Harriet Hall, MD, also known as “The SkepDoc,” is a retired family physician, a CSI fellow, and an editor of the Science-Based Medicine blog. Her website is www.skepdoc.info.
Chiropractic has come a long way since its creation in 1895, but where is it going? Its invenDaniel David Palmer, was a gromagnetic healer who didn’t have the benefit of X-rays and didn’t know about the germ theory of disease. Based on pseudoscientific and metaphysical ideas, chiropractic has been trying to establish scientific respectability for well over a century but has failed. The evidence for its safety and effectiveness remains questionable, yet it has developed into perhaps the most widely accepted form of alternative medicine, and new chiropractic offices are popping up everywhere. Critics have called for it to be abolished, and some chiropractors say they are trying to reform it from within.