Chiropractic- 

Chiropractic is a alternative medical system based on the premise that the spine is literally the backbone of human health: misalignments of the vertebrae caused by poor posture or trauma result in pressure on the spinal cord, which may lead to diminished function and illness. Chiropractic was started by Daniel David Palmer, involved in several “natural healing philosophies” such as animal magnetism, vitalism, spiritualism, and others, when in 1895 he manipulated the spine of a man who had lost his hearing earlier when he twisted his back, hearing a pop.  Palmer ostensibly restored the hearing by manipulation, and on this basis alone, developed chiropractic. He opened a school in 1897 of chiropractic. There were many similarities of chiropractic and Palmer’s writings to that of Still’s creation of osteopathy a decade earlier. 

The chiropractor seeks to analyze and correct spinal misalignments through spinal manipulation or adjustment.  At best, chiropractors offer counseling, massage, electrotherapy, manipulation of the spine and other joints, and supplements for back and neck pain.  At worst, chiropractors claim to be primary care physicians, neurologists, etc. and fraudulently claim to be able to treat everything the modern medical system can treat.  There is a wide array of practitioners in between.  Chiropractic is not without risk: risk of misdiagnosis of serious medical problems as spine misalignment, delay in diagnosis of the treatment of cancer and other aggressive diseases they may treat with supplements and manipulation, and dangers of manipulation itself with numerous reports of permanent paralysis and injury due to manipulation of the neck.  Adverse events are reported in 38% of chiropractic studies (Spine J 2016 Sep;16(9);1143-51).  Lumbar manipulation may result in cauda equina syndrome (paralysis), disc herniation, fractures, hematomas, and other neurological or vascular compromise, soft tissue trauma, muscle abscesses, disruption of fracture healing and esophageal rupture (J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2015 Nov-Dec;38(9):677-91).

Alpha level evidence:

Lack of evidence to support chiropractic for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2017 Jul-Aug;40(6):452-458.  In cervical manipulation, there is a large effect size on increasing range of motion of the neck and mouth opening, and in patients with tennis elbow, after cervical manipulation there is a significant increase in pain free handgrip strength (J Altern Complement Med 2017 Sep;23(9):667-675). A review found chiropractic controls in trials are very imperfect, and few trials assess for successful blinding of controls or active, thereby introducing significant bias in chiropractic studies (Spine J 2017 Mar;17(3):445-456).  A review found adding chiropractic to medical therapy offers no additional benefit in the treatment of acute low back pain (Am J Emerg Med 2017 Jan; 35(1):55-61).  European guidelines recommend chiropractic for acute lumbar disc herniation or for acute low back pain (Eur J Pain 2017 Feb;21(2):201-216) however compared to other therapies, chiropractic offers no difference in effectiveness  and is no better than usual medical treatments (Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012 Sep 12;(9):CD008880).  There is evidence of chiropractic benefit in neck pain, shoulder pain and sport injuries, but there is no conclusive scientific evidence to recommend chiropractic for treatment of asthma, infant colic, autism spectrum disorder, gastrointestinal problems, fibromyalgia, chronic back pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome (Int J Community Based Nurs Midwifery 2015 Oct;3(4):244-54).