If you haven’t seen the garbage coming out of Florida State University you have missed some of the most ignorant spewing of anti-chiropractic rhetoric since the AMA’s Committee on Quackery was in full swing.
If it wasn’t coming from academicians and other purportedly intellectual individuals (two of the most ignorant are Nobel Prize winners) you could just laugh it off. And if it didn’t have such serious implications for the chiropractic profession as a whole and subluxation- based chiropractic specifically, it could just be shrugged off.
In case you’ve missed it I have pulled some of the psuedo-intellectual ramblings from FSU and the Florida media and listed them here for your review. Keep in mind as you read these that they are being fed information from the faction of our profession who despises chiropractors who are subluxation-based (more on that in a future update).
I’ve listed some of the articles with their links at the end of this Update in case you want to submit yourself to the torture of reading them.
If these upset you please forward your responses and we’ll post them. Better yet write a letter to the FSU Provost - Lawrence Abele and copy us on it.
FSU provost Lawrence Abele has done a commendable job in putting together a chiropractic plan that attempts to bridge those gaps and establish loftier academic standards, but, in doing so, even he felt compelled to distance himself from some practices. "Our first commitment is to a rigorous scientific educational program, one that would explicitly reject some current chiropractic activities, such as many of the articles published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research," he wrote. The Journal includes such "peer-reviewed science" as: the benefits of spinal manipulation to promote fertility in infertile women, or to reverse multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease."
“More than a century later, subluxation theory remains an unproven article of faith -- a fact that has led hundreds of Florida State University faculty members to oppose creating a chiropractic college at FSU.” Miami Herald – January 14, 2005
''Their [Chiropractors] whole concept of science is just totally off'' Dr. Raymond Bellamy - Orthopedic Surgeon & Faculty Member of Florida State University Medical School. Miami Herald – January 14, 2005
“Florida State University Provost Lawrence Abele said the chiropractic school would not teach subluxation theory, which is at the root of the profession's unscientific claims. That theory holds that correcting the spine's alignment is central to good health.” Miami Herald – January 14, 2005
“Some evidence suggests chiropractic treatment can help headaches and neck pain, although neck treatments may carry a slight risk of stroke. ”The best evidence is for short-term back pain, which chiropractic appears to treat effectively.” Miami Herald – January 14, 2005
“Most chiropractors now focus on treating pain through spinal manipulation. Yet surveys show nearly 20 percent of chiropractors -- more than 10,000 nationwide -- still believe in subluxation theory.” Dr. John Triano Miami Herald. January 14, 2005
“The chiropractic college accreditation guidelines endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education make several references to the diagnosis and treatment of ‘subluxations.’ Florida State University ’s refusal to teach subluxation theory could force the accreditation body to revise its standards.” Miami Herald – January 14, 2005
“A chiropractic school should be created only if the profession is ready to shed its unscientific roots and move toward an evidence-based system.” Lawrence Abele – Provost Florida State University . Miami Herald – January 14, 2005
“Doctors mocked the study of chiropractic in December e-mails, calling it "quackery" and joking that the next new addition to FSU will be the school of crop circles and past-life studies.” Palm Beach Post. January 1, 2005
“In recent weeks, hundreds of professors have signed petitions against the idea, angered by the lack of faculty input and egged on by charges from the medical establishment that chiropractic is not grounded in real science. A handful of professors in the fledgling College of Medicine have even threatened to resign.” St. Petersburg Times. January 4, 2005
“Faculty at FSU, including two Nobel Prize winners, urged the trustees to kill the chiropractic school, deriding it as pseudo-science and ill-befitting a school trying to raise its image.”
“FSU administration argued that FSU was seeking to develop a reform-minded chiropractic school, one that would better ground the profession in hard science and root out controversial practices.” St. Petersburg Times. January 15, 2005
“There is fear that any association with chiropractic will make FSU a national laughingstock.” St. Petersburg Times. January 15, 2005
“A leading anti-chiropractic activist, Oklahoma anesthesiologist William Kinsinger, called the fundamental tenets of chiropractic ‘total nonsense’“ St. Petersburg Times. January 15, 2005
“FSU administrators have promised to steer clear of some of chiropractic's more controversial tenets, including claims from some practitioners that spinal manipulation can promote fertility in women, reverse Parkinson's disease and cure children of bed wetting.” St. Petersburg Times. January 15, 2005
“Chiropractors, who traveled from Canada and New York , acknowledged there were fringe elements that damaged the legitimacy of spinal manipulation. But, they said, with FSU's help, chiropractic medicine could trim the fringe and become a respected practice.” Palm Beach Post – January 15, 2005
"It seems to me this school is for sale," said Raymond Bellamy, an associate professor in FSU's College of Medicine who is leading the fight against the chiropractic school
"I resent the idea that FSU should be burdened with legitimizing this," said Charles Ouimet, a neuroscience professor.
