I am Dr. Narda Robinson. I'm an osteopathic
physician and a veterinarian and I have been dealing with chiropractic stuff since the
80s. I am as I said an osteopathic physician. And there's an interesting relationship there
between osteopathic medicine and chiropractic. So we'll talk a little bit about that. And as I
went from human medicine into adding veterinary, then I could see that there were quite a few
practices from human integrative medicine that were just drawn, many times just hoo
k line
and sinker willy nilly from humans to nonhumans. And that brings up a lot of questions, and
especially when you're dealing with something like the animal, and the fact that they are quadrupeds
and not bipeds, and that their spinal mechanics are going to be somewhat different. And their
reactions to the forces applied to their bodies are going to be somewhat different.
And yeah, I mean, with horses, neigh, you know, in, probably still, but more so in
the old days. This wasn't somethi
ng that was questioned is using two by fours and hammers
and, and just kind of knocking that spine around. So there have been lots of questions about
how we're going to apply these high velocity techniques to animals, and should they be applied
or should they not be applied and what all is going on anyway? And so as we are considering
this extrapolation of treatments that came from maybe hundreds or 1000s of years ago, or
maybe 100 years ago, or maybe 20 years ago, when we're moving that fr
om the human realm for
whom these approaches were created initially, and then applying them across species, there's lots of
needs that need to, be lots need to be considered. And oftentimes, what I've seen from the beginning
of my veterinary work is that there is not enough questioning whether it is homeopathy,
acupuncture, herbal medicine, anything. And coming from that human profession. I would
say that I have, I mean, I spent four years in osteopathic medical school, we learned, you know
,
various kinds of manipulation. It's not just like taking a course and saying okay, yeah, we
can do everything here and it makes sense and "my teacher told me" so that's oftentimes
the big failing, "my teacher told me" and if you're not encouraged to think critically,
to think independently, to think scientifically, and if you are encouraged to leave your
western mind at the door or leave your critical mind at the door. Just believe what we say
because we don't want to show you we can't b
ack it up. So if you're in that train, possible
wreck of believing what people are telling you, even with conventional approaches, know
you're possibly going to hurt somebody, you're possibly not going to be as effective as
you should. And then if you become an instructor, whether it's for said charismatic individual who
might have a program and you're just repeating what you heard, without ever really considering
it and dissecting it for yourself, then you're at risk of perpetuating myths
and metaphors
and incorrect information. So when we have an approach, like chiropractic, there's lots of all
of that to go around. So let's get started. Who wants to know the facts about chiropractic?
Well, it may be that there are individuals that would rather this not be completely
known, because if consumers have questions then what are they going to be told? What
are they going to be told when they have health insurance for their animal and
they think that they want coverage? So many q
uestions. So we're going to be addressing
a lot of that. And you might think, well, chiropractic is based on science, right? I mean,
there's a chiropractor on every block, you know, there's courses there certifications,
and chiropractic has to be on science, right? You're just moving bones. Well, let's talk
about that more to because you might not even have learned about all this other stuff that I'm going
to talk to you about today. Even if you've been through so to speak chiropractic scho
ol.
Now, word about terminology. Chiropractic is actually a protected term. And I mean, I've
been dealing with chiropractors trying to run that kind of approach. Run manual therapy in the
veterinary profession since 2002. When the AVCA, American Veterinary Chiropractic
Association launched a drive to get animal chiropractic recognized as a separate
profession in Colorado. And I've been at CSU I mean, since I started vet school, 93, but
this was around 2002. And so by the time the Colorado
Veterinary Medical Association, had
heard about it and CSU had heard about it, Colorado State University, the
chiropractors involved in carving out manipulative therapy from under the aegis
under the heading of veterinary medicine. And, you know, so that was their goal is to carve
it out from veterinarians having their own ability to work with their hands manipulative
therapy, and make it so that there was a separate licensing board separate, you know, part
of practice that chiropractors w
ould sit on the board for and, okay, so veterinarians too,
and that you would have to get the regulatory authority from this separate institution in order
to do manipulative therapy because before that, our veterinary license allows us to do what we
feel needs to be done. And it falls under the heading. So that was my first encounter where
I was talking with the Department of Regulatory Agencies in Colorado, and realizing
that the chiropractors had already been having long discussions with
the legislators
in Colorado and convincing them that it was the rights of animals and it was the rights of the
animal owner or caregiver to have chiropractic and that it was similar to when, back when, when
the chiropractors in the mid 1900s hundreds were fighting with the MDS, trying to get the ability
to work on people and saying, you know, people need this and children need this and so they were
likening children to animals, and that it should be their right for them to get chiropractic.
