Friday, January 21, 2005

Medicine: FSU School of Chiropractic?

Speaking of chiropractic, check out this "manipulation" by legislators in attempt to "force" a program of chiropractic into Florida State University much to the dismay of five hundred professors and two Nobel laureates.
Check out this article, complete with map!

1 comment:

Garrett said...

If you got a chance to look at the map included with the article, I think that clears up the rationale behind the protests. Also included are:

School of Astrology
Creationism Foundation
Institute of Telekinesia
Bigfoot Institute

et alii.

Which is pretty damn funny.

As somebody who really thinks that medicine hasn't really progressed at all (w/ the exception of ibuprofen and benadryl) in dealing with the day to day craps of human life, I definitely support the validity of the "I'll try anything, it might help" approach, even if those health care dollars could probably put to much greater use. Some osteopaths use chiropractic-like manipulation in their practices, and obviously osteopaths contribute insanely to making sure that our country's primary care needs are better met. And they aren't hurting anybody.

Once last year, Courtney admitted to a few people in our class that she'd been to a chiropractor, and the general response was "Oh my God! What was it like? Did he burn incense and dance around naked?" They acted like she'd been to the Amazon and lived to tell the tale.

Everytime I pass the chiropractor out in Ypsi on the way to Taco Bell, I seriously consider getting a chiropractic appointment, as I have some serious lower back pain on the left side with some reallly strange spreading characteristics that I can't possibly explain through sensical neurology. A PM&R resident told me it was all because I was just fat, which is funny, since the pain started many years ago at a time when I wasn't so well-rounded. But saying that I guess kept him from having to admit that he had no fucking clue how to help me with what seemed like a really simple problem.

So yeah, I'm all for making fun of chiropractors. And I don't think a full-on school of chiropractic medicine is ready for real academia. I'd like to see Chiropractory RCT'ed to death and incorporated into primary care or orthopedics, for what it's worth. But that would require a big step in physician re-education. So maybe 30 years? Or a thousand, more likely.