Yes chiropractic lacks a complete model of its efficacy, but it doesn’t lack tens of thousands of people per day getting real benefit from treatments where conventional med has failed.

I have friends who are GPs/family doctors/conventional medics, who, when their own skills and those of their colleagues have failed them, have visited a chiropractor, had a good patient history extracted, been given a robust scientific orthopaedic and neurological screen, been given a working diagnostic, and seen improvements in a handful of sessions for conditions that have ailed them for months or years.

Chiropractors who claim they can cure cancer and the common cold are clearly imbeciles not worth mentioning here. There are just as many conventional medics who make ridiculous claims, but don’t discount the quiet majority of chiros who are out there every day using science and musculoskeletal medicine, conservative treatments, and providing positive patient outcomes. Nobody discusses them because they’re just getting on with it.

I’m a neuroscientist, and I’ve been a chiropractor. Why? Because I was having shoulder pain and my MD recommended it. The chiropractor’s treatment made me feel good. My health care covered it.
It was like a set of paid-for, “super massages”. That’s all I’ve ever looked at it as, and that’s all my chiropractor billed it as.

In his book, Singh discusses at length the fact that chiropractors do appear to be effective for some muscle and back pain issues. (Although no more effective than physical therapy). His primary complaints are against chiropractors who believe spinal manipulations can cure anything from cancer to the common cold, and those who are “mixers”, and in addition to the traditional chiropractor stuff, distribute So-Called Alternative Medicine curse of every imaginable sort. Singh also has issues with the risks of spinal manipulations, which do occasionally kill people.

Man, suddenly glad we’re not subjects of the crown across the pond.

I hope he proceeds.

http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2009/10/bca-defame-simon-singh.html

I think a good massage is well worth it. It always makes me feel better. Placebo or not, I don’t care – the results are worth it. But they’re making no claims at all what they can do for me. That’s the difference.

It was like a set of paid-for, “super massages”. That’s all I’ve ever looked at it as, and that’s all my chiropractor billed it as.