And so it was a very steep, uphill climb to talk to these people that had already been
convinced it was based on freedom and rectitude of moral authority and medicine and that's
what should happen. And so it was just really eye opening. And what I found out was and this is
for those of you that might be facing, practice, scope of practice challenges in your state, feel
free to contact me Narda@curacore.org, because I have a lot of experience with this. And again,
I've been you know, I've
been in osteopathic school since the 80s and then practices since 80s
So anyway, I realized that it didn't really matter what we would say in terms of the animals,
benefits or risks, so it wasn't so much about animal welfare for the Department of Regulatory
Agencies, at least the people that I talked to, it was more about consumer protection because
that's what it's about even your state licensure board is about consumer protection. Much
more than animal public health and welfare. So animal
health and welfare, it's more about
public health. So you know, we talked about the inability of chiropractors to recognize something
like rabies, like not all horses that are lame, need chiropractic, some might have
some kind of communicable disease. If they're neurologic, they might have rabies,
there's all kinds of things that could happen and that can put people at risk. So
just FYI, if you want that information, it's important to bring up the public health
issue, because chiropractor
s do not learn about infectious disease and pathology, and
neurology and all these things like we as veterinarians do but the regulatory agency people
don't necessarily know the difference if they've been wined and dined by the chiropractors before
you get there. So anyway, moving right along, here's a poll. And this might seem weird to
ask you, but it's relevant. So poll number one. Was chiropractic sent from God? Yes. No, I'm not
sure. But I think so. I'm not sure but I doubt it. So I'm g
oing to launch the poll. And
please participate. So we have everybody here poll in progress, and
select one of the following. You can see that so 60% have voted.
Need a few more. Okay, we're getting more responses. We can just get a little bit
more let's see. I'm going to close the poll in about 10 seconds, but we will have more of these.
Okay, poll complete. Thank you. close the poll and share results. Let's see. Was
chiropractic sent from God? Yes. Nobody said that. 60% about said no. So
me people
thought I'm not sure. But I think so. Or I'm not sure but I doubt it. So a little bit of a mixed
reaction there. I think that some chiropractors, at least from the original, but even some of the
seminars that I've watched on YouTube recently, would think that it definitely is very
spiritual. So anyway, let's talk about God and religion and chiropractic. So we're going back
to 19th century medicine. And yeah, this is when osteopathic medicine came around as well. So it
was in resp
onse to the prevailing practice of what we would now call heroic medicine. And so you
know, what was being practiced as the mainstream wasn't so great either. And that's why there
was this proliferation of non heroic medicine. Homeopathy like naturopathic like natural empathy
like osteopathic medicine and chiropractic and there was magnetic healing and all kinds of
things, because what was going on with the mainstream was highly injurious. And I mean, it
included the administration of Mercu
rius chloride, so it still even had almost immunologic overtones,
like ancient Chinese, but it was like you've got something in your system that either needs
to be bled out. So there was bloodletting Mercurius chloride would cause like, ongoing
diarrhea, of course, mercury toxicity, and you were said to have had enough of this stuff. For
example, like calomel and I have bottles of that in my antique medicinals collections. But anyway,
you were determined to have have had enough when your li
ps start turning blue and I mean, you're
essentially just bleeding out and you're just, you're completely toxic. And so a lot of
people died with that. And so the individuals that were inclined, were looking for other
techniques to use rather than approaches that were really scary. And then we had, you
know, approaches like these that you see here. And they were herbs they were minerals,
and some of it was taken from Europe, some things were taken from the Native Americans.
So lots of diff
erent things were going on. Now, so we're going back to history, and this is
where they've done a lot of veterinarians don't realize what they're getting into. They
don't realize what they're buying into. And this gets back to our previous talk about
traditional Chinese veterinary medical herbs and the link between TCM and COVID and just
wildlife trade and just the decimation of species and all kinds of things. It's like
if you realize where this stuff comes from, would you buy into it stil
l? Do you understand the
origins of some of these ideas that you are just swallowing because you're been kind of dumbed down
into this accepting you know, bought or something. And you're just gonna regurgitate what you've
been told on a test that you can practice and then you get certified and you're certified this
or that. What does that mean and what are the premises on which you are practicing? What is the
validity? What is the safety what is the effective decision you ever asked to see
research? So
anyway, even if you do chiropractic, maybe you do or maybe you don't know about Daniel, David
Palmer, the so called Father of chiropractic. He had a son BJ Palmer, and who actually came
into the profession later, who actually kind of killed his father, because after he ran into
him with a car, and the prevailing idea that you see try to cover this up out there is that DD
Palmer died from something else but he actually died from injuries from his son running into
him with a car
because DD was not a good father. And he was somewhat abusive to his children. He
was so consumed by his mission about chiropractic, that he didn't pay much attention to his kids.
