I haven’t completed my chiropractor survey yet, but something I’m running into are chiropractors or assistants claiming they can ‘extend my life expectancy’. Some even say this can happen until I die of natural causes as an old woman. So, the question is, what exactly is a cure? Do these claims count as chiropractors claiming they can cure AIDS through chakra realignment and proper flow of energy through spinal manipulation? In my opinion they’re giving the impression they can while covering their bottoms legally. I’m just wondering whether to count these as hits or misses. Feedback is definitely necessary.
Quack
Advertisement
I’d add a third possible category of ‘Mitigate’. They’re basically claiming that they don’t cure the disease, but push the symptoms into the background and make them pretty much non-fatal.
I’ve lucked out. Mine is like, so totally not woo. My peeps: http://wholehealthpartners.com
I think I agree with Slugsie. Perhaps you can’t claim that these people are breaking the law, but they are hiding behind sophistry and are still making claims without any evidence. I don’t think they deserve a clean bill of health.
Thanks for the advert, Zen Otter, but I am afraid that, even if they don’t claim to cure aids, there is still a lot of woo on their web-site about meditation (which apparently enhances both sexual performance and spirituality!), the ability to detect allergies with urine tests and others.
My favourite part? The test which tells you “which nutritional compounds need to be increased in your diet and also witch compounds need to be decreased”.
Good advice! Eat more vegetables and decrease your consumption of witch compounds.
I don’t know who writes their stuff, but my food allergy test involved *bloodwork* sent to the same lab that my nephrologist uses. Last year I learned that I’m severely allergic to milk and eggs. Cutting those out of my diet has seriously helped my gut. As far as the meditation, the whole deal is listed on that page and it’s essentially breath awareness in a chair instead of lotus position. I fail to see how paying attention to what’s physically going on in the body is woo.
I’ve actually talked with them about woo chiropractic, and everyone there thinks those people are bonkers crazy, so maybe it’s just marketing verbage to get woos in, to show them evidence based treatment. I don’t go for the adjustments; I go for the Active Release Technique, which is essentially a very specialized massage modality. I have fibromyalgia (and endo, and am a breast cancer survivor, and am undergoing evaluation for lupus) and the ART helps me more than anything else they do. I love that they have physical exercises listed on their site for easy reference.
Also, they don’t make any claims on curing anything. Not even with fixing subluxations. They don’t even go there, even when patients ask about that, and they always say the same thing. “What we do is help your body get back to its normal state without drugs. It’s more like physical therapy than anything else. There is no chanting or funny weird stuff.” Eases my mind, anyway.
@Zen Otter
Firstly, I need to eat my words regarding allergens and urine tests. It seems there is a technique to measure IgG from urine, which may be a way of detecting allergies. (While my searching hasn’t found any firm evidence that it is effective, I haven’t searched enough, so I have to concede such evidence might be out there.) My apologies for dismissing that idea too quickly.
But to your main point: Paying attention to what’s physically going on in your body is not woo. Claiming that such techniques will be healing for particular conditions without any scientific evidence is. I especially wonder about the spirituality claim – how do they test for that?
I am pleased to hear that getting a massage and physical exercise makes you feel good. If it is value for money, go for it. However, if you are looking for medical advice on your conditions, I would recommend a medically-trained doctor, not a chiropractor. For example, I personally would probably get a second opinion on the eggs and milk allergy from an medically-trained allergist. It may well be true, but if it turned out to be wrong, and your gut improved on its own, I can imagine your life would be considerably easier. (I know removing eggs and dairy from *my* diet would be onerous.)
:) Yes, with all my health issues, I have a literal team of western doctors. Primary care and her physician assistant. ENT-doc (who also did the skin prick test and found 30 more allergies I have; fun). Oncologist. Surgeon (from the breast cancer). Nephrologist. Rheumatologist. Sleep med doc (who handily doubles as a psychiatrist, which is helpful with the 14 meds I’m on). Gynecologist. Gastroenterologist. Dermatologist. Therapist. Dentist. Opthamologist. Trust me, I am no stranger to evidence-based health care and have often thought of being a professional patient, with as much as I have to go to routine follow ups. I see the A.R.T. modality through the chiropractor’s office as complementary to everything else, and am happy that my insurance pays for it since they cover chiropractic care. If they did woo, I wouldn’t even go there, and thought I’d mention them because they do not deserve to be lumped in the same overall category as the other 99.5% woo chiropractic offices. No worries. :)
Clarification – my sleep med doc is board certified in both sleep medicine and psychiatry, by the two separate boards. Not all sleep med docs are like that. Just wanted to clarify.
Also, for giggles, here’s the image of my arm after the skin prick test: http://bit.ly/czh0lX – I tested moderate to moderately severe on every single thing. I live in North Texas and there’s a lot of crap in the air here, so I wasn’t really surprised except all the positives happened the first time out. Yeech.
Wow! Look at all those reactions! And I thought *my* immune system was trigger-happy! My sympathies. (Without trying to second-guess your health team, I don’t suppose there is any chance you are allergic to the metal in the needle?)
LOL – I’m sure if I was allergic to the stainless steel, someone would’ve told me by now! :) I’ve been told on more than one occasion by several different offices that I’m allergic to latex so have to have the paper tape when I do labwork, but sometimes I don’t bother telling them since I don’t keep the bandage on for very long anyway.