In a recent Twitter post Dr. Moira Stilwell, a radiologist with no training in chiropractic and a former Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly wrote:
“Charlatans, This. Hurts. Babies.”
Stilwell was responding to a Canadian National Post article written by Sharon Kirkey which is filled with inaccuracies and false statements about an upcoming seminar sponsored by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) in Toronto in July, and Ottawa in November.
Kirkey, and the usual anti-chiropractic suspects, attacked Armand Rossi DC the scheduled ICPA seminar instructor and Dean of Clinical Sciences at Sherman College of Chiropractic in Spartanburg SC.
Kirkey stated in her article that the ICPA programs:
". . . are effectively teaching chiropractors how to … take advantage of parents who may need legitimate medical care for their children."
Moira's claim that chiropractors hurt babies was backed up by Ontario pediatrician Dr. Rick MacDonald who stated:
“Imagine one of us intubating/ventilating, inserting a chest tube, and central lines in kiddos with a 2-day ‘demonstration’".
The Tweet by Stilwell follows several anti-chiropractic and false statements by her including one in November 2018 where she falsely claimed chiropractic was "not a profession" and had "no standards of care". Apparently medical doctors and politicians like Stilwell can spew all the lies they want in Canada and get away with it.
According to Ryan Armstrong Ph.D a self proclaimed "consumer health advocate" and darling of the anti-subluxation and Denier community added his uninformed opinion to the mix stating:
"Set aside whether a 12-hour weekend course is even sufficient to start adjusting babies. Training time is irrelevant; babies do not need to be adjusted and they should not have their spines manipulated.”
Of course, Moira, Kirkey, Armstrong and MacDonald display their ignorance in print for the entire world to see since training in the specialty of chiropractic pediatrics is a rigorous process which takes several years of coursework, the passing of qualifying examinations and participation in research. And that is after earning a chiropractic degree.
Armstrong, who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering but claims to be a "public health" expert, added:
". . . chiropractic adjustments of infants offers no known benefits but potential risks."
Despite his Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering, Armstrong seems to lack the necessary skills to find research.
Even a cursory search of the research literature yields a trove of research studies demonstrating chiropractic's benefits for children and its safety. A great deal of that research has in fact been done by the ICPA.
Armstrong then takes his ridiculous contentions to a new level claiming a lack of biological plausibility asserting (wrongly) that researchers do not know of any physiological mechanisms by which chiropractic could be of benefit.
"There isn’t just a lack of evidence, but a lack of plausibility. For all conditions that chiropractors claim to treat in infants, there is no known physiological mechanism to explain how spinal manipulations would benefit.”
Once again simple literature searches on the topic would reveal an entire base of research that explores the physiological mechanisms behind what chiropractors do.
They are obviously not interested in the very facts they claim do not exist.
These latest attacks are part of a long line of anti-chiropractic and anti free speech actions running rampant in Canada and are part of the larger cultural distortions being created by media such as the Post that do zero fact checking prior to publishing.
Chiropractors in the UK, Canada and Australia have been under attack for making any claim of benefit beyond back and neck pain as the regulatory boards in those countries have excised the nervous system from the scope instead focusing on musculoskeletal conditions only. Others have been attacked by their regulatory boards for voicing opinions on public health issues such as vaccination - even on their personal social media accounts.
The College of Chiropractors of Ontario recently endorsed vaccinations declaring them: “Safe & Effective” which, in and of itself, is a violation of the Ontario Chiropractic Practice Act.
Similarly, in Nova Scotia, the chiropractic regulatory board there just fined Dena Churchill DC $100,000.00 to cover their costs of investigating Churchill's personal Facebook posts where she questions the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Meanwhile, the very people who signed the order demanding the money from her have claims on their websites that are questionable. Nevertheless they forced Churchill to surrender her license in order to end the investigation.
But throwing stones in glass houses seems to be a hobby of members of chiropractic regulatory boards in Canada.
For example, in British Columbia the College of Chiropractors adopted an “acceptable evidence” policy and aggressively went after chiropractors who they deemed had violated it and threatens to do more of the same.
CLICK HERE for more on that story
CLICK HERE for more on the events in Canada