So that happens too. Here the early beginnings. of chiropractic. Chiropractic emerged in
1895, and was promoted as a viable health care substitute in direct competition with the
medical profession and as I again, as I said, there was a lot of tension. There was a lot
of looking for something else, so he was comin
g up with something else. This was an era
when there was a belief that one cause and one cure for all disease would be discovered. Well,
not with Andrew Taylor Still, who was the MD that started osteopathic medicine. We'll get to
him in a second. So DD Palmer's idea focused on the spine. And so trying to hook this historical
aspect to current day, focus on the spine. So when you go to a chiropractor, what do they treat?
Do they treat your little toe? Usually not. So you might say this, that
or the other thing that
they've treated, but their main focus is the spine and then it can go on from there. They might
want to sell you a bunch of supplements, they might do muscle testing, we'll get back into that.
They might say you need, you know, $200 worth of supplements from x company that was based on all
this crazy muscle testing. DD Palmer came up with this idea of a subluxated vertebra. So a vertebra
that is out of place that needs to be put back in which modern instructors that
are more
scientifically minded will talk to you about there isn't this thing about the bone out of place.
It's just not moving right. But this is another mistake that a lot of people think is real is
that there's going to be something out of place you got to hammer it back in. So according to DD
Palmer, a subluxated vertebra is the cause of 95% of all diseases. The other 5% is caused by
displaced joints other than those of the vertebral column. So you see there's always this already
this
magical thinking about the spine being just the center of everything. So that was not the case
with osteopathic medicine. And so the linkage here is that DD Palmer spent a year with AT Still who
was the MD. But then went into all the structure function relationships, and was had learned
allopathic medicine, which wasn't allopathic at the time, because it was what there was, so
it wasn't an alternative, so he practiced I'll get back to him in a second. He was mainstream,
but then also wanted
to come up with systems of medicine that would alleviate problems in the
structure but not focused just on the spine, but with fewer dangerous compounds
administered with anesthesia for surgery, with just better living. But so AT Still
Andrew Taylor Still is in Missouri, Andrew Taylor Still was educating people.
And so DD Palmer spent a year with him and as he has this quote, "some years ago, I
took an extensive course in electropathy, cranial diagnosis hydrotherapy, facial
diagnosis," bl
ah, blah, blah. "Later I took osteopathy which gave me such a measure of
competence as to almost feel it unnecessary to seek other sciences for the mastery of curable
disease." So that comes from a one of the many historical references on chiropractic origins
and then we see that with osteopathic to will just love looking at the history of this. But he
admits that he spent a year with AT Still he got some of the ideas but of course it was just one
year and then he went off because he was fi
nding something else or at least claimed to have found
something else which is quasi religion. But anyway, this is Andrew Taylor Still start of my
profession first profession osteopathic medicine. He was a physician, a surgeon he just thought
through things from an engineering mindset. He also worked with the Kansas legislature
and fought in the Civil War against slavery. And he founded the first school of Osteopathic
Medicine he's the one the coined ostepathy because at the time he was thi
nking of diseases relating
to the structure. But what it was and has been and continues to be, is a lot about soft tissue work
as well. But anyway, so he founded that first one American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville,
Missouri, which is still, you know, in business and I think it's called the AT Still school now,
but he wanted to reform 19th century medical practices, including the administration
of these arsenicals, opium and mercury. And imagine the day when rational medical therapy
would take hold instead of this heroic medicine that was destroying people. And in fact, members
from his own family died at the hands of heroic practitioners and just things that couldn't save
them. And that actually harmed them. Here was DD Palmer, who had spent a year with AT Still went
off on his own "I got I couldn't do this." And then he claimed divine intervention. So when
we go is chiropractic a gift of God? Well, DD Palmer claimed that he was receiving chiropractic
knowledge and th
e insights about the workings of the body from the other world and in fact, from
a deceased medical doctor and you have references there. Joseph Keating has written a lot. He's
chiropractor, but he's written a lot about the origins of chiropractic and he has a lot of
skepticism about many of the claims. So this was a reproduction of a letter and you can read that
online. It's a full letter. So yeah, gift from God gift from the other world gift from a dead
physician. Kind of an early vaxer,
anti-vaxer. And so somebody against vaccines, which I mean I
