Customer Reviews

Chiropractic the greatest hoax of the Century?

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

I will begin by saying I am biased against the chiropractic industry generally due to my position as a physical therapist. I have experience interacting with chiropractors and have treated patients with both positive and negative exepriences receiving chiropractic care.

I purchased Chiropractic: The Greatest Hoax of the Century? with great interest hoping to confirm my suscipions of the chiropractic industry. The author himself is a long practicing physician which enhances his credibility in this endeavour. The book is based more on isolated experiences and informal 'interviews' with chiropractors rather than drwaing on eveidence based research or other more quantitative means of exposing shortcomings in this profession. The author comes off as unprofessional as some of the very unethical chiropractors he has been exposed to with his opinion based,fact lacking rants on the topic.

Within the text there is some good content on the origins of chiropractic care with hisory and government agency and political organization lobbying and results. That sort of information is redeeming as is data on cervical spine injuries through chiropractic care which I personally have concern with over the high thrust spine manipulations used in treatment. In chapter 16 the author attempts to answer the very question I have pondered: why people go to chiropractors? The success of that chapter will be determined by each reader but I come away still asking that question to some degree.

A two star rating is given for the valuable information that is included, entertainment value, and thought provoking nature of the content. Overall the book comes off very biased and opinion based focusing on the worst practioners of a profession which always yields negative and concerning content for the public.

I am an MD and a DC (Doctor of Chiropractic). This book was a completely biased account of a profession that has had a profoundly positive impact on patient care and wellness. It is simply another example of certain doctor's realization that they are not the only way to acheive good health. I too was a skeptic of chiropractic. However, rather than allow fear to influence my opinion, I chose to explore the practice. One must ask oneself, "Should I doubt because an MD told me to? Or should I see for myself?" I have found countless scientific evidence to support chiropractic. I recommend that Chotkowski and Chotkowski re-evaluate their research. This book is simply an attempt to keep patients brainwashed. Unfortunately, it is a matter of dollars and cents. Be aware of the motivation to discredit a practice that seeks wellness above all else, without toxic side effects.

All I know is that I was in desperate pain, unable to turn my head to the left, and could barely walk upright. I had to move incredibly slowly to do anything at all.

My job as a video graphics professional for the last seventeen years had me chained to a desk for up to 18 hours a day. The lack of movement and incredible amounts of stress had taken their toll.

I visited a chiropractor here in Southern California. He cracked my back and my neck, jammed his knuckles into my shoulder blades, and generally did everything I had ever seen chiropractors do in the movies. I even got the comedy crackling noise when he did the rapid neck twist on me.

I had to go back three more times for the pain to completely go. I haven't been back since April 2005. I'm now very aware of what to do and when to do it, as the chiropractor gave me great advice, so that I could look after myself by taking preventative measures.

Indeed that's the very antithesis of the typical three-day-work-week American doctor, who, under the auspices of the pharmaceutical compnies, wil lkeep us drug dependent and running back to him for more and more.

Western medicine is all about filling the fat pockets of greedy doctors and even greedier fat cat drug companies, especially here in the US, where the prices are artificially high. If someone wants to write a book about the scam that is American private medicine, I have plenty of tales.

I see that someone (whom I presume to be a doctor of traditional Western medicine) has taken a swipe at those of us that have actually had the temerity to disagree with the central tenets of this hatchet job against chiropractors.

I apologise for my 'badly written' review. I feel that the success of my treatment is something to be celebrated. Perhaps I should be as narrow-minded as S.Sawyer, and presume that he probably thinks therapy and other alternative medicines are also all of dubious value. But no, you couldn't possibly be that much of a self-stereotyping caricature.

Could you?

This author clearly doesn't not read scientific journals. You cannot base truth off of opinion. Did not have a wider audience of chiropractors to interview. Very biased opinion. Nothing factual.

I'm not quite sure what people are saying when they say that chiropractic has no scientific basis. Have any of these people tried to do a literature review? Ever heard of JMPT (index medicus has)? Spine, the top medical journal involving neuromusculoskeletal issues of the axial skeleton frequently prints articles written by and about chiropractic. I don't care if people don't like chiropractic, but to say that it has no scientific basis is ignorant.

We, the properly educated in critical writing, should all know that an "objective" point of view on ANYTHING is not supposed to be one-sided, and here's a book that is just that. As a REAL retired Doctor of Chiropractic, I am disgusted by the fact that the author fails to do a comparison between conventional medicine and chiropractic when discussing statistical data on the number of injuries a patient receives while in the care of each. If exposure is the basis, then expose the truth about how many dollars are paid out each year in medical malpractice due to MDs "believing" they are doing something right for the patient, when they're actually really hurting them, or much worse, killing them. I'm not saying there's no place for medicine, that would be ignorant of me to say, but the fact is, conventional medicine, just like Chiropractic, is not a cure-all "science" the way authors of books such as this one, usually ignorant MDs, would like you to believe. Chiropractic is growing for a very legitimate reason, it works, and yes, it does pose a potential economic threat to MDs and the pharmaceutical companies that provide them with financial "kick-backs". So it is no wonder that they don't hesitate in speaking out against a legitimate health-care profession that they are ignorant to, and feel threatened by, to say the least. Chiropractors pay less for malpractice insurance for a reason, and it's not because we don't perform surgery. If we cause so much damage to people, the way the author would like you to believe, it would stand to reason that we would be a greater liability for insurance companies to cover our supposed "dangerous" procedures. THE FACT IS, WE DON'T POSE A GREATER RISK TO OUR PATIENTS THAN MDs, JUST LOOK UP THE STATS FOR YOURSELF. For the intelligent people who don't like having your intelligence insulted, read something that's informative and unbiased That will actually stimulate your intellect and thirst for true knowledge, unlike this book and others like it.

