Why is chiropractic theory not falsifiable?

Great Debates
1

About 6 years ago when I was 52 I noticed a clicking sound that happens in the back of my neck every time I turn my head.

Now, before the moderators have a fit and tell me this is not the place to ask for medical advice, let me make it clear that I am not asking for advice. I am simply using my own experience with a chiropractor as a starting point for discussion.

Since this problem seemed spine-related and since my sister had recommended a certain chiropractor who had allegedly done her a lot of good, I called him up and was told to come over immediately.

As soon as I started talking about the clicking, he brushed it aside as unimportant but got me fixed up for an complete set of X-Rays where I was radiated six ways from Sunday.

He was not interested in the original reason for my visit. He was interested in getting me to join his medical “cult”. I was told all about the theory of Chiropractic, namely, that just about all diseases and infirmities are due to “subluxation” in which the vertebrae of the spine supposedly fuse together and get out of alignment, thus pressing on the nerves that bring the “life force” (is this proven?) from the brain via the spinal cord to the different parts of the body.

To be in good health, I was told, the “doctor” had to repeatedly push and manipulate the vertebrae in my spine so they would line up straight and let those poor, squeezed nerves bring their “life force” to my organs.

This, of coursae, meant multiple vi$it$ to the Chiropractor.

Now, the only really useful thing I ever got from my humanities/arts education is a pretty good bullshit meter. And boy, did it start to go off in that place!

First of all I was shown a lamp connected to a rheostat. What happens when less electricity is getting through the wire, we were asked? Why, the lamp gets dimmer. Just like your poor organs cannot work right if the vetebrae are pressing on the nerves, and not letting enough “life force” through.

But wait a damned minute! This analogy makes no sense. It is true that the nerves do carry an electrical impulse. And it is true that severe spinal injuries that sever the nerves can paralyse and kill. But since when does a lamp get dimmer if you put pressure on the wire leading to it? If I put so much pressure on the wire that the wire snaps, then assuredly the lamp will go out. But I can stand all 180 lbs. of me on the wire and the flow of electricity is not altered.

The “doctor” then showed me my X-rays and gave me a chart showing that I allegedly had subluxation in vertebrae 1c, 2c, 5c, 7c, 2T, 5T, 1L, 3L and 5L.

Since the nerves coming out of these vertebrae affect different parts of the body, the subluxation in 5T, for example, would affect my heart and the “possible symptoms” (another escape clause) would be chest pains, tightness or constriction.

In point of fact, my heart is like that of a 25-year-old and I have never had ANY tightness or constriction. So what did the chiro reply? “There has not been any damage that you can see YET.”

Okay. But what about 3L? It says on the chart that this one affects the sex organs including the prostate. Now, it so happens I have a prostate the size of a goat’s head and I have a lot of trouble peeing. So if the chiro adjusts my 3L enough, my prostate should get better, right? No, sorry, but sometimes the subluxation has done so much damage that it is too late to correct the problem.

Then about 5 weeks and 10 treatments later, I told him that my sinuses felt less stuffy. It was also early summer and the weather was now more humid and warmer, but he immediately told me that that was because vertebrae 1c and 2c were being aligned properly.

Now am I the only one who detects bullshit here? One thing I have learned on SDMB is that a proposition that cannot under any circumstances be falsified cann be true, either.

I would love to hear other experiences with this so-called “science”.

2

I’ve been seeing chiropractors (and massage therapists) since about 1990, I started developing persistent muscle pain and cramping in my neck, shoulders and upper back. In my experience, most of them don’t talk about “life force” at all. They view themselves as a special kind of physical therapist, and they do at least provide me with temporary symptom relief, which is more than the M.D.'s can do.

3

It is falsifiable, because it has been falsified; medical science understands how muscles, organs and nerves work, and it isn’t the way chiropractic says it is.

4

You’ve been going to a bad chiropractor. Cut and run now to save yourself money.

At least one chiropractic technique, known as the Graston method, has been put to the test and found to be helpful. I’m not aware of any studies supporting active release therapy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re out there.

This is a minor nitpick, but this isn’t true. On a surface of curvature zero, the angles of every triangle add up to 180[sup]o[/sup]. This can’t be falsified, but it is true.

