Decompression - Yeah right

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Marketplace, a Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) investigative TV show did a piece on decompression for low back pain.  This news item might get a lot of people angry.  I figure those who get mad will mostly be those who own and market the "decompression" machines.  Some of my chiropractic colleagues might get mad because they might believe that the chiropractic profession is put in a bad light but really I don't think so.  There was no inference that the problem with decompression machines is a chiropractic problem, the news piece just looked at one chiropractor's offices.  In fact they note that the College of Chiropractors of Ontario (the regulatory board for chiropractors in ONT) after being notified by Marketplace, will be investigating the chiropractor in the news piece regarding his advertisements.

So what are these non-surgical decompression machines?  Well they are just low back traction devices that cost a lot of money, thus require lots of patients to make the expenditure worth the money for the doctor.  Big bills means big advertising.  It is not uncommon for one to see very large advertisements in local newspapers.  These ads often have lots of claims of great success rates.  There are also claims that these are NASA technology.  Well those claims don't hold water as Marketplace found.  In fact the Oregon Attorney General's office has ruled that neither of these claims are valid and can't be used in Oregon.  I guess it's too bad if you live elsewhere.  I live in Connecticut and regularly see these ads in my local paper.

The real problem here is that people suffering with back pain are vulnerable to believing the advertisements because they are desperate to get relief.  The ads make it sound so good.  Go to the office, get an exam (may be just a wallet exam) and then get relief from this device with NASA technology and an 86% success rate.  Seems too good to be true, and of course it is.

Are there people with low back pain for whom traction is helpful?  The answer is yes but it shouldn't take thousands of dollars and months of care.  Research (1, 2) is starting to identify those people for whom traction is the best option but a definitive answer hasn't bee found yet.

So what is a poor suffering person to do?  Well one needs to find the doctor who isn't quick ordering any treatment or isn't really a one trick pony.  That means one that doesn't do traction on everyone.  Or doesn't do spinal manipulation on every patient.  Or doesn't schedule surgery - first thing. Or doesn't say exercise is a must for everyone.  Really treatment needs to be individualized to the patient.  One method for doing that is to use what my colleague Dr. Donald Murphy of the Rhode Island Spine Center has published as the diagnosis-based clinical decision rule.(3, 4)  There is more research that needs to be conducted on this method but I think it's the best model for how to manage the patient with spinal pain and determine the appropriate treatment.

SMP

1.    Fritz JM, Lindsay W, Matheson JW, Brennan GP, Hunter SJ, Moffit SD, et al. Is there a subgroup of patients with low back pain likely to benefit from mechanical traction? Results of a randomized clinical trial and subgrouping analysis. Spine. 2007 Dec 15;32(26):E793-800.
2.    Raney NH, Petersen EJ, Smith TA, Cowan JE, Rendeiro DG, Deyle GD, et al. Development of a clinical prediction rule to identify patients with neck pain likely to benefit from cervical traction and exercise. Eur Spine J. 2009 Mar;18(3):382-91.
3.    Murphy DR, Hurwitz EL. A theoretical model for the development of a diagnosis-based clinical decision rule for the management of patients with spinal pain. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2007;8:75.
4.    Murphy DR, Hurwitz EL, Nelson CF. A diagnosis-based clinical decision rule for spinal pain part 2: review of the literature. Chiropr Osteopat. 2008;16:7.

Swine Poop - Swine Flu & Chiropractic II

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To quote President Reagan "there you go again". Once again a high profile chiropractor is there suggesting in a press release that chiropractic spinal manipulation is part of a reasonable flu prevention strategy. See my previous blog entry on Swine Flu & Chiropractic.

I know I could sit back and wait for the blogosphere of chiropractic critics to appropriately lampoon this press release. But then they would imply the entire chiropractic profession believes this but I won't be painted with that same paint brush.

I'll put it in the simplest language possible. This idea that "nerve interference" somehow leads one to be vulnerable to infection is swine poop. And the idea that one needs to see a chiropractor to make sure that there is no "nerve interference" so that one's children's immune systems will function at their best is swine poop, too.

As Max Planck wrote in 1936:

An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way rapidly winning over and converting its opponents; it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning.

Unfortunately, when it comes to chiropractic the opponents of rational thought and the scientific method within chiropractic seem to reproduce er proselytize before they die out. Thus, this pseudo-religious thinking persists within chiropractic medicine. Exposing this pseudo-religious thinking does not appear to force it underground. (1, 2) It seems that the Internet has allowed this form of lunacy to flourish as much as any other form of C.R.A.P. (convoluted reasoning anti-intellectual pomposity)

The most insidious part of this press release is that the writer has a legitimate degree in public health, an MPH. This might give the laity the belief that this is a legitimate idea. Likewise, one of those cited in the press release has an impressive sounding title as president of an organization with an impressive name. None of this provides any evidence that the press release actually presents valid information about the importance of the subluxation.

The fact that the CDC is cited also gives the illusion that this press release has some scientific merit. It only shows that the writer knows how to package this swine poop so it looks good. Or as was used so often in the last US presidential election, he's put lipstick on a pig. The central premise, go to a chiropractor so he/she can remove the subluxation which causes nerve interference which leads to a poorly functioning immune system is still swine poop.

Obviously the writer of the press release is intelligent. But as I noted in an earlier blog ideological immunity is not the domain of the unintelligent.

Now of course the author of the press release might posit that it is I who have the ideological immunity and just can't see the profound value to one's immune function by removing the ubiquitous nerve interfering subluxation. He might be right. Sometimes people with deviant thoughts are right: think the long road to that Drs. Marshall and Warren traveled before the role of H pylori in duodenal and gastric ulcers and stomach cancer was acknowledged.

However, as Carl Sagan wrote in Broca's Brain:

I believe that the extraordinary should certainly be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Clearly the idea that subluxations cause nerve interference which then reduces the effectiveness of the immune system is an extraordinary claim and it requires extraordinary evidence. I think as with any rational scientist I am willing to be shown to be wrong in my assessment and change my thinking. The growth of scientific knowledge is made by shattering the previous truths. BUT one won't shatter the current state of scientific evidence exclusively with the pronouncements or press releases of a self-professed expert. Show me the beef er the research that subluxations cause nerve interference and that it reduces the effectiveness of the immune system. Since we wrote our paper on the subluxation (3) I've not seen any evidence yet that our assessment was wrong.

Please prove us wrong by providing extraordinary level of scientific evidence (heck how about any valid scientific evidence). I'll tell you if those who believe this swine poop think that the first author on our paper, the late Dr. Joe Keating would be rolling in his grave if the evidence was presented, I'm here to assure you that I know he'd be cheering. Because Joe and the rest of the authors are basically saying put up or shut up. Please put up or shut up!

SMP

1. Mirtz TA. UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE: A Theological Entity in Conflict with Lutheran Theology. J Chiropr Humanit. 1999;9(1). free full text here
2. Mirtz TA. The question of theology for chiropractic: A theological study of chiropractic's prime tenets. J Chiropr Humanit. 2001;10(1). free full text here
3. Keating JC, Jr., Charlton KH, Grod JP, Perle SM, Sikorski D, Winterstein JF. Subluxation: dogma or science? Chiropr Osteopat. 2005 Aug 10;13:17. free full text here