Posted on 01/01/2005 7:13:21 AM PST by 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
Complete nonsense.
I had 2 ruptured disks (running 6 miles a day on concrete to thank). The resulting spinal stenosis - essentially insanely painful paralysis - was lots of fun.
I went to a compitent neurologist, who referred me to a great neurosurgeon, who gave me diskectomy and laminectomy. I fully recovered, and eventually got back to my running regime (though now wisely on nice soft surfaces).
My doctors had full access to advanced diagnostic equipment like MRI, something the quacky "doctors" of chiropracty flat out don't. I find some of the responses here amazing - if you don't get resolution from one doctor, to to another, and make sure you get full diagnostics via MRI or other advanced means.
By all means, go to a D.O. - they're REAL doctors - if an M.D. gives you no relief. But don't get hooked in to the Chiropracty Scam - they have no way of even SEEING (with real medical technology) what's wrong with you!
The secret to the success of these charlatans is their intimate connection with the lawyer industry.
As far as the testimonials are concerned on this thread, let me say that there is nothing more painful and depressing than a chronic back problem. People become desparate and will do literally anything. A good massage session will however produce equal results.
You claim that chiropractors go to medical school before they become chiropractors. And you are INSISTENT that this is true. (Twilight Zone theme plays softly in the background)
Oh, yes, instead just go to your local Chiro quack for your cardiovascular problems! Sheesh....
I went to the local chiropractor, he aligned my back, and I was walking that day.
Say what you will, but nothing speaks louder than results.
WAH! alert. LOL
So much of "modern medicine" is preoccupied with altering symptoms instead of addressing the root causes. Chiropractic does that when applied properly. I suppose there are those that are "not good", but certainly there are traditional practitioners of medicine that are "no good" as well.
Just like politicians, it sounds like a bunch of whiners merely concerned that their little cocoon has been cracked open with others daring to challenge their little self-enclosed circle of a monopoly down there. Let 'em all go get practices and work for a few years and see how quickly they go running back to teach.
Thats BS I am currently a med student. I have friends who are chiropractors. They did not take pharmacology and the courses they were taught were not in the detail as were expected of me in med school. While in chiro school they have lotsa time for fun. I study my arse off constantly. I have no free time!!
Anyone ever have chronic aches/back, headaches? Go see a Chiro for 1-3 visits, you will feel much better and ache-free.
So the final paragraph shows and association between visiting a chiropractor and vertobrobasilar accidents. That's a rather lazy paragraph, showing bias rather than good, scientific rigor in assessing what this study means.
I suppose there are studies that show that people who have recently left a hospital are more likely to get sick. It's a long step to go from association to causation, especially when you have factors like a group with a weakness, a higher likelihood to visit a chiropractor. Under age 45, bodies are healthy enough on average that most don't visit a chiro and only the weaker ones do. After age 45, the aches and pains of aging prompt a more representative sample to go which diminishes the association between the two.
This went on for two years, and finally, realizing I'd spent almost 6 grand on weekly office visits, I figured desperate times called for desperate measures: I bought some spandex shorts. Desperate not to lose his cash cow, he argued with me on the phone for almost two hours. I ended up joining a gym not an hour after that phone call.
The recurring shoulder and back pain vanished, and has never come back, after I started lifting weights and exercising regularly. Now, I'm not saying that this is the case for everyone, but personally, I think chiropractors are little more than psychic healers.
My Chiropractor kept Me moving and working for years without the risky, and very expensive surgery a local Neurosurgeon was pushing. Sure, there are some frauds, but there are some of those with M.D. degrees as well.
It seems that some of these M.D.s are able to ignore the failures and mistakes of their own. I seem to have inherited some back problems from My Mother,She chose the surgery route, ended up almost a cripple by the time She reached My present age {62}, I chose a Chiropracter, and just got back from a ride on My mountain bike. No proof, of course, that surgery would not have helped Me, but why go for drastic measures if an alternate is there?
Have you seen Post 127?
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