can understand some of the vaccination concerns from a more rational perspective. But
what's relevant here is that the early anti vaxer sentiment of chiropractic continues to
this day amid among the chiropractic profession. When I did research into some of these belief
systems many years ago when I was writing articles for Veterinary Practice News
and writing on chiropractic at times. I found references that said 30% of chiropract
ors
do not believe in vaccinations for humans and so that has relevance for children and, and all
kinds of things there. But as chiropractors want to get into the practice of chiropractic for
animals, then just be aware that there might be some recommendations they make to your clients
against vaccinations, and then that's up to you to educate them. But when I was going on before
about chiropractic being a protected term, yeah, chiropractors don't want you using the term
chiropractic even
though most people seem to now if you are if you think you're doing chiropractic,
then you should have a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. So technically, you should more say you're
doing adjusting or I don't care what you say, because I'm not in favor of this approach
anyways. But just like a chiropractor can't say they're doing veterinary chiropractic because
the veterinary is a protected term. So I have to say they're doing animal chiropractic. Just like
with physical therapy. The nurses wo
uld like to protect their domain. The osteopaths would
like to take protect their domain but everybody rips off our techniques and calls them their
own. That's another whole story. But anyway, so Daniel David Palmer had once said, "It is the
very height of absurdity to strive to protect any person from smallpox or any other malady by
inoculating them with a filthy animal poison." So, another thing that springs up for me is the
fact that although Andrew Taylor Still the founder of Osteopathi
c Medicine, was seeing this rational,
more rational medical therapy approach where we could tone down the amount of drugs and surgery
and then improve intrinsic health. He was still practicing he was still teaching using
pharmaceuticals and using surgery when indicated but because DD Palmer fractured off
so quick and developed his own thing that was brought to him by a dead doctor. He didn't
embrace pharmaceuticals. He didn't embrace anything of that traditional thing. And so
you see nowad
ays still, how that impacts their profession because they are not
practicing surgery. They are not practicing, they are not prescribing medications. Of course
there's naturopathy, which is another whole thing that I won't get into right now. But, but you
see that the beginnings of things, filter and inform what's going on now. So there was this anti
vaccination sentiment. And then another historical perspective. The Palmers espoused anti vaccination
opinions in the early part of the 20th ce
ntury, rejecting the germ theory of disease in
favor of a worldview, that a subluxation free spine achieved by spinal adjustments would
result in an unfettered innate intelligence. And so, the more I read about chiropractic
history, the more irritated I thought because what Andrew Taylor Still had created from
this osteopathic medicine with intelligence not divine I mean, maybe he had divinity to
somewhere, but with rational thought that how the body worked and not having this kind
of reli
gious fervor about the spine being so central to things and that if anything was wrong
with the spine that that's where disease came. So, but DD Palmer stole enough of the osteopathic
concepts, that when I read some of the things that and how he how he says it, how chiropractors will
say it, it's like, yeah, there's overtones of what I teach with my osteopathic philosophy, but
it makes it like, oh, I don't teach it like that. I certainly hope but no, because we'll talk
about the neurophysio
logy. We'll talk about neuromodulation but within the context of what is
actually shown scientifically, and with evidence and rational mechanisms, but anyway, so this
is where with this spiritual aspect, it's part of this continuing trend, continuing tradition
of vitalism and vitalism wasn't started with chiropractic but when people discuss it, it goes
back, you know, a long ways where it's more of this spiritualist, this energy base, the
misguided notion that people have now with Qi as the
basis of disease rather
than something that is actually happening in the body mechanistically. So here
with the focus on the spine as being the central idea, so you have this split in chiropractic that
a lot of people are actually writing about between the vitalism idea the vitalists and the mechanists
because the mechanists, or mechanism based practitioners are more scientifically oriented,
but there's problems with that as well. So the chiropractors are wrestling with this,
the ones tha
t want to see the profession move forward. That want it to be more like
allopathic or even osteopathic medicine where it's legitimate versus thinking that you are
doing miracles. And some people are talking about are we better together or apart because
it's a chiropractic is one big, unhappy family. And you've got serious divisions between these
groups. So with the vitalist approach, again, this harkens back so even today, you've
got chiropractors that work on this idea, like the ministry o
