Chiropractors are Quacks. And I am a chiropractor. That seems like an odd way to start this post but its really the foundation for this whole website. You see I spend a large portion of my days and weeks listening to the horror stories from my patients about their experiences at other chiropractic offices both local and afar. Tales of massive care plans without scientific justification,”nutriceuticals”, vitamins, and snake oils mixed with far fetched impractical treatment modalities get trapped in my office. Justly these tales should be shouted from mountains on high for the rest of the world to hear so we can move forward out of the fairytale shadows of our “founders” into the light of mainstream healthcare where we might actually serve humanity instead of being the laughing stock of the industry.
Chiropractors are not quacks in all honesty but are actually their own worst enemy. Practicing in a world with information at the fingertips our patients are more educated than ever which demands our respect as provider to teach them the foundations of their illness and the science behind their treatments. Very few chiropractors do this, leaving patients to rely on the internet for understanding and lets face it the internet is not friendly to chiropractors.
Where did it start?
This is where I’m going to piss off some of my colleagues. Our entire profession since that cloudy day on September 18, 1895 is based on a story of curing deafness with a chiropractic adjustment. Tell someone today that you can cure their deafness by “popping their spine” and they are likely to run out the door and possibly report you to your professional board. However; a small minority will hang around and hope for the best and there have been a handful of studies since 1895 that substantiate curing hearing loss with chiropractic: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/8002367?dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/3590487?dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn
However; this is 2022, and if you are going to earn the respect of your patients as well as your fellow health care providers you better be prepared to educate properly to justify taking hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for non-conventional treatment options. If you don’t you will look like a quack.
Being honest with patients
Allopathic medicine is the most diversified form of healthcare in the history of humanity. There are specialists and subspecialists for every major system in the human body. So why the hell do chiropractors think they can heal every condition in the MERC manual? The truth is they are brainwashed in school that man’s “innate intelligence” can heal everything. I wont lie, I have seen some miracles happen in my office, but I would never hang my hat on them until they were reproducible. I once had a patient tell me they saw a chiropractor who claimed they could heal their Type 1 diabetes. The patient walked out the door and never went back. THE ONLY REASON I EVER SAW THAT PATIENT WAS BECAUSE THEY PRESENTED WITH LOW BACK PAIN AND THEY WERE REFERRED BY THEIR PRIMARY CARE PROVIDER.
The take away…
I guess the main point of this rant and really this entire site is to show you that chiropractors should not be taken seriously until they earn your respect and confidence. If it looks, sounds and acts like a “quack” then run! There are great chiropractors out there that can diagnose, educate, and treat when appropriate, but chances are you are going to have to see a few before you find the right one.
Dr. Travis White 