What alternative health

practitioners might not tell you

 

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NOTE: Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is not unique to chiropractic, it is also offered by qualified medical doctors, physiotherapists and osteopaths.

 

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Chiropractic

The Meade Report criticism

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"Despite claims that spinal manipulation is an effective treatment for headache, the data available to date do not support such definitive conclusions. It is unclear to what extent the observed treatment effects can be explained by manipulation or by nonspecific factors (e.g. of personal attention, patient expectation)." J. A. Astin & E. Ernst Cephalalgia (October 2002)

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"We found conflicting evidence on the effects of spinal manipulation in acute and chronic low back pain." American Family Physician (March 2002)

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Concludes that spinal manipulation does not produce clinically worthwhile decreases in pain compared with sham treatment, and does not produce clinically worthwhile reductions in disability compared with NSAIDs for patients with chronic low back pain. Ferreira M L, Ferreira P H, Latimer J, Herbert R, and Maher C G, Australian Journal of Physiotherapy (2002)

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The results of the three most rigorous studies (two on asthma and one on primary dysmenorrhea) do not suggest that spinal manipulation leads to therapeutic responses which differ from an inactive sham-treatment. E. Ernst, E. Harkness Journal of Pain Symptom Management (October 2001)

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Concludes that the detection of the manipulative lesion in the lumbo-pelvic spine depends on valid and reliable tests. Because such tests have not been established, the presence of the manipulative lesion remains hypothetical. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (May 2000)

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This study of commonly used chiropractic diagnostic methods in patients with chronic mechanical low-back pain to detect manipulable lesions in the lower thoracic spine, lumbar spine, and the sacroiliac joints has revealed that the measures are not reproducible. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (2000)

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The results of this study, similar to those of other studies, indicate that even chiropractors trained in the same technique seem to show little consensus on the indications for the necessity to adjust specific segments of the the spine. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (July/August 1999)

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Concludes that the McKenzie method of physical therapy and chiropractic manipulation had similar effects and costs, and that patients receiving these treatments had only marginally better outcomes than those receiving the minimal intervention of an educational booklet. New England Journal of Medicine (October 1998)