f the spine, but it goes back
goes back to the 19th century. So DD Palmer, the originator of chiropractic established
chiropractic based on vitalistic principles. Anecdotally, the authors of this one paper
that I've shown you have observed that many chiropractors who overtly claim to be vitalist
can't even define the term yet practitioners working in a field that they don't really know
much about. Therefore, with this paper, "we sought to find the origins of vitalism and to examine
its eff
ects on chiropractic today. This mental mindset vitalism posits that most diseases
are caused by these vertebrae interfering with nerve vibrations, which a supernatural force
and can be cured. Therefore, most diseases can be cured by adjusting vertebrae, thereby removing
interference with the body's capacity to heal." The relevance of this today and for animal
chiropractic is that by the end of the slides, we're going to get to where there are these
claims made about what chiropractic can d
o that make not that much sense. But if you're still
going back to that spine and pushing and doing little things, then that's going
to magically clear up a lick granuloma and that your insurance companies have
to pay for that? There are implications in terms of what consumers what doggy mommy and
daddy are going to spend their resources on. So and how much are we going to possibly
delay effective curative approaches to animals even if it's integrated, but if
chiropractic isn't where it's
at, then you're delaying proper care and possibly proper
diagnosis. Okay, so, "Shift vitalism and become a miracle maker." This is actually a chiropractic
philosophy seminar that looks pretty much like a something you'd see on Sunday morning. But
so with chiropractic produces that we see the savior complex. Yeah. So what are we seeing? Where is
all that going? Can we just get our back fixed? So then you have the mechanists.
So you when you hear the vitalists talking about they are not that
embracing of the mechanist who
are looking to understand what they're doing, but I never really adopted high velocity work, I
just don't like it. I don't like to do it because there can be injuries and you can't take it back.
It's not like doing acupuncture or massage or more gentle techniques that are in osteopathic medicine
like myofascial work, because if you do something and it torques it a little bit too much, that then
becomes a problem. And when I was a second year student in osteopa
thic school and learned that
the chiropractors had these cases where people are getting strokes from chiropractic, like I never
want that on my consciousness. Or my conscience. So this like yeah, very few and far between if
ever will I do that. For another example. What's the concern? Well, you have a person
who is flexed. So flexed and rotated, and then you're going to do another little push.
So again, the osteopathic physician way to do it if you're going to do this is much more localized
.
So you can just have a quick maneuver and use less force. But the concern here no matter who's
doing it, is that when you are flexed and rotated, and then whatever's going on there to
however much force you're going to use, that is also the position where you are going to
rupture a disk. You may be bending over twisting, lifting something so having more pressure and then
that's where the disks will start to bulge more or you know, you're unlucky herniate. So I
didn't really like that eit
her, because I don't want to hurt anybody. And just looking
at this now this is stock photography here. Yeah, probably I would flex the neck more but
you're just going to make a little motion there. I still I would rather do acupuncture massage
and laser than that. But look at this. Have you ever gone to a chiropractor and they're going
to crack your neck? And they say just relax and they have your head and they're going to take your
chin? You see what's going on here? This could be I'm not
saying that this is what happening in this
stock photo. But if somebody was going to do that, and then you have the patient and you're gonna go
whew, because that chin makes a nice little lever. That would be a problem. And there's a reason
why. If somebody's got your neck and they're gone, gonna go like this real fast. Or that
real fast. While you might be concerned, and there's legitimate reasons why you
should be concerned. So poll number two is thrusting. So thrusting is this high velo
city,
low amplitude is what probably the osteopaths coined so high velocity, you're doing that rapid
acceleration, but low amplitude is where you don't want to go whoo, whoo like that. So that's
where I'm used to saying high velocity HVLA High Velocity Low Amplitude. So is stressing
of the upper cervical spine safe. I kind of already spilled some beans, but maybe you have
different opinions. So feel free to dissent. And there is the poll is thrusting of the cervical
spine safe? Yes. No, I'
m not sure but I think so. I'm not sure but I doubt it. So getting voting
coming in. Thank you, everybody for participating. You don't have to agree with me, but we'll also
look at the evidence because I don't want you to agree with me. Just to agree. We'll
close the poll and share the results. So two thirds of you where I'm not sure but I think
it's safe. 1/3 I'm not sure but I doubt it and that's fine. And good for you for participating.
