If I was to choose one thing that bothers me the most about being a chiropractor, it would be the amount of times I have heard the term “anecdotal”. As in anecdotal evidence.
For those of you familiar with this term, it is an easy way for a person to discount the effect of a chiropractic adjustment on the body. It also removed credit from the potential that the body can heal itself.
The video above is a prime example of what would be considered anecdotal evidence of the effect of chiropractic. Naysayers would simply chalk up the success as random chance. They would say that the child would have improved with or without the adjustment, if they had only waited.
Luckily, with the improvements of technology, chiropractors can bring all of our anecdotal evidence together and start making waves. I do realize that this isn’t the double blind control study that works so well with drugs and pharmaceutical medications, but it is a start.
Once the gold standard scientific model catches up with chiropractic and can measure every effect the adjustment can have on the body, we might be able to “prove” our efficacy. Until then, we can just settle for these anecdotal miracles.
Graeme Gibson
Queen Anne Chiropractic Center
1905 Queen Anne Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 282-8275