Spine of the times

>> Skeptics host fiery debate over chiropractors and their detractors

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Photo by Jason Felker

The monthly gabfests organized by our local Skeptics Club often see rational-minded card-carrying members lay waste to the lame claims of mystics, seers and other snake oil salesmen. But this month’s edition on the evening of March 13 saw a whole other level of debate as the Quebec Order of Chiropractors showed up to butt heads with their long-time foe, Dr. Murray Katz. “The chiros have a sort of a fatwa against him,” says Skeptics chief Pierre Cloutier. “They looked pretty insulted and their leader stood up and they tried to discredit him, saying that he’s not a good doctor because he performs circumcisions.”

And Katz isn’t denying the circumcisionist label. “It’s true I’m a mohel, so what?” asks Katz, a Dollard-based pediatric practitioner. “When they start attacking a person instead of what they’re saying, then you should be suspicious.” Katz has been battling with the movement since 1971, when he treated a child who suffered brain damage at the hands of a chiropractor. “They’ve always been campaigning to include children. They claim that children have little bones out of place in their backs and they can fix them. Well, that’s not scientific,” he says.

Katz concedes that “there are some very, very small, limited benefits to manual therapy in a small, limited number of cases for the lower back. But that’s not what chiro is. It’s a philosophy that believes that manipulation of the spine can be used to treat everything under the sun: babies with colic, ear infections, asthma, migraine headaches, whatever,” he says. “While manual therapy is a treatment, chiropracy is a philosophy. If I said penicillin is good for everything, I’d be wrong, but that’s what these chiropractors are effectively doing and it surprises me that the governments would tolerate such a thing.”

Katz adds that chiropractic treatment can even endanger patients. “As far as the neck is concerned, nobody should ever allow somebody to twist or turn their upper neck. It’s the single leading cause of tearing of the vertebral artery leading to stroke in Canada today of those under 45 years of age.”

One in 5,000 patients treated by chiropractors suffer such strokes, says Katz, but Normand Danis, who leads the association that represents Quebec’s 1,000 chiropractors, says that figure is more like one in 5.7-million. Danis says he has submitted “just published” documented proof of the benefits of the practice. “It shows that cerebral activity is modified during a chiropractic treatment and that’s an excellent result. We’ve had two experiments with the same result that allows for a future development of an advanced technology to deal with problems and solve them with a non-invasive follow up.”

Danis also defends the Université de Québec’s chiropractic school in Trois-Rivières, Canada’s only such institution, which sends 50 new practitioners into the field each year. “Katz says it’s not a real school or program, he says they just rent the locale, but it’s a lie. I gave him course numbers and everything,” says Danis.

Cloutier of the Skeptics says he could be persuaded to hosting a second round to discuss the issues. He suggests that Skeptics might even put up their famous $250,000 reward to the chiropractors if they can prove the existence of a phenomenon that defies scientific reason. “We’d be willing to consider it,” he says. :