The Congress of the Chiropractor – Dynamic Growth 2014

Whenever I am reminded of the annual chiropractic event, the Dynamic Growth Congress (DGC), run by the Australian Spinal Research Foundation (ASRF), I think of the Kama Sutra: deep in your heart of hearts you have this ominous feeling that, eventually, someone is gonna get screwed.

The Australian Spinal Research Foundation is a closely related ally of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia (CAA). It is an organisation wherein the magical concept of the chiropractic subluxation reigns supreme. It is an organisation with serious financial questions hanging over its head regarding its stated (charitable) goal of research, as opposed to the reality of its poor research output. It is also an organisation which has a long and tainted history of association with barking mad anti-vaccinationism. Well, maybe that history is not so historical.

The ASRF has hosted anti-vaccinationist Meryl Dorey to present talks, and to act as an exhibitor. It has also hosted the Deranged Californian™ Billy (Lyle) DeMoss as  recently as 2013. Of course the ASRF would not dare host the likes of DeMoss again: associating with him has already seen the removal of one Chiropractors’ Association of Australia New South Wales board member, Tim Shakespeare. Surely, associating with anyone who still holds DeMoss in any esteem would be ridiculed by such an austere organisation as the ASRF. Surely?

So…the ASRF has released its speakers line-up for this year’s Melbourne DGC. Going through the list of speakers there doesn’t appear to be much there about research either. I cannot do justice to their individual blurbs, so I implore you to read them for yourself. I’m guessing that if your desires may tend toward vitalism, back slapping, practice building, cash accumulation, personal growth, motivational speaking, life coaching, and wealth creation, as delivered by a global cabal of true believing mates; then, you may find yourself right at home. I don’t see too much there about evidence based health. I see plenty about chiropractor based wealth. Think of Hillsong, only more annoying; but, maybe with more hymns.

This may not be the final list – two names were added overnight – but, I wanted to have a look through and see if we recognise any of the names, either from my own posts, or from other noticeable activities. So, here we go:

Alison Young (Scott) is a former Board Member of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia Western Australia franchise who was outed by her friend, Olivia Gleeson, as someone who snuck in and adjusted babies in hospital. Young is/was also a member of the rabid anti-vaccination pressure group, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).

Andrew Cameron is someone I haven’t met before, but a perusal of his Facebook page raises some questions about his claims regarding chiropractic’s ability to treat…

1. Cows:

And, 2. allergies:

Anthony Golle is an anti-vaccine chiropractor and also the employer of shameless anti-vaccine chiropractor, Rob Hutchings. Hutchings claimed to be a “doctor” in an online news comments section. Hutchings later claimed, in a closed Facebook group, that he had been hacked. Unluckiest guys in the world, these anti-vaccine chiropractors. Always getting hacked by hackers who share their exact beliefs. What.Are.The.Odds?

Billy Chow is an anti-vaccine chiropractor and board member of the CAA National. When Chow was a board member of the CAA South Australia he approved Continuing Professional Development (CPD) from – and this is not a joke – Meryl Dorey of the AVN.

Brett Hill is an anti-vaccine chiropractor and wellness evangelical. Hill was a president of the CAA South Australia, as well as being a member of the South Australian anti-vaccine group, VISA. Along with the CAA SA and the ASRF Hill was extremely enthusiastic in promoting the anti-vaccine, chiropractic infomercial Doctored.

Brian Kelly is en esteemed chiropractor, worldwide. He was in charge of the New Zealand College of Chiropractic (NZCC) at one stage. He is now the boss man at Life Chiropractic College West, in the United States. A quick perusal of Kelly’s online activities shows he is a supporter of Andrew Wakefield:

And Kelly would appear to have some knowledge of the BRCA1 gene. Otherwise he would shut his damn mouth about Angelina Jolie, right?

He is also a promoter of the anti-vaccine, chiropractic infomercial, Doctored. This is to be expected, given where he now resides:

Brinsley Lane is not someone I’ve heard of before. He has spent some time in the Solomon Islands, even claiming to have given a presentation to their parliament. What did he present? The chiropractic fuse-box, used everywhere to claim that chiropractic removes nerve interference, or something similar, so that organs work properly:

I just hope Lane didn’t make any claims like this, in parliament:

Bruce Whittingham has become one of my favourites. He works alongside Adam L Smith, who has featured in my anti-vaccine chiropractors series, making arrogant, ignorant, callous claims like this:

I have not read a media report of an unvaccinated kid dying from any of these diseases. It’s the supposedly protected, vaccinated kids who are getting sick and dying from the very diseases they are supposedly immunised against.

