Subjects Taught In Chiropractic Schools

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Chiropractors are medical professionals who use non-surgical, drugless and natural methods to treat health difficulties associated with skeletal, muscular and nervous systems. Chiropractic is a substitute to the conventional medical treatment method. Manipulating the nervous and skeletal system is an important part of the chiropractor’s core procedure. Among the various forms of health care that does not involve drugs, chiropractic is the largest. It is also the third largest, among all forms of health care in the United States. In recent times, the popularity of chiropractic care has significantly increased as a lot of people are becoming aware of its various benefits. The best way to become a chiropractor is to enrol in aChiropractorsSchool. There are several reputed chiropractic schools in the United States. The various programs of such schools are sought after by a lot of people.

 

Contrary to popular belief, it is not easy to become a chiropractor. The subjects taught in such schools can vary depending on the course. Physics, biology, math, social sciences and English are part of most courses. Most schools have scholarship programs and financial aids for students with monetary difficulties. Undergraduate programs are also offered by some chiropractic schools. Nutrition, exercise science, business, life coaching, psychology and biology are some academic programs in the undergraduate courses. In some schools, students will be offered pre chiropractic coursework. Graduate courses in chiropractic are also available. In graduate courses, the student will receive extensive training in core areas such as injury management and sports sciences.

 

Human development, skeletal radiology, pathology, neuroanatomy and nutrition are some subjects that a chiropractic student should study. Other subjects in Chiropractors education are nutrition, CPR, neurophysiology, spinal biomechanics and osteology. Spinal anatomy and chiropractic philosophy are also integral parts of various programs. While choosing a chiropractic school, one should ensure that the school is an accredited one. Most employers prefer students of accredited programs. Most patients of a chiropractor are those having problems with skeletal or nervous systems. Even a slight obstruction in such systems can greatly affect the normal functioning of body. The chiropractor should identify the cause of ailments by observing various factors such as heredity, diet, physical activity and environment of the patient. Once the cause has been identified, the chiropractor can cure it using drug free, natural and non-invasive techniques.

The career options are diverse for a chiropractor. Most chiropractors open personal practices. Some are employed by hospitals and chiropractic clinics. One can also become an educator or researcher at a chiropractic school. When compared with other medical professionals, the salary of a chiropractor is on the high side. Generally, chiropractors who are self-employed have a higher salary than those who work in a hospital or clinical setting. Their salary can vary between $90,000 and $139,000. Various factors such as educational qualification, state and experience can influence the salary. The popularity of chiropractors is increasing on a regular basis. Hence becoming a chiropractor is a very good career move. In addition to being secure, the job of a chiropractor is satisfying and rewarding.

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PERMENANT CURE OF DISEASE

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As per usual, your redirect to chiro base, does not work without manipulation, then you find it is our old friend Stephen Barrett, not a real chiropractor talking about chiropractic, but one of the worlds most famous anti everything natural or non medical society approved hate mongers. It is a bit reminicent of the old meeting of the national medical convention in which one of the national presidents said that it was better to die under orthodox medical care than to get well under alternative care. Doc, all docs are indeed docs when so licensed or degreed, and deserve to be called doctors, including DCs, NDs, PhDs , DOs, ODs, DPMs, and MDs and the list goes on.

Point being that lifestyle is the single most important factor in most peoples health, Chiropractic and naturopathy recognized and were teaching that in the 1950s when the president of the California Medical Association was on bill boards above the freeways, cigarette in hand, with “a cigarette a day keeps the doctor away”  sign below his smiling face. Somewhat karmicly that MD died of lung cancer.

There is an increasing tendency for MDs and DCs to share offices and clinics. I had hospital privilages twenty years ago, and found working with the doctors to be a much better situation. It really is time patients begin to come first and bickering and prejudice take a back seat.  Unfortunately I moved and in other cities, chiropractors did not have hospital privilages at that time or even now. What would be good, is a little respect, honesty and willingness to work in a scientific manner togethar for the benefit of patients.

