What alternative health

practitioners might not tell you

 

ebm-first.com

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“…in an unprecedented attack, John Reggars, a former president of the Chiropractors Registration Board of Victoria, said elements within the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia (CAA) had brought the profession to a crossroads, where it had to choose between science and pseudoscientific dogma...He claimed the CAA’s active promotion of so-called vertebral subluxation complex (VSC) — an unproven theory that spinal misalignments affect the “expression of innate intelligence”, resulting in ill health — was damaging the profession’s credibility… “Chiropractic trade publications and so-called educational seminar promotion material often abound with advertisements of how practitioners can effectively sell the vertebral subluxation complex to an ignorant public,” Mr Reggars said. “Phrases such as ‘double your income’, ‘attract new patients’ and ‘keep your patients longer in care’, are common enticements for chiropractors to attend technique and practice management seminars…Selling such concepts as lifetime chiropractic care, the use of contracts of care, the misuse of diagnostic equipment such as thermography and surface electromyography and the X-raying of every new patient, all contribute to our poor reputation, public distrust and official complaints.” “For the true believer, the naive practitioner or undergraduate chiropractic student who accepts in good faith the propaganda and pseudoscience peddled by the VSC teachers, mentors and professional organisations, the result is the same, a sense of belonging and an unshakable and unwavering faith in their ideology.” Mr Reggars said both the Chiropractic Board of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission needed to take “clear and decisive action” against the promotion of VSC as a cause of ill health…He talks about some clinics churning through hundreds of patients a day, the package deals where patients pay up-front for fixed numbers of chiropractic sessions, the family deals where the kids are treated alongside mum and dad. None of this looks pretty. Paul Smith, Australian press (13th May 2011) [pdf]