June 2007

Self magazine blasts chiropractic

Repeats stroke misinformation; uses scare tactics

Self Magazine, a publication read by more than five million readers, published an article in its May issue titled, "A deadly twist," along with a "teaser" paragraph warning that "Chiropractors are causing strokes in young, healthy women. Read this before your next appointment."

The piece was filled with the same misinformation and scare tactics that have been directed against the chiropractic profession for years and focused on the supposed link between cervical manipulation and strokes.

In response, the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) sent a strongly‑worded letter to the publisher and the editor, citing accurate scientific evidence. It also organized a massive grass‑roots letter writing campaign to demonstrate to the magazine's editorial staff that the chiropractic community ‑‑ doctors, staff, patients and supporters ‑‑ will not tolerate such anti‑chiropractic bias.

An e‑mail "Alert" sent to thousands of DCs worldwide included a "generic" letter to use as a model in writing a personal response. Doctors were encouraged to incorporate as many of the bullet points as possible and personalize the responses as much as possible. The WCA also urged doctors to visit the Self magazine website and add their voices to the online comments section. Within days after the e‑mail was sent, more than 200 comments had been left on the site, the majority of which were in support of chiropractic.

The article is the latest in a series of attacks spotlighting a controversial research finding that suggested upper cervical manipulation could cause Vertebral Artery Dissection in rare cases. Media coverage of the report exaggerated the risk, however, and failed to note the researchers themselves admitted that medical intervention was far riskier than chiropractic care.

Organizations purporting to be "support groups" for chiropractic "victims" began springing up around the country. Several buses in Bridgeport and Waterbury, Conn., displayed side panel ads suggesting chiropractic treatment could lead to injury and/or strokes. The ads were paid for by an organization called the "Chiropractic Stroke Victims Awareness Group," supposedly founded and run by two local women who suffered strokes after seeing a chiropractor. Shortly thereafter, paid display ads were published in several newspapers around the country, chiropractic "victim" websites appeared on the Internet, and articles similar to the one in Self were published in magazines.

"It's obvious that the timing of this article's publication is not simply a coincidence," stated WCA President Terry A. Rondberg, DC. "More likely, it's one part of an overall 'conspiracy' to link chiropractic with strokes in order to destroy us. Our enemies tried in the past to destroy us, but were shot down in court. The AMA and other organizations representing the medical and drug industries can't forbid practitioners and patients to see doctors of chiropractic, but they can fund and encourage the distribution of this type of mis‑information."

The WCA launched an aggressive campaign to counter these attacks, including sending press releases to wire services, communicating with editors, and saturating the Internet with pro‑chiropractic information. A Google search of the words "chiropractic" and "stroke" recently resulted in 155,000 links, many of them repeating the same inaccurate and misleading information. WCA pro‑chiropractic pages were the #3 and #5 ranked spots.

To fund this and similar campaigns, the WCA set up the Chiropractic Anti‑Defamation Fund. "We're working hard to make sure the public has access to the truth about chiropractic's effectiveness and safety and stop these attacks," Dr. Rondberg stated.

In addition, the WCA has made available to the profession several press releases and position papers that can be used to reassure patients about the safety of chiropractic. The documents are available at the WCA website, www.worldchiropracticalliance.org.