As you note, enemas have been used for thousands of years, with almost no negative effects, and you cannot find a single scientific article to explain why their use is suddenly out of fashion. I pointed out two to you yet you dont seem to be able to find them even knowing the year they were written, all you have to do is find the journal. Most medical schools have these journals if you are near a major city, so do some reading. It would be good for you, to try to increase your level of knowledge in this area. If you are near by, perhaps for a small fee I could guide you to the shelves where the books and journals are located in your medical school library. Enemas are not dangerous unless the nurse or doctor does not know what they are doing, and in our discussions, it is apparent that in this area your education is not really up to it, so if you don’t want to use them, that is understandable.

However, you should not be telling others who do know what they are doing, and are amply trained and knowledgable in the field what to do. Naturopaths and Chiropractors have education in this area, MDs usually do not. So I appreciate your offer for your profession to bow out of colon therapy and other areas in which you are not as well trained as chiropractors or naturopaths. However, I fear that you do not speak with the authority to bind your profession.

 

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Back pain and chiropractors

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As a physical therapist, and one who took McKenzie’s courses when they were taught by McKenzie, I feel qualified to dispute this claim.  Not that I’m against fostering self-care; I think this is absolutely essential if we health care professionals are to provide the best treatment.  What I dispute is that McKenzie is “an effective alternative to traditional chiropractor treatment”.  Let us dismiss consideration of the unethical chiropractors who simply crack backs and omit any self-care training. Mercifully, they are slowly losing favor among their own colleagues.  But good, complete chiropractic care will include, besides manipulation, instruction in appropriate exercise – which could be the McKenzie extension bias and instruction in modification of movement habits.  Good physical therapy should include this too – although all too often we physical therapists prefer the efficiency and revenue produced by grinding out patients on the passive modalities, e.g. hot packs, ultrasound, traction – the equivalent of the chiropractor’s manipulation (except that recent reports indicate that manipulation is more effective that other treatments in acute low back pain) and dispensing with the more time consuming functional training.

McKenzie was to spine rehabilitation what Freud was to psychology or Beethoven to music: they introduced ideas which, at the time, were considered bizarre but reformed the way we think about the subject. McKenzie took us away from the Williams Flexion era where all low back patients were taught to do full pelvic tilts and spend their time pulling their knees to their chests.  He showed that restoring the normal inward curve of the lumbar spine (extension) decreased symptoms associated with excessive flexion associated with sitting and bending.  His extension exercises remail very useful in the treatment of acute low back pain. Further, he put a strong emphasis on correction body mechanics.  However like Freud and, as some, but not I, would say, Beethoven, he went too far.  He teaches extension as a cure-nearly-all and if extension doesn’t work for you then you need to do mega-flexion.  In truth, excessive, repetitive extension can result in microtrauma and avoidable degeneration of the spine.  In my opinion, extension exercises should not be part on a spine patients ongoing, long term routine. Elimination the current pain – where McKenzie shows 80% success – is not the major battle.  Avoiding joining the 60% who have another episode of severe pain within 2 years – the usual rate with back pain in general, is the sign of success.  I feel that only with implementation of a neutral spine position stabilization program – with a strong emphasis on learning to maintain neutral spine position in daily activities is one likely to have success in the long term.

 

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Anyone Heard of Atlas Orthoganal?

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Chiropractors will “treat” anything for which they can get paid.  True story: my mother was seeing a chiropractor for a back problem.  One day she called to to cancel her appointment.  The receptionist asked why so she lied & said she had diarrhea.  The receptionist said hold on a minute.  After a few minutes she got back on the phone & said “The doctor says the manipulation will take care of that too.”  I still laugh about that.  I guess when they find that bone & shove it the right way we won’t need Kaopectate anymore.  My mother eventually had back surgery, saw a physical therapist for a while afterwards and her back has been great ever since (about 5 years now).  I read a front page article in the Wall Street Journal about three or four years ago that was about how aggressive chiropractors were getting in “practice development” – what we  call “drumming up business” in the business world.  The WSJ reported that many – not all but many – chiropractors were telling people they should have a chiropractor as their primary care physician. AND that their children don’t need immunizations, kids just need spinal manipulations.  I had an aunt, about 70 years old that went to a chiropractor against her MD’s advice.  The chiropractor broke three of her ribs during the treatment.  Now I’m not trying to knock chiropractors.  I think some of them probably recognize the limitations of what they can do.  And they probably can give a very nice relaxing massage.  BUT THEY ARE NOT medical doctors!  Anyone with a medical condition should go to a physician, orthopedist, or physical therapist if they really want to get well.

