Just as an update,
Florida kills proposal for nation's first chiropractic school at a public university.
Ridicule by the university's falculty and lack of evidence to support the notion that chiropractic "medicine" is anything but pseudoscience were apparently the reasons. Now, if the insurance companies would start listening to the
American Medical Association and stop paying for chiropractic care, maybe our health care costs will go down since people with real injuries and afflictions would get real care -and spurious injuries/afflictions would be more avoided.
This news link might be subscription, but it let me in without a login process... I can't guarantee that it'll work for everyone:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10753709.htm
Try this link if it doesn't work:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10753709.htm?1c
It appears to let you in free the first time, but wants you to register the second time.
From Miami Herald said:
[Gov. Jeb Bush] had once been a supporter of the chiropractic school -- drew the ire of Sen. Jim King, the Jacksonville Republican and former Senate president. He and Sen. Dennis Jones, a chiropractor and Pinellas County Republican, were instrumental in obtaining the money for the college.
Sounding bitter, King said Thursday that he agreed to hold a special session in late 2003 and spend more than $300 million to lure the Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County -- a measure the governor avidly sought -- in exchange for a promise that the governor would support the chiropractic college.
''I'm disappointed in the governor,'' King said. 'I don't understand the governor's position. The governor shook my hand and drank my champagne and said, `Congratulations, a battle well won, but it's over now.' I said, 'Are you sure?' -- 'Oh, yeah, everything's fine.' ''
[...]
Many faculty members derided chiropractic as ''pseudoscience'' and openly expressed fears that a college for chiropractic would harm FSU's academic reputation. Chiropractors in turn accused medical doctors of professional bigotry and turf-guarding.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't quote that much, but everyone might not be able to get to the full story, which is about 1100 words long.
It seems clear that chiropractic care amounts to pseudoscience. While there is much that can be done
legitimately by the techniques used by chiropracters, there is also much
damage that can be done. It also seems obvious that such a loosely defined discipline is an easy target for those who are willing to take advantage of "patients" by telling them they need treatments that are either unnecessary or even questionable (magnetic therapy, aroma therapy, etc.). I'm not opposed to people seeking out the "treatments" they feel works for them, like aroma therapy, but I am opposed to
paying for these treatments. This is exactly what I do when I pay my health insurance premiums, since many, if not most, insurance companies are accepting chiropractic care as valid.
Of the
legitimate treatments a chiropracter does, a certified medical physician can also perform -and often does. If I'm going to have my spine manipulated, I'd rather have it done by a physician who is also educated in other bodily systems and has more complete knowlege of medical procedures and the problems that can be anticipated.
The counter argument, of course, is that chiropracters are trained for
specific tasks, and therefore have
more knowlege/experience in spinal manipulation, etc. I don't find that argument convincing. The physical properties of the spine would seem to be a finite set of information for either the doctor
or the chiropracter. Physicians have the added confidence from me because they consult one-another and refer to one-another when they recognize their knowlege or experience is lacking. That an experienced family doctor isn't
at least as knowlegeable as the average chiropracter in correcting alignment problems (if they even exist) or relieving pain is ludicrous.
But the quotes above make it clear that politics can have a great deal of effect on the perceived validity of pseudoscientific methods, practices, and notions.
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Pseudoscience, its not just for UFO nutters.