5

FWIW, I’ve never been to a chiropactor.

Having said that, my bullshit meter is going off, too. You say this happened six years ago, but you can remember the exact vertebre that the Chiropractor told you you had “subluxation” in? All nine of them?

I think someone has an axe to grind.

6

Chiropratic has been shown to be a treatment for mild-moderate backpain. Of course, having pain in your life makes other things look and get worse. Other than that, Chiropractic is of doubtful benefit, and attacts some odd kooks, snale-oil salesmen and just plain quacks.

I go to one on occ for back pain. He treats back pain- including stiffness, etc. That’s it.

7

Not quite. A theory that cannot be falsified is not considered provable in a scientific (as distinct from a logical or mathematical) sense. But it might still be true.

8

It so happens that I can name the vetebrae because I kept the chart he gave me showing which vertebrae were supposedly subluxated. It was in my personal file on medical and insurance claims in my filing cabinet. I had it in front of me when I wrote the OP just now. I just happen to be organized. I would appreciate it if you would not call me a liar without more evidence, thank you.

There ARE other facts that I am quoting from memory, but they have stuck in my mind because this guy could manufacture bullshit like a mint makes money.

Here is a good one. When I looked at the X-Rays it occurred to me that the vertebrae that were allegedly “fusing” just happened to look closer together on the X-Ray. Since most people do not stand perfectly straight but lean a little naturally and squirm a bit in front of an X-Ray, I asked the chiroprator how he knew that these were really fused together. After all, I said, if I had another X-Ray taken with my body shifting just an inch in the other direction, might other vertebrae not look as if they are “fusing”? His answer: “You’re right, the spine is very dynamic.”

HELLO??? I ask one question and he answers another? Sorry, but the old bullshit meter was starting to ring like a fire bell on that one!

Then later I looked on the wall in his waiting room and there was a quote by the guy who founded Chiropractic (his name escapes me). He said something like this (NOT the exact words bu close enough).

“You ask if chiropractic can heal the flu or an infected appendix? Do you have more faith in a spoonful of medicine than the life force of the universe?”

Sorry, friend, but at that point my bullshit meter was ringing so loud it was smoking! Someone asks the guy how much relief you would get from spinal cracking when your appendix is about to burst and he answers a completely different question!!!

Here

9

Another poster on this board (I forget who) worked in an administrative role in a Chiropractic clinic, and, on announcing that he/she had a cold/flu and would try not to breathe on anyone, was told ‘we don’t subscribe to the germ theory of disease’. Now, I’m sure that there are lots of odd symptoms relating to weird spinal and joint conditions, that can be relieved by manipulation, but ‘We don’t subscribe to the germ theory of disease’ is just astonishingly stupid, yet it is apparently a geniune tenet of Chiroppractic.

So there’s at least one way in which it could be falsified; get your chiropractor to swallow a mouthfull of ebola (or salmonella, if you’re feeling generous).

10

Of course this proposition can be falsified. If one finds a triangle where the angles don’t add up to 180 degrees, the proposition is toast. Falsifiable doesn’t mean false. OTOH, I agree the OP has overextended the implication of something being nonfalsifiable. Doesn’t make it untrue. Merely means its truth cannot be tested scientifically.

11

Yes, Mangetout, I remember my Chiropractor telling me I should NOT have had a flu shot. Seems that the right thing to do is get the flu and then you build up an immunity. HELLOOOOO??? Reality anyone?? People in my age group regularly die by the hundreds if not thousands across the world every year from flu, and what they produce is widows and widowers, not antibodies.

Here is another famous “unfalsifiable” regularly used by Chiropractors. “Do you ned to come to see me for the rest of your life? No, only as long as you want to be healthy.”

Nice, funny glib line, but it makes you wonder. Are they saying that all human beings have something so wrong with their spines that they require a lifelong regime of spine-adjustment just to stay in normal health?

Conversely, is there a single recorded instance of any human being in the last 100 years who went to a Chiropractor and was told “Your spine is just fine with no subluxation. Don’t come back.”? If not does that mean the whole damn human race has misaligned spines and are dying of it?

Finally, the ultimate hallmark of a bullshit cult that has no scientific validity: Asking you to believe that they must be right because their rivals are wrong.