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Hans Better Stick With Dentistry

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Pediatric chiropractic care is often inconsistent with recommended medical guidelines,” writes a team of researchers led by Dr. Kathi J. Kemper of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. The researchers base their conclusions on surveys from 90 doctors of chiropractic (DCs) in the Boston area. Chiropractic usually involves manipulating the spine and other joints to relieve pain and promote general health. But Kemper and colleagues report that for kids, treatment may be directed at specific illness. “Although most adults (85%) consult DCs for musculoskeletal conditions, children frequently visit DCs for respiratory problems, ear, nose and throat problems, and general preventive care,” report Kemper and her team.

The results of the survey indicated that 11% of chiropractic visits were for children and adolescents, and 79% of chiropractors said they modified their techniques for these young patients. But the authors also note that only 30% of chiropractors said they actively recommended that children receive standard immunizations, while 7% recommended against them.

Even more alarming is the fact that when asked what they would do if presented with a 2-week-old infant with a fever over 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.4 C), 17% of the chiropractors surveyed said they would perform a spinal adjustment. Only about two-thirds said they would refer the baby to a medical doctor immediately. “These issues raise great concern as more and more children and families seek chiropractic care, particularly if the care is not coordinated with a pediatrician,” conclude the researchers in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Potential concerns include complications due to spinal manipulation, delay of appropriate medical treatment when needed, and failure to promote childhood immunizations. Kemper and colleagues call for more research to “address the safety and effectiveness of chiropractic care” for children.

 

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Chiropractors and Rolfers

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A chiropractor performs manipulations.  If you believe in bacteria, microbes, and viruses as being causes of diseases (rather than spinal column irregularaties or some such), then chiropracty is not appropriate for a large class of problems.  However, it is probably an appropriate *option* for muscle strains and back trouble (or neck trouble) of a variety of type.  I treatments were occasionally slightly painful for me, but I was in pain when I started (or was in certain positions).  Obviously, if I hadn’t had any complaints, I would not have gone.  I got some help. I sort of went out of curiosity.  I had been to rolfers before, and wanted to try something different.  The “cracking” that the chirpractors do is rather unnerving, but didn’t hurt.

The Consumer Reports had a series of articles about chiropractic a few years ago.  They were not very complimentary. Rolfing (developed by the late Ida Rolf) is a bodywork procedure which attempts to realign the body.  The approach is to apply a moderately painful pressure using elbows, hands, or fingertips as appropriate.  The fascia (a sheath which covers the muscles and gives the body its shape) is stretched by this process and in general the body regains its natural shape.

The two procedures are quite different.  The Rolfing school of thought is that when there is a structural misalignment, the tissue and bone are used to a certain position.  If you move the bone without doing something with the surrounding tissue, the bone will gradually move back to where it was, since that is where the tissue is expecting it.

I got Rolfed in l975 because of pinched nerve in my neck.  I had gone to an orthopedist and he had prescribed an anti-inflammatory and physical therapy.  When I was in traction, I felt fine, but as soon as the pull released, I hurt again.  I reasoned that if Rolfing could let my neck pop up a little, I would feel OK.  That is what happened.

People who get Rolfed usually have some recall of buried psychological material.  Also, they will be emotionally much looser afterwards. The principal drawback is cost.  The normal arrangement is 10 sessions each about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, $75 a throw (LA rates).  They may be a little higher now (1984 — inflation).  I would recommend looking at the before/after pictures in Ida Rolf’s book.  You can see the improvement in how those people are standing.

