A study published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation
Research (JVSR) refutes several recent media reports that
chiropractic is linked to a risk of stroke.
The study, "Stroke
and Chiropractic: A Review of the Literature"
conducted by Dr. Ari Cohn, found serious flaws in research
literature often used to support accusations about the dangers of
neck adjustments.
The categorization of all manipulation as chiropractic is one
of the worst of these flaws.
According to Dr. Cohn: "In the literature, there is a lack
of distinction between professions and different styles and
techniques of manual procedures, adjusting and manipulating.
Medical doctors, osteopaths, physical therapists and chiropractors
have different levels of expertise and levels of training in the
area of spinal manipulation and adjustment. Although chiropractors
perform approximately 94% of all spinal adjustments, it is
misrepresentation to include statistics of injuries caused by
other professionals, and even non-professionals and refer to the
procedures as chiropractic in nature when clearly they are
not."
Another issue involves blaming the cause of a stroke on
chiropractic based on the temporal relationship to an adjustment.
"Just because a person had an adjustment a day or two
before their stroke does not mean the adjustment caused the
stroke. Most people probably drank water the day before the stroke
but no one is going to say the water caused the stroke"
argued Dr. Cohn.
The New Jersey practitioner also compared the incidence of
stroke in the general population versus stroke in people receiving
chiropractic care. Noting that the chiropractic group had a lower
incidence, Dr. Cohn pointed out "the statistics might
indicate that we are actually preventing strokes in our patients
as opposed to the other way around."
Dr. Cohn's review also compared the risk of common medical
procedures to the risk of stroke from cervical adjustment.
"Medical procedures have an inherent risk that the public
seems to accept without question. Even a simple venipuncture is
many times more dangerous than the risk of stroke from a
chiropractic adjustment. These are obvious flaws in logic that
people are just not seeing," he noted.
Commenting on the research report, Dr. Matthew McCoy, editor of
the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research said, "A person
is more likely to get hit and killed by lightening than suffer an
adverse event from a neck adjustment. While the chiropractic
profession certainly needs to research its safety and efficacy, I
think there are more pressing aspects of health care delivery to
worry about."
Dr. McCoy added that strong political and economic factors
frequently provoke a rash of medical articles on the so-called
"dangers" of chiropractic.
"Considering that medicine kills more people every six
months than died in the Vietnam War should cause people to
question whether this is a case of the pot calling the kettle
black," he said.
JVSR is a peer-reviewed scientific journal devoted to
subluxation based chiropractic research, affiliated with the World
Chiropractic Alliance (WCA), an international organization
representing doctors of chiropractic and promoting the
traditional, drug-free and non-invasive form of chiropractic as a
means of correcting vertebral subluxations that cause nerve
interference. For more information, contact the WCA at
800-347-1011 or http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org.
