Chiropractic school angers FSU professors

St. Petersburg Times ^ | December 29, 2004 | By RON MATUS, Times Staff Writer

[aculeus]

Some threaten to resign over the proposed school.

A growing number of professors in the Florida State University College of Medicine are saying they will resign if FSU administrators continue to pursue a proposed chiropractic school.

"I would no longer wish to volunteer my teaching energies to FSU medical school, should it encompass a school of chiropractic," wrote Dr. Ian Rogers, an assistant professor at FSU's Pensacola campus, in a Dec. 15 e-mail. "This is plainly ludicrous!!!!"

The threatened resignations - at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time - reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractic is a "pseudo-science" that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school.

But the professors' stance has a political aim, too.

Opposition is clearly mounting as the chiropractic school heads for crucial votes in January before the FSU board of trustees and the state Board of Governors.

In fact, the school is now seen as a test case for the fledgling Board of Governors, which critics have accused of kowtowing to Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature on the higher education issues it is supposed to oversee.

FSU was closed for the holidays Tuesday. FSU president T.K. Wetherell, provost Larry Abele and John Thrasher, chairman of the FSU board of trustees, could not be reached for comment.

But Sen. Dennis Jones, the Treasure Island Republican who spearheaded legislative support for the school in the spring, said the professors were "overreacting."

He accused anti-chiropractic groups from outside the state of stirring faculty opposition at FSU.

"If they resign, so be it," said Jones, a chiropractor himself. The instructors don't deserve to teach at FSU, he said, "if they're putting their credentials with people known for promoting professional bigotry."

The Legislature appropriated $9-million annually for the chiropractic school, which was pushed by Jones and then-Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, an FSU graduate. It would be the only school of its kind in the country.

As supporters envision it, more than 100 new faculty members would train legions of chiropractors, with a special emphasis on Hispanic and African-American students. The school would also draw lucrative federal grants in alternative medicine.

Planning began years ago, but criticism didn't ramp up until after the legislative session.

Some opponents see the school as an end run around the Board of Governors, which oversees the state's 11 universities but has yet to consider the chiropractic school. Last week, a group headed by former university system chancellor E.T. York filed a lawsuit against the board, accusing it of failing to flex its constitutionally granted muscle and pointing to the chiropractic school as a prime example.

But some FSU faculty members are upset, too, fearing the school will shatter FSU's academic reputation. The list of critics include FSU's two Nobel laureates - Robert Schreiffer, a physicist, and Harold Walter Kroto, a chemist - and Robert Holton, the chemistry professor who developed the cancer-fighting drug Taxol, which has brought FSU tens of millions of dollars in royalties.

In recent weeks, more than 500 faculty members have signed petitions against the chiropractic school, including about 70 in the medical college, said Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an assistant professor who is leading the charge against the proposal. The medical college has more than 100 faculty members.

Some of them say they're willing to do more than sign a petition.

"I teach wonderful medical students from Florida State University here in Orlando," Dr. James W. Louttit wrote in an e-mail to Bellamy, who shared it with the St. Petersburg Times. "If they decide to start a chiropractic school I would no longer be able to support this program."

"It should come as no surprise that no major medical institution in this country, public or private, has embraced chiropractic medicine," wrote Dr. Henry Ho, a Winter Park physician and FSU assistant professor, in another e-mail. "If Florida State University were to do so, its fledgling attempt for credibility as a medical institution of stature would be severely jeopardized."

The situation at FSU isn't the first time chiropractors have sought to tie themselves to an established university.

In the late 1990s, faculty at York University in Toronto - one of Canada's largest schools - considered plans to affiliate with Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. The plan would have brought York millions of dollars in new facilities and donations and given the chiropractic school academic credibility.

After a bitter, years-long fight, York faculty narrowly vetoed the plan in 2001.

At FSU, faculty have not officially voiced their concerns about the chiropractic school. Bellamy said they fear retaliation from lawmakers if they do.

"Everybody wants somebody else to kill it," he said.

Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or

matus@sptimes.com

© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved

[Dolphy]

Yep, first chiro-related thread. It didn't even occur to me to have a New Years resolution to avoid them :)

[PatrickHenry]

Check out the pic in post #1.

[tob2]

You cannot dispute that there are plenty of fradulent "mds" out there. Don't assume that all chiropractors are frauds.

[Enterprise]

LOL ! ! !

[tob2]

Yes it is almost the same as physical therapy. I'm very fortunate to have a good chiropractor.

[mgobluegop]

I am a 3rd yr student at a DO school and I learned all of the manipulation stuff and use it when it is called for. I think that chiropractors have there place in the field, but when they try to overstep their bounds nothing but trouble can come from it. Manipulation can be great especially for musculoskeletal pain, and myself have been relieved of pain in my pain and neck with manipulation. But saying that chiro's receive the same education that DO do is wrong, in fact at my school ,Michigan State, the DOs and MDs are in the same Basic science classes.
If anybody has any questions I will try to answer, since I kind of have a unique placement in the debate.

