More Chiropractic Exaggerations
(Printed in the Towanda Daily Review sometime in October?, 2004. Title is for web version only.)
Editor:The Sept. 27 Daily Review included a flyer advertisement for Dr. Heather Cutlip, Bradford County Chiropractic, Desmond St., Sayre, PA. Because of the picture of a woman and child on the flyer, and Dr. Cutlip’s certification in pediatric chiropractic care, I conclude that the facility offers chiropractic care to children and adolescents. Also, asthma and migraines are included among the maladies treated.
In "Chiropractic Care for Children", (Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 2000;154:401-407), researchers concluded that, "Pediatric chiropractic care is often inconsistent with recommended medical guidelines."
In "A Comparison of Active and Simulated Chiropractic Manipulation as Adjunctive Treatment for Childhood Asthma," (New England Journal of Medicine, 1998; 339:1013-20) the researchers concluded that, "in children with mild or moderate asthma, the addition of chiropractic spinal manipulation to usual medical care provided no benefit."
"Jerome McAndrews, a chiropractor and spokesman for the American Chiropractic Association, said that while disappointed with the studies' results, 'we are pleased at the attention that is being given to chiropractic's role in the health industry.' " (NY Times, 10/7/98)
"Dr. Jeffrey Balon, the director of the asthma study, commented that he had hoped that chiropractic care would make a difference. Balon was a practicing chiropractor from 1982 to 1989 and then returned to college to become a physician. His study was financed by four chiropractic groups." (NY Times, 10/7/98)
"Chronic asthma and chiropractic spinal manipulation: a randomized clinical trial," (Clinical & Experimental Allergy, 1995 Jan;25(1):80-8), concluded that "…no clinically important or statistically significant differences were found between the active and sham chiropractic interventions on any of the main or secondary outcome measures." Essentially, chiropractic treatment acted as a placebo.
"Chronic pediatric asthma and chiropractic spinal manipulation: a prospective clinical series and randomized clinical pilot study," (Journal of Manipulative & Physiological Therapeutics, 2001 Jul-Aug;24(6):369-77) concluded that "There were no important changes in lung function or hyperresponsiveness at any time".
"Manual medicine diversity: research pitfalls and the emerging medical paradigm," (American Osteopathic Association, 2001 Aug;101(8):441-4) found that, "Recent studies published in leading medical journals have concluded that chiropractic treatment is not particularly helpful for relieving asthma and migraine symptoms because even though study participants showed notable improvement in symptoms, those subjects who received sham manual medicine treatments also showed improvement."
"Manual therapy for asthma," (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2001;(1):CD001002) concluded, "There is insufficient evidence to support the use of manual therapies for patients with asthma."
"Physicians generally accept the role of chiropractic in treating selected musculoskeletal problems but adamantly oppose its use for treating a diverse array of disorders, such as hypertension, asthma, and otitis media, despite numerous case reports from chiropractors of improvement in these conditions with spinal manipulation," wrote Paul G. Shekelle, M.D., Ph.D., West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center in an editorial in the 1998 issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
If you have a child that requires medical attention, see a pediatrician or a medical doctor.
John L. Ferri
jlferri@epix.net