No, JAMA does not now recommend chiropractic care first for low back pain

[SidDithers]

Of all the alternative medical systems out there, chiropractic is one of the oddest. Unlike many of the others, it has a modicum of plausibility, at least for back problems due to musculoskeletal strains. After all, the science-based specialty of physical therapy uses spinal manipulation to treat back problems. Of course, the big difference between chiropractic and physical therapy is that chiropractic is based on a delusion, namely the concept of subluxations. To science-based specialties, a subluxation a painful partial dislocation. This is different from a chiropractic subluxation, which is claimed to cause disease by interfering with nerve supply to organs. Such subluxations have never been shown to exist, nor has it ever been shown that “innate intelligence,” which to chiropractors is the organizing property of living things and a term originally coined by Daniel David Palmer, the founder of chiropractic. Palmer proclaimed that subluxations interfered with the body’s expression of “innate intelligence,” that controls the healing process. One notes that this vitalistic concept is very much like qi in acupuncture, except that instead of needles redirecting or unblocking the flow of qi in chiropractic adjusting subluxations unblocks the flow or function of the “innate intelligence.” Unfortunately, chiropractic subluxations have never been shown to exist.

Such is the reason why I like to refer to chiropractors as physical therapists with delusions of grandeur. They claim to be able to treat all manner of disease, not just back problems, by adjusting the spine. Even more unfortunately, among the alternative medical specialties, chiropractic is arguably the most entrenched, the most accepted, of them all.

Still, chiropractors have a much-earned inferiority complex. They desperately crave the acceptance that they don’t deserve and the scientific acceptance they don’t have. That’s why, whenever a story like this pops up, it’s spread far and wide as though it’s some sort of validation of chiropractic. In this case, the story is entitled JAMA recommends chiropractic as first means of back pain treatment. Let’s just say that the title of this article is profoundly misleading:

Medical doctors and chiropractors are often at odds with each other. The Journal of the American Medical Association now recommends chiropractic as a first means of treating back pain.

Dr. Alex Vidan wasn’t going to let that pass by without a comment. He stops by FOX2 with his pal Mr. Spine with more information.

More here: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/07/18/no-jama-does-not-now-recommend-chiropractic-first/

Sid