[Uncledave]

Have you ever read (it's in the books and elsewhere) of vertebral artery tear secondary to chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine?

I've reviewed a lot of literature on the subject and have concluded that the association of cartoid artery dissection (artery in your neck) and chiropractic is unfounded, and perhaps wishful thinking on the MD community. It's interesting how many studies they've done to try to prove this (Google: "Chiropractic Cartoid Artery Dissection"), yet try to find MD's conducting a study with a hypothesis associating chiropractic with theraputic benefits. Here's one study from an MD and DC, published in "The Neurologist", readers are Neurologists who know a thing or two about strokes:

Conclusion: "None of the cases reviewed for the present study suggested a clear causal relationship between chiropractic manipulative therapy and internal carotid artery dissection"

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:NMoqVuTl-EkJ:w3.palmer.edu/michael.haneline/ICAD_Haneline.pdf+chiropractic+dissection+of+carotid+artery&hl=en&start=3 http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:NMoqVuTl-EkJ:w3.palmer.edu/michael.haneline/ICAD_Haneline.pdf+chiropractic+dissection+of+carotid+artery&hl=en&start=3

[Uncledave]

Cartoid = Carotid

[Pharmboy]

Yep--I'm sure there can be problems. I'm in the pharma industry and--as you may know--they can have problems too. Surgery can have problems. You must see a reputable DC or MD.

[calex59]

Show me a MED SCHOOL GRADUATE who went on to become a Chiropractor!

I can show you a whole state of them. CA require Chiropractors to go to med school before they can become a Chiropractor. I have had my health improved by chiros most of my adult life. I have back problems and shoulder problems and have always been treated well and had the pain go away. I don't personally know any Chiros who think they can cure any illnesses with adjustments, but I know some think so. All the ones I know simply state that they can adjust your joints, not just the back, and make you feel less pain because believe me when your shoulder is out of place you can't do much of anything. If I go to an MD for it they want to immobilize the arm, which will cause it to freeze, and give me drugs but don't want to set the joint. This is stupidity and it costs a heck of a lot more also.

[longshadow]

"Crop Circle Simulation Lab"

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa!

This is what Universities will look like once "alternative" sciences are allowed to creep into the curriculum!

All hail the Department of Alchemy!

The only thing missing is the TimeCube Research Institute!

I haver to stop reading this thread before I wet myself....

[FormerACLUmember]

CA require Chiropractors to go to med school before they can become a Chiropractor.

Ridiculous nonsense. Try to be at least minimally credible.

[Boazo]

It's the easiest way there is to be called a doctor.Two years of school,Your a doctor raking in the money! Impress the young chicks,Yes I'm a doctor,Come over to my office and let me give you an adjustment.I know one who went from zero too rich in short order,And only works three days a week.

[Dark Knight]

IIRC New York state refused to pay Labor and Industries claims for chiropractic treatment until they did a study and found work related back injury patients came back to work faster under chiropractic treatment than by physician treatment, by a matter of weeks.

It is all related to money.

DK

[lolhelp]

I had the same problem and had been prescribed all kinds of pain ill, muscle relaxers and finally surgery. A Friend of mine talked me into going to a chiropractic clinic, he straightened it out in one session. It kept coming back and he started asking about how I did a lot different things, I had real long hair and he had me show him how I brushed it and I showed him and my neck was hurting by the time I got thru, he adjusted it again and showed me what I was doing wrong, Bingo! no more problems.

[TYVets]

"It is more similar to physical therapy"

Our insurance provider does cover Physical Therapists as well as Chiropractors.

Our Workers Compensation Insurance (employees injured on the job) does the same.

Some Pro Gun Organizations have said doctors killed 120,000 people each year though mistakes.

Are any statistics available as to the number of patients killed by Chiropractors each year?

[calex59]

Now compare this to the number of people who die every year as the result of using common anti-inflammatory drugs, or against the number of people who die as a result of malpractice.

You forgot to thrown in the number of people who die of staph infections while in hospital for something minor or even major. Staph infrection is the major cause of death for heart bypass and valve surgery patients. This is just one way in which Dr. excell in killing people with the treatment. ALL Docs have deaths due to mistreatment no matter how good they are. Most states require medical school for Chiros. Those of you who are against them I have one thing to say, don't visit them, but don't try to stop those of us who have been succesfully treated by chiros to not visit them.

[varon]

She put me on the floor, cracked my neck and my life was changed.

Very interesting. Sounds like you've adjusted quite well to having your head face backwards ;-)

[AnAmericanMother]

My g grandfather's sister died of scrofula.

Too bad they didn't think to get her a crystal - or a chiropractor.

< ducking >

[calex59]

Ridiculous nonsense. Try to be at least minimally credible.Ridiculous nonsense. Try to be at least minimally credible.

This is a fact. Check it out and then make an insulting statem ent.