Is chiropractic care “alternative medicine” or a pseudoscience without research?

Have you ever walked into the middle of a heated discussion and quickly sided with the more outspoken person only to find out that you didn’t know all of the facts? The fighting between chiropractic and medicine is like that, only over the span of 120 years or so.

The profession of chiropractic began in 1895, well before the advent of modern medicine which began after the discovery of penicillin in 1928. In the 1800’s and into the early 1900’s there were many disease treatment methods carried out by medical doctors with varying levels of efficacy that by today’s standards seem odd, like treating syphilis with arsenic. This is how the phrase “snake oil” became known to describe an ineffective and costly treatment method. In 1910 two of the wealthiest families in history, the Carnegies and Rockefellers, funded a teacher named Abraham Flexner to write what is known as the “Flexner report”1. This report standardized medical education across the U.S. and Canada and also gave the Carnegies and Rockefellers a monopolistic stronghold on healthcare. After the Flexner report was published many health practices were forced into extinction, but the efficacy of chiropractic care had led to a large nationwide demand.

Primarily due to the Flexner report, chiropractors in the 1920’s were being accused of practicing medicine without a license and were being jailed for it. Over 450 chiropractors were arrested in one year. A notable figure during this time was a black chiropractor, Dr. Herbert Ross Reaver who vehemently fought against this injustice and was arrested 12 times. Chiropractors united in distinguishing the profession of chiropractic as separate and distinct from the practice of medicine, in what was a true David versus Goliath battle of the era.

In 1963 the American Medical Association (AMA) doubled down in their fight against the profession of chiropractic and formally established their “Commission on Quackery” with the primary goal of containing and eliminating chiropractic. As was later revealed in court documentation, the AMA’s Commission on Quackery was a huge propaganda campaign where false information was disseminated to medical doctors and the general public for the purpose of indoctrinating them against chiropractic. They called chiropractors “quacks” and described them as an unscientific cult. Initially, chiropractors attempted the high road as advised by Mark Twain, “Few slanders can stand the wear of silence”. The high level of organization and large amount money spent on the Commission on Quackery did eventually necessitate the profession chiropractic to once again fight back. 

In 1976 Dr. Chester Wilk became the lead plaintiff in a federal antitrust lawsuit against the AMA2. The AMA’s conspiracy to destroy the profession of chiropractic was finally brought to light. In 1990 after a lengthy battle that cost Dr. Wilk everything he had, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the AMA’s appeal and upheld their final decision made in 1987 – the AMA engaged in an unlawful conspiracy against the chiropractic profession. This ruling ended the AMA’s formal boycott against chiropractic, but this hasn’t stopped medical doctors from continuing to spread anti-chiropractic sentiments. 

In 1997 the AMA switched their tactic again. Instead of directly fighting chiropractors they began a direct propaganda campaign to the consumer – TV drug advertising. This has led to TRILLIONS of dollars in profits for big pharma and a U.S. society that is drug dependent. The U.S. consumes more drugs than any other country3, spends more on healthcare4, yet makes up only 4.2% of the worlds population5. According to Johns Hopkins, Medical care is the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.6. 

If you want to break out of this costly and dysfunctional “healthcare” system an “alternative” like chiropractic care, which focuses on correcting the cause of the problem and keeping people healthy, is not optional but paramount necessity. 

Resources:

  1. Duffy TP. The Flexner Report–100 years later. Yale J Biol Med. 2011 Sep;84(3):269-76
  2. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/671/1465/2595129/
  3. https://www.pgpf.org/article/how-much-does-the-united-states-spend-on-prescription-drugs-compared-to-other-countries/
  4. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/31/health/us-health-care-spending-global-perspective#
  5. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/#:~:text=the%20United%20States%20population%20is,of%20the%20total%20world%20population.
  6. BMJ 2016; 353 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i2139