Travels of a Fish Nut

You can find parts 1 and 2 here and here . Cracking Backs We left the last post having had an "explanation" of the nervous system and how it relates to chiropractic treatment. We begin this post with the chiropractor explaining why patients get their backs "cracked".  The chiropractor explains that the cracking - the noise - is just gas being released from the spine in the same way as we hear a noise when we crack our knuckles. His job is to "find where those misalignments are so that when [he cracks your back] the rest of the body can sort itself out" and the healing process can begin. He gives an example of sciatica, which he says is due to "too much pressure building up in the lower back". The cure is to take pressure off that area so that "the brain can send the information to the right areas".

Part 1 can be found here . The story so far... A bad case of sciatica had driven my sister to the chiropractor. Knowing little about it other than what I learned during the British Chiropractic Association vs. Simon Singh libel case a decade ago, I decided to do a little investigating and see what modern chiropractic treatment entailed. I headed to a local chiropractor to find out. I had a half hour consult, with the report to follow (which will be discussed in a later post). At the end of the consult he recommended that I attend a talk they give explaining chiropractic because they have found that "when people understand why they are coming to see us in the beginning, they tend to respond a lot faster and stay well for longer". They call it a "new patient talk" or a "health talk" and suggested that I attend before my report so it will be in context of the modality. The story continues...

It's been a decade since a libel action was brought by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA, the main association that regulates chiropractors in the UK) against science writer Simon Singh for a piece he wrote in the Guardian during Chiropractic Awareness Week where he said that the BCA " happily promotes bogus treatments ". The case was eventually dropped by the BCA and it led to much-needed revisions of UK libel law, but not before chiropractic underwent a level of public scrutiny it had not faced before. It was an excellent example of the Streisand Effect .