this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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me_irl
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The guy who invented chiropractic literally says he learned it from a ghost called Jim Atkinson. He also did "magnetic healing".
I went to a chiropractor as a kid because of back pain. They pretty quickly figured out it was because one of my legs was longer than the other, and did several adjustments to my back, next, and legs, none of which did very much. I was told to keep coming back and it would take time to work, and that if I stopped, the pain would come back. (Of course, this conveniently meant I would have to keep paying for sessions)
The words the guy was using about why things worked were utterly crackpot, including stuff about how adjustments or pressure applied in specific parts of the hands could affect parts of the gut or brain etc. about how my organs weren't getting enough nerve supply. All sorts of ridiculous charts on the walls showing things that I definitely knew weren't in the body.
I later figured out my back pain was because my schoolbag was too heavy. My legs are the same length as each other.
Oh and yes, I absolutely can and will deny that acupuncture works. It doesn't. It's all placebo, which is very powerful.
As a kid I had a chiropractor diagnose me similarly. Specifically one leg had been longer and my body was used to it then the other leg had a growth spurt and was now the longer one. He showed me the difference, popped my back a few times and hooked up a TENS unit into my muscles (incidentally, that sounds so nice right now). Then after a few sessions I was fine and never went back.
I say all this because it was the best case scenario, it worked, by skill and integrity or dumb luck, I don't know which. This is the sort of experience we have to acknowledge and argue against when we argue against this profession, because the fact remains that they're quacks. At best some of them are mirroring modern medicine in the form of physiotherapy. But we can't know they're doing it well and good at it. Even the good ones share a profession with the quacks and provide cover for them.