Re: Quackery heuristics (was: DETOX)

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 14:24:24 -0700 (PDT)

> > Of course ignoring for the moment that automated searches will
> > exclude sites that contain these terms in order to ridicule them,
> > and that "immortality" would block much of ExI, Alcor, and other
> > such sites, that's good start on a list. You can also add anything
> > that claims to "boost/support the immune system", "melt fat",
> > "increase energy" or any site that supports iridology, applied
> > kinesiology, ayurvedic medicine, therapeutic touch, "straight"
> > chiropractic, and many other long-established frauds.
>
> Are you claiming that all chiropractors are quacks?

No, just all "straight" chiropractors. Straight chiropractors are those who do nothing but spinal manipulations, and do them to treat organic disease. Straight chiropractors openly reject the germ theory of disease in favor of the idea that subluxations of the spine cause everything. They also encourage their patients to get regular treatments for no reason, even for children.

Most modern chiropractors are more enlightened, and will use spinal manipulation to treat back/neck/head pain, where it has shown some effectiveness, but will resort to more traditional medicine when it is appropriate.

In fact, I went to a chiropractor once myself when I fell playing basketball. I just wanted to see if I cracked a rib seriously enough to warrant attention, but didn't want to go through all the mountain of paperwork and hassles of my PPO, so I just walked into a chiropractor's office, told him I wanted an Xray, slipped him a few bucks and got it done. I'm all for deregulation. :)

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC