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

[Steve Eisenberg]

Has homeopathy ever been proven in double blind studies, you know, where some doctors and patients thought that they were working with 30X dilution substances and others were working with not nearly so concentrated amounts?

See Overview of Homeopathic Research

[Oorang]

From U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics

Chiropractors must be licensed, requiring 2 to 4 years of undergraduate education, completion of a 4-year chiropractic college course, and passing scores on national and State examinations.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos071.htm

[Swordmaker]

My best example was when I had TMJ so bad I could hardly open my mouth and was preparing for a trip to Belize scuba diving. I knew my trip would be a waste without getting my TMJ under control. My MD couldn't help, my chiropractor had me pain free in literally 4 visits. Normally it took months to resolve to that point. I am a believer!!

My best friend is a dentist... not just any dentist, he is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantologists. His business partner in their medical building is a Chiropractor. My dentist buddy used to do the regular dentist thing for TMJ... grind down the teeth, etc., until his partner suggested he send the next TMJ patient to him to see if he could help. Since then ALL TMJ patients are sent to the Chiropractor first. 90% get relief from the TMJ pain in two to four visits!

My particular story is that I have a severe scoliosis. I wore a Milwaukee Brace all the way through High School. For those of you who are unfamiliar with such a brace, think in terms of a permanent rack... torture device... that goes from a hard leather or fibreglass girdle around the hips, extends upward with thick aluminum struts both in back and in front to a cage surrounding the head/neck with horsehide leather pads.

I wore a mostrosity like this 23 hours a day for years. I was at the point where they were recommending spinal fusion of six vertebrae and the installation of two rods merely to relieve my pain but could only offer a 50-50 prognosis that it would help the pain. I rebelled and tossed the damn thing. I lived with the pain. Several years later a friend recommended a Chiropractor... and that Chiropractor helped me more in relieving my pain in ONE VISIT than fifteen years of orthopedic surgeons and specialists.

He got me to the point that I could last a month between adjustments. Then I was involved in a hit-and-run automobile accident. My car was totalled. They used the jaws to pry the car from around me to get me out. Although the car was demolished (it was hit by TWO cars on opposites sides and then rolled foreward and hit a telephone pole) I thought my only injury was a small cut on my right hand from flying glass. I was wrong. After the accident, my chiropractor could not get a complete adjustment... and I wound up having to go two and three times a week just for pain relief.

Surgeons still want to operate... but they still only give me a 50/50 chance it will get better... or worse. I am now down to once a week at my chiropractor with the blessing of my primary care physician who was a Chiropractor who went back to school and extended his ability to treat his patients by becoming a "medical" doctor. He prescribes pain medication... which helps, but the chiropractic adjustments help a lot more... while they last.

[FormerACLUmember]

This is a criminal major waste of medical resourses in a state in crisis. People are needlessly dying in Florida due to the on-going collapse of trauma care.

The medical (and other) faculty at FSU are up in arms over this corruption. Hundreds of them are protesting. It will be a major disgrace to be affiliated with FSU if this comes to pass.

[kstewskis]

Physical Therapy and the Alexander Technique

[Oorang]

Chiropractic Licensure and Education

There are currently 16 chiropractic colleges in the United States, ten of which were established prior to 1945. Over 14,000 young men and women attend these chiropractic colleges each year.

Since 1974, standards for chiropractic education have been established and monitored by the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), a nonprofit organization located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the specialized accrediting agency for chiropractic education, the CCE sets the standards for the curriculum, faculty and staff, facilities, patient care and research.

Admissions requirements of chiropractic colleges are influenced by CCE standards and chiropractic licensing board requirements. A minimum of two years of undergraduate education is required, with successful completion of courses in biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, English/communication and the humanities. Each required science course must also include a laboratory unit.

Sixty credits or more must be completed prior to admission to a chiropractic college. Two colleges currently require 75 units, and one college requires 90 units. Currently, six state licensing boards require a bachelor¹s degree in addition to the doctor of chiropractic degree for licensure, and that number is continually on the rise.

A chiropractic program consists of four academic years of professional education averaging a total of 4,822 hours of course work. Several areas of study are emphasized during the course of chiropractic education:

1) adjustive techniques/spinal analysis
2) principles/practices of chiropractic
3) physiologic therapeutics
4) biomechanics

The practice of chiropractic is licensed and regulated in all 50 states in the U.S. and in over 30 countries worldwide. State licensing boards regulate, among other factors, the education, experience and moral character of candidates for licensure, and protect the public health, safety and welfare.

