Editorial

Stan Innes

Fundamentalism is defined in the Oxford Concise dictionary as “a strict maintenance of traditional orthodox beliefs”. There are significant bodies of research that are challenging many of the underlying tenants that we have practiced on. As chiropractors / osteopaths can we hold on unswervingly to our historical and traditional concepts, such as Vertebral Subluxations, in the face of this information? Can we prove ourselves as a mature and dynamic profession who can face the challenged and integrate what science is revealing?

I find myself challenged by a well-known Australian musculoskeletal researcher, when he takes affront at the logic of
“I say it works.
I have no evidence that it works.
But you have no evidence that is does not work.
Therefore I am entitled to continue to believe that it works.
Therefore I am entitled to continue to make a living out of it.
Until you do the hard yards to prove to me that it does not work.
And even if you do the study I will find sufficient faults in it not to accept your results”.

Has our stance been “I believe that this works; I know that it works; I have no evidence; but it is not my responsibility to procure that evidence; I am only a practitioner not a scientist; lack of evidence of efficacy is not evidence of no efficacy; it’s up to you to prove me wrong”?