will insist on an x-ray before beginning treatment. A caveat must be noted though because many of those same chiropractors will often make a judgment call and skip the x-ray for existing clients. This happened to me once and I ended up far worse after the visit. If the injury is really due to nothing but inflamed tissue, sometimes the treatment will irritate the nerves even more. A conventional doctor would likely take an x-ray and prescribe a muscle relaxant and cold compress. In many cases, an over-the-counter drug such as an Ibuprofen would do the trick. Heating pads as I learned the hard way must be used with extreme precaution because the heat can cause greater inflammation of the nerves.

John Badanes also notes that many of the reasons why people go to chiropractors are based on false premises. For starters, the notion that the popping sound you hear is produced by bones moving back into alignment is incorrect. If this were true, you would literally fall apart. The bones move no more here than when a person cracks his or her knuckles. Likewise, in side by side x-rays where one scan depicts a spinal curvature and the other does not, he remarked there is no evidence that the person with the curvature cannot lead just as good of a life as the person without it.

Badanes is not alone in his criticism of chiropractors. Physician Robert S. Baratz asserts that the neck manipulations often performed in such treatment may lead to increased stroke risk. "Rapid torque applied to a kinked blood vessel stretched over a bony prominence can cause a tear in the innermost lining layer of the vessel. Once this lining is disrupted the underlying connective tissue (collagen) is exposed. Exposed collagen causes platelets to stick. When the platelets stick they begin the process of forming a clot. The clot can then propagate. It can also break off and travel, causing a stroke when it eventually reaches and blocks a smaller branch of the vascular tree in the brain. The percentages of people who saw chiropractors that had a stroke were higher for their age group than the people who never saw a chiropractor." While some medical professionals claim the dangers of chiropractic therapy are overstated, the evidence of increased stroke risk and paralysis is hard to dispute.

Note: The author of this post is not a doctor and makes no claim to be an expert on health related issues. Views expressed here and in other posts on this blog are merely the opinions of the author. Always check with your doctor before making any decisions concerning your health.