Ye Of Little Faith - In Chiropractic That Is

My last blog entry Swine Flu & Chiropractic is stirring up a hornets nest. Of course you wouldn't know that by looking at my blog because no one has posted any comments, so far. I have received quite a few emails. All of the emails sent to me directly by the person commenting have been complimentary.

I haven't yet received any anonymous hate mail, such as when my colleague Randy Ferrance, DC, MD and I co-authored one of my ethics columns for Dynamic Chiropractic on vaccinations, entitled What's Good for the Goose Is ... Ethics and Vaccinations. (BTW I think we would write this differently now due to a change in the evidence on stroke and chiropractic.)

That column resulted in such an outpouring of venom directed at Dr. Ferrance and me that I wrote a column about Argumentum Ad Hominem (ad hom for short) - which is to attack the person not their argument. For some reason, I do not completely understand, many people in my profession will resort to ad hom rather than find the flaws in an argument they think is wrong. To quote from my Dynamic Chiropractic article: "This is the most feeble reply one can make and generally reflects poorly upon the person who does it. Those who are not biased see this as having no probative value in the argument, and it signals that the person using that reply has no valid counterpoint and is not acting professionally."

Lack of Faith

Some think that my last blog entry shows I lack "faith" in chiropractic. Well clearly I do lack faith in chiropractic, just as I lack faith in medicine, physics, mathematics...

I think that faith is not an appropriate word to describe ones association with ones profession. No one would ask a mathematician, "do you have faith in math?" However, one might ask a member of the clergy do you have faith in your religion. This is because one is obligated to have faith in a religion. There is no other method for one to accept the tenets of a religion, as there is no method to determine the validity or lack of validity of those tenets. Faith is a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

I do have faith in the epistemology (a subset of philosophy) inherent in science (i.e., skepticism, empiricism and determinism). Science is an epistemological theory about how one acquires knowledge and cannot be validated using the scientific method. Using science to validate science is a tautology. Thus one must have faith that science is a good method to discover how things function. So far it has worked out pretty well. You are reading this because of thousands of scientific discoveries that ultimately lead to blogging (not sure this is science's best day).

Chiropractic is a health care science and thus starting with my faith in science, I am forced not to have faith in chiropractic but to conclude, based on the available science that chiropractic is or is not a useful method for the care and prevention of human illnesses or maladies.

Given the above, I have found evidence that I find to be compelling to make me conclude that chiropractic is an extremely valuable method for the care and prevention of human illnesses or maladies. I will not blindly have faith in chiropractic or anything else, I will question it constantly, that I believe is my job as an academic.

Narrow view of chiropractic

One chiropractors suggested that my blog entry shows that I have a narrow view of chiropractic and that I implied we should stick to headaches, low back and neck pain. I wrote:

There is a growing body of good scientific evidence that spinal manipulation can be an effective treatment method for neck pain, headaches and low back pain.

Tell me where does it say that we should "stick to headaches, low back and neck pain"? It doesn't. It says that there is a growing body of good scientific evidence on three conditions. That's all. I didn't mention any others.

If one wants to see a good review of what evidence there is take a look at the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters (CCGPP)'s web site. One could also look at the Cochrane Collaboration and search for manipulation or chiropractic. Then there are some conditions that there is a complete lack of evidence. Such as preventing the flu.

As you can see from my long list of quotes on this blog, I am a fan of quotes. Two from Carl Sagan are illuminating in this regard.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"
- "The Dragons of Eden"

This one is often cited by members of my profession about those things we have no evidence for. For example using chiropractic care to prevent or treat swine flu. While this is true I think what is also important is another quote from Sagan:

"I believe that the extraordinary should certainly be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
- " Broca's Brain"

The claim that spinal manipulation will improve immune function to the extent that it can be used to prevent or help treat the flu is clearly an extraordinary claim. I absolutely believe that it should be researched, just it is not my area of research interest. Some might say why not no harm. Well that is true as long as the public isn't lead to believe that this is a validated treatment. Until the evidence is found, we, the chiropractic profession, have to stop making the claim that chiropractic care will help prevent or treat the flu, which is what the blogger I was responding to wrote. He said that one of the "Sure-fire Strategies to help you and your family respond to the threat of the flu" is chiropractic.

As I wrote before it only serves to marginalize our profession by making us look like we are unscientific.

What I Was Taught In School

Another comment was about how a doctor wanted to believe what he was taught in chiropractic school about an adjustment improving immune function. As I tell my students often do not believe what I tell you. Go to the scientific literature yourself and find the evidence. And if you find that the evidence shows. I would be happy to eat my words that an adjustment will help prevent the flu so show me the scientific evidence.

CDC

One comment about my blog entry was that I suggested that people look at the CDC's web site for advice about the swine flu. The problem with that is supposed to be that "the first thing that website site [CDC's] says is to get the flu vaccine to prevent the flu. We all know that the flu shot is a shot in the dark and far from an exact science"

The problem with this statement is that the CDC does not recommend a flu vaccine for the H1N1 but for seasonal flu. In fact, they say that there isn't a vaccine for the H1N1 flu. Here is what they recommend:

1. Avoid close contact - Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.
2. Stay home when you are sick - If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness.
3. Cover your mouth and nose - Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick.
4. Clean your hands - Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs.
5. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth - Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.
6. Practice other good health habits - Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.

I know that no chiropractor would have a problem with these recommendations. What does this tell us with the complaint about my suggesting use the CDC for information. It tells us that the person who was criticizing me never even clicked on the links to the CDC to see what the CDC actually recommended. Just as they inferred I had a narrow view of chiropractic, without reading carefully what I wrote, they assumed that the CDC would recommend the flu shot.

As I wrote in the swine flu blog: "Overstating what we know only serves to decrease our credibility." In this case making pronouncements that, all easily available evidence, refutes doesn't do great things for ones credibility either.

SMP