In recent weeks, the chiropractic school has faced increasing criticism, with hundreds of professors reportedly signing petitions against it and a handful in the College of Medicine threatening to resign.
Among the complaints: a lack of faculty input; a perception of academic meddling by powerful state lawmakers; and a fear that any association with chiropractic will make FSU - which aims to join the prestigious Academy of American Universities - a national laughingstock.
The FSU proposal remains alive only because "chiropractors have learned to master the political game,"
Faculty at FSU, including two Nobel Prize winners, urged the trustees to kill the chiropractic school, deriding it as pseudo-science and ill-befitting a school trying to raise its image.
"Where's the courage?" asked Ray Bellamy, an orthopedic surgeon with a building at FSU named after his family. Bellamy told the trustees approval of the project would mean the university might not earn a treasured accreditation by the American Association of Universities. "The risks to FSU from such an affiliation (with chiropractic medicine) are huge," Bellamy said,
And trustees wondered why FSU should become the first public chiropractic school in America when advocates couldn't even name another university that has entertained the idea of opening such a school. "Why do we have to be the guinea pig," said Manny Garcia.
FSU's proposed chiropractic college highlights the profession's struggle to move from broad unscientific claims to evidence-based pain treatment.
More than a century later, subluxation theory remains an unproven article of faith -- a fact that has led hundreds of Florida State University faculty members to oppose creating a chiropractic college at FSU. It would be the first such school in the nation associated with a major research university.
''The chiropractic profession as a whole . . . is ready to step up to the plate and to let its belief systems be tested scientifically,'' said Dr. John Triano, a chiropractor who served on the advisory committee for the FSU school. ``Let the chips fall where they may.''
The FSU school could be a force in chiropractic's transition from fringe to mainstream, according to Triano. ``The transition is from the stereotypical impression of chiropractic as a bunch of people running around claiming they can treat everything, to a very evidence-based but open-minded practice approach.''
Scientific scrutiny of the field does not support this claim. A recent analysis of existing studies found no good evidence that chiropractic treatments help diabetes, chronic pelvic pain, menstrual irregularities or hypertension.
Faculty members at the university have threatened to quit if the chiropractic school, which they deride as pseudo-scientific quackery, becomes reality. They’ve circulated a map of the campus, placing a “Bigfoot Institute” and a “Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory” next to the proposed school.
“They can say chiropractic is looked at as an unscientific profession,” he said, but, “look at other programs: A doctor of psychology, what’s scientific-based with that?”
FSU's curriculum would not. Provost Larry Abele said it would "focus pretty much on skeletomuscular aspects of the back, neck and extremities. . . . We would legitimately indicate that these are our areas of expertise, and that if a student wanted training in those other areas they should not come to Florida State ."
But some present faculty, including that of the new school of medicine, are aghast at the prospect. It's as if FSU were to teach astrology, they say.
Among people who aren't its patients, the stereotypical impression of chiropractic often echoes H.L. Mencken's opinion. Chiropractic, he wrote in 1924, "is grounded upon the doctrine that all human ills are caused by pressure of misplaced vertebrae upon the nerves which come out of the spinal cord - in other words, that every disease is the result of a pinch. "This, plainly enough, is buncombe. The chiropractic therapeutics rest upon the doctrine that the way to get rid of such pinches is to climb upon a table and submit to a heroic pummeling by a retired piano-mover. This, obviously, is buncombe double damned."
The remaining question would be whether FSU could teach chiropractic with the dignity befitting a reputable research university or whether it would become the Rodney Dangerfield of academia.
But Florida's chiropractic practice act doesn't restrict chiropractors to doing what they do best; it still implicitly allows spinal manipulation as a therapy for any disease, including diabetes and cancer.