There is a similar procedure to Rolfing called Heller work.  I cannot comment except to say that my understanding is that it is essentially the same concept.  There may be a slight difference in philosophy. Rolfing was the most powerful thing that I have ever done, at least in a human potential movement sense.  The psychological material just flew up at me, and I had a terrible time dealing with it.  I used to go to Rolfing on Monday, and psychotherapy on Wednesday.  My therapy was and has been much more effective since getting Rolfed.

I’ve been rambling.  One last item:  The benefits of Rolfing are likely to last for some time.  It is a situation similar to the Reichiann (sp?) body armor stuff.  Whatever the situations which caused us to armor ourselves, we are probably better able to cope with that as an adult, or the situation may no longer exist (sibling rivalry, abusive parents, what have you).

 

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Various

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

PLACEBO EFFECT
It seems to me that some skeptics may be too cynical about this, and say things like “It can’t cure a broken leg” and “It’ll make you THINK your cold was cured more quickly but it really wasn’t” and finally “The placebo effect works only for psychosomatic ailments, not real ones.”

Are these assertions really true?  My understanding had been that a positive attitude can enhance the immune system and cause the brain to release appropriate chemicals/hormones or whatever, and thereby legitimately and physically speed the healing/curing process (and that the effect is evidenced in about 30% of patients under controlled tests).  If that’s true, then the placebo effect can indeed assist in recovery from a broken leg, relieve symptoms of a cold and perhaps speed recovery from it, and it would indeed apply to physical as well as psychosomatic ailments.  Much like evolution, I had thought that the FACT of the placebo is well documented in virtually any situation, though the mechanism is not well understood.  This is why I often hold my skeptical tongue when a friend is using homeopathy or acupuncture for a non-serious illness which has no assured conventional treatment (like a cold).  (Also: is there anything to the anecdotal reports (and alleged studies) of animals responding positively to placebos, or for that matter to homeopathy/acupuncture etc.?  This I find hard to swallow.)

CHIROPRACTIC
We all know that under the original definition chiropractic is nonsense. That is, the notion that just about any ailment can be cured through spinal manipulation is utter hogwash.  But that isn’t what many chiropractors do today.  Many are MD’s who undertake conventional diagnostic techniques (X-ray, etc.) and then determine whether or not the ailment might reasonably respond to manipulation of the injured area itself.  In other words, it’s no different from physical therapy.  Perhaps a lot of otherwise mainstream physical therapists increasingly call themselves chiropractors simply because there’s a market demand for it, but are otherwise providing conventional medical care.  (This especially so since all 50 states, wisely or not, now require insurers to treat chiropractic as a conventional treatment in their consideration of claims.)  Though I’ve never been to a chiropractor, numerous acquaintances have and are often turned down if the chiropractor deems chiropractic inappropriate for the case at hand.  Any comments?

HYPNOSIS
Is it a real phenomenon on some level?  Or is it just deeply concentrating on the matter at hand, as we might while listening to a symphony or acting in a theatrical role?  If there’s really nothing to it, then why has it apparently had such effect in things like quitting smoking?  Is it true that a person can be “hypnotized” to believe his left arm is very cold and his right arm very hot and we can watch as goose bumps rise on his left arm while sweat drips down from his right?  Is there really such a thing as a “post-hypnotic suggestion?”  In view of the fact that even the skeptical literature is not unanimous on this issue, wouldn’t it be a simple matter to test for what hypnosis really is or isn’t?

This (and the placebo) reminds me of a non-scientific experiment in Japan I recently read about.  Thirteen men who were highly allergic to poison ivy were told that a poison ivy leaf would be rubbed on their right arm, and a harmless leaf on their left arm.  But the test people secretly switched leaves.  Sure enough, something like 8 of them got a poison ivy rash only on the arm they THOUGHT was infected (but wasn’t), and most got no infection on the arm that WAS infected, or something like that.  Okay, it probably wasn’t double-blind, and it may all be a lie, but shouldn’t someone look into this stuff more deeply?

 

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ON THE EFFICACIES AND CONFUSIONS OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This is a toughie for even the most level-headed of sufferers.

I don’t think many people turn to alternative medicine to save money. IN the good old u s of a, most alternative medicine isn’t paid for by either private insurance or Medicare.  It generally costs more.

