Which health care profession has given the most ludicrous endorsement ever?

CAM whingers  attach way too much importance to the editor of the BMJs denouncement of the chiropractors plethora of evidence.They should remember that 100 years ago DD Palmer the founder of chiropractic had the sense to recognise the failings of an approach to health searching for  chemical panaceas. Ivan Illich continued this theme in the 70s with his “Medical Nemesis”, by “being focused on disease medicine has marginalised itself from the majority of healthy people”.

Yes there are inaccuracies in the writings of DD Palmer but I can say with certainty nothing he wrote over a 100 years ago was as misguided as medical professions promotion of smoking in the 50s. xlg_camel_doctors and the Journal of the American Medical Association carrying these adds.

Yes its another “straw man” (lets can call this one Dr Finlay), so who should people who have not developed pathology go to when they need help with their wellbeing. Reading whinger blogs their advice seems to be, the problems people consult CAM practitioners with, will go away by themselves, so dont waste your money on CAM.

In other words take a few pills to relieve any discomfort wait for the problem to become chronic and pathology  develop then consult a medical expert, hardly surprising the NHS costs so much with this approach. This was the advice medics were giving people with back pain as recently as 1995, bed rest and pain killers?

Who was it that that was recommending movement and set up a massive rehabilitation centre in Davenport at the same time as the medics were recommending smoking DD’s son BJ no less. 

From one of the adverts:

"I’ll Be Right Over!" . . .24 hours a day your doctor is "on duty". . .guarding health. . .protecting and prolonging life. . .*plays. . .novels. . .motion pictures. . .have been written about he "man in white" and his devotion to duty. But in his daily routine he lives more drama, and displays more devotion to the oath he has taken, than the most imaginative mind could ever invent. And he asks no special credit. When there’s a job to do, he does it. A few winks of sleep. . .a few puffs of a cigarette. . .and he’s back at that job again. . . According to a recent Nationwide survey: More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette! Three of America’s leading independent research organizations asked 113,597 doctors to name the cigarette they themselves preferred to smoke. The answers came in by the thousands. . .from doctors  in big cities, in small towns. . .from general physicians, diagnosticians, surgeons, specialists—doctors in every branch of medicine! Results? More doctors named Camels as their smoke than any other cigarette! Yes, a doctor, too, smokes for pleasure. Full flavor, coolness, and mildness mean just as much to him as they do to any other smoker. Smoke Camels and see for yourself. The "T–Zone" test will tell you The "T–Zone" —T for taste and T for throat–is your own laboratory for any cigarette. For only your taste and your throat can decide which cigarette tastes best to you. . .and how it agrees with your throat. On the basis of the experience of many, many millions of smokers, we believe Camels will suit your "T–Zone" to a "T." Camels Costlier Tobaccos

 

Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org

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