Whittingham was also a member of the anti-vaccine AVN at one stage. He grabbed my attention recently when he implied, in public, that the parents of a baby who had suffered a broken neck following a chiropractic manipulation were the subject of a child protection investigation (DOCS). Yes, he implied that the parents broke their baby’s neck, so he could divert attention from the real investigation. He did that. He later deleted this comment:

This led to a perusal of Whittingham’s other sites. Apparently he considers himself a guru, and even has an app for that. Ridiculously, on his YouTube channel, The Chiropractic App, Whittingham still, to this day, features one of the most thigh-slappingly comedic videos we’ve seen this year. I strongly urge you to watch this. Here is a still from the video which depicts how Whittingham adjusts a baby via “surrogate muscle testing” and applied kinesiology. Remember – and this is pertinent – he’s giving a talk at the premiere chiropractic talk-fest of the year. He is a leader of chiropractic in this country:

If you’re lucky Whittingham will cure your dog’s incontinence as well:

Carren Smith has featured in my anti-vaccine chiropractors series as a wellness evangelical. She is not a chiropractor. Smith appears basically everywhere with Cyndi O’Meara on the public speaking, wellness evangelical circuit.

Clinton McCauley has a very quiet online presence. He is/was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN. [edit May 12 2015: McCauley shows his true, revolting colours on the Facebook profile of his chiropractor mate, Ben Phillips. McCauley attempts to argue that a real baby’s death from whooping cogh is only worth as much as a baby whom they claim died from a vaccine. The latter baby did not]:

Craig Foote features in my anti-vaccine chiropractors posts. He is/was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN.

Cyndi O’Meara is a life-long chiropractic devotee, coming from a family of chiropractors. She never made it through chiropractic school, instead focusing on a lucrative career on the nutrition and wellness evangelical circuit. O’Meara is strongly anti-vaccine and has admitted dissuading friends and callers from immunising their children, using deceptive sources. She features in my anti-vaccine series.

Damian Kristof is another of the anti-vaccine wellness evangelical chiropractors. He has built a very successful career around this evangelism. He is/was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN.

Daniel Malone has a very quiet online presence. He works at Pioneer Family Chiropractic, which prides itself on manipulating babies, and their parents, and using them in advertisements:

John Hinwood is the founder of the DGC. He is a past president of the ASRF. He has made a career out of practice coaching.

David Jackson is awesome. He is an associate of Billy DeMoss. I want to include his DGC blurb, and you can just gauge it for yourself:

Apart from being a reformed or recovering failure, Jackson is now fully cashed up to the spizz, bro. He has worked it out. And, he’s here to share his secrets with you. And one of the secrets is surely the truth. Here is some of his truth:

Jackson is also the cover-boy of Billy DeMoss’s latest Spizz magazine:

And, yes, I had to look it up as well. Here is the explanation of the spizz which drives them:

“Spizz – to live ambition and enthusiasm for sharing the truth about chiropractic from the center of your soul.” – Gilles Lamarche

“Spizz is the general excitement we have for Chiropractic borne from a deep knowledge of our philosophy, science and art… and realizing we have a obligation to share this message of hope with the world.” – Rob Sinnott

“Spizz means an uncontainable passion and enthusiasm for ChiropracTIC.” – Liam Schubel

Billy DeMoss also “unleashed the spizz” to DGC in 2013, in Brisbane. So much spizz. So little time. I’m glad they’ve got someone else to do it this year. The ASRF wouldn’t want to bring down the tenor like they did in 2013. But, I digress.

David Hendrey and Doug Herron I’ve not heard of before [see update January 23 2013].

Glenn Maginness is someone who calls himself a paediatric chiropractor. He runs a business program called C4K Chiropractic for Kids. He also runs a business called Mt Eliza Family Chiropractic Clinic. He provides CPD accredited courses, training other chiropractors in the manipulation of babies. His training is so good, so evidence based, he approached the more evidence based association the Chiropractic and Osteopathic College of Australasia (COCA), asking them to also run and advertise his courses. COCA said no:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you must go to a chiropractor, go to a COCA registered chiropractor. They don’t (shouldn’t) treat children for anything other than musculoskeletal conditions, and you’ll be hard pushed to find a single magical subluxation correcter, or spine wizard, among them. Here is the COCA policy on treating kids.

