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British Chiropractors Drop Case Against Simon Singh
SJrX writes "Several sources are reporting that the British Chiropractic Association has dropped its lawsuit against famed writer Simon Singh. He had recently won a High Court ruling in his favour, but this had been open for appeal."
Also covered at The Independent
and at MacLeans. Singh had angered the chiropractors' trade group with his published claim that certain chiropractice treatments were "bogus."
I was truly surprised that Singh was sued in the first place for seemingly innocuous remarks about chiropractors. Yes, his comments basically called them to task for their industry group's assertion that chiropractic could basically cure all sorts of illnesses.
Hopefully this serves as a warning to other "slandered" groups that they had better have something more substantial than hurt feelings if they want to abridge someone's freedom of speech.
What a pain in the neck! (At least proctology is based on peer-reviewed science)
They can make back pain marginally better. That's not bogus at all. They can not, however, fix much of anything else, which was Singh's complaint against them, because they claim they can fix everything from gout to cancer.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I used to work as a helpdesk consultant -- this was waay back 13 years ago -- and part of my duties was to lug bigass monitors for the company from one workstation to another (they were a publishing house with a lot of DTP guys). One day I lifted a monitor the wrong way, and long story short -- the back pain stayed with me right up until a couple of months ago.
Used to be I couldn't lie face-down for more than 10 minutes before my back would start hurting. And I couldn't carry my kids much. One day the pain got so bad I went to a chiro, and the guy did manage to straighten out my back. Hurt like heck when he "realigned" my spine, but that 13-year-injury is no longer there.
So yeah, I used to think they're bogus. But now I dont. YMMV.
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"British Chiropractors Drop Case Against Simon Singh" -newspapers
"Well that's a load off my back" -Singh
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> So yeah, I used to think they're bogus.
They are. A massage therapist could helped you more and with less hocus-pocus.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Did the chiro also offer to cure your diabetes? Cancer? Emphysema? Bad skin? This is what Singh was commenting on - the widespread, and supported-by-the-association claims to actually cure disease via Chiropractic Manipulation.
Bogus, indeed.
But the placebo effect is really great!
Let's hope they offer him more than a placebo for his accumulated legal costs.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Several sources are reporting that the British Chiropractic Association has dropped its lawsuit against famed writer Simon Singh.
Now they've unwittingly made this the even more famed writer Simon Singh. Before this, I hadn't even heard of him. Sometimes it's smarter to let the writer write what he will then to have a high court make him look even better. Now their illusionary world looks even more like it is.
Used to be I couldn't lie face-down for more than 10 minutes before my back would start hurting. And I couldn't carry my kids much. One day the pain got so bad I went to a chiro, and the guy did manage to straighten out my back. Hurt like heck when he "realigned" my spine, but that 13-year-injury is no longer there. So yeah, I used to think they're bogus. But now I dont.
Except that while you may have seen a Chiropractor, I am willing to bet that he was also a licensed physical therapist. What you have described is a physical therapy treatment, not a chiropractic treatment.
This is the reason that a lot of people think that chiropractic treatments are legitimate: They are receiving physical therapy treatments from so called "mixed" chiropractors.
Strict, or so called "straight" chiropractors claim they can fix any problem in the body (heart disease, cancer, whatever) by manipulating your bones and muscles. That kind of nonsense is right up there with balancing the humors to restore the body's vitality.
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A few small, rich voices can make a difference!
Part of his complaint with regard to the lawsuit was that the Chiropractors' Association that sued him also sue poor people who should have free speech rights that are socked with having to settle because they can't afford the legal costs.
Chiropractic treatment (massage therapy and physical therapy) has been well established as an effective treatment for back pain, and many "chiropractors" end both their claims and treatments there.
The problem is, true Chiropractic goes much further, claiming that a wide variety of diseases are caused by "misalignments" of the spine, other joints, and soft tissue. "Traditional chiropractic assumes that a vertebral subluxation or spinal joint dysfunction interferes with the body's function and its innate intelligence." In many cases, these claims are demonstrably false.
