Do you recommend studying Chiropractic Medicine?

Question

I am interested in studying chiropractic medicine. I would like to know if it is worth studying for my future career wise.

Answer 1

Chiropractors are incompetent quacks. They have nothing to do with medicine.

Why would you want to go to Chiroquackery School ? Chiropractors are taught superstitious mumbo-jumbo that's just not true. (They think blockages in the spine cause all disease). Chiropractors have such poor understanding of science that they're constantly embarrassing themselves with worthless gizmos that they foist on their patients—for example magnets that they wave up and down the spine to get rid of "imbalances". The point of chiropractic practices is to hook patients into as many bogus and expensive "preventative" spinal sessions as possible. Chiropractors have a MAJOR problem with ethics. And now I hear very few chiropractors make decent money.

ADDED: Someone brought up "muscle testing" as an example of the wonderful therapeutic techniques used by chiropractors. Actually is an example of typical chiropractic quackery. Muscle-testing aka "Applied Kinesiology " claims that diseases are demonstrated by weakness in specific muscles". From Barrett:

"Finding a "weak" muscle supposedly enables the practitioner to pinpoint illness in the corresponding internal organs in the body. For example, a weak muscle in the chest might indicate a liver problem, and a weak muscle near the groin might indicate "adrenal insufficiency." If a muscle tests "weaker" after a substance is placed in the patient's mouth, it supposedly signifies disease in the organ associated with that muscle. If the muscle tests "stronger," the substance supposedly can remedy problems in the corresponding body parts. Testing is also claimed to indicate which nutrients are deficient. If a weak muscle becomes stronger after a nutrient (or a food high in the nutrient) is chewed, that supposedly indicates "a deficiency normally associated with that muscle."

This is nuts...yet some uneducated people are highly impressed. About 37%-43% of all USA chiropractors practice this "muscle testing" quackery. This is why it's fair to say the entire "profession" is corrupt.

If you want to do spinal manipulation in a more or less ethical manner, think about attending a School of Osteopathy.

See the website below to understand what chiroquackery is all about.

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postscript:

I appreciate joecool's posting below. I disagree with him in his high assessment of chiropraxy's inherent value, but he appears to be an ethical and thoughtful chiropractor.

It seems to me chiropraxy is more successful the closer it gets to Physical Therapy. Why not then drop the "subluxation" baloney and just have Chiropraxy become Physical Therapy with a few extra spine manipulation techniques (which may actually do some good above placebo levels) ? Osteopathy made the jump to ethical science-based medicine a half-century ago. Chiropraxy should do the same.

There is a small group of ethical chiropractors working to change the profession. This is NACM - the National Association for Chiropractic Medicine. Of course, these brave chiropractors are ostracized by both "straight" and "mixer" groups of chiropractors.

Answer 2

I am a practicing Chiropractor and its sad to see the differing opinions but then again we know what opinions are like.
In all seriousness Chiropractic is not voo-doo or quackery. There are programs throughout the country that are hospital based and research institutes such as Harvard medical school have a full CAM section. Complimentary & Alternative Medicine. Check out the Texas Back Institute and others.
The issue with Chiropractic is the older profession and some of the young think they can heal the world and that is simply not true.
Good Chiropractors will work with your family physician as well as ortho/neurosurgeons. The publics perception has not changed a lot due to my professions lack of unity, professionalism and salesmenship mentality.
I could point out that as insurance changes you will see medicine enter all kinds of areas they have no clue being in.
Case in point is vitamins or alternative herbs sold on the internet or TV from paid MD's who, because of the intials sell more. In reality if you look into their curriculum they do not get training in medical school on alternative therapies.
Personal advice would be if you have a lot of money or a rich uncle go for it but go to a school that is medically oriented as the profession is moving in that direction.
If you do not then do not bother, insurance re-imbursement in down and overhead is up. From a pure business stand point I would not do it again and I am one of the successful ones doing it legitamately. I have earned the respect of medical physicians in my area and I do not treat kids. I recommend vaccines and medicine in a rwsponsible fashion. From a personal point I would not do it again because of the intense negativity from the public you will be chastized every step of the way. You will have to battle for every piece of ground you can obtain while the idiot down the road made the profession take two steps back. This is while you have just helped the five hundreth individual from having surgery and the surgeon sent them to you. Thats the TRUE OXYMORON
Aside from that opinion I help lots of people and release them as soon as they are better usually in two weeks.
Look into the hospital based programs and the close working relationship the DC's have with MD's. The public like research have not been informed of these great facilities and the research that is overwhelmingly positive. Good luck and if you want a hard nose approach and the facts e-mail me.

Answer 3

YES! I think it IS worth studying! I've read the various opinions listed here. Everyone is entitled to an opinion of course, but the important point is to make an informed choice as to what to do with your life. You obviously want to help heal people or you wouldn't be thinking about chiropractic in the first place. I applaud that! I think as time goes on, people are going to be more conscious of "whole body wellness" and look to alternative medicines as the way to heal the whole body in less invasive ways. I know from my own research, that chiropractic does help a great many people. And I have an immune system disease... Lupus... that is very painful. Chiropractic really helped me to have a lot less pain. But if a person has their mind already made up that it doesn't work, and haven't even tried it, then you are going to get a lot of negative comments. Good luck in your decision making!