I'm SKEPTICAL as to the merits of this book, since the author seems to be unjustifiably pre-occupied with the very few people that chiropractic may not have helped compared to the millions of people of all ages that safely benefit each year, even after standard, medical care as failed.

Surprisingly, he does not compare, or even mention, the horrific mortality and injury rate from medical errors.

He seems unconcerned at all about the 200-300 THOUSAND VICTIMS KILLED each year DUE TO preventable MEDICAL ERRORS by his own, former profession, as reported in prestigious medical journals.

This ranks medical care as the THIRD LEADING KILLER of Americans.

Now a book on reforming this shocking medical holocaust, would be a worthy channel for the obvious accumulation of a lifetime of medical frustration by this gentleman in his retirement. Especially since medicine apparently is his only area of training.

Although I recognize that this book is not about medicine, that is why I disagree with the merits (or rather, lack of) behind the premise of this book on the relatively safe healing profession of chiropractic.

The author does get one star from me for his unique literary style. His 'shocking' stories are remembrances from when he was 10 years old. Since he is 86 now, 76 year-old anecdotes from the old days, which may or may not have happened exactly that way, gets a little stale after the first few minutes and does not a even a bad book make.

Unfortunately, the author seems unaware that anecdotes have no place in science, which is why this book can most assuredly be dismissed as nothing more than a collection of grim fairytales.

His few references are nothing more than obviously clumsy and blatantly slanted editorials from publications that are readily dismissed as biased. Sadly, he might scare a few gullible older folks back into the medical corral, but most readers today, who demand drug-free options, won't be fooled by this smoke.

There are numerous typos and errors which are extremely distracting. While I give this person credit for having the energy to put together a book at his age, unfortunately these errors do make an already difficult read even more painful.

This book is so confused, even a psychiatrist couldn't help it. However, this book does once again, prove the old adage-- it is better to have a bad chiropractor than a bad surgeon!

Sadly, in my opinion, this is a very embarrassing finale to what I'm sure was once a rewarding medical career.

I will admit to only reading excerpts from the book, as displayed on-line. For that, I apologize to the author - as my review is not favorable. I have practiced Chiropractic in Canada since 1991. Along with my full time practice in the south, I have operated a satellite clinic out of a hospital in the north for 10 of those years and have worked with some very qualified and open minded M.D's. I can say that based on the information in the excerpts and my own experience as a chiropractor, the information is clearly outdated regarding my profession. There have in fact, been a number of studies regarding chiropractic and its' efficacy. For a review of such, I recommend searching chiroweb.com and checking out the various links. I also have seen patients whom have attended my care with the most misguided diagnoses from their M.D.'s. A 41 year old male attended my office one Saturday morning complaining of Headaches and nausea for the last 3 weeks. He had been diagnosed with ulcers by his M.D. Any practitioner who possesses any qualifiable skill knows to not rely on someone else's diagnosis. I did not. A basic opthalmascopic exam revealed massive swelling(exudate). I immediately referred him to attend to his M.D. and request a re-exam as I recognized the possibility of a space occupying lesion in his head. This patient was re-examined and found to have cancer. He died a week later. So what does this have to do with a review? Well, I am just proving to the author that anecdotal evidence of quackery - or whatever some M.D.'s are using to describe chiropractors - exists on both sides of the line. So the author can't have it both ways. You can't, on the one hand, berate chiropractic for relying on anecdotal evidence - and then use the very same type of evidence to make your own case. This is at best, a poor writing style, and at worst, gross misinformation to the public.

Unfortunately, I have to give this book at minimum one star. It seems as if the author of this book is quite aware of the advancements of chiropractic and how it has positively affected many people, especially due to its advancements in the last 10 years or so. Sir, I believe you must take yourself away from the theories of the 1960's and realize that chiropractic does in fact work, and "qwackery" was and is a false theory that you seem to hold very close. The medical profession has its positive aspects in terms of assisting in patient help, and the chiropractic community knows and respects that, but for you to call chiropractic a 'hoax' simply demonstrates the fear you hide that chiropractic will overrun your own medical beliefs. There is room for both types of health care, and physicians like yourself simply denounce what health care is all about. I pray that both medical students and students studying (the SAME curriculum, I might add) to be chiropractors read this review, in hopes of shedding light on the subject that chiropractic has provingly helped many patients with troubling diseases, and your jealousy and negativity towards chiropractic is neither appreciated nor necessary. It is physicians like yourself that prove to be the least qualified and least professional of all the medical profession. I publicly denounce this book in all ways, shapes, and forms, and hope that I have made you understand that ignorant biases such as yours not only angers parts of the medical community, but it confuses the people who would most likely benefit from chiropractic treatments.

Chotkowski should be ashamed of himself. He obviously did little, if any, real research into modern Chiropractic and relied instead on theories that are over 100 years old. If someone wrote a book condemning the medical community because people were dying from "Brain Fever, Dropsy, or Ague" no one would pay any attention. You shouldn't pay attention to this one either. Do yourself a favor and pass this one up. It is nothing but sour grapes.