The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) was established in 1963 and functions quite similarly to the National Board of Medical Examiners. The NBCE maintains consistency and fairness among the state licensing boards. The NBCE also administers the national board examination necessary to practice as a chiropractor. This exam is divided into several specific sections:

Part I covers the basic sciences and may be taken after the first year of chiropractic college education

Part II covers clinical sciences and is administered when students are in their senior year of chiropractic college

Part III is a written clinical competency examination that requires a student to have passed parts I and II and be within eight months of graduation (or already graduated).

http://www.chiroweb.com/find/licen.html

[Veto!]

Wow! A conservative PT! I'm on my way!

Here in the commie pinko Seattle area, all of my fellow Alexander teachers are pinko commies. The best local AT practitioner had moveon.org stuff knee deep in her waiting room for months, which only proves that Alexander doesn't correct every maladaptive position.

FYI, there's a nifty little book on alexander and pilates I bought at amazon UK by an alexander teacher who learned to teach pilates and a pilates instructor who completed the required three-years to become a certified AT teacher. They are both absolutely gorgeous in terms of carriage, posture. (Nothing I could do would get me there, alas.) The exercises in the book are excellent, show you how to take care of your head/neck/back relationship whilst strengthening the core. These exercises could become a very nice class, especially for seniors.

[neverdem]

My father was scammed by a DO (doctor of osteopathy) which is not a lot different from a chiropractor.

The military doesn't hire chiropractors. The Army paid for my last three years at the New York College of Ostopathic Medicine.

IIRC, we had a one hour lecture and two hours of practical training in osteopathic manipulative techniques each week during the first two years. After that you go to teaching hospitals for the vast majority of the last two years.

[krb]

I've never understood why physicians seem to hate the chiro guys so much. The back and neck issue and foot problem I went to the chiro for are things that one simply doesn't go to the doctor for. I see them as two different fields for the most part.

But I guess there is some good that comes from this weird animosity that doctors have for chiropractors. Since the chiros have to fight an uphill battle for credibility, they have to keep their rates very reasonable and they have excellent office staffs that are great at getting you in to see the doc quickly.

I have never been to a normal doctor whose staff could come close to touching the good "customer service" feel I get from the chiropractor's office.

[Ditter]

Then why are they not allowed to use regular hospitals for their patients?

[Peelod]

Two epigrams to consider:

Post hoc, ergo, propter hoc.

and

A ___ and his ___ are soon ___.

[cyborg]

This is the first time I've heerd of DOs not being able to practice in hospitals. Where did you get this information from?

[elfman2]

Thanks. In 1989 I purchased a homeopathic treatment for poison oak without knowing it. Even then I would have had the common sense to recognize the theory as a scam to sell drugs without a license had I understood what the word meant.

[Veto!]

Thanks for the link. Lots of good information, which I look forward to reading through.

Ironically, Robert Rickover, who wrote the page about the Technique and PT and provided the links, never had proper Alexander training. He's a good talker and writer, but I cannot recommend lessons with him or anyone from the "Barlow" institute. Marjorie Barlow studied with F. M. Alexander at the beginning, before F.M. figured out what his technique was to become in its final form. Therefore, she and the many teachers she trained only got as far as "move your head up." Usually their students just overextend their necks and end up in YOUR office. LOL.

I do know that Debbie Caplan and Galen Crantz, also mentioned on the page, are certified teachers. Galen was a buddy of mine for a short time before she went off to Alexander school in NY. She was professor or architecture at UC Berkeley. When invited to a dinner soire at her house, I almost keeled over at the sight of a huge Chairman Mao poster that covered her dining room wall. Indigestion!

[FormerACLUmember]

DOs practice in NY Hospitals for many years. I have friends who are DOs with hospital privileges.

[cyborg]

Thanks. I knew I wasn't imagining things when I saw DOs in a hospital once.

[elfman2]

" This is a criminal major waste of medical resourses in a state in crisis. People are needlessly dying in Florida due to the on-going collapse of trauma care. "

That’s awfully closed minded of you. Maybe more chiropractors would heal the pain that fuels the rage that sparks the violence that floods those trauma centers with victims.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Then why are they not allowed to use regular hospitals for their patients?

Where I live, they are. Here is one I picked at random from a staff listing at what is generally considered the best hospital in my state. An MD once told me that such doctors tended to be especially good because they had to be in order to break into the upper part of the MD world.

I wouldn't pick a DO at random from the phone book any more than I would pick any other doctor. But I wouldn't hesitate to go to one if referred.

[Ditter]

From my father who was scammed by one. They have to have their own hospitals, they do not use the same hospitals as M.D.'s at east not in Texas as of 20 years ago. I hold this same DO responsible at least in part for my mothers stroke that left her a vegetable for 5 years before she died. He treated her high blood pressure with something that obviously wasn't working when it was 320/200.

[cyborg]

Texas may be different then. Sorry about your mom. One doesn't need a medical background to know that kind of BP is ridiculous.