That's reassuring. But as Abele conceded, the restricted chiropractic curriculum could be a problem with the Council on Chiropractic Education. Without its accreditation, graduates couldn't practice.
Chiropractic has backers, but is it just voodoo?
A planned chiropractic school at FSU has intensified debate as to whether the practice is real treatment or simply manipulation.
But others argue that chiropractors' treatments do little good and even can be dangerous. A group of doctors and scientists at Florida State University is attacking the profession now because legislators have passed a plan to open a chiropractic school, which would be the first such school at a public university in the United States.
So, just what is chiropractic medicine, and why does it inspire so much venom from medical doctors that some at FSU compare it to studying Bigfoot or astrology?
The proposed FSU school has angered so many faculty members that more than 500 of them have signed petitions against it.
"It is deluding the public when you give a doctor's degree to this person," said Dr. Ray Bellamy, an orthopedic surgeon who teaches part time at FSU and is leading the opposition. "It's almost fraudulent."
Other aspects of chiropractic care remain more controversial. Manipulating the neck may cause tears in an artery that could cause a stroke. Chiropractors say the risk is tiny, but doctors opposed to the practice say it is significant.
Also debated: whether chiropractic care has any effect on ailments unrelated to spinal pain, such as ear infections, asthma or digestive problems. Studies in two of the nation's most prestigious journals, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, have found chiropractic treatment manipulation didn't help childhood asthma or tension headaches.
But to Bellamy, such testimonials are of limited value. Many patients do feel better after visiting a chiropractor, he said. He has seen studies that show some improvement to low-back pain, although he believes it's minimal, and research that shows patients are more satisfied with chiropractors than with doctors."It seems to have little benefit over placebo," meaning the "sugar pill" effect that a patient gets simply from believing they've been helped, Bellamy said. "Other than for low-back pain, in very specific instances of recent back pain, almost everything they do is bedside manner and placebo effect."
"Patients like to be fussed over," Bellamy said. "I think doctors need to learn to listen to patients more and be more hands-on and more caring." But that doesn't mean chiropractors are the answer, Bellamy said. While he believes spinal manipulation can help back pain, he objects to chiropractors' claims that they can help treat other conditions, from asthma to ear infections to attention-deficit disorder. "From a scientific standpoint, all of the beneficial part of chiropractics, that is better than placebo, could be taught in a one-semester course at a physical therapy school," rather than a full-fledged university program, he said.
Patients may not get medical help, or may be delayed in getting help, if they go to a chiropractor instead of a doctor, Bellamy said. Bellamy and other doctors associated with FSU are especially worried about the risk of stroke from neck manipulations. Two emergency room doctors have contacted Bellamy, telling him of patients they have seen who suffered strokes after chiropractic treatment. The danger, Bellamy said, is that by quickly twisting the neck, a chiropractor can tear the lining of an artery at the back of the neck. Blood clots can form, then travel to the brain, causing a stroke. "We think about 2,800 times a year, it causes a stroke," said Dr. Bill Kinsinger, an Oklahoma anesthesiologist who opposes chiropractic care and is working with the FSU opponents. "And almost all of them are young and healthy."
One of the central tenets of traditional chiropractic teaching, "subluxation," also irks the doctors. Chiropractors are taught that subluxations, subtle misalignments of the spine, interrupt the flow of nerves to other parts of the body, causing a variety of health problems. Such interruptions don't exist, Kinsinger said. "A vertebral subluxation has never been seen on autopsy, in MRIs, or X-rays by anyone other than a chiropractor," he said.
The theory has become controversial among chiropractors as well. Samuel Homola, a retired chiropractor and author who lives in Panama City, Fla., has written a book criticizing the theory. Homola has mixed feelings about the FSU school. He thinks it sounds "promising," but believes that if such a school is to be scientific, as advocates say it will be, then it must reject subluxation teachings and focus on mechanical problems of the spine. "We have some good chiropractors, but the majority of the schools and the state laws define chiropractic as a method that shouldn't be taught at FSU," he said. "That's what disturbs me."
It's not just USF. Every university in the state system must be looking at FSU and wondering, ``What are you thinking?''
They might as well have announced plans for a school of voodoo, considering the reaction of professors circulating a petition and threatening to leave.
Maybe there are other reasons, such as pressure to make the field less of a ``pseudo-science'' by putting it on a mainstream campus.