In my many occasions of waiting to get my spine adjusted, I had a chance to read special booklets produced by the Chriopractic research organization that reperints articles from magazines like Time and Newsweek detailing problems in modern medicine such as the overuse and abuse of anti-biotics. Now, nobody is denying that these problems are real in modern modicine. Doctors are among the first to attack these abuses and to demand that something be done. But at the end of each reprinted article is a little propaganda messaghe saying “Now you have seen how there is a paradigm shift in our society away from traditional medicine towards chriropractic healing.”

HELOOOOOO!!! Did I miss something in those articles? None of them say a word about this shift. They simp[ly talk about some problems that modern medicine, like any discipline, experiences and is addressing.

Logically speaking, how does attacking standard medicine prove one iota about the validity of Chiropractic theory? Suppose all doctors are in fact monsters who are part of a conspiracy to make all humans sicker and poison them with drugs and vaccines. Say they allo eat babies for breakfast and set baby kittens on fire for amusement.

Even if ALL of this were true, logically speaking, how does that prove that disease is or is not caused by subluxation of the vertebrae? No matter how much they attack and dump on conventional medicine, it does not logically prove a single item of their own theory.

12

Chiropractors! I think some may believe what they do and try hard to apply their “healing” to those who seek it, and others who’d be at home selling elixirs laced with opium 100 years ago.
I’ve been cracking my knuckles since the 4th grade. I started cracking my neck in high school. When I was 19 I began to have bad back pain in my lower right. It felt like a knuckle was being rotated into my nerves whenever I bent over to do something and then stood up. At the time I worked a strenuous job in a warehouse, as well as some rough fun on the side. I found that I could crack my back pretty good when I rotated after doing stretches on the floor. Know what? My back felt great afterwards (if only until I stood up!). It was only a temporary relief, as the pain would come back in a few hours if I tried to use my back in any strenuous manner that put a load on it. But, I would just crack it again when the job was done and get a bit of relief until I needed another crack.
This worked great for a while. I then started school and took a part time job without benefits. You know what? The pain got terrible! I knew a friend who saw a chiropractor and decided to give it a try. I never really believed chiropractors where much more of a band aid or an aspirin to the problem, but I knew cracking my back felt great and so decided to give it a whirl.
I met with the chiropractor and was impressed that the guy wasn’t trying to sell me on anything, but just that he felt he could relive the pain I felt. He never mentioned some life force, or pointed out specific vertebrae. Instead he said he’d treat my subluxations and that I’d have to go through a strict and steady stretching routine on my own. His office treatment consisted of him ‘cracking’ my back, then putting electric stimulus on it that contracted the muscles all while heating pads were applied. Frankly, I liked the guy and liked seeing him. And his cracking of my spine was much deeper than I could get. The other stuff did nothing; my back felt more vulnerable after the electric and heat treatment, though the stretching helped, even on weeks when I couldn’t see the “doctor” (dah!).
After a bit I decided to quit the whole chiropractic ‘treatment’. I started feeling like some crack whore who went to the guy for that quick fix that a good ‘subluxation treatment’ entailed. I swear that guy could move joints better than I ever could with just the mass of my body.
Well, the pain persisted, and got worse. I ignored it as best I could for a few years before finally seeing a physical therapist. The physical therapist put me on a very strict regimen of stretches and strength building exercises. And know what? The pain is mostly only a very slight nuisance- no where near the trouble it once was. I have to admit that I was in quite a deal of pain and worked hard each morning and each night with stretches and with building strength. But, my pain has mostly been gone, and so too my prior need for cracking my back and neck. Only this recent motorcycle season has brought a new flair up (after getting lazy from not feeling pain in so long and getting lazy with going to the gym to begin with). I have since been back to my stretching and going to the gym to work the areas I need to, and the pain is subsiding nicely (but not the riding!).
Sorry for the long post, but that is my personal experience with the ‘science’ of chiropracty.

13

@Valteron

After a quick spot of checking:
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2707

Sounds like a hybrid between accupuncture and osteopathy

I always thought that chiropractor was another name for osteopath. Interesting.

My brother got IBS sorted out when he went for a bad back, to someone who sounds a bit like this, but she talked about manipulating the muscles to sort out the layout of the spine.

