"What do Chiropractic and Yoga Have in Common?..."

[ikulo]

Only slightly on topic, but since it's so quiet around here I'll post this anyway.



What do Chiropractic and Yoga Have in Common? Potential Strokes Caused by Neck Injury

http://naturallyengineered.com/blog/wha ... z1k9byDq6m

So, do chiropractic manipulations and yoga exercises really have the potential to cause strokes?

Yes. The probability of it occurring might be fairly low, depending on individual susceptibility, but the increasing popularity of both practices, leading to the increased incidence of improper application, means there is an increased probability of incidence. In the case of chiropractic, estimates have varied from one in ten million manipulations to one in 40,000. [1]

The mechanism by which chiropractic and yoga can cause strokes almost entirely involves the neck, or cervical spine. So, if you avoid doing anything that involves those areas, you can probably reduce your stroke risk from yoga and chiropractic to almost nil.

What happens is, that a sudden and sharp manipulation of the cervical spine by a chiropractor, or an extremely high degree angle turn of the neck in a yoga inversion like a headstand, can cause a cervical arterial dissection leading to ischemic stroke.

[EJC]

The single most important phrase in that entire article is "Improper application".

Improper Application of a ball point pen can cause Blindness, if stuck in the eye.

The thing is with alternative medicine is it's alternative. Each time we choose this route we take a risk that the person performing this technique does actually know what they are doing and it's not a load of snake oil. Also never assume that cost and status are an indication of someone being better than another.

I know of a practitioner (not in Chiro) in Harley Street London that charges £60,000 for his services and he is a butcher, of course I can't name him due to the absurd libel laws we have here in England.

I feel chiropractor adjustments and Osteopathic adjustments have a place in our lives, but my word there are some sharks out there that really don't know what they are doing. Be careful and go in with your eye's open, particularly avoid any practitioner that practices high velocity adjustments, (the cracking business).

[Amir]

I am in slight disagreement with the article as far as Yoga is concerned. One of the top most Yoga trainers who also owns a number of Yoga clubs in London is my patient. I also treat many other yoga trainers. I feel that this is the most apt form of exercise and I refer many patients. Body asymmetries preclude weight training, running and sports activities where one has to jump a lot e,g, Squash and Tennis. Yoga is a safe answer. Obviously one must perform within their limits and the teachers that I know of are very aware of the limits of their members.

As far as Chiropractic is concerned my experience is that they are one of the most highly educated practitioners having extensive information and understanding of not only about our physical being but other related health matters also. I however do agree with the article that high velocity adjustments of the neck are counter productive and I do not look forward to seeing patients who have had multiple such manipulations.