Sunday, June 12, 2005

Graduates of the Tom Cruise School of Medicine

It appears as though the great neuroscientist Tom Cruise has broadened his medical expertise even further and opened a special program for Chiropracters, or Chiropracters have taken a huge step back to join Cruise and the fundagelical movement in disregarding science altogether.

There have always been those in the chiropractic world that have taught that all ailments can be resolved by vertebral manipulation and adjustment. This belief is now, as it has always been, extremely dangerous. The modality of adjustment can be very useful as a method of treating various ailments, as such, it is one of the modalities of treatment taught to students of Osteopathic medicine. The difference between an Osteopath and a Chiropracter is that the former is a physician that practices medicine, the latter practices a limited form of treatment. I bring this up because it is malpractice for a Chiropracter to risk the health of patients by trying to pretend to practice medicine.

Time magazine is now reporting that a solid minority (over 27%) of Chiropracters are endangering the life and welfare of their patients and their patient's children by discouraging vaccination (including against polio) and stating adjustment has postive effects on the immune system. The implication is that adjustment can replace vaccination to prevent/treat infectious disease. In my own personal experience in the Pulmonary & Critical Care Division at a large urban hospital, I can tell you that I saw a few too many (frequently students of chiropractic care) patients present with pneumonia requiring admission to the ICU or asthma exacerbations ranging from a mild decompensation to status asthmaticus. Chiropractic care is not a safe or healthy alternative for legitimate medical care. The statements of the World Chiropractic Alliance are as irresponsible as the blanket statements against use of medications for psychiatric/psychological disorders made by Scientologists lead by Cruise (who admits to being willing to force his ex-wife and children to suffer through a painful & public divorce and all that goes with it because of his lack of understanding of counseling and the fact that Scientology forbids any sort of counseling that doesn't line Scientology's coffers).


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's a "Chiropracter?" I have heard of a "Chiropractor," but never a "Chiropracter."

Anonymous said...

They are both witch doctors

Anonymous said...

Your mom's a witch doctor

Anonymous said...

Real mature. You must be a chiropractor.

Anonymous said...

I'm certainly not a" Chiropracter," and neither is anyone else. I'm not a "Chiropractor" either. Anyone who tries to lump chiropractic in with medicine clearly doesn't know what they are talking about. It's a form or healthcare, and does not claim, and never has claimed to be a part of medicine. Medicine is not the only form of healthcare out there. I know a lot of people who have been helped by chiropractors, myself included. Chiropractors also have incredibly low malpractice insurance due to the fact that the risk to the patient is very low. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not going to take the word of a person who can't even spell the name of their topic of discussion.