"Public opinion is a weak tyrant, compared with our private opinion - what a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates his fate.” ~Henry David Thoreau

Answer 4

Holistic medicine is largely a scam. Almost all of it doesn't work. Some herbs do contain natural products that act as drugs, but very few actually stand up in a placebo controlled trial. Any that actually work are quickly analyzed to determine the active ingredient, which is then either purified or synthesized, maybe modified to increase activity, then tested and sold as a pharmaceutical. Once it works, it's no longer "holistic."

Answer 5

before trusting an opinion of an md concerning chiropractic, ask them where they were trained and what they actually factually know about chiropractic.

i know many practioners in both medical and chiropractic background. it is a senseless turf war based on the almighty dollar. to refer to an entire profession as "quacks" is to deny the 7-8 years of post high school education, and to demonmstrate ignorance and bigotry. Most insurance companies cover chiropractic as does medicare and medicaid. What is safer? The malpractice rates of chiropractors is far less than that of mds.

to answer your question, are you willing to put aside the ignorant rabble and do you truly want to help people? that should be your major concern. second, have you done your due diligence and found out how many people hospitals and mds kill or maim each year? how bout how much money drug companies give to our legislators? Then its no wonder how much ignorant bias there is to any alternative!

Answer 6

To some extent it depends on what you wish to do with yourself, but as things have come and gone, I ended up deciding it might be the best place to go.

Heres the simple run down of why it seems good to me (for reference, I have a lot of connections in the alternative health fields so I am claiming to be an authorative source). I know this is a little bit long, but I think you deserve to get the full picture instead of "go to chiropractic school!"

Medical school was originally where I wanted to go. After a while I discovered a few sad facts.
1) It costs a bundle. 2) The work is excessively grueling (more so than it needs to, soley so people get attached to it since they had to work so hard for it) and competitve 3) By and large it's a miserable experience (esp residency) 4) It makes your form of thinking become very narrow minded.

Some of my family members are healers and stuff, so I wanted to just learn their stuff and then practice under an actual liscence (which was procured mostly for being able to practice).

After looking about, I found out that the AMA was very aggressive about keeping anyone from practicing anything but allopathy (which is a major hitch, since I am a fan of alternative medical practices), and that the following options were available

1) Osteopath. I know some amazing osteopaths, and I thought this would be awesome. Unfortunately, all the osteopaths I know told me the AMA was taking over the field and it was becoming very similar to normal medical school (and more say drug focused).

2) Naturopath I also know a lot of people in this field. They have a more positive opinion about entering it than the osteos, the school environment seems really nice (at least at the portland one), and they learn a lot of interesting concepts. Unfortunately, to a large extent, physical stuff is skipped since they are often mostly just herbalists, and the field is getting overrun by pharemecuticals that want to market "green drugs."

3) Massage. If you are naturally talented at body work or know a good teacher, you can get a massage liscence to practice it commercially. I know this is a good strategy to employ in New Hampshire. I can however understand why you would not want to do this.

4) Chinese medical school. I have no objections to this one, but it's really a personal preference. Either you are drawn to it, or you are not.

5) Chiropractic. When I asked people what they'd reccomend, chiropractor kept on coming up. For starters, I was told the schooling process is not a miserable experience. Secondly, every person I talked to was adament that the health care method you learn should involve becoming familial with manipulating the human body (both for it's effectiveness, and for personal growth in the future). Thirdly, Chiropractors tend to consistently be pretty cool people (based off of what they can do) who you wish you could be like after you vist them in the office.
Lastly, and most importantly. The chiropracticers have a very powerful legal association working for them. In the past the AMA has tried to squash or marginalize a lot of alternative (aka competing business) practices, by and large with sucess. The chriopractors fought the AMA off, so as a result it's the one liscence where you can expect not to get messed with. In addition, Chiropractors are liscenced to pretty much do whatever they want, whereas almost any other lisence is very strict about what you can and cannot do. I have a friend whos a chiro that has a couple of "illegal" cancer devices he's used to cure a lot of people with, and I cannot think of any other field you get that in. So essentially, being a chiropractor gives you the freedom to practice what you want, along with teaching you a very useful set of skills to go along with it.
The wonders of competent body work are beginning to become spread more and more in the US, so I expect Chripractors to continue attracting more business.

How's all of that for you?

Answer 7

The term "chiropractic medicine" is an oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp."

Answer 8

hey im in the same boat! im 17 and im going to get a career in chiropractic arts. it is very worth studying, and the pay is very well. it may require 7-8 years of college. if you enjoy it then do it. i am =]

Answer 9

Yes, I think when I come back I'd like to be a chiropractor! I've been to three different ones, and they all seem to love their profession, and people swear by the results they get. The ones I go to don't just crack your back, but also are able to prescribe nutritional supplements through muscle testing and do alternative therapies like cranial-sacral.

Answer 10

No.

In all honesty I think its quackery.

I used to go when i was little and my parents spent a lot of hard earnt money on it and honestly it doesnt help anything.

Having someone constantly adjusting your body is a joke, go outside and run, go down to the beach and swim, head down to the gym and do yoga!

imrpoving the body so it doesnt need adjustment should be the goal.

if its a treatment that fixes something, it should be fixed right?

why do you have to keep going back and spending more money?

its quackery.