Quack of the week: Gary Goodyear

Those of you following the bayblab and/or science policy in Canada will know that somehow we seem to have switched ideologies with the USA. All of a sudden Obama is pledging increased funding in science, putting Nobel laureates and climate change scientists in position of influence and reversing the anti-science stance of the Bush administration. We on the other hand seem to have inherited all the failed American policies. So I shouldn't be surprised to learn that our science minister appointed by Harper is a former chiropractor, who apparently believes in creationism, or at least won't admit to believe in evolution. No wonder he is suspicious of science and keen on developing the commercialization aspect rather than investing in public scientific endeavors. I'm afraid to ask about his views on stem cell research....

I don't need here to explain the absurdities of having a IDiot science minister. But in case some of you think his chiropracting background is scientific, well think again:

"Chiropractic is the most significant nonscientific health-care delivery system in the United States. As a result of their high level of organization and aggressiveness, chiropractors are licensed to practice in all 50 states and several foreign countries. Although a minority of chiropractors offer rational treatment, chiropractic's cultism is so well entrenched that the profession should be viewed as a societal problem, not simply as a competitor of regular health-care.

Spinal manipulation can be useful, but chiropractic's theoretical basis rests largely on a strange and never-demonstrated notion of "subluxations." "Chiropractic" literally means "done by hand" (chiros = hand; praktos practice), referring to manipulation of the spine. Manipulation (i.e., "the forceful, passive movement of a joint beyond its active limit of motion," according to Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary) is not the exclusive domain of chiropractors. Folk practitioners sometimes called "bonesetters" have long used the notion of bones "going out of place" to explain maladies, and they employ manipulation as a panacea. Andrew Taylor Still invented "osteopathy" based upon the theory that luxated bones interfere with blood circulation, producing all manner of diseases. (Osteopathy officially abandoned Still's theory in 1948.)"

Chiropractic theory is pseudoscience and there is no scientific evidence it has any benefit. In fact there are many people injured every year with dislocated vertebrae. The colledge of physician and surgeon of Quebec:

"Chiropractors claim that subluxations, or partial displacements, of the vertebrae cause a perturbation of the distribution of nervous impulses to tissues and cells. Neurophysiologists have developed methods of recording the passage of impulses in nerves. Exceptionally sensitive apparatus is available to anyone wishing to use it. No scientific study has ever been published on the subject by a chiropractor. No chiropractor ever defined, either quantitatively or qualitatively, what chiropractic means by perturbation of nervous impulses. Is it their number, their amplitude, their frequency, or their wave patterns which are affected? All of these qualities can be identified, recorded, and studied. It is no longer permissible to accept empirical statements. Proof should have preceded practical application. With the first point untenable, the rest crumbles"