wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) (08/10/85)
This week's Newsweek (8/12/85), page 69 (appropriate), has an article
about combining Chiropractic with Allopathy (MD). Since I have had
personal experience with practicing with a Chiropractor for the past 5
years, I thought I would share my experience for some of the "doubting
thomases" of Holistic Medicine.
Both the May and August issues('84) "Patient Care" journal, the most
widely read primary care conventional medical journal in the USA)
published major articles about getting MDs to learn how to do
manipulation for their patients. This is a complete reversal of just
a year ago when the AMA(pity) was still calling it "QUACKERY". You
see, if the AMA(pity) doesn't know about it, it must be "QUACKERY".
One of the reasons for the reversal is the newly reported fact: 5% of
the physicians in the US are Osteopaths. An Osteopath is a D.O.; a
physician who has to pass the same medical licensing boards that the
M.D.s do. However, they also must pass another whole day of boards on
manipulation that no MD has learned the first thing about--remember,
it was quackery! The science of osteopathic manipulation is very
similar to chiropractic manipulation. 10% of all the patient visits
in the US are to Osteopaths. In other words: Osteopaths see twice as
many patients/doctor as allopaths (MDs).
A second major factor in the reversal just was reported this past
month: The spinal fluid (which we have always known was limited to the
central nervous system--brain and spinal cord) flows all the way out
to the tiniest tip of the tiniest peripheral nerve in the body.
Apparently, the nervous system, both voluntary and autonomic, is not
only electrical and chemical but a fluid dynamic system as well. 2oz
of pressure where the nerves leave the spinal column causes a 60%
reduction in the fluid flow from the cns to the periphery. 2oz is a
nearly infinitisimal amount of pressure when one considers the
stresses normally present during movements of the backbone.
It now is much more understandable how manipulation of the spine could
influence the function of the liver, etc. Since all organs function
is influenced by the autonomic system, there is no way that skilled
spinal manipulation could NOT influence organ function.
All these years the AMA(pity) have expended millions of dollars to
deny chiropractic (insisting all the while that they were quacks out
to hoax the public for a buck) instead of seriously looking into the
results observed. One runs a great risk to assume that the other
fellow has any less ethics or professionalism than one's own.
It took a full generation for americans to outlive the propaganda we
were fed about the "godless Germans" during the second world war. It
will take at least that long for MDs to get over what we were taught
about manipulation. In the meantime "let the buyer beware".
I have found that there are many conditions that do not respond to
conventional medical care that respond beautifully to chiropractic.
By having the Chiropractor in the same office with the MD we learn
from each other and the patient is the benefactor. After all, isn't
the patient what this is supposed to be all about?
cbosgd!ukma!wws(WALT STOLL,MD)geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks) (08/14/85)
In article <2047@ukma.UUCP> wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) writes: > >A second major factor in the reversal just was reported this past >month: The spinal fluid (which we have always known was limited to the >central nervous system--brain and spinal cord) flows all the way out >to the tiniest tip of the tiniest peripheral nerve in the body. >Apparently, the nervous system, both voluntary and autonomic, is not >only electrical and chemical but a fluid dynamic system as well. 2oz >of pressure where the nerves leave the spinal column causes a 60% >reduction in the fluid flow from the cns to the periphery. 2oz is a >nearly infinitisimal amount of pressure when one considers the >stresses normally present during movements of the backbone. > >It now is much more understandable how manipulation of the spine could >influence the function of the liver, etc. Since all organs function >is influenced by the autonomic system, there is no way that skilled >spinal manipulation could NOT influence organ function. > This seems just another example of the "magical" type of thinking that goes on in the world of "holistic medicine" and chiropractic. Just like when Palmer "cured" his janitor of deafness by cracking his neck for him (the auditory nerve doesn't even run in the neck). Where was this reported? How was it determined that spinal fluid flows out through the nerves (I hope you aren't going to say axonal flow, since that isn't really spinal fluid at all)? I suppose it is one of the lost "humors" of Aristotle. After all, the ancient Greeks knew everything about medicine and we'd all still be healthy if it wasn't for the conspiracy between the government, the AMA and the drug industry, right? "I saw it last night in the entrails of an owl...."
sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (08/14/85)
> A second major factor in the reversal just was reported this past > month: The spinal fluid (which we have always known was limited to the > central nervous system--brain and spinal cord) flows all the way out > to the tiniest tip of the tiniest peripheral nerve in the body. > Apparently, the nervous system, both voluntary and autonomic, is not > only electrical and chemical but a fluid dynamic system as well... Are you sure the fluid isn't bile or catarrh? Sorry to lose my cookies here--I'm usually so restrained, preferring the high road of science to the low humor (!) of sarcasm, but I think I've reached a critical buildup of SOMETHING, and I think I'll feel better if I just let it up. Excuse me. Ah, MUCH better, though like all bile, it was rather bitter. Seriously, this has to be the best form of entertainment since I unsubscribed to net.origins. A little disquieting, however, given that Stoll is, if we are to believe his signature, DR. Stoll, M.D.. How he can continue to call his practice MEDICINE after such mangling of basic neuroanatony is beyond me. I am beginning to see that these debates here on net.med are taking the same kind of form that we see in net.origins and other arenas, namely, that these so-called "holistic" practitioners (who are giving legitimate holists a bad name) simply don't play by the rules of science and yes, medicine. They pretend to use the tools of science, reason, experimentation, repeatability, logic, but it is all a facade, an attempt to hoodwink the less critical into thinking they deserve the same kind of respect and consideration due to any serious pursuit. Of course, the first to be swayed are the perpetrators themselves. The holes in their logic (is this where "holistic" comes from?) are large enough to drive a Mack truck through, their willingness to make wholesale assumptions about basic mechanisms based on shreds of evidence or solely hypothesis, unmatched. One wonders whether Stoll could distinguish a metaphor from a melanoma. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima,ihnp4}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbnccv.ARPA