Is Chiropractic A Belief Or Science?

In my experience as a chiropractor chiropractic has evolved, granted not as much evolution from the inception of chiropractic to present day, which is more than a hundred years. However, things are changing and they can only be for the better. When chiropractic was in it's infancy there was not a lot scientific methodology explaining why protocols work, there was a limited scientific method in medicine as well, all the evidence collected was almost strictly anecdotal. In the past it use to be common to say I believe in medicine or chiropractor, because quite frankly, you had to. You had to trust in the word of the doctor that a procedure was effective based on the success of the treatment in his eyes. Today, I still hear a lot of people say "I believe in chiropractic" or "I was not a believer until I met you". Why is it that people will take medicine as truth, despite no evidence for the efficacy of a drug, yet still say they need to believe in chiropractic in face of a mound of effective evidence. Chiropractic or medicine is not a belief system today if there is research published, it's either evidence suggest, doesn't suggest, or not sure we need more studies.

It is safe to say, if you do or do not believe a certain therapy or medication is ineffective only if there is no research available, but you can not quantify that to the whole field of medicine or chiropractic. There is research that certain protocols in medicine and chiropractic are effective and other protocols are ineffective. The ineffective protocols should be passed by the way side and new effective protocol should be developed to make patient satisfaction and efficacy paramount. Part of the problem is that for a long time chiropractors while having great patient satisfaction and showed great anecdotal evidence lack the superior research methodology. Chiropractor were painfully behind the medical profession in researching their methods due to a lack of funds and research construct, for example it is hard give real treatments versus sham treatments.

With the recent published data it puts chiropractors in the forefront in not needing to believe chiropractor is effective, but knowing chiropractic is effective through research. Chiropractic has now been proven to been more effective than medication for lower back pain and a host of other condition. Patients report a greater satisfaction of care, felted better, and had more long term benefits. Consumer report recently published a survey done where chiropractors have the greatest patient satisfaction score of any other healthcare provider. I hope with the pile of data many patients and the public will turn where they now not believe in chiropractic but simply know chiropractic is of a great benefit in combating against musculoskeletal symptoms.