Medical journals endorse chiropractic adjustments

Medical journals endorse chiropractic adjustments

---  James Valko

Ever since the healing art of chiropractic was founded in 1895 chiropractors have helped countess people get out of pain and enjoy healthier lives.

The first “chiropractic miracles” on record were at the hands of the founder, D.D. Palmer.  Mr. Palmer helped a deaf man hear again (Harvey Lillard) and cured a second individual of tachycardia (excessively rapid heartbeat) by manipulating their spinal columns.

Literally millions of people have been helped by chiropractors since those early days.

Yet, in the early days, not all professions took kindly to chiropractic.  In the early 1930s, The American Medical Association launched an attack, trying to discredit chiropractic in the public’s eyes.  The AMA claimed they did it in the name of “public safety.”  But later a Federal Judge deemed the AMA’s discrediting activities amounted to an attempt to create a monopoly for the medical profession.

For more than 50 years the AMA ran their attack, right up until September of 1987, when a Federal District Court proclaimed that the AMA was guilty of an illegal conspiracy against the chiropractic profession.

The Federal Court Judge ordered a permanent injunction ordering the AMA to print the court’s findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Since that time, many medical doctors have acknowledged the benefits of chiropractic care and many have referred patients to chiropractors.  According to a 2013 article in The Journal of the American Medical Association: “Many treatments are available for low back pain.  Often exercises and physical therapy can help.  Some people benefit from chiropractic therapy or acupuncture.”

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has done even more to promote the benefits of chiropractic.  Here is a quote from a study published in one of their issues.  “In a Randomized controlled trial, 183 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to manual therapy (spinal mobilization), physiotherapy (mainly exercise) or general practitioner care (counseling, education, and drugs) in a 52-week study.   The clinical outcome measures showed that manual therapy resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy and general practitioner care.  Moreover, total costs of the manual therapy-treated patients were about one-third of the costs of physiotherapy or general practitioner care.

An article in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics states this about chiropractic adjustments:  “Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors showed greater improvement and satisfaction at one month than patients treated by family physicians.  Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropractic patients.  A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56 percent vs. 13 percent) reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported their low-back pain was worse or much worse.”

Chiropractic is the largest natural alternative to medical treatment in the US.

In a world where countless drug commercials enter our homes each day, via the television and computers, it’s nice to know that such an all-natural therapy is available for pain relief.

In addition to spinal manipulation, many chiropractors today recommend nutritional therapy for overall health and weight loss to their patients.

- Goodman et al. (2013). Journal of the American Medical Association

- Korthals – de Bos et al (2003). British Medical Journal

- Nyiendo et al (2000). Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics