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This “advice”was posted by chiropractic skeptic Blue Wode on Twitter this evening. Its from the UCA to its members. As one of the founder members of the UCA, I am curious how they square this advice with the original  UCA core values and mission statement which I still subscribe to in practice and on my website. I practice traditional chiropractic, perhaps I the best and last of a dying breed in the UK. If the UCA is going  ignore its core values, surely the chiropractic profession is better served having one chiropractic  association singing from the GCC Hymm sheet, the GCC have articulated UK chiropractic practice and all registered chiropractors have signed up to it. Surely one chiropractic association would be a lot more beneficial to the public, than this divided profession hiding in their clinics, sending out confused messages through their representatives. As so  few traditional subluxation chiropractors in the UK have the courage of their convictions, why continue to “talk the talk”  when you are only going to do it in the company of like minded chiropractors and you have no intention of standing up for what you claim to believe in. Is it any wonder the skeptic community are laughing [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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Is it any wonder the chiropractic profession is made look bad when the scheming politician Peter Dixon, is selected as a member of the central medical team at the London Olympics.  I was recently invited by Sports physiologist Lars Mickaelsik to spent the  day observing Brazil and Norways training camp at the Olympic park which was fascinating to see teams still using the type of warm ups and cool downs I pioneered in the 80s which were completly new at the time. Unfortunately due to my ongoing  treatment for cancer I have not  the time to get involved in Olympic preparations, despite a number of requests.  My involvement in the preparation of Danish athletes for LA and Seoul Olympics gave me  unique experience as to the performance support elite athletes require at this level, however no one asked my opinion on Peer Dixons appointment, no doubt knowing what I would say.   Athletes want chiropractors with clinical expertise and experience of elite sport, not clowns who spend their days scheming giving jobs to the boys up at the GCC. I guess these are the rewards for being part of the establishment and kissing the right arses. A successful team will have a performance [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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The article below is from todays Guardian, Skeptics always assumed I was anti GCC because I wanted softer regulation, I am against the GCC because they are another Goverment quango not fit for purpose. Made up of people more interested in their own positions rather than performing the job they have been given.  Before reading the article read how the GCC was reformed in 2009 to be less democratic and maintain the status quo http://www.chiropracticlive.com/new-reformed-gcc/ Britain’s shadow government: unelected, unbalanced and unaccountable Democracy itself is being undermined by publicly funded agencies crawling with conflicts of interest and devoid of scrutiny George Monbiot guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 March 2012 16.27 GMT‘From any single perspective’, Bertrand Russell said, “power always seems to be elsewhere”. This article is about one of those elsewheres. It is about the network of unelected committees, boards and commissions, operating below the public radar, through which governments pursue the aims that weren’t disclosed in their manifestos. The people they appoint are an index to the interests they serve. To list them is to expose the gulf between what a government claims to be and what it is. It would be misleading to suggest that the process I’m about to discuss is new. Blair [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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Just to clarify a few things for all the skeptics visiting the site to see this posting. I am a qualified chiropractor and as I have put it up I can say  its not what I would call typical chiropractic. It American sales techniques which have infiltrated chiropractic in Europe in  recent years. Yes a minority of chiropractors do use these techniques in the UK and since this started I and many chiropractors have  spoken out against the practice and if we make the public aware, it will stop. For Skeptics to suggest this is how all chiropractors practice is untrue, but skeptics often ignore truth for a good Tweet. In my opinion getting chiropractors to think like this is what has caused most damage to the profession in recent years. Where traditionally chiropractors focused on being great adjusters now its the numbers. According to Bob Hofman  in this video average chiropractors only see their patients 19 times a year, the elite at the Masters circle manage to see them 40 times. Perhaps thats how a good prostitute in Amsterdams red light district operates. Fucking the patient each week is better for everyone, they feel better and  she makes more [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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You have to laugh. Questions are being asked by real sceptics about the medical regulator ten years after Shipman. Is the GMC fit for purpose? 