 In part one, I talked about the case of Simon Singh versus the British Chiropractors Association. Why did he say the things he said? Because chiropractic is a pseudoscience. It's not capable of providing consistent relief in colicky babies, people with sleep disorders, asthma, digestive disorders, bedwetting, hyperactivity, all of which are claims that the BCA makes. Chiropractic is not based on a scientific understanding of the body. The basis of it is in vitalism and supernaturalism. The professional groups are a crazy mixture of acupuncturists, homeopaths, and some are actually smart people who are aware of the limitations of their profession. Most chiropractic is just back cracking plus placebo effect. Now there is some demonstrated benefit for lower back pain sufferers that is superior to a simple placebo treatment. It may not be more effective than a nice massage, but it does at least have a demonstrable effect in that instance. I'm going to do my best to give you a factual account of what chiropractic is. Let's start with history. Didi Palmer was at times a school teacher, beekeeper, grocery store owner, and most importantly, a magnetic healer. His beliefs on healing were influenced very heavily by the turn of the century beliefs about spiritualism and vitalism. The idea that invisible energies flowed through us and made us different than non-living things. Palmer often read medical and scientific journals on physiology and anatomy. In September of 1895, in Davenport, Iowa, working as a magnetic healer, he met Harvey Lillard, a janitor who was deaf. After an examination, Palmer discovered a lump on the man's back near the neck. Through force and massage at the side of the lump, Palmer was able to restore the man's hearing. Another man, this time with unspecified heart disease, was also miraculously cured by a spinal manipulation. Thus goes the lore surrounding the events. Palmer opened the first school of chiropractic two years later, taking on students and starting the practice of chiropractic. The philosophy behind the healing relies on a belief in the existence of the innate, a force that allows for self-healing. A misalignment of the spine blocks the flow of this vital force, Palmer called these misalignments subluxations. He is quoted as saying, 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. It's also important to note some of Palmer's other beliefs. He was a regular at seances, at which he received knowledge and philosophy from Dr. Jim Atkinson, the spirit of a great healer of the past. He often referred to chiropractic as the beginnings of a great religion, and compared himself to Jesus Mohammed and Martin Luther. He believed that chiropractic, besides curing all diseases by correcting subluxations, could also cure psychological problems or abnormalities of the intellect. If we took doctors of the same period, we could find they had equally ridiculous ideas. The big difference is that modern doctors actively seek to replace those outmoded ideas by the practice of empirical science to determine what is effective and what is not. Chiropractic, on the other hand, is based on supernatural beliefs, and so it's not grounded in material science. The modern field of chiropractic has many subgroups within it. In fact, I'm going to have to greatly oversimplify because there are so many subcategories. There are the straights that hold very closely to the original mystical beliefs of D.D. Palmer, and believe they can cure nosebleeds and diarrhea with spinal manipulation. This group tends to reject vaccination, fluoridation, and all forms of modern medicine. Of course they do. They believe that all disease is due to blockage of the innate, even dental cavities. Then there are the objective straights who focus more strictly on the disorders of the spine, making fewer claims to treat non-structural problems. This is the only slightly diluted group, and it seems to be a large percentage of all chiropractors. They still refer to the non-existent subluxations as the cause of some disorders like tension headache, and they take it all very seriously, but they have dropped the claims of treating all diseases, and some even work in partnership with physicians. The last group are called mixers, or reformists. They mix different modalities, and the range here is incredible. Some use homeopathy and herbal and nutritional supplements, and some are one step removed from being specialist physicians of the spine. The problem is that you don't know what craziness lies in store for you before you interview the chiropractor. I want to share with you my experience with chiropractic. In 2009 I developed a disc herniation, probably as a result of my sedentary lifestyle and a history of disc problems in my family. I was desperate enough and in enough pain to interview a series of chiropractors at the advice of friends with similar problems. It was a very negative experience for me, like going to buy a used car. I was pressured to strip to my underwear and get a full body x-ray, to buy herbal products. One chiropractor essentially discussed with me how to defraud my insurance to get free treatments. I later learned that some chiropractors spend their weekends in seminars learning how to increase profits by effective marketing. One thing that really bothered me was that all three of the interviewed chiropractors attempted to sell me herbal rubs, creams, or pills, and this was before they had done any examination. Instead I chose regular physical therapy, exercises, daily walking, I lost some weight, I used heat and cold appropriately, and I also take daily pain medication. I have the back pain pretty much under control, although I still get the occasional flare up. Now, maybe chiropractic could have helped me, I don't know, but as a scientist I want to use therapies that not only have been demonstrated to work, but that actually have a known scientific basis for working. I don't want someone popping my back that thinks that a mystical force is being disrupted by the alignment of my spinal joints. A couple of details about chiropractors I should probably throw in. Most have some university education and then two to four years at a school of chiropractic, where the emphasis is mostly in classroom lectures. Some countries and states have licensing boards that require practitioners of chiropractic to pass exams and complete certain minimal educational requirements. There are an estimated 53,000 chiropractors in the U.S., 7,000 in Canada, 2,500 in Australia, and 2,000 in the U.K. A study of California disciplinary statistics during 1997 to 2000 reported 4.5 disciplinary actions per 1,000 chiropractors per year. Compared to 2.27 for MDs, the incidence rate for fraud was nine times greater among chiropractors than among physicians. The percent of people who use chiropractic is usually between 6 to 12% in the U.S. and Canada. There is also a real risk to chiropractic. 33 to 61% of patients report a temporary worsening of their symptoms. It usually resolves within 24 to 48 hours. Much less common are complications that can lead to stroke, paralysis, or death. How common this is is very hard to determine because these events are probably heavily under-reported. The other risk is the full-body x-ray procedures used by a very high percentage of chiropractors. It remains to be seen if the benefits outweigh these risks, I personally don't think so. Okay, so what's the bottom line? Chiropractic is based on a pseudoscientific belief in vitalism. But within the field, there are many diverse groups ranging from completely ineffective modalities to a competent integrative medicine approach. There is some evidence that chiropractic can give some subjective relief to back pain sufferers, but the effect is pretty modest and comparable to exercise, massage, and heat therapy. Here's what I hope to accomplish from this video. I want the chiropractors of the world to get over their multiple personality disorder and decide if they want to be a scientifically-based materialistic integrative medicine group or if they want to be a religion that worships the innate. One way or the other, they need to start policing themselves because they will be judged by the most extreme of their members and that group is making outrageous, unsupportable claims. I also want to see them drop their action against Simon Singh, whose criticisms are valid and his intent, like mine, is to prevent people from getting hurt by the bogus claims happily promoted by the British Chiropractic Association. So what's the challenge for this video? I'm going to call it the BCA libel challenge. In support of Simon Singh, post a video containing your thoughts on chiropractic, but make sure you include the phrase, happily promoting bogus treatments, some variation thereof, specifically in reference to the British Chiropractic Association and any other group you want to include. You can post your video as a response to this one. This is a way to stand up to the legal bullying of an organization that supports pseudoscience. Don't let them use libel laws to gag a science journalist critical of their beliefs. Thanks for your help and thanks for watching.