And, AHPRA accredits his courses? This needs a serious, swift investigation.

We can see that Maginness has previously given DGC talks about treating ear infections (so, COCA was right to ignore him):

I’ll leave the “inverted swing test” up to your own imagination. You’ll need to work a subluxation in there somewhere as well:

Maginness also shared this absolute rubbish:

And where would we be without Mike Adams, Natural News, and water fluoridation lies? I suppose we should be thankful I found no anti-vaccine posts:

Jamie Richards and Jo Dobson are not chiropractors I’ve come across before in any noticeable way.

Kate Golle is the wife and business partner of Anthony Golle, above.

Katelyn McGregor works at Pioneer Family Chiropractic. She featured in my post regarding the chiropractors who sneak into hospitals to adjust babies and other customers. Whilst searching through images for this post I was reminded of this baby-manipulating photo, in which McGregor claims she provided a “presentation” for the Mercy Hospital. Why on Earth would this be the case? I did email the Mercy Hospital(s) to inquire about this claim. I never did receive a reply. Maybe some of you will have better luck:

Laurence Tham is an anti-vaccine chiropractor and wellness evangelical. He’s the guy who is out to turbo-charge your practice, so you make more money health, basically. Tham is/was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN.

Marcus Yeo featured in my anti-vaccine chiropractors series, congratulating an anti-vaccine screed by another chiropractor. He has his own posts which I haven’t shared before, from his own profile, and from his nutrition page.

Mercola, Gardasil, and the “biohazard”:

And Yeo tells us what he really thinks about vaccines; or, as he likes to call them, “poison”:

Mark Postles is an elder statesman anti-vaccine chiropractor. He is/was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN. He is a fixture of the ASRF.

Martin Harvey is the president of the ASRF, man about the world of spizz, and an anti-vaccine chiropractor. I’ll use any excuse to share this photo again, and again. DeMoss may be absent, but, he’s never far away from the ASRF:

Patrick Sim is a board member of the CAA National. As with Billy Chow, above, he was on the board of the CAA South Australia when they approved anti-vaccination zealot Meryl Dorey to provide CPD training to CAA SA members. Again, they approved anti-vaccine training to chiropractors as part of their professional training requirements.

Rosemary Keating has a very quiet online presence. She is/was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN.

Ross McDonald is the president of the Scottish Chiropractic Association. He is also the creator of the Edinburgh Lectures, a chiropractic platform similar to the DGC. In 2010 McDonald was forced to remove claims from advertising material, and from the windows of his business. The claims made therein could not be substantiated. But I wanted to have a look at something from a bit later, given this man is a modern, global powerhouse of chiropractic.

Here is a thread from his 2012 Edinburgh line-up. Such Tim O’Shea. Much Billy DeMoss. Brad Glowaki wow. Very Tony Croke.

Look, maybe I’m being a little harsh. 2012 was a long time ago. Let’s give McDonald – the president of the SCA, the creator of the Edinburgh Lectures – the benefit of the doubt. Who’s up for 2013?

 FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Shady Botros doesn’t have much of an online presence. Apart from testimonials:

I think we all know testimonials are banned, right? It’s a shame we need to remind the chiropractors, and the Chiropractic Board of Australia.

Update August 13 2014

Thanks to a commenter who didn’t make it through the spam queue for making allegations based on her own misunderstandings of the duties of the chiropractor, under the advertising guidelines, I was reminded to revisit Shady’s page at Frankston Chiropractic Centre. Here is a picture boasting of adjusting a 5 week old baby. You read that right:

Terry (Tez) Molloy is a chiropractor and rugby coach at Life Chiropractic College West. He is also a qualified trainer in Neuro Linguistic Programming. I’m serious. He’s pretty quiet online, but, he provided me with a testimonial, once:

start posting on his blog by starting with “Hi Unreasonable Wank ..” or “Hi Ignorant Flogger …”

Tiffani Clingin is the wife and business partner of Tony Croke. She is not a chiropractor. I once caught Clingin pretending to be a community member on a public Facebook thread, commenters being called there to support chiropractic and provide positive testimonials following the Catalyst episode. Clingin and many other chiropractic professionals did not like being called out as very interested parties pretending to be otherwise.