If FSU is able to get its own school of chiropractic, it can only be a matter of time before it also lands the highly sought- after School of Erectile Dysfunction that other schools are looking at with a certain envy.
There also has been some talk that USF go after the suggested College of Video Games that some educators see as but a first step in creating a virtual campus eliminating the need for human instructors, who could be replaced with animated characters.
How about a College of Valet Parking? Everybody has valet service today, except maybe USF's Tampa campus, where the nearest you can park is in Bartow.
But in recent weeks, hundreds of professors have signed petitions against the idea, angered by the lack of faculty input and egged on by charges from the medical establishment that chiropractic is not grounded in real science. A handful of professors in the fledgling College of Medicine have even threatened to resign.
Carolyn Roberts, the Board of Governors' chairwoman, countered that she's concerned a chiropractic school could damage FSU's research standing. ``I'd like to know how this fits into a research institution,'' Roberts said.
Apparently the stethoscopes at the FSU medical school are about as thrilled at having chiropractors entering their hallowed midst as Barry Bonds in discovering he's been elected the International Association of Asterisks Man of the Year.
Aside from the fact that haughty medical doctors view chiropractors as little more than bone-twisting World Wrestling Federation refugees in white coats, an argument is being made that we need more chiropractors about as much as Fallujah needs more scrap metal.
"I would no longer wish to volunteer my teaching energies to FSU medical school, should it encompass a school of chiropractic," wrote Dr. Ian Rogers, an assistant professor at FSU's Pensacola campus, in a Dec. 15 e-mail."This is plainly ludicrous!!!!"
The threatened resignations -at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time -- reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractry is a "pseudo-science" that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments.
Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school.
But some FSU faculty members are upset, too, fearing the school would shatter FSU's academic reputation. The list of critics include FSU's two Nobel laureates -- Robert Schreiffer, a physicist, and Harold Walter Kroto, a chemist -- and Robert Holton, the chemistry professor who developed the cancer-fighting drug Taxol, which has brought FSU tens of millions of dollars in royalties.
In recent weeks, more than 500 faculty members have signed petitions against the chiropractic school, including about 70 in the medical college, said Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an assistant professor who is leading the charge against the proposal. The medical college has more than 100 faculty members.
"I teach wonderful medical students from Florida State University here in Orlando," Dr. James W. Louttit wrote in an email to Bellamy, who shared it with the St. Petersburg Times. "If they decide to start a chiropractic school I would no longer be able to support this program."
"It should come as no surprise that no major medical institution in this country, public or private, has embraced chiropractic medicine," wrote Dr. Henry Ho, a Winter Park physician and FSU assistant professor, in another e-mail. "If Florida State University were to do so, its fledgling attempt for credibility as a medical institution of stature would be severely jeopardized."
"I've got hundreds of petitions saying that this school is not wanted," said Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an assistant professor who has rallied opposition. "It's a stupid idea."
"I have seen vertebral artery clots with resulting brain stem strokes, spinal cord injuries and acute herniated discs caused by chiropractic back manipulation," said Dr. Steve Rothrock, an associate professor of medical sciences at FSU's Orlando campus. "I and all of my colleagues associated with the new College of Medicine with whom I have spoken will resign our appointments if this (school) comes to pass."
Calling chiropractic medicine "pseudoscience," Bellamy is telling all who will listen - FSU administrators, trustees, state officials - that the program needs to be stopped. And he's calling on fellow doctors and FSU faculty to join him.
But Provost Larry Abele, a scientist himself, said last week that FSU has no desire to proceed with any educational program not based in science. What FSU is proposing, he said, is a joint degree, part doctor of chiropractic degree and part master's degree in one of five areas: aging studies; food and nutrition; movement science; health policy; or public health.
"There are quacks. There is no question," Abele said of the chiropractic profession.
But Bellamy still thinks most chiropractic care is based on "gobbledygook ... not one shred of science." He said it degrades FSU's entire scientific effort.
Bellamy's primary beef is academic and personal, not financial. He's fearful that establishing a chiropractic school would devalue his FSU degree, the university's reputation and its medical school, where he teaches as an adjunct faculty member.
Not one single major scientific contribution has been made by chiropractic in 100 years, about the dangers of high neck manipulation and so on, but all I ask is that the facts be given a chance," Bellamy said
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