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Manipulative therapists

The traditional approach in treating spine problems was by ineffective exercises or drastic surgery. The manipulative approach evolved as an alternative therapy out of a real need because the established groups were not attending to peoples needs. This treatment focuses on the skeleton and attempts to achieve changes in alignment but looks at the spine, sacrum and pelvis downwards ignoring well tested principles of basic physics that structures stack up from their base.

Many who come to me as patients have found practitioners who adjust their spine and make them more comfortable and they have this done frequently. These patients feel the benefit but say it doesn't last. They realise as soon as a person stands you will be effected by gravity and settle into your inherited skeletal structure, back to the faulty posture. From a scientific point of view, the force of gravity and any misalignment/instability in the lower skeleton means that the good work done in adjusting them cannot last. There seems to me several distinctly different treatment approaches and very different schools of thought amongst manipulative practitioners. There is obviously a great deal of good work done but some approaches and treatments concern me at the apparent lack of a scientific basis. Patients frequently explain they have been given explanations such as: "The upper spine is out of alignment and muscles pull and twist and tilt the pelvis below, putting the legs out of alignment and changing their functional lengths." They have found this "quite convincing" and cannot understand why their treatment did not get the results promised. I explain my understanding of the effect that gravity has on our structure. The explanation is scientifically impossible, the wrong way around. They then make sense of why the treatment hasn't worked.

One technique being taught at Palmer Chiropractic college Iowa U.S. involves the manipulation of the C1 'Atlas' vertebra of the cervical spine (neck) to correct functional leg length differences with the claim that it is the most effective and long lasting technique. I consider this adjustment appropriate to free up nerves pathways to correct headache problems, restore sense of taste or smell. Considering the fact that we stack up from the ground upwards with the force of gravity constant, I believe this idea to be beyond the realm of possibility and to cast doubts on the credibility of all associated with it.

Some people suggest that one should be open to all ideas, not close their mind to anything. For me I believe that all information must be filtered through your common sense understanding and scientific knowledge base to assess that it fits with what is reasonably possible. Especially when dealing with other peoples health treatment approaches must have a basis in the basic science that is tried and tested or we risk being off into the realm of quackery.

 

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