"Chiropractic is often described as two professions masquerading as one. Unlike the distinction between podiatry (a science-based profession for foot disorders) and foot reflexology (an unscientific philosophy which posits that many disorders arise from the feet), in chiropractic the two professions attempt to live under one roof, albeit with much tension between them."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic
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I propose that anyone living in Britain who was seriously considering seeing a chiropractor- and still is- avoid any members of the British Chiropractors' Association, and lets them know exactly why.
Though I suspect most people who would be willing to support this boycott wouldn't be planning on seeing a chiropractor now, if they ever were.
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There's no such thing as the Placebo effect!
I'm curious how you can to that conclusion. I just read the study you referenced and that is not at all what it says.
What is actually says (emphasis mine):
We did not find that placebo interventions have important clinical effects in general. However, in certain settings placebo interventions can influence patient-reported outcomes, especially pain and nausea, though it is difficult to distinguish patient-reported effects of placebo from biased reporting. The effect on pain varied, even among trials with low risk of bias, from negligible to clinically important. Variations in the effect of placebo were partly explained by variations in how trials were conducted and how patients were informed.
Nowhere in that study do the authors claim that there is no such thing as the placebo effect.
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Probably not. Massage therapists work on muscles; I've never heard of one doing a spine adjustment. I, too, firmly believe 99% of chiroprators are full of shit, but the one thing they seem to do well is straighten the back... mostly they treat the symptom of back pain. But if the adjustment permanently removes the pain, I call that a cure, regardless of the quackery behind their methods.
I'd never go to a chiropractor, ever. I'd go to an orthopedic specialist that's a doctor of osteopathic medicene, though... but of course, their science IS science. There are many D.O. chief of surgeons and D.O.'s that run hospitals. I'd even go so far to say the D.O. is better than the M.D., as far as the skill of the healer is concerned... just not as popular.
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> So yeah, I used to think they're bogus.
They are. A massage therapist could helped you more and with less hocus-pocus.
I had a bad back problem a few years ago after doing martial arts. The regular doctor told me I would never be able to do sports again, gave me some drugs for the pain and I was given some massage session. One year later, I was still in pain. Although it did come and go but at the worst points I couldn't do simple things like lift the kids into the car or push a shopping trolley. I used to take pain killers and tried various different massage techniques.
I went to two chiros. The first was bogus. He pulled and pushed me around and I didn't feel any better afterwards. A few months later I went to a second one at had a greatly different experience. He was very methodical and explained exactly what he was doing and where the problems in my body where. Many clicks later and a few sesssions later I felt much better. I could stand straight again with ease - no pulling pain sensation like before.
Now it has been a good few years and I have no back problems anymore. I even play sport again normally.
My conclusion was that there are a lot of bogus people out their practising these types of techniques but perhaps with a really skilled person and with very specific problems in the back, their techniques really can help.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10);'
Mr. Singh didn't say that all Chiropractic procedures are bogus. It's the stuff about curing allergies and diabetes and stuff - that is the bogus part. But don't take this to mean that a good chiropractor can't work wonders if you have disc problems.
Thats put those stupid Quacks in their place. Glad it's over, it was distracting me from ridiculing homeopathy. http://www.1023.org.uk/
If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
My conclusion was that there are a lot of bogus people out their practising these types of techniques but perhaps with a really skilled person and with very specific problems in the back, their techniques really can help.
I currently have some (not too bad) back pain from several years ago. It comes and goes, but I can live with it.
Every time I hurt, my wife suggests I go to a chiropractor. But I don't -- because I don't know who I can trust. How do I know it's not some quack? How do you find that "really skilled person" and know you have one of those "very specific problems in the back?"
My current theory is to ask them what they can cure. If they say suggest wacko things like cancer and ear aches, I'll go somewhere else. You'd think there would be a better way, though, wouldn't you?