Tony Croke is an anti-vaccine chiropractor who was a member of the anti-vaccine AVN for a decade. He is a member of the board of the CAA National. He is a supporter of Billy DeMoss. Croke agreed with and condoned the practice of chiropractors sneaking into hospitals to manipulate their customers. Here is Croke encouraging DeMoss to visit Australia again. Remember, this was taken only 6 months ago. Did I mention that Tony Croke is a National Board Member for the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia? I did?

Sheridan Brady-Kay is one of the lecturers at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic. She used to post frequently on the AVN Facebook page. Here she is, in February 2012, supporting another anti-vaccinationist for making “wise, researched decisions”:

And from 2011, here is Kay, the anti-vaccinationist, in a hospital manipulating a 2 day old baby, and its parents:

A 2 day old baby fell asleep! WELL &*$@ ME! Chiropractic is a miracle!

At least Kay didn’t do this dog in the hospital. She only did the dog in her business. I asked her about the cleanliness of this procedure, and she told me that everything was fine as the table is leather. Well, that’s okay, then. The dog didn’t think so, judging by his tail:

Skip forward to 2013 we see the premiere New Zealand Chiropractic event, Lyceum. This is the event where Tim Shakespeare took that fateful photograph with DeMoss. Yes, DeMoss was one of the presenters at Lyceum. But, it wasn’t only Shakespeare who posed with him:

Last one. I promise. I don’t have much to say about this one. I think this is self-explanatory…

Benjamin Harvey:

On his Facebook page he describes himself as a “Difference-Maker Accelerator”, whose past institutions include the “Academy of Wealth and Achievement”. Hey, whatever floats your boat, chiropractors who call yourselves primary health care practitioners. Who am I to judge?

There are 36 speakers listed, so far.

I have nothing to add for 4 3 of them [see update January 23 2013].

Most we have seen before. Some for their unethical entry into hospitals; others for their bizarre claims and treatments, including that of babies. And still others because they are just very silly.

Approximately 22 of them have confirmed links to anti-vaccinationism ranging from overt support to deranged, entrenched belief. The ASRF gets a 61% pass for anti-vaccinationism. This is just for anti-vaccinationism alone, without including anything else. And anti-vaccinationism says a lot about a person. But, it says a lot more about a primary health care practitioner.

And because you asked me to rub some salt into your gaping wounds, the DGC is being sponsored by the Industry Super Fund for healthcare workers, HESTA. If you don’t contact them and tell them that you are displeased at where your money is being used, they won’t ever stop doing it. This needs to stop:

I don’t have anything else to say about the ASRF and their Congress. If this is normal for them, Australian chiropractic is screwed.

Thanks for reading.

Update January 23 2013

David Hendrey, of Hendrey Chiropractic, Queensland.

With many thanks to a keen eyed reader who remembered some bizarre treatment claims; and even bigger thanks to colleagues who fired up the Wayback Machine and found the since deleted claims, I bring you three former pages of David Hendrey’s website. All screengrabs go back to March 2012; so it’s not that long ago that these claims were being made on Hendrey’s website.

Hendrey claimed that “Chiropractic correction of the subluxation can aid the immune responses of the body by reducing nerve interference”:

Page taken from the Wayback Machine

Hendrey made this claim regarding this huge cohort of HIV Positive patients, under the title “Chiropractic and HIV” :

Five patients were adjusted and five were controls. After 6 months, in the control group (not under chiropractic care) the CD4 levels decreased by 7.96%. While the group receiving chiropractic adjustments experienced a 48% increase in CD4 cell count. This indicates that correction of vertebral subluxations enhance the immune system and healing ability of the human body.

Page taken from the Wayback Machine

Hendrey included this miraculous story of a convert which claims that chiropractic can treat and improve autism:

They are so convinced by the benefits of chiropractic that Quentin is determined to spread the word. “This is the unimpeachable testimony of a man who did not believe in it. We have to raise awareness, because it worked so thoroughly for my son and changed his life and ours. If I can help just one child that’s going through what we went through, then that’s my reward.”

Page taken from the Wayback Machine

Page taken from the Wayback Machine

Page taken from the Wayback Machine

The only saving grace for Hendrey is that these pages don’t exist on his site any more. But, they did. Only two years ago. That says enough.