Posted on 01/17/2005 8:04:02 AM PST by anniegetyourgun
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -
Some Florida State University professors have been circulating a parody map showing the campus of the future, with a new Bigfoot Institute, a School of Astrology and a Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory.
It's a not-so-subtle jab in a growing debate over a proposal to build a chiropractic college on this campus - the first such school at a public university in the United States.
More than 500 professors, including the university's two Nobel laureates, have signed a petition opposing the school and a handful have even threatened to resign rather than teach alongside what they consider a "pseudoscience."
The dispute - the biggest academic furor in recent memory at Florida State - is heading to a showdown decision later this month, pitting FSU faculty and doctors against chiropractors and powerful lawmakers who pushed the $9 million (euro7 million) proposal through the Legislature.
T.K. Wetherell, the normally blunt president of Florida State, has been unusually reticent on the chiropractic flap, deferring to his provost.
"There's a small number of faculty who would like it to happen, there is another group of faculty who would like it to die as painful a death as possible, and then there's another group that has a lot of concerns that they would like answered before anything else happens," provost Larry Abele said.
Supporters of the school, which would add 100 faculty members, say the affiliation with a major university would quickly make it the nation's premier program and a magnet for federal grants in alternative medicine.
But the parody map sums up the views of many faculty - and physicians. They worry that chiropractic isn't based on real science and that such a program could hurt the university's academic reputation.
Last week, the faculty committee that oversees curriculum voted 22-0 to stop the proposed chiropractic program until it at least had a say-so in the decision.
"There's no demonstrated need. We have more chiropractors than any other state except California and New York," said Ray Bellamy, a local orthopedic surgeon and associate at the medical school.
For now, the 38,000 students at Florida State have largely stayed on the sidelines in the debate, although a few exercise physiology majors have spoken out in support of the school.
For chiropractors, the issue is bigger than just the fight at Florida State. It's part of an ongoing battle to win respect and credibility in the medical community for their profession. A chiropractic school at FSU would supply a long sought affiliation with an established university and a major boost.
Chiropractic, which focuses on manipulating the spine to lessen back pain and improve overall health, has won wider acceptance over the years; it's now covered by most health insurance plans.
But in the 110 years since the profession was created, the established medical community has largely boycotted it - challenging its scientific validity in courts and legislative bodies. In 1990, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found the American Medical Association guilty of conspiracy to destroy the profession.
"Chiropractic falls under the same umbrella as any number of therapies including homeopathy, naturopathy, meditation, prayer," said Dr. Bill Kinsinger, an Oklahoma anesthesiologist and longtime critic of chiropractors who is working with Florida doctors to block the new school. "There's no more evidence for chiropractic than there is for any of these other therapies."
The Florida Chiropractic Association says it's unfair for opponents to try to deny them the opportunity to create the school.
"On the one hand, they say there is no science behind what we do," said John Van Tassel, a Tallahassee chiropractor who tends to Florida State's football players. "At the same time, they're trying to prevent the very research (at a university) they say is needed."
The university system's Board of Governors, which faces a decision on the standoff Jan. 27. The fledgling board, which was created in 2002, has been accused of bowing to the wishes of the governor and the legislature on higher education issues.
While not an outspoken supporter, Gov. Jeb Bush signed off on the chiropractic school proposal in the last legislative session to appease the House speaker and Senate president.
_________________________
A CRACK AT RESPECT: Chiropractors helped push through the Florida Legislature a plan to build what would be the first chiropractic school at a public U.S. university.
GETTING THEIR BACKS UP: More than 500 Florida State University professors oppose bringing what they consider "pseudoscience" to their campus.
NERVOUS SYSTEM: The battle could determine who really controls the state's public university system: its Board of Governors, individual universities' trustees or the Legislature.
A frangent lot too.
I feel the same way about the WOD threads....
Ask the football players if it works...
All I know is personal experience of trying to get care "on the cheap" from one of these. I came out worse off than I went in. And frankly, the 'practors that I've met were quite flaky folk. But, hey - it's just my own experience.
Nah. All that "scientific" stuff is boring and requires a lot of work etc. If it works, why to test it? America has enough of these pointy-headed professor-types who believe in un-Christian crapola like the so-called "scientific method". The satanic theory of evolution is already coming crashing down as a just another theory not more valid than a fairy-tale in an old tribal chronicle. In any case, I'm sure chiropractors are better Christians than MDs who are probably all evolutionists. (/sarcasm)
"Chiropractic is about NOT medicine."