Nor can I subscribe to the greedy doctor theory.  Sounds good, but more often I find that the greedy docs are the ones who send my cleaning lady off to a Botanical for four hundred dollars’ worth of dandelion leaves for some ailment they can’t cure.  The Botanical splits with the doc.

There are a few long standing traditional quarrels — such as between chiropractors and MDs.  Most chiropractic is useless, but a small amount is.  Most MDs are never exposed to even the little bit of spinal cord adjustment that might serve some purpose.  Most chiros never see the inside of a real med school, and have no real confidence of spotting a spinal base cancer.

As an investor into a couple of very high tech new medical modalities, I have to stay pretty current on medical advances, to the extent that I can fathom the language, or get one my Mt. Sinai mafioso to dope it ought for me (I have pretty sound relationship with some high powered docs, on a personal and professional relationship.)  I can tell you that the new drugs and treatments comingdown the tube are far more wonderful in promise than any amount of toe massage or ear piercing or grapenut flakes therapy that wind up in my spam box every few days.

Of course, no one should underestimate the power of the placebo.  (I have proposed marking a product call Hatcher’s Placebo — tests prove that it is unexcelled by any other placebo on you can buy without a
prescription. The doc I see tomorrow strongly believes there is no redeeming quality in pain, and when I tell him I get some relief by sticking acupuncture needles in my pain points, he applauds.  He then asks me how my hydrocondone is holding out and offers to write a script if I need more.

The great caveat is that there are enough hopefuls and idiots who will try banana leaves to cure something curable by penecillin, and thus croak needlessly, that we do have to make sure thee is some protection, or at least warning for the unwary.

 

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Help With Newsgroup!

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The poor chiropractors see the entire world in terms of a single treatment modality, spinal manipulation. A well-trained physiotherapist can do precisely the same manipulations *when* *called* *for* but also has a host of other treatment modalities at his command: traction, heat, diathermy, exercise, electrical stimulation, etc. etc.

Moreover, though the chiros deny it, there’s always this smarmy, oily, nudge-nudge, wink-wink business about “we don’t want to c-u-t you” as though the MD’s and surgeons were lusting to put the scalpel to you. Really, the way the chiropractors carry on, you’d think that surgeons went into the specialty as a way of getting sexual release.

I think it’s the tendency of chiropractors to set themselves up as an *alternative” to orthodox medical treatment, instead of an adjunct, that really rots my socks. The physiotherapists always work in conjunction with the MD’s. There’s no pretense of conflict. They are a supplement to medical care, not a replacement for it.

Lots of cervical spine injuries are *caused* by chiropractic manipulation. An MD friend told me that when he was an intern at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, they regularly saw cervical fractures caused by chiropractic manipulation, and lately the Canadian medical association has issued a warning against manipulation of the neck because it can cause a stroke. The chiropractors of course backpedalled like mad “oh, we’ve improved our training, blah blah blah”. Yeah, sure, what about the ones that went to school decades ago and haven’t learned a thing since?

Chiropractic was in its origins an out-and-out quack therapy: cures cancer, asthma, acne, liver disease, and impotence. As far as I’m concerned, it’s still a quack therapy.

 

 

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Trauma?

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Chiropractors do not treat or “cure” disease.  If you’ve paid any attention to any of my posts you would understand that.  The chiropractor in your family surely must be aware that vertebral subluxation can play a significant role in seizures.  That is what he hopefully learned in school.
Chiropractors allow the body to function at its maximum level.  The nervous system controls every function in the human body. Chiropractors ensure that the nervous system is working without interference.  Period. No one can dispute the fact that many people with seizures or epileptics have seen their health improve through competent chiropractic care.

Chiropractors allow the body to function at its maximum level.  The nervous system controls every function in the human body.   When organs are transplanted, the surgeons don’t connect the donor organ to the recipient’s nervous system.  But so long as immune rejection is prevented, the organ functions perfectly in its new environment.

Chiropractors ensure that the nervous system is working without interference. The peripheral nerves you claim to manipulate are the most minor part of the system.  The real magic takes place where you can’t access it with Doctor Palmer’s hamfisted methods.

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