I’m a medical worker, and I’ve been trying to read about the history of chiropractice. It’s fascinating to me how the field was started as a spiritual practice. But with the background of chiropractic care being challenged by modern science, and spinal manipulation being disproven to have any benefits, how is chiro so mainstream today? It’s covered by health insurance, even though medical researchers are regularly publishing data that disproves the benefits. DISCLAIMER: IM NOT TRYING TO HATE ON ANYTHING, I’m genuinely interested in the history and how the practice became so mainstream with a somewhat unsteady foundation.
In: Biology
Because believing is easier than thinking.
Also it’s more “natural”, which appeals to people who distrust “big medicine” because “it’s *so* expensive!” and “they really don’t want to cure you, because they don’t make money off of well people”, not realizing that starting chiropractic manipulation is basically signing up for a never-ending subscription.
So it can appeal to “spiritual” types *and* conspiracy theorists. This conspirituality is a natural entry to the “Woo to Q” pipeline.
In the best case, a chiropractor who doesn’t buy into the pseudoscience that permeates the profession, can be about as as effective as a physiotherapist. However, due to the fundamental tenets of the profession, they still practice highly risky maneuvers such as the “high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust” which is basically unnecessary, and carries the risk of causing serious harm, including the worst-case outcome of a cerebral artery dissection, which can easily become fatal.
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