Osteopaths can definitely work miracles, I’ve known plenty of people who have benefitted from them.

I think you got a flake, and am really surprized that you stuck with him, but maybe not.

Five years ago I ran into someone who sounds a bit like him, working in a totally different area, while I was convinced he was bullsh*tting on some things and really suspected that he doctored an XRay - it was difficult to be sure that he could not fix the problem.

Eventually I got a conventional practitioner to read a chapter in a book written by the guy, it was interesting watching his eyebrows moving.

The politest he said was: ‘There are some people who prey on people who are ill’

14

I had a similar experience with a “regular” doctor. The only reason I can think of why I’d be referred to a surgeon for a lump on my breast; surgeon who proceeded to decide that my 15-yo cysts are all-important and must be examined Right Away only we don’t have the sampling equipment all sterilized so you have to come back tomorrow first thing in the morning; sample and analysis for which the charge for the sample-taking was $250 but the actual analysis was $50; surgeon who then decided that the analysis was “not conclusive” and therefore he had to operate and start rooting about, at which point I said, basically “not on MY tits you don’t”, while he still didn’t even look at the lump; the only reason, I say, is if there was some money changing hands. Specially since other foreign classmates of mine were sent to the same fellow for a pregnancy and a broken ankle, respectively.

The lump was just a bit of fat and dissolved by itself, but really, if it had been serious I’d be dead.

15

I think there is a difference; AFAIK, osteopaths purport to correct joint, spine and posture problems, but they seem to describe them at face value, whereas chiropractors (at least the serious ones) describe human physiology in a manner that is sharply at odds with medical science.

That’s not to say there might be some quacky osteopaths out there, but the nature of their claims are different. It’s similar to the difference between psychiatric counsellors and psychic mediums; they may both appear to achieve results, but one of them is deceiving you (possibly also him/herself) about how those results were achieved.

16

I think chiropractic adjustments can be “falsified” in the sense that some single-blind research has been done employing hands-on activity that simulates typical chiropractic “adjustments”.
Another problem with the OP is that he says he’s dubious of chiro claims, but then asks for others’ experiences. And anecdotes, however interesting, don’t resolve the question about chiropractic effectiveness.

There is some evidence that chiropractors can improve symptoms of back pain, although their treatment is no more effective than other forms of physical therapy. Chiropractic treatment can be downright dangerous if the initial condition is not properly diagnosed, which many chiropractors are incapable of doing (example - a middle-aged to older patient whose back pain is caused by metastatic cancer). Another example - the propensity of some chiropractors to do forceful cervical (neck) spine adjustments, which have caused rare but devastating cases of paralysis or death.

When they stick to treating back pain in certain settings, they can do some good. The problem is that sizable contingent of chiros who insist (as noted in the OP) that they can treat heart problems, asthma, allergies, digestive problems in infants and all manner of other conditions by reducing “subluxations”. This is quackery, and even the leading chiro organizations (like the American Chiropractic Association refuse to crack down on it.

More here from a “reform” chiropractor.

Jackmannii M.D. (who is not in competition with chiros).

17

FRDE, the names for chiropracters and osteopaths seem to be reversed on either side of the Atlantic. I’ve always had good experiences with UK/Ireland chiropracters, who seem to be at least partially medically trained, and rely on X-rays and snapping things back into place. Whereas the osteopath I saw in Dublin was fuller of shit than a shit factory - cranio-sacral therapy and naturopathy me arse. Different words for different things.

18

I went to a chiropractor for sciaticia and had a similar experience. The chiropractor was not at all interested in fixing my back - but did think she could do something for my infertility! Anyway, I never went back - but I do think its useful as a form of PT (I did spend eight sessions with a PT for headaches and shoulder pain and that was VERY useful - and she did some manipulation).

About the same time I worked for a big insurance company and was helping with the installation and data load of statistical software designed specifically to monitor chiropractors. The software monitored the number of visits for each diagnosis and when a chiropractor was discovered to take significantly more visits to cure a problem, we dropped them as a covered provider. From that experience, my impression is that there are good chiropractors and ones that are fraudulent.

(They used similar software, btw, for mental health therapy).

19

Thanks for this!

20

That is an interesting point, I have wondered about self deception on the part of practicioners

  • I think it is endemic in the orthodox medical professions