75 allegation have been made against surgeon David Jackson from 16 different patients going back to 2006 and the GMC has not held a hearing yet. Mr Jackson has now retired and is organising wedding receptions instead of cancer operations. No doubt his reputation is being protected by an old boys club, who always say the right thing and wear suits and ties to meetings. Compare this to the reaction of the GCC to over 700 chiropractors, for using words like "treat" instead of “may help” on their websites. There was not a shred of evidence that patients were harmed by theses chiropractors “claims”, yet the chiropractic regulator the GCC, under pressure from “Skeptics” (spelt with a K; scepticism reserved for those who dare think outside the findings of a chemistry set), spent millions of pounds chasing these vexatious complaints. For no other reason than to demonstrate to the CHRE and department of health that  all was well in health regulation. Like the guys having their heads chopped off, unbelievably  chiropractors paid the axe man [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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I have got involved with a very interesting discussion on Linkedin  on the relevance of the subluxation to chiropractic. The discussion moved on to “chiropractors needs cultural authority” like the osteopaths in the US and this point of view was supported by an interview given by Richard Brown in the Austrialia  After the Storm – What have we learned The suggestion seems to be that it was subluxation chiropractors who brought the Skeptic attach on chiropractic, rather than evidence based BCA chiropractors who were silly enough not to question their leaders. I have not read any chiropractic literature recently so its amazing to me so little has been learned. I told this American chiropractor John I did not diagnose or treat conditions and he felt I was just a technicians. I though you might find the context interesting even though I have written this stuff many times here, so apologies for repeating myself.  What I have learned is there are two groups of chiropractors with conflicting ideas as to the future of chiropractic and they will never  agree or be able to work together. The sooner the leaders of chiropractic accept this, the better for chiropractic and stop all this [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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It’s been a very busy few months since I was last able to post regularly. So I am trying to make up for my selfishness with my second post within a few days. One of the reasons I have been a bit rubbish is because of what Richard is going through. It just reminds you of what it is all about and it has meant that I was spending some of my blogging-time smoking cigars. It was also the fact that the clinic is getting busy and the occasional gap I used to have is no longer. Also there was the fact that I was bricking it. Despite my apparent bravado I was starting to doubt whether I should have opened my gob at all. Who knows, they might have been right about me resigning being a stupid thing to do, and I cannot in all honesty say that I would certainly have been blogging about it if it had turned out they had been right. Not perse because of any of the obvious things (My staff did observe a few “strange” new patient bookings, I did receive a spurious complaint to Companies’ House from a local chiropractor and an obscene complaint [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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The incredibly odd tale of holism. It’s quite the strange thing when day after day patients come into your office telling you: “you have such a holistic view on healthcare”. Very odd indeed. Particularly when you don’t think you do. But then you realise that “being holistic” is a contradictio in terminis. A little like: “being perfect”. Both are in my view equally unattainable. The sheer fact of being immediately infers imperfection on the being. Holism, true holism that is, implies complete knowledge and understanding of all aspects of a person’s existence and being. Absolute knowledge is impossible and a delusion only few sane clinicians will entertain (and swiftly reject). Contradictio in terminis indeed. That’s when you conclude that the patient must have meant you are “more holistic than some of the people they had met”. Not much of an accolade but at least it’s accurate. The other problem is that to some people it seems the term holism has some sort of anti-reductionist policy at its midst. That’s a problem to me because I am the polar opposite: a reductionist in absurdio, meaning that I believe that when you know everything about a system and its surrounding/influencing events, you will [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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  6 Medical Myths Even Your Doctor May Still Believe. By Dr Robert Kornfeld Huffington Post November 2011 "The more things change, the more they stay the same." This couldn’t be truer of our health care delivery system. As a practicing physician for more than 30 years, I have experienced firsthand the explosion of medical technology, much of which has dramatically changed the way we diagnose pathology and the way we surgically and medically treat pathology. I will admit that this has served patients and doctors well, yet recent history has seen an explosion of illness and morbidity in our society. What I feel compelled to take issue with, and the reason I am writing this treatise, is that the actual paradigm of medical care has not changed much in spite of all of our technological advances. Physicians have been extensively trained and have held steadfast in the belief that presenting symptoms are entities unto themselves. These symptom complexes have been treated as if they have a life of their own, separate and apart from the innocent bystander host, the person with the medical problem. We have divided the human body into a jigsaw puzzle of component parts. We’ve taken [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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I would not want anybody to miss CAM expo this weekend at Earls Court exhibition Centre. The promo for the event states “make sure you are there for the  UK’s only dedicated event to the complementary, natural and integrated healthcare sector.  With more exhibitors, more education and more associations than ever before it’s not surprising the whole industry is talking about it!” “This year’s event will have over 200 exhibitors showcasing products, services and training from throughout the CAM marketplace, support from all of the major associations and over 100 seminars,workshops and demonstrations taking place in ten dedicated areas”. One of the speakers is none other than my old friend Margaret Coats. She is going to speak about boiling frogs. She will emphasis how you dont make the water too hot to start with or they jump out, you put the frogs in the water and gradually turn up the heat.  “Margaret is looking forward to meeting the many individuals who work so tirelessly on behalf of complementary healthcare”  http://www.camexpo.co.uk/seminars-2/seminars/seminar-speakers/#7

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care