News – Page 5 – Chiropractic Resource Organization

Texas says chiropractors shouldn’t treat diabetes, other disorders

By John Wiens DC|April 3, 2012|News|

Texas is on its way to expressly banning chiropractors from treating conditions such as thyroid disorders and diabetes.

Calling chiropractors who solicit diabetics with “secret” treatments “hucksterism,” the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners has been working on new rules since 2010. The questionable ads run by Texas chiropractors were similar to ones currently appearing in Utah, said Yvette Yarbrough, the board’s executive director.

Texas’ new rules may allow chiropractors to co-manage such diseases through nutrition and exercise. But she anticipates that the new rule will ban “outright treatment” of diabetes, thyroid disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, asthma and other conditions.

The proposed rule is part of an ongoing battle between the Texas Medical Association and chiropractors. Medical doctors say chiropractors are illegally treading on their turf.

“Everybody wants to practice medicine but nobody wants to go to medical school,” said David Bragg, the medical association’s attorney. “Chiropractors are excellent marketers. … They believe chiropractic is the answer. Texas law doesn’t agree with that.”

Tyce Hergert, public relations chairman for the Texas Chiropractic Association, said chiropractors should be able to help patients through nutrition and exercise.

“As far as sitting down with a patient that has diabetes, going over their diet, [offering] lifestyle coaching,” he said, “we have plenty of training in that.”

2

Wilk v. AMA 25 Years Later: Why It Still Isn’t Over

By Frank M. Painter|March 13, 2012|News|

Wilk v. AMA 25 Years Later: Why It Still Isn’t Over

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: ACA News ~ March 2012

By Lori A. Burkhart

The future of the chiropractic profession changed on Aug. 27, 1987, when federal court judge Susan Getzendanner found the American Medical Association (AMA) guilty of conspiring to destroy chiropractic. [1]

Early History

The nefarious plot was hatched in 1962 when the Iowa Plan was adopted by the Iowa Medical Society with the goal of eradicating chiropractic in that state. The Iowa Plan is summed up in the plaintiffs’ 132-page aid to the court, submitted June 25, 1987, in the Wilk case.

The Iowa Plan’s section “What Medicine Should Do About The Chiropractic Menace” includes a Part G titled “Undertake a positive program of ‘containment’” in which an often quoted phrase in chiropractic literature can be found: “If this program is successfully pursued, it is entirely likely that chiropractic as a profession will ‘wither on the vine’ and the chiropractic menace will die a natural but somewhat undramatic death. This policy of ‘containment’ might well be pursued along the following lines:

Encourage ethical complaints against doctors of chiropractic;
Oppose chiropractic inroads in health insurance;
Oppose chiropractic inroads in workmen’s compensation;
Oppose chiropractic inroads into labor unions;
Oppose chiropractic inroads into hospitals; and
Contain chiropractic schools.

The Iowa Plan states that such actions taken by the medical profession should be persistent and behind-the-scenes whenever possible. The medical community should never give professional recognition to doctors of chiropractic (DCs), and thus a successful program of containment will result in the decline of chiropractic.

In Wilk v. AMA, Judge Getzendanner explains that the AMA hired as its general counsel Robert B. Throckmorton, the author of the Iowa Plan, and that “as early as September 1963, the AMA’s objective was the complete elimination of the chiropractic profession.” Two months later, the AMA formed the Committee on Quackery under its Department of Investigation (DOI), and by 1964 its goal was to do away with chiropractic throughout the United States.

You may also want to review the original:

Wilk, et al vs. the AMA, et al case

(more…)

14

The Death of the CCE Cartel

By Frank M. Painter|February 20, 2012|Expanded Practice, Legal Action, News|

The Death of the CCE Cartel

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Dynamic Chiropractic ~ February 12, 2012

By James Edwards, DC

After several organizations [1] testified in favor of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) being renewed as the accrediting agency for chiropractic colleges, some of those organizations issued less-than-accurate communications implying that the CCE was victorious in its effort. The fact is that nothing could be further from the truth.

It is not my intention to identify the organizations that misinterpreted and/or misrepresented what occurred. For those organizations that attempted to “spin” the facts in order to place the CCE in the most favorable light, I will leave it to them to correct the record. Instead, I will rely solely on transcripts and the reporting of the objective and highly prestigious Chronicle of Higher Education, and let you make your own judgments. After your review, I think it will become obvious that in a word, the CCE got publicly “spanked” for blatantly and steadfastly ignoring the wishes of the majority of the chiropractic profession.

