Beware the spinal trap

I'm joining a large group of skeptical activist bloggers around the world today in reposting an article written by Simon Singh in the UK about Chiropractic "medicine." Simon wrote a fully factual article about the complete lack of evidence supporting the efficacy of chiropractic in treating non-spine related conditions, like colic. (No, I'm not joking. Some chiropractors actually claim to be able to treat colic via chiropractic spinal adjustment. Frightening, isn't it?)

Mr. Singh, for his efforts, prompted the British Chiropractic Association to provide evidence for their claims-

-no, wait, that's not what they did-

-oh, yes, they sued him for libel. Once again, I am not joking.

British libel laws being what they are (guilty until proven innocent - I swear this is not a comedy piece, the burden lies upon Mr. Singh to prove his case, even though he is the defendant), no one would have blamed Mr. Singh for retreating in the face of a large group with deep pockets able to fund hot-shot lawyers. That is not what happened. Mr. Singh has appealed the initial judgement against him, and is taking his fight - at great personal cost and risk - to a higher court. In support, I, and hundreds of other bloggers have agreed to repost the article that started the entire kerfuffle. Note that minor changes have been made to the article on the advice of legal counsel in order to prevent the BCA from adding more defendants to their suit. Should you wish to read the unedited version of the article, you can do so, I am told, at Respectful Insolence.

(via Skepchick)

(10:02PM - edited to add: Go here to read an excellent article on this situation by Ben Goldacre, science writer for UK newspaper The Guardian.)

Beware the Spinal Trap

Some practitioners claim it is a cure-all, but the research suggests chiropractic therapy has mixed results – and can even be lethal, says Simon Singh.

You might be surprised to know that the founder of chiropractic therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote that “99% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae”. In the 1860s, Palmer began to develop his theory that the spine was involved in almost every illness because the spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore any misalignment could cause a problem in distant parts of the body.

In fact, Palmer’s first chiropractic intervention supposedly cured a man who had been profoundly deaf for 17 years. His second treatment was equally strange, because he claimed that he treated a patient with heart trouble by correcting a displaced vertebra.

You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact some still possess quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything, including helping treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying – even though there is not a jot of evidence.

I can confidently label these assertions as utter nonsense because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

But what about chiropractic in the context of treating back problems? Manipulating the spine can cure some problems, but results are mixed. To be fair, conventional approaches, such as physiotherapy, also struggle to treat back problems with any consistency. Nevertheless, conventional therapy is still preferable because of the serious dangers associated with chiropractic.

In 2001, a systematic review of five studies revealed that roughly half of all chiropractic patients experience temporary adverse effects, such as pain, numbness, stiffness, dizziness and headaches. These are relatively minor effects, but the frequency is very high, and this has to be weighed against the limited benefit offered by chiropractors.

More worryingly, the hallmark technique of the chiropractor, known as high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust, carries much more significant risks. This involves pushing joints beyond their natural range of motion by applying a short, sharp force. Although this is a safe procedure for most patients, others can suffer dislocations and fractures.

Worse still, manipulation of the neck can damage the vertebral arteries, which supply blood to the brain. So-called vertebral dissection can ultimately cut off the blood supply, which in turn can lead to a stroke and even death. Because there is usually a delay between the vertebral dissection and the blockage of blood to the brain, the link between chiropractic and strokes went unnoticed for many years. Recently, however, it has been possible to identify cases where spinal manipulation has certainly been the cause of vertebral dissection.

Laurie Mathiason was a 20-year-old Canadian waitress who visited a chiropractor 21 times between 1997 and 1998 to relieve her low-back pain. On her penultimate visit she complained of stiffness in her neck. That evening she began dropping plates at the restaurant, so she returned to the chiropractor. As the chiropractor manipulated her neck, Mathiason began to cry, her eyes started to roll, she foamed at the mouth and her body began to convulse. She was rushed to hospital, slipped into a coma and died three days later. At the inquest, the coroner declared: “Laurie died of a ruptured vertebral artery, which occurred in association with a chiropractic manipulation of the neck.”

This case is not unique. In Canada alone there have been several other women who have died after receiving chiropractic therapy, and Edzard Ernst has identified about 700 cases of serious complications among the medical literature. This should be a major concern for health officials, particularly as under-reporting will mean that the actual number of cases is much higher.

If spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.

Simon Singh is a science writer in London and the co-author, with Edzard Ernst, of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. This is an edited version of an article published in The Guardian for which Singh is being personally sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.

New commenting practices at AWV

Due to a recent spate of spam commenting, in Japanese no less - I had to use Google Translate to find out how I could increase my "male performance" - I have been forced to institute a couple of new measures here at Aurora Walking Vacation. First is the "captcha" system. All commenters will be required to enter the verification word. I'm sure you've seen this system in use at many blogs. It is intended to defeat automatic commenting bots by requiring human eyes to read and interpret an image of a word, rather than a piece of text. Second, comments on posts older than fourteen days will be moderated. I will have to approve those comments before they appear on the blog, so if you are leaving a comment on an older entry, don't be alarmed when it doesn't show up immediately.

I regret having to do this, but it's better for me than spending fifteen minutes every day deleting spam posts.

15 books

The rules, as passed to me by Jaquandor: This can be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. Only 15...

1) Lord of the Rings (Duh!)

2) Dune et al. (There are so many layers to these)

3) Gulliver's Travels (the full book is so much more than what most of us are familiar with from the abridged children's versions)

4) Don Quixote (made me laugh out loud - several times)

5) Tigana (not my first Guy Kay book, but my favourite)

6) Tesseracts (a collection of Canadian science fiction, most notable to me for its inclusion of the story Hinterlands by William Gibson - by far the most powerful thing he has ever written)

7) The Bible (because, well, just because)

8) Slaughterhouse Five (so it goes)

9) Science Fiction Hall of Fame (a collection of classic short SF published in 1970 - my copy is falling apart it has been so regularly thumbed through)

10) Norstrilia (The residents of Old North Australia made their immense fortunes raising gigantic mutant sheep. Their planetary defence system is called Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons. You kinda gotta read it to get it.)

11) 1984 (instilled in me a healthy distrust of bureaucracy)

12) The Tree of Swords and Jewels (not sure why, but I've always remembered this C.J. Cherryh book fondly)

13) The various and sundry works comprising Larry Niven's 'Known Space' opus (which most notably includes Ringworld)

14) The Chosen (Ricardo Pinto has created one of the most detailed worlds I've ever come across)

15) A Wizard of Earthsea (probably one of the first fantasy novels I ever read)

I tagged people on facebook, from whence this came, so I'm not tagging here. But if you want to, by all means. Let me know you did, so I can come see.