LOL. However, to me chiropractic is just an unusual and glorified physical therapy. Since physical therapy works closely with the medical profession, I would think chiropractic would want to go the scientific route too.
"Since medicine is a scientific profession, chiropractors need to publish scientific articles to proof their points."
Having some slight knowledge of the history of "mainstream" medicine and some firsthand experience with chiropractic, it is my conclusion that chiropractic is unlikely ever to achieve even one percent of the damage to human health that "mainstream" medicine has accomplished. As to the actual improvements achieved, that is another matter.
let see, people are living longer and longer. Is it because we are eating healthier and taking care of our bodies? UNLIKELY.
It's more likely all these "scientific" medicine stuff are keep us alive. However, the trick is to find a competent doctor to administer all these science stuff.
"It's more likely all these "scientific" medicine stuff are keep us alive."
I did not intend to address the issue of the benefits of mainstream medicine which are real, I only addressed the fact that many people have died or been made severely ill by the effects of the same. I doubt that chiropractic has ever done anywhere near the damage to people that allopathic medicine has done.
"I know many people who get relief from adjustments instead of looking for just the right drug to correct the problem. Whatever works."
I've used them many times over the years. Not often, but when you need one there's nothing better. I'm not saying that whatever it is that's "out of place" wouldn't get better over time either on it's own or with pills from an MD, but sometimes I've hurt so badly I didn't want to wait that long. Thumbs up from me!
That's what my mother thought and she took pills too numerous to count. Died from a stroke, related heart problems, osteoporosis, arthritis and so on. It rendered her depressed and stole her energy.
I haven't had to go to a chiropractor since I had back surgery four years ago. For twenty years prior to that, I routinely went to a chiropractor for chronic back pain as well as so-called maintenance visits because my chiropractor had convicned me that he could actually cure the cause of my back pain. (If he was curing me, then why did I need twenty years of treatment?)
On one of my last visit to the chiropractor prior to seeking treatment from a real doctor, I was in incredible pain and asked the chiropractor if perhaps I had a ruptured disk or something, he just shrugged my question off by telling me that if I had a ruptured disk I would not have been able to drive to his office. Two days later, I no longer had back pain, but I did have numbness in my feet. Over the next few weeks the numbness progressed to the point where I fell up the stairs. The chiropractor told me that my body was reacting to the adjustments. A few days later I experienced incontinence. I then went to a real doctor, who sent me ASAP to see a neurosurgeon, who ordered an MRI, which showed that my disk had literally broken into fragments that were now pressing against the nerves running down my spine, which not only numbed my feet, but also numbed the pain that I had been experiencing in my back.
The surgery took almost four hours. The doctor removed literally dozens of disk fragments that were dangerously close to causing total paralysis from the waist down. My surgeon summed up the situation best when he said there is a not a chiropractor in the world who can remove disk fragments that are pressing against the nerves. He also said that the adjustments could have contributed to the degeneration of the disk (bone and disk and bone crunching and grinding together during dozens and dozens of adjustments I received over years and years) and may have been the cause in whole or in part for manipulating the disk fragments against the nerves.
The surgery is not perfect. But I haven't had the constant pain that sent me to the chiropractor every few weeks and I am a lot more active and athletic now than when I was going to the bonequacker.
ping
Perhaps, but there are serious risks involved with chiropractic. Some people have been killed by spinal adjustments.
And let's not forget the endless threads on who is the best Republican candidate for the 2008 Pres election.
Let's move on already. Who is the best for 2012?
; ]
Just don't start one on creationism vs evolution, okay?
"Some people have been killed by spinal adjustments."<<<<
This may be true but I don't personally know anyone who claims severe harm by a chiropractor. On the other hand, I have had a severe reaction to one antibiotic and my wife has had numerous bad reactions to medicine. I could probably type for hours about bad experiences of people in my family or with whom I am acquainted. The thalidomide story alone is probably far in excess of all the damage ever done by chiropractors and we are still hearing of medicines being pulled from the shelves when their true effects become known. Remember that the physicians of two hundred years ago had great confidence in their treatments which mostly sound like madness today. What will people one hundred years from now think of today's medicine?
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