I've never heard of Chiropractors curing cancer. Heh - when my chiropractor got a malignant melanoma, she got it cut out before it could spread. :P
But I have heard the theories that proper alignment can help your body heal itself. I'd be interested in statistics (one way or the other) showing cancer rates in people that regularly have chiropractic adjustments, vs those that don't. Is anyone aware of such statistics?
Personal example. My wife injured her neck hiking. The Chiropractor did one x-ray and wanted to start her on routine (weekly) manipulations to get and keep things "aligned". The Physiatrist did several x-rays, took a complete medical history, did one manipulation and a gave shot of cortisone into the controlling neck muscle and told her she only had to return if she re-injured it. She never needed any further treatment.
Another example. A friend hurt her foot, but was actually dating a Chiropractor. He said he could fix her foot with manipulation and massage. After a week of pain, he took her to his office for an x-ray - that revealed her foot was actually broken.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Every time I hurt, my wife suggests I go to a chiropractor. But I don't -- because I don't know who I can trust.
I hurt for a long time. It started when I was in college, so I went to the campus health center. The Physician's Assistant said I didn't have carpal tunnel syndrome, gave me double-strength ibuprofen, and said to exercise. A few weeks later I went back to see the M.D., who said there was nothing wrong with me that a little exercise wouldn't fix, and offered to write a prescription for occupational therapy (to evaluate my posture while using teh computer, I think).
While I was very thin, I was hardly sedate. I upped my physical activity, but it only made the inflammation and shooting pains worse.
I took myself to a chiropractor. Crack crack crack, then her assistant applied a mechanical massager, "see you next week". I saw no improvement after the second or third visits, so I didn't go back to her.
I had double health insurance, so I went to another M.D. nearby. He said there was nothing wrong we me. I went to a third M.D., who said there was a chiropractor nearby who got good results for many of his patients.
I went to that chiropractor, who did a form of light-force manipulation. I saw him once, and knew he couldn't help my case.
Over a period of 7 years I had appointments with over 7 chiropractors, at least 4 M.D.s, dozens of massage therapists and other non-doctor body-workers, and over 7 D.O.s.
The first body-worker I ever went to did an intense form of massage with her thumbs that caused my body to completely relax - it was as if I melted into her table. I felt fabulous for a week and a half, then the burning all-over pain returned, with a vengeance. I went back to the same woman when I got home for the summer, but she wasn't able to repeat the effect. Years later I figured out what happened...
The 18th doctor put it well: “All some people need is any kind of touch – this is why people love their masseuse or their chiropractor. The rest of us just look for the specific kind of touch we need.”
How do you find that "really skilled person" and know you have one of those "very specific problems in the back?"
I've written a few things on this topic. I just put one of my opt-in emails on my website. It's a story about how I fixed my father's dog's accident-induced limp with hands-on therapy. Feel free to send me an email (to the address at the bottom of that page) if you have any questions.
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Ear aches are actually a really bad example. A lot of ear aches are really muscle knots in the SCM (sternocleidomastoid) muscle.
And even when you have a real ear ache with a bacterial causes, chronic ear aches can be the result of excessive tension in certain neck muscles causing insufficient eustachian tube drainage. When the ears don't drain properly, they are more prone to infection. That's not saying chiropractic care can fix the infection, but it can reduce the incidence of it.
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It's been said already that some chiropractors happen to also be good physio therapists.
I have a friend who is a chiropractor who eventually was forced to start her own clinic because she refused to do kineaseology (i'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but whatever).
That's the one where you lie down and hold up your arm and they push your arm down and ask you a question like "did something bad happen do you where you were a teenager" - depending on how hard it is to push your arm down in response to that question, they determine whether they're on the path to working out the trauma that's causing whatever your present health problem is (ie, if it's easy to push down, they're on the right track!).
They keep asking questions until they narrow it down enough that you are supposed to be able to figure it out. In my case apparently all my problems were caused by a falling out I had with a friend when I was 15... "so, did you have any falling outs with friends when you were 15? Right, well, that's the reason why you have a hip problem now you're 32!". Utter utter bullshit.
But she couldn't get a job in an established clinic because she wouldn't practice it!