While using the word cartel might seem harsh, it is important to stress that the description of the CCE as being a “virtual cartel” did not originate from me or even from within the chiropractic profession itself. It actually arose during a previous hearing by a member of the United States Department of Education (DOE) National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). For your reading pleasure, the committee member’s harsh comments are below [with emphasis added]:

“Madam Chair, we’ve heard charges and countercharges from I trust a wide, fairly wide spectrum of the chiropractic profession. At least that’s the way it seems to me. Battles over turf, battles over philosophy, maybe battles over personal ambition, but divisions of every kind.

And some of this, maybe most of it, is a consequence of, at least as I see it, a monopoly control of a profession which has led to the establishment of a virtual cartel, not unusual. There are several other professions that we deal with that have a virtual cartel control of the profession. We can’t change that, but we can consider measures that will try to send a message to the prevailing control group that they should try to be more inclusive rather than less inclusive and I suggest that we try to figure out what is within our range of alternatives to do that.

Because I believe if we simply hear it, discuss it, anguish over it, and then give them five years of recognition, that we haven’t been the impetus for any corrective action for the profession and I worry about the profession.” [2]

Harsh Words

And now to the objective reporting of the highly prestigious Chronicle of Higher Education. Sit down, fasten your seatbelts and read what this impeccable, trusted source reported [again with emphasis added]: (more…)

1

Australian scientists urge Central Queensland University to reconsider chiropractic science degree

By John Wiens DC|December 12, 2011|News|

Source Adelaide Now

Some of Australia’s most eminent scientists have their noses, at least, out of joint after learning that a Queensland university will offer a “chiropractic science” degree next year.

A letter made public this week, signed by 34 scientists and doctors, including eight from Adelaide, urges Central Queensland University to reconsider.

“Our concerns are not limited to chiropractic but extend to all tertiary institutions that are involved in legitimising anti-science,” the letter says.

“It would be most regrettable to find that financial pressures may be tempting universities to betray their academic heritage.

“We appeal to you as fellow academics to reconsider your plans.”

The signatories are a who’s who of medical science, including former Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer, who created the cervical cancer vaccine.

Professor Alastair MacLennan, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Adelaide is one leading the charge.

He wants the public protected from alternative therapy. “We are trying to encourage universities not to introduce or continue anti-science nonsense degree courses in quackery (such as) naturopathy, homeopathy, iridology, acupuncture, energy medicine and chiropractic,” he says. (more…)

2

Researchers Believe Influenza Vaccines Need Improvement

By Frank M. Painter|October 28, 2011|News, Warning!|

Researchers Believe Influenza Vaccines Need Improvement

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Medscape Medical News

By Larry Hand

October 25, 2011 — Critical gaps exist in the evidence for the effectiveness of licensed influenza vaccines in the United States, researchers report in an article published online October 25 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Individuals who are at risk for medical complications or people who are aged 65 years or older are especially affected by the gaps, the researchers write.

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 31 studies that used laboratory tests to confirm influenza infections. These studies were selected from 5707 studies identified, published over a period of 40 years. The authors found that trivalent inactivated vaccine, which is used for 90% of influenza vaccinations in the United States, is only effective in preventing infection in 59% of healthy adults. They also found live attenuated influenza vaccine, which is not approved for adults who are aged 50 years or older, to be effective in 83% of children aged 7 years or younger, and in 69% of people younger than 65 years.

“The ongoing health burden caused by seasonal influenza and the potential global effect of a severe pandemic suggests an urgent need for a new generation of more highly effective and cross-protective vaccines that can be manufactured rapidly,” write Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and lead author of the study, and colleagues. “In the meantime, we should maintain public support for present vaccines that are the best intervention available for seasonal influenza.” (more…)

0

Edzard Ernst ruffles feathers in the UK

By John Wiens DC|August 23, 2011|News|

Professor Edzard Ernst caused an uproar this week when he labelled Prince Charles a ‘snake oil salesman’ for his dandelion and artichoke detox remedy.

Source The Guardian

Edzard Ernst keeps a stack of hate mail as a souvenir. Two months after the world’s first professor of complementary medicine took early retirement from his post at Exeter university after 18 years, the letters are still coming. An email from a chiropractor denouncing him landed in his inbox a few days ago, while Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg tweeted earlier this week that for his latest attack on Prince Charles he should be locked up in the Tower of London.

“I’ve got used to it,” Ernst says. “At first it was a bit depressing. At least the criticism is not racist – ‘that bloody German’, as it would be in France or Austria. I would find that hard to stomach but mostly I can find it amusing. It’s strangely hilarious because the people who attack me are so bonkers.” (more…)

4