As a twenty \u2013 nine-year-old female who has thankfully yet to experience chronic neck or back pain, my understanding of the term \u2018Chiropractor\u2019 has been limited to that of someone who addressed back problems.<\/p>\n
My interest in the practice however peaked when, whilst listening to an archive<\/a> of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, UFC commentator and host Joe Rogan opined \u201cI don\u2019t believe in Chiropractors at all, I think it\u2019s 98% horseshit\u2026I think that manipulation that they do\u2026it\u2019s just popping your neck, and it just feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n The root of Rogan\u2019s views would soon become apparent.<\/p>\n Having experienced elbow pain which he suspected was caused by a bulging disc, he attended a Chiropractor who he claims assured him that the origin of his pain was not due to a disc protrusion.<\/p>\n After a year of treatment and no sign of the pain lessening, Rogan decided to have an MRI, the result of which revealed a bulging disc that was subsequently treated by medical doctors and cured.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember being angry,\u201d He stated in studio. \u201cI was being treated by a professional who didn\u2019t really know what the f*ck they were talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n My interest now in his experience heightened, I looked for further examples from The JRE podcast where he spoke about Chiropractic Care.<\/p>\n This led to an episode<\/a> featuring Yvette d \u2018Entremont, aka \u2018The Sci Babe\u2019, a public speaker, science blogger and former analytical chemist, who on foot of her article<\/a> \u2018Chiropractors are bullshit \u2013 you shouldn\u2019t\u2019 trust them with your spine or any part of your body\u2019 (direct much?) had been invited on to the show.<\/p>\n Like her article, Entremont\u2019s conversation with Joe left the audience in no doubt as to her feelings on Chiropractic Care.<\/p>\n From the get go she expressed scepticism towards the origins<\/a> of the practice, which dates back to 1895, when a magnetic healer named David Palmer allegedly solved his friend\u2019s hearing loss by manipulating his neck, and went to town on the lack of scientific evidence based research behind it\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n One such concept that they discussed in length which does in fact have no biomedical basis, often being categorised as pseudoscientific, was that of \u2018vertebral subluxation<\/a>.\u2019\u00a0This is a supposed misalignment of the spinal column which leads to a set of signs and symptoms that are often termed \u2018vertebral subluxation complex.\u2019<\/p>\n Entremont also poked fun at the \u2018training\u2019 that Chiropractors receive, pointing out what she insisted was a 100% acceptance rate at the founding College of Chiropractic \u2013 Palmer College of Chiropractic.<\/p>\n Both Rogan and Entremont also alluded to the reported risks<\/a> that neck adjustments carry, in terms of potential stroke.<\/p>\n While the origins themselves of the practice do have a somewhat far reaching element of mysticism, and the research that Yvette pointed to in her article and on air was undoubtedly concerning, I couldn\u2019t help but feel that there had to be another side to an argument that currently was quite biased.<\/p>\n This inclination was further strengthened when I read that Chiropractors were the go to for many MMA stars, more on which I will detail below.<\/p>\n And so, I started digging\u2026<\/p>\n First of, I wanted to get to grips on exactly what a Chiropractor was.<\/p>\n According to spinehealth.com<\/a>\u00a0a Chiro is a \u2018health care professional focused on the diagnosis and treatment of muscular disorders, with an emphasis on treatment through manual adjustment and or manipulation of the spine.\u2019<\/p>\n In terms of sourcing opposing arguments to counter that of Joe\u2019s and Yvette\u2019s, a rebuttal piece<\/a> written in response to Entremont, the author of which in respect of full transparency was a Chiropractor, who went by the name of \u2018ChiroBabe\u2019 \u2013 (the jabs in Entremont\u2019s aka ‘SciBabe’s direction beginning before the first sentence had been written) included reasonable counter arguments to many of her points, to include that<\/p>\n In terms of the subluxation theory, it is also important to note that many internationally accredited Chiropractic Colleges distanced themselves in an open statement from this belief back in 2015, stating that it\u2019s inclusion in a modern Chiropractic curriculum in anything other than an historic context was \u2018inappropriate and unnecessary.\u2019<\/p>\n I also found an excellent New York Times article<\/a> entitled \u2018For Bad Backs, It May Be Time to Rethink Biases About Chiropractors\u2019 which features studies that reveal that no serious or adverse events were reported following spinal manipulation in various case studies.<\/p>\n But data and academic arguments were one thing; I wanted to look at the people who attended Chiropractors.<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, one set of individuals who regularly make use of Chiropractic Care are MMA fighters.<\/p>\n Considering the full contact nature of MMA, together with the key element that Brazilian Jiu Jistu plays in the sport, it is not surprising that back and neck injuries are rife.<\/p>\n Take Cody Garbrandts back injury earlier this year which resulted in his title fight against TJ Dillashaw being pushed forward, not to mention Derrik \u2018The Beast\u2019 Lewis and his need to pull out UFC 216 due to two bulging discs.<\/p>\n Nate Diaz, Michael Bisping and Michelle Waterson are but a few names on the UFC roster who each avail of Chiropractic care to help with recovery, while legends such as Royce Gracie and BJ Penn himself have also sought their help.<\/p>\n Having suffered back and neck injuries, Penn credits Dr Pete Goldman<\/a>, a BJJ black belt and an experienced chiropractor operating out of San Francisco, who has worked with many well-known BJJ practitioners, for saving his career.<\/p>\n \u201c10 years ago Dr Pete gave me so much relief from my herniated disc in my neck that it has never been a problem again.\u201d BJ told BJPenn.com<\/p>\n Another great, Strikeforce Champion Gilbert Melendez spoke to The Underground<\/a> about the benefits of seeing Dr Goldman, \u201cIf I have a regular head cold, I call him up and say \u201cHey, man, I need to get adjusted.\u201d It\u2019s not just for my injuries, it\u2019s for me having good energy and feeling right, feeling balanced.\u201c<\/p>\n One of the renowned techniques that Dr Pete and other Chiropractors utilize is known as the \u2018zone technique<\/a>\u2019, which was founded by Dr Thurman Fleet in 1931.<\/p>\n The zone technique follows the belief that many pains, diseases and discomforts can be cured by balancing one of the six zones within the human body through stimulation of vertebrae along the spine.\u00a0It theorizes that when the points along the spine are stimulated they send signals up through the spinal chord to the zone in the brain, resulting in a balancing of the body and healing.<\/p>\n And so, while I personally can\u2019t see myself getting my neck adjusted anytime soon (I can’t even watch the videos<\/a> doing their rounds on You Tube), despite the mixed reviews in terms of the benefits versus risks of Chiropractic Care, its methods have undoubtedly helped and continue to assist people all over the world in resolving chronic pain and other injuries.<\/p>\n The responsibility therefore rests with each individual to undertake the relevant research before deciding whether or not to engage with Chiropractic Care. The data for and against is out there, so much of which I couldn\u2019t possibly hope to cover it all in one article.<\/p>\n One thing that nobody should do however is take one person\u2019s summation of a whole practice as gospel, just because they said so.<\/p>\n Christine Allen<\/p>\n\n