Scare-mongering and Propaganda

For as long as chiropractic medicine has been a regulated profession, it has had enemies who have sought to discredit or de-legitimatize it.

Every few years we hear through the press about some kind of lawsuit being brought against the chiropractic profession. Well recently a class action lawsuit was filed in Alberta against not only the Alberta Chiropractic Association, but the entire chiropractic profession itself. It is my belief that the suit is without merit.

Claiming to be around the issue of chiropractic safety, 20% of the suit seeks damages for patients who had negative events following or in suspected association with their adjustment. The remaining 80% or $400 million dollars is for a refund of the chiropractic services provided by Alberta chiropractors, since the suit alleges that there is no benefit to chiropractic at all.

Let me repeat that. They claim that the healing art of chiropractic, which has evolved over 113 years, and which has helped millions of people worldwide heal naturally without drugs and surgery—HAS NO BENEFIT!! It's outrageous!

Understand that this isn't simply about clarifying what the innate risks of being adjusted are. This lawsuit is calling to question the entire basis behind the adjustment.

The profession has long been subject to those who wish to literally take down the entire profession, who paint it incorrectly as dangerous and unscientific, and who use scare-mongering and misinformation to scare and dissuade the public away from any of the tens of thousands more who practice in the North America and around the world.

I had to really do some soul searching as to whether I would even respond to this ridiculous lawsuit, which is clearly an attack by the enemies of the profession. To me, this is a sad and thinly veiled attempt to use the emotion of a person left with decreased function and quality of life to suggest that this is the face of chiropractic. But I realized that not everybody would see it through my filter, so I decided to explain (in my belief) what this suit is about, and why it is structured the way it is.

Let me start by saying that I sincerely empathize for any person or patient who had any kind of negative reaction to any type of therapy, chiropractic or otherwise.

All the most valid and current evidence suggests that the risk of severe side effect from an adjustment is from one per million to one per 5 million. We also estimate that there are hundreds of millions of adjustments given in Canada and the United states alone every year. And here we are talking about a small handful of patients who experienced serious side effects culled from several years worth of patients.

Consider just how incredibly safe that is. What medical treatment, drug, or surgery has a safety profile that good? NONE.

As well, a recent peer-reviewed study conducted through the University Health Network in Toronto found that there was no more risk of stroke upon leaving a chiropractor's office than there was after leaving a family physician's office. With any care, the key is to ensure that the benefit of care outweighs the risk of side effect. So in response to the issue of safety, any attack is groundless since the inherint risks of medicine are much much higher than having any kind of negative reaction from a chiropractic adjustment. Unless, that is, they claim (as they do here) that chiropractic has no benefit at all (hence risk outweighs benefit).

Hopefully this seems as ridiculous to you as it does to me.

I have been in practice for four years and have seen on countless occasions the miraculous benefits of a spine that is properly aligned and functioning and moving properly.

Let me know what you think.
Dr. Adam