And again, I can't tell who's answering what so thi
s is anonymous, but let's look at this. What's
the worst that could happen? Here's University of Michigan so I could have taken lots of stuff
from the literature about. I just wanted to keep things moving and have more of an interaction
thing rather than read abstracts. But we'll watch we'll read some. So University of Michigan
Medical Health Line health blog, anecdotally, this is from a neurologist, "anecdotally many
stroke. neurologists have seen patients present to the emergency room dir
ectly from their
chiropractor's office with stroke symptoms, and that temporal association can be difficult
to ignore." Neurologist goes on, "a vertebral artery dissection is a tear." So that's what
happens to some vertebral artery dissection in your neck here. And I'll talk to you a little
bit more about it's a tear in the interior in the inner lining of the vertebral artery, which
is located toward the back of the neck. So it is one of the four major arteries that
supply blood to the bra
in. So you're there and it's just same thing happens if you're going down
a roller coaster and cranking just cranking your neck around if you're acting out like Bohemian
Rhapsody in a car and you're putting your next year all kinds of fast motions, you can injure
these arteries that are drawing blood from your heart up to your head. And there's just these
different layers to the arteries. And so if you start tearing those and you can get a dissecting
hematoma which means the blood is going
between the layers and so on. We have something like
this. And you can see in the back here, where that artery goes around, so this is like looking
at it's looking at you but when you see this right angle here, that's that vertebral artery
because that is going that is coming up sides of your neck with bones here and then it's going
to take a right angle and then go into your head that the artery is very susceptible to damage
and torque and that's what will be part of the thing that rips a
little bit but there's
also been blunt carotid artery trauma. So how many of you have ever been told that before
you got your neck popped? And there's also various chiropractic theories like how central the whole
neck is, even if you've got something else going on? That "Oh, you must free the neck." And so
they're cranking on that neck every single time, which makes the risk more, than it would be
if it didn't. So and even we're talking about mechanisms. So the mechanists they want the
sci
ence, what makes the popping sound with your knuckles and all that what makes that sound
they don't even know that yet. So how does the high velocity work? Other than maybe freeing some
joints we're not getting bones back into place, we're recovering some movement and a joint might
not be you know, gapping well, at that junction that articular surface, but what makes the popping
sound there are ideas, but it's not known. Now, for those chiropractors that have wanted to get
away from the thr
usting and the potential injury. They have this thing called an activator. And
you'll see people using this. The blue piece there is a little plunger and so they'll use
it and they'll have it here in the pump all over the place. And so there are
courses that you can take, or you can thump your little cat or your little dog
or your horse, bump, bump, bump bump, and so it's like okay, fine, so you're
trying to imitate the force the little focal force on the spine. Good for you. Good for
you.
You're trying to do that. What does that do? What does that do that, that having a bigger
appreciation of all the muscles, the fascia, the nerves, the vessels and working with that
tissue rather than thumping it? Why aren't we freeing it by these actual means that do so much
more that if we didn't have this religious fervor, whether you realize it or not about the
spine, then we're going to be working in all those tissues that actually are
what keep that stuck, keep it not engaging with mo
vements. So there's just so many
better ways to treat, but what are you going to do with a horse or you're not going to have them
lie on the table and say, okay, flex and rotate, boom, no. And so what are the adaptations
that are made? So, this is on Wikipedia. And so commonly, so what they do, they may
or may not get up on something, and then you get your spine all aligned and you thump, you
just put a littlethump right there. Okay, so maybe you are motioning that joint. How different
is
that from what a physical therapist might do to open up that joint. And just another thing I've
noticed when you see people do chiropractic, how happy are they? I don't know there always
seems to be there's like real intense focus and it doesn't seem to be as joyful as I see when there
are the techniques that we use with acupuncture and massage and just a much more relaxed space.
So how do you manipulate a horse's joint what an animal or veterinary chiropractor or adjuster
might say one joi
nt at a time and you're just focused and you're gonna thump it? Okay, nice.
Very, very nice. One joint at a time. Okay, well, is there something else we can do that's better?
This is from Journal of Small Animal Practice and 2015. And just for critical thinking perspective,
this is trying to see Oh, can we find chiropractic subluxations in dogs that have urinary
incontinence and urinary retention? So they're like, oh, yeah, we can find that there's issues
with the spine and we can name them
according to chiropractic terminology in the lumbar
spine and those same dogs had urinary issues. That doesn't do anything that
doesn't say chiropractic works. That doesn't say anything, it means they had some
altered spinal mechanics in the lumbar spine. Doesn't surprise me, and that's what we would
teach and what I teach massage, acupuncture, photomedicine all that. It's just yeah, there
are structure and function relationships. And when there are issues with pelvic organs
there are typ
ically concomitant issues somatic findings that you can find in the back. But
that doesn't mean that chiropractic works. You just named it something. Okay, fine.
