Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 20:42 Matthew McCoy DC, MPH

Over the past year or so the chiropractic profession has shed its drugless character, subluxation has been removed from accreditation standards, philosophy of chiropractic has been removed from educational programs, chiropractic care of children has been attacked and the systematic marginalization of the traditional, conservative faction of chiropractic has been accomplished by the profession’s controlling cartel.

Yet there is still the majority of subluxation centered, principled chiropractors who are sitting on the sidelines and watching while not doing a damn thing. Well if you needed one more piece of evidence that the sky really is falling to goad you into action – here it is:

The prevalence of the term subluxation in North American English-Language Doctor of Chiropractic Programs
http://chiromt.com/content/19/1/14/abstract
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies 2011, 19:14 doi:10.1186/2045-709X-19-14
Timothy A Mirtz (kngnumitor@aol.com)
Stephen M Perle (perle@bridgeport.edu

This paper is not worth reading for any scholarly content beyond the simple review of the schools’ curriculums and how often the term subluxation is used in their course catalogs. Dr. Christopher Kent said it best: “The paper is a perfect example of straw man arguments, special pleading, appeal to authority, and statements presented as facts without substantiation.”

I have already included this paper in my courses as it is a great case study in the use of logical fallacies - particularly the straw man fallacy, and the liberal use of unreferenced opinions presented as facts.

Beyond the simple math on the number of times subluxation is used in our schools, the paper is simply another anti-subluxation rant by the usual suspects - Perle and Mirtz. That Perle is proud that his own institution ranks as one of the lowest users of the term is good information for potential students thinking about going to the University of Bridgeport to study chiropractic – clearly chiropractic is not spoken there and they are better off choosing a school where it is spoken. In fact, I think the Tables reporting which schools use the term and which don’t should be used as recruiting posters for the admissions departments of real chiropractic schools. The only problem is that even at those schools where the term is used it isn’t used all that much and mostly only in technique classes.

So for all you subluxation chasers out there that needed another call to arms to get you to actually DO SOMETHING to save this profession from the controlling cartel – here it is. But beyond reading it, tsk, tsking, letting out a loud harrrummph! and “clicking “Like” on Facebook, what are you actually going to DO about it? Let me know as I’d love to hear it.

In case you needed some ideas about what to DO: You could support chiropractic research: