Chiropractic VS Medical education

The first chiro (Palmer) claims to have cured someone's deafness by cracking his back. Palmer figured the back must be straight to allow for uninhibited energy flow. D.D. Palmer and his son B.J. Palmer believed that all disease was caused by the misalignment of vertebrae, also called "subluxations". So you must straighten the back to cure everything and keep it straight.

Chiros don't attend medical school; they are "D.C." and not M.D. But often they are called doctors and this is misleading to the real MDs. MD's education and knowledge of the human body is so far advanced over those chiros and naturopaths that also take on the moniker "doctor". But that is the reason why most people think chiros are MDs and I used to think so too. I thought they just specialized in the back. It was kind of shocking to find out the truth and everyone I've talked to in real life refuses to believe me. It's not fair that DCs get way too much credit.

It's a fallacy to think that Chiropractors are more educated than MDs, although it says so here.

You will notice that there is no pharmacology, a requirement for M.D./D.O. candidates, listed in the chiropractic curriculum. I know chiropractors don't prescribe drugs, but this should obviously be omitted from a "fair" comparison.

A greater divergence also occurs when it comes to clinical training. For example, how much surgical training does a chiropractor get in school? The answer is none. Again, note that chiropractors don't offer surgery as a function of their specialty, but I'd add that, among other things, because it is a further development and application of previously learned information.

And then comparing "classroom hours" is dubious and incomplete at best. This schedule implies that "book" learning stops once physicians-in-training leave the classroom. MDs must prepare and give, numerous literature searches, keeping up with assigned and independent reading and, most importantly, being responsible for knowing the full spectrum of medical and potential clinical management issues of the patient's. They will also have to pass licensure exams that certify medical knowledge to show they are at least safe and competent. Claiming that DCs have more "classroom hours" is false and made on wrong conditions and I consider the table to be inaccurate.

Another reason not to compare Chiro's with MDs can be found here in the Standards for Doctor of Chiropractic programs and requirement institutional status (PDF) from January 2005. You can scroll to the PDF's pages about 21, 22... etc. and see that one "physics" class that can be taken is kinesiology (considered to be quackery).

This webpage is a great source of chiropractic methods and I think you should watch the very informative film "Adjusting the Joints" too. Use Real player to see this film. I downloaded a free trial and then kept the Real player in a reduced edition. You can do so too.