Now, another thing just as I'm thinking of it another disconnection in the chiropractic world is
that this I've seen so many people misled by this, they go to a chiropractic course so to speak, an
animal adjusting veterinary chiropractor, whatever you want to call it course. And they get lots of
time spent on human neuroanatomy. An
d because I know these chiropractors that are teaching this,
lots and lots of time, they might even have a human neuroanatomist, come in and talk about all
these different all these different pathways from the back or something. And into the spinal cord
and all the different connections. And so you spend a lot of time learning human neuroanatomy,
why? There is no fundamental connection other than some mechanoreceptor stimulation here.
It's it's like a smokescreen because oh, I learned all t
hese neurologic things, all these
pathways and stuff. So what? So what? How can you describe to me because you can't, how
doing this little thing to the back. Boom, is changing this whole brain and spinal
cord. We can talk about that with acupuncture. We have lots of mechanisms. We don't have that
with animal chiropractic. Sorry, we don't. Here's homework for you. If you feel that that is
true. Go to pubmed.gov free online shopping, you can press either or not but free access and search
ca
nine chiropractic. You will not get one study on the clinical applications of chiropractic. I've
gone through pretty much everything there is named things chiropractic subluxation in the back
if they have urinary problems, okay, feel free to do that. And then animals under anesthesia,
yeah, you can move their bones a little bit. Does chiropractic work for
anything in a dog or cat? Nothing there. Zero. So if you think
that you are practicing science based treatment with animal chiropractic,
okay,
what's the science? How does it work? You really can't explain it to me, because
they're even the you know, it's just not there, for the most part, even for the human. So
does it work for anything in the non horse? You don't know. You can't tell me you can't
verify it. You. It's not been studied. Why hasn't it been studied? People have been teaching animal
chiropractic for a long time. You know, the course that I started and then decided no, there's
nothing here back in 2001 was 20 y
ears ago. There's been time to get evidence. So anyway, that
we have animal insurance covering chiropractic here. Yeah, chiropractic for dogs. On
a certain insurance website. "Daily exercise and play sessions form a vital
part of pets everyday lives. However, while living an active lifestyle may be
enjoyable it requires top spine health and flexibility. More and more veterinarians
are now recommending chiropractic care to treat injuries and like who wrote this,
who did you get to put this
out there? And what was their training and now you're selling
okay, you're selling a rider so that they can get this? More and more veterinarians are recommending
chiropractic care to treat injuries restore mobility and relieve pain and animals particularly
in aging pets working dogs are those involved in intense obedience and agility training, but the
benefits of chiropractic care don't end there. This form of manipulation therapy. Manipulation
therapy is also becoming increasingly popular
in treating a surprising number of other health
problems from separation anxiety to incontinence," because God sent it and God's treatments can
help treat incontinence and separation anxiety by addressing spinal subluxations. They go
on "chiropractic care for dogs involves undergoing spinal manipulation or manual
therapy to move misplaced vertebrae." Yes, most veterinarians that are in the mechanist side
who are doing animal work. They're like yeah, we're not we're not those vertebrae, the
y didn't
go here or there. Because even for the human, we see those things aren't out of place and
we're not jamming 'em back. We don't need a two by four and a hammer and a horse but here
you see information, public facing information. Repeating these things now. So what is our role as
veterinarians that are treating or referring. This is why I'm doing this so that you have some deeper
understanding rather than "Oh, all my colleagues are sending their separation anxiety cases to
animal ch
iropractors." You think that that works. Your insurance is covering. Why not? Well, is
it safe? Again, another chiropractic fallacy, because that was this idea from way back when
that it's like standing on a garden hose. That if there's any kind of subluxation that that is going
to cram that foramen wherethe nerve comes out, and it's going to just jam it and then that
inner energy, those vibrations that come out of the spine and go to all the different
cells, they can't make their way. Well
, turns out most of the time, there's a lot
of room in that foramen. So that nerve is not getting jammed. Anyway, "this releases pain
and enables the body to naturally heal itself. There are several symptoms which may
indicate vertebral subluxations in pets from changes in temperament and
abnormal gait and hunched posture. Some may not cause pain these subluxations but
they might result in stiffness and tension and can lead to secondary conditions developing including
problems with muscula
r coordination and mobility." Here they continue, "Here's some of the telltale
signs of vertebral subluxations." So, as I say, Who comes up with this stuff? Somebody did. Do
veterinarians buy into it? Let's look. Canadian Veterinary Journal. 1999 Yeah, quite a long time
ago. Veterinary chiropractic could it have arisen here? What do they say about the indications
for chiropractic? Oh, idiopathic lameness. intervertebral disc disease. Oh, what the disc
is already having problems and you're g
onna neck and back pain wobbler syndrome. Hey,
spine has already kind of kind of, you know, not put in place well, it's a little little
unstable potentially. We're gonna just spondylosis cauda equina syndrome. Yeah, they might have
urinary incontinence. fecal incontinence from pressing on the cauda equina. And yeah, in
humans, that would be a contraindication for chiropractic. It's a medical emergency. You're
going to manipulate that. Lick granulomas. Again, hip dysplasia, yet and they even
say this is 1999,
"urinary incontinence local sensory or glandular neuropathy. post surgical rehabilitation."
