Proof that it causes harm

[geni]

Use of CAM results in delay in seeking medical advice for breast cancer.

On average, patients took 8.7 weeks to inform the family and 17.2 weeks to first physician visit. Fifty three percent delayed seeking medical advice. Common reasons were; antecedent use of complimentary/alternative therapies (34%), lack of significance attached to the lump (23%), fear of surgery (22%), conflicting personal commitments (7%), fear of cancer (5%), and others (8%). Twenty nine percent practiced CAM before visiting any physician.

Patients who delayed seeking medical advice more often had positive axillary nodes and stage III/IV disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12974558&dopt=Abstract

[Prester John]

Its not suprising but i still find it quite depressing.

[Trebuchet]

My wife used to work for an insurance company where she processed medical claims. About once a year, she would have claims on a patient who had spent several years going to chiropractors (she calls them chiroquackters) for chronic pain before finally getting a diagnosis of terminal cancer from a real doc. Invariably they died in a couple of months. There's no guarantee they could have been saved by conventional medicine of course but but with the chiro's they had no chance. Very sad indeed.

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

Of course we know as a fact that all woo-woo beliefs cause harm and in most cases death! It's no wonder why studies have shown that skeptics live longer because they are more rational! I don't have to back this up I'm right!

[Silicon]

My grandmother died from terminal cancer after months of chiropractic treatment for back pain. The back pain turned out to be a tumor. She lived about a month after the diagnosis.


When I met my wife, she had been visiting a chiropractor for years do to chronic neck pain. After dealing with my negativity toward chiropractic caused by my grandmother's misdiagnosis, she visited an actual medical doctor. The doctor sent her to a PT, who gave her stretching excercizes to do at home. Her neck pain ended completely after a few months of the regimen, and she has been pain free for 10 years now.

I suspect that joint cracking was one of the sources of her discomfort. Stop cracking your joints, and you stop HAVING to crack them to get mobility. However, stretching and excercize are the key.