Strokes Due to Chiropractic Cervical Manipulation

State Chiropractic Practice Acts

 
In the early days, chiropractors were arrested for practicing medicine without a license. To solve this problem, they succeeded in having the state legislatures create chiropractic practice acts which define chiropractic as a separate type of health care, distinct from medicine, and entitling chiropractors to call themselves "Doctor." (Louisiana was the last state to legalize chiropractic, in the early 1970s.) Palmer's subluxation remains, in one form or another, in the state chiropractic practice acts to this day. Some states (e.g., Florida and Connecticut), specifically define chiropractic as the detection and correction of subluxations. Others (e.g., North Carolina and Nevada), refer to purported malpositions of the spine which interfere with "nerve energy," "nerve flow," or the like, without specific reference to the subluxation, although the concept is exactly the same. A third group of states (e.g., Kansas and North Dakota), define the scope of practice as including those methods taught in accredited chiropractic colleges. Because all chiropractic colleges teach the detection and correction of subluxations, these statutes incorporate by reference the subluxation concept. The scope of the practice allowed by the state chiropractic practice acts is very broad and does not limit chiropractors to the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions. This is consistent with traditional chiropractic philosophy: if one believes that subluxations exist, are clinically significant, and can be remedied by chiropractic treatment, then it necessarily follows that chiropractic is virtually limitless in its benefits.

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© 2009 Jann Johnson Bellamy, J.D., (jbellamy@alternativemedsafety.org), Campaign for Alternative Medicine Consumer Safety. Reprinted by The Abelson Law Firm with permission. Further reproduction prohibited without permission of the author.