Significant Journal Reports
The links below lead to summaries or full-text versions of important articles from peer-reviewed scientific journals. Please contact us to suggest articles that should be added to this page. Chiropractic Identity and Practices Funk MF and others. The prevalence of the term subluxation in chiropractic degree program curricula throughout the world. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies. 26:24, 2018. Gliedt JA. Chiropractic identity, role and future: A survey of North American chiropractic students. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies 23:4, 2015. Gliedt JA and others. Evaluation of United States chiropractic professional subgroups: A survey of randomly sampled chiropractors. BMC Health Services Research 21:1049, 2021. A large survey found that 56.8% were spine/neuromuscular focused, 22% were primary-care focused, and 21.2% were subluxation-focused. Gislason HF and others. The shape of chiropractic …
Continue Reading >Chiropractic Income Has Been Dropping Steadily
Every five years, the U.S. Department of Commerce conducts an economic census that tabulates the incomes of many industries and professions. Here are the figures for chiropractic, which the reports describe this way: NAICS Code: 621310 Offices of Chiropractors This industry comprises establishments of health practitioners having the degree of D.C. (Doctor of chiropractic) primarily engaged in the independent practice of chiropractic. These practitioners provide diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of neuromusculoskeletal and related disorders through the manipulation and adjustment of the spinal column and extremities, and operate private or group practices in their own offices (e.g., centers, clinics) or in the facilities of others, such as hospitals or HMO medical centers. Year Number of establishments Receipts Receipts per Office Annual Payroll Paid Employees 1992 27,239 …
Continue Reading >Chiropractors Wangle $100 Million Windfall
This article was the cover story in the December 1972 issue of The New Physician, the journal of the Student American Medical Association. Although the survey it describes showed that a chiropractic leader had lied to the Senate Finance Committee, the general news media did not think “another chiropractic exposĂ©” was newsworthy. Despite 75 years of thorough scientific debunking, the nation’s chiropractic cult has managed not only to survive, but to prosper through the artful use of political muscle. And now some 18,000 chiropractorsâdeclared by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as unfit to diagnose or treat diseaseâappear to have gained early success in a campaign to create a $100 million annual federal bonanza for themselves. The first goal of the campaign was achieved …
Continue Reading >A Scientific Test of Chiropractic’s Subluxation Theory
Chiropractic is defined in the dictionary as “a therapeutic system based upon the premise that disease is caused by the interference with nerve function, the method being to restore normal condition by adjusting the segments of the spinal column.” [1] The International Chiropractors Association defines chiropractic as follows: The philosophy of chiropractic is based upon the premise that disease or abnormal function is caused by interference with nerve transmission and expression, due to pressure, strain or tension upon the spinal cord or spinal nerves, as a result of body segments of the vertebral column deviating from their normal juxtaposition. The practice of chiropractic consists of analysis of an interference with normal nerve transmission and expression, and the correction thereof by an adjustment with the hands …
Continue Reading >Telephone Survey of Chiropractic Practices (2004)
During the past few years, I have observed several academic chiropractors refer to a âgrowing” chiropractic reform movement. However, they have not been able to provide any data about its extent. After I mentioned this during a high-school class I teach on critical thinking, the students decided to survey see how local chiropractors viewed several issues for which their profession has been severely criticized: (1) inappropriate use of spinal x-rays, (2) treatment of ill-defined âsubluxations,â (3) unsubstantiated âmaintenance care,â (4) craniosacral therapy, (5) treatment of newborn infants, (6) advocacy of chiropractic newborn care, and (7) failure to recommend vaccinations. After developing the questions, the students used a telephone directory (Qwest Dex Directory, 2004 edition) to locate practitioners in or near Portland, Oregon, and used a …
Continue Reading >How Five Chiropractors Misdiagnosed a Healthy Child
Many chiropractors advise parents to have their children checked and “adjusted” soon after birth and at regular intervals throughout life. In the early 1970s, I supervised a study in which a young woman took her 4-year-old child to five chiropractors for a “checkup.” The woman was worried that her sister, who had started working for a chiropractor, was being “brainwashed” into having unnecessary “spinal adjustments” every week. When she heard that I was interested in seeing how chiropractors deal with healthy people, she eagerly volunteered to help me find out. At the time of our study, about 25% of the chiropractors in our community had engaged in advertising that was flamboyant and, to my mind, misleading. We decided to visit them first. The child was …
Continue Reading >Undercover Investigations of Chiropractors
This article reports on the experiences of people who visited or telephoned more than 150 chiropractors as part of various investigations. Some of these chiropractors were selected because they offered free consultations. Others were selected because they indicated that they treat children. The rest were chosen without regard for their marketing behavior or scope of practice. Some of the visits were audiotaped or videotaped with a concealed device. The rest were documented by notes made soon afterward. Very few of the chiropractors appeared to offer what I consider to be rational care. “Check-Ups” During the 1970s, I supervised a study in which a young woman took her healthy four-year-old daughter to five chiropractors for a “check-up.” The woman, who was a practical nurse, had contacted …
Continue Reading >My Experiences with Nine Chiropractors
Chiropractors like to tell people that they have sufficient training to make appropriate diagnoses and to refer people for medical treatment when needed. I have tested this assertion in several ways. This article reports on five phone calls and six visits involving a total of nine chiropractors. During most of these, I complained about conditions whose treatment is not within chiropractic’s legitimate scope. In 1990, I telephoned five local offices to test whether the chiropractor would encourage people with serious medical problems to come for chiropractic care. All of them did so. I subsequently visited one of them who diagnosed several problems I didn’t haveâand another who said that my x-ray films (which were normal) revealed serious pathology. In recent years, I have made four …
Continue Reading >What Happened When a Chiropractor Telemarketed Me
Although I had long been fascinated by the strange outlook on health and illness espoused by chiropractors, my personal experience had been limited to two visits for treating (unsuccessfully) a backache. So I was only too happy to respond to an offer for a free “examination and consultation.” In 1994, I accepted an invitation from a local chiropractor who used a telemarketing scheme. The caller suggested that “everyone suffers from stress, and chiropractic is a viable way to deal with it.” Two sessions with the chiropractor were required. The examination was to be followed by a consultation the next day. I made the appointment and surreptitiously made an audiotape of the proceedings. There was, of course, no chance that I would be tempted to sign …
Continue Reading >Some Notes on Fred L. Stoner, D.C., and Applied Kinesiology
Fred L. Stoner, D.C., has been practicing in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1968. He originally caught my attention by placing a 2-page advertisement in the September/October 1976 issue of the Digest of Chiropractic Economics, a popular chiropractic magazine. The first page of the adâreproduced hereâsuggested that Stoner Chiropractic Research Foundation Seminars would greatly improve a chiropractor’s income. Click here for more detailed view. The second page of the ad offered his 1975 book The Eclectic Approach to Chiropractic. The book identified Stoner as president of the Nevada State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, the Stoner Chiropractic Research Foundation, and Fred Stoner Offices, Ltd. Much of Stoner’s workâthen and nowâinvolves the practice of applied kinesiology (AK), a pseudoscience based on the notion that every organ dysfunction is accompanied by …
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