ABC’s Catalyst covers the cringe of chiropractic

Last night the excellent science program Catalyst covered the growing problem of non-evidence-based chiropractic. It is a good thing that the fly-boys of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia are getting more exposure to the light. Much has been written about these guys, and their ties to anti-vaccination organisations. I’ve covered them here and here. Dr Rachael Dunlop has covered an anti-vaccine seminar by the CAA’s NSW secretary, Nimrod Weiner, here.

For an excellent post by Mr John Cunningham, a Melbourne spinal surgeon, which gives  an overview of the problems which exist between evidence and non-evidence-based chiropractors, see this post:  Chiropractors – struggling to find the subluxation. He also appears in the Catalyst episode.

Sometimes only a metaphor can explain the problem…

To evidence-based chiropractors: these non-evidence-based guys are a dog turd on the soles of your profession’s shoes, being stomped throughout your home, mashed into your light-coloured shag-pile carpet, against your wishes. It is time to ask them to leave, so you can spend more time on enjoying your home, and less time cleaning up offensive smears.

Here is the episode. Most of you have already seen it. For those who haven’t, enjoy. You won’t regret it.

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There were so many highlights from this episode; but, this one best exemplifies how non-evidence-based chiropractors are regarded by serious professionals:

NARRATION
Tony Croke explains that even the slightest misalignment in the spine can act like a traffic jam in the central nervous system, and lead to disease. In chiropractic circles, it’s called a ‘subluxation’.

Dr Tony Croke
And so it’s not necessarily that you have to compress the nerve root on the way out, but, in fact, the messages coming back in can be distorted because of that static in the nervous system travelling back upward.

Mr John Cunningham
(Laughs) I’m sorry. It’s just senseless rubbish. Um… If there is a static, well, why haven’t they shown it? If that is the mechanism, they’ve had all these years to describe it, to… document it, to study it, to perform experiments on it. Why haven’t they?

@ABCnewsIntern has captured the moment wonderfully, here.