Yeah, after surgery take them for chiropractic. According to this "performance issues in athletes
show a conformation animal's history of trauma, any organ pathology pretty much if you are
breathing, you are needing chiropractic, and here from the American Veterinary Chiropractic
Association website. Similar things even seizures, behavior, mood change, equine, navicular disease
or
laminitis, chronic health problems that persist and so on. So, as we near the end of this who
can and should perform animal chiropractic? Well, should anybody so here I want to just run another
poll before we go. What about the safety again, have any horses ever died from chiropractic?
Let's do that really quickly. Do you think that could be true? Do you think it's not
true? Can a person die from chiropractic? Yes or no? Okay, good. We're almost there. People
have that. Okay. We're going t
o close the poll and share the results. Yes, yeah. And you might
have heard of a horse dying from chiropractic either on the racetrack or in cross ties, dead
from chiropractic. And most of you don't know, and that's the thing is that this
stuff should be known the injuries. I mean, I heard about it when I was a vet
school injuries to animals from chiropractic, but a lot of times you won't hear of it because
it just you haven't been exposed to it or you're you're in a course maybe that's lik
e no and stuff
is really safe. And that's not true, necessarily. Chiropractic veterinary groups negotiate
for animal care. So this was back in 2010. This was the second time that chiropractors
wanted to expand their rights to practice on animals. And this was a time when I worked with
the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association again, and yeah, I got a little award for my work there
because it was just it was just crazy. They wanted so much right to do a lot of things beyond even
manipulat
ion because there are things that we'll touch on briefly like applied kinesiology
so we're wrapping up soon, but this is an article that just came out. So should humans human
chiropractors work on animals? That's a question that we should be vigorously debating or even not.
But problem is they've already convinced a lot of people by the time you get there, and if you say
if you shut it down and say no, they shouldn't, then the things could just run away with itself
and say you're just being
too restrictive. So that's where the CVMA has wanted to kind
of work out guidelines like we've done with physical therapy and massage therapy. But this is
a new paper 2020 with Kevin Haussler and others, looking at the effects of low level laser therapy
and chiropractic care on equine back pain. And you can look at that yourself as well. Go to
pubmed.gov and just look up equine chiropractic, and lo and behold, when they combined
laser therapy and chiropractic care, well low level laser the
rapy itself gave
you significant reductions in back pain apaxial muscle hypertonicity and trunk
stiffness. If you add chiropractic care, there's a little bit more movement because
you're going like this to the back. Okay, there's a little bit more movement fine. You
can do that with massage. You can do that with acupuncture, you can work on a lot of
tissues much more comprehensively than just focusing on the spine because we're not
DD Palmer, at least I wouldn't want to be. But when you lo
ok at chiropractic itself did not
produce any significant changes in back pain, muscle hypertonicity or trunk stiffness.
Oh, that's a problem because we just read a whole bunch of indications and said oops we're
going to help you with all these things. Oops, doesn't work on its own. Oops, just
adds a little bit to laser therapy, huh? Check it out for yourself go to pubmed.gov
animal chiropractic has practically no evidential support. We saw the one clinical study that is out
there for hors
es just published. And it's like, yeah, didn't really do anything on its own. How's
it going to treat behavior problems in the horse? If it's not going to do anything really for the
back much on its own? The mechanisms of action of animal chiropractic as well as human chiropractic
remain largely unknown. So just this is why it pays to talk about science. It pays to have a
critical thinking cap on even if you go for these courses, and let's not take people's money if
it's not going to be for
the best use. Okay, well thank you for your attention. Thanks for being
here again. And we'll see you next time. Okay, Bye bye.
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