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Chiropractic Neck Adjustment
Can Cause Strokes Say Neurologists

2-7-2



TORONTO - A procedure commonly performed by chiropractors could be causing dozens of Canadians to have strokes every year, neurologists warn.
 
Chiropractic manipulation is safely done millions of times a year in Canada to treat back and neck pain and other ailments.
 
But dozens of neurologists have signed a letter warning the treatment can lead to strokes. They say if the neck is rotated improperly, a blood vessel can tear, causing a clot to form.
 
Neurologists suspect the sudden jerking could be a leading cause of stroke in people under age 45 but many cases of stroke are slipping through unnoticed.
 
In 1999, an unpublished study by the Canadian Stroke Consortium concluded 21 out of 50 cases of stroke were due to neck manipulation. Their results were based on figures from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
 
"Someone essentially has to step up and say, 'Look these risks that we see are very real,'" said the study's researcher, neurologist Dr. Brad Stewart. "They are not as infrequent as the chiropractic community would make them out to be."
 
Some chiropractors say the risk of stroke from neck manipulation is extremely low.
 
"When we talk about the relationship of risk of stroke in chiropractive adjustment being one or two per million, we're talking about a very, very, very safe procedure," said Stan Gorchynski of the Canadian Chiropractic Association.
 
 
Written by CBC News Online staff
 
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/06/Consumers/neck_chiropractic020206
 
 
 
Comment
 
From Dr. James E. Bare, D.C.
2-7-2
 
Jeff,
 
This piece of medical propaganda that has been floating about and repeated since before I started Chiropractic School. That was in 1973, and the neurologists and AMA were screaming the same thing back then. A few years ago, a literature search turned up only a handful of such reports in all of recorded history. The odds of a stroke occurring during a Chiropractic spinal adjustment is one in tens of millions.
 
To put this in perspective, it is far more dangerous, by a factor of hundreds of times, to take a bath.
 
To quote from the article:
 
"In 1999, an unpublished study by the Canadian Stroke Consortium concluded 21 out of 50 cases of stroke were due to neck manipulation. Their results were based on figures from the Heart and Stroke Foundation."
 
Notice this was an UNPUBLISHED STUDY. Just the fact they hand selected 50 cases in a non-random manner makes thier interpretation completely false. Kind of like saying someone reviewed 50 gopher holes and found 21 of them contained snakes . What are those odds in real life? Now let's see, here are some people that don't practice Chiropractic, who obviously don't like Chiropractic, making judgements about what Chiropractic can and cannot do. Better yet, if you asked these same people to write a simple one page essay on Chiropractic that was free of thier prejudice, bigotry and monopolistic tendencies, they would have a hard time getting past the first few lines.
 
Articles like this are not in the public interest, they only serve to keep people from getting appropriate health care for thier physical illnesses.
 
Such articles are promoted and issued by Industrial Monopoloists that will not tolerate competition on any level.
 
James E. Bare, D.C.
 
 
Comment
 
From Alert Reader
2-8-2
 
Just had to say, regarding your chiropractor/stroke risk story: This old chestnut! That line has been used for years to discredit chiropractic, and the many chiropractors I have known, and used, have said it does not happen, not with any adjustment methods that are currently used in the USA.
 
Don't you have a research department that at least asks a chiropractor, or somebody knowledgable IN an area before you publish a story? After all the conspiracy stories we read, you'd think you'd be less willing to be used to further what may well be a destructive agenda. After all, chiropractic is an all-natural, holistic method of healing that generally avoids drugs and surgeries (all the usual allopathic killers). This kind of line,and indeed the original SAME line, came from the AMA years ago.
 
Coincidence? I doubt it!
 
Alert Reader With a Long Memory, Boulder, Colorado
 
P.S. Conventional Western medicine is the 3rd leading killer of people in the developed world. Why isn't that a headline? Oppose the scandal of "tens of thousand dead by doctors each week" versus "dozen per year," for whom no proof is given. Hmmm.
 
 
Comment
 
From Greg Lauver
2-8-2
 
 
Neurologists CAN murder, rape, and cheat on their taxes AND this so-called "study" is so freaking old it is septic.
 
One chirofactor many don't know is that these professionals log far more class time in all medical subjects, except one, than do medical doctors. The Achilles subject? Psychology, what else?


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