Today we’re talking about how medical doctors have said not to go to chiropractors because they’re quacks or unscientific or it’s a cult. I’d like to give you some history behind where all of that came from and the legal roots.
It started back in the early 60s when the American Medical Association, which is the largest healthcare lobbyist in the world, formed a Board on Quackery with the specific purpose to contain and eliminate Chiropractic Care. They did so by pressuring hospitals, their members: medical doctors. If they were to associate with chiropractors, they would be booted out of the AMA, which was a big thing back in the 60s.
It wasn’t until the 80s that five chiropractors challenged the AMA and sued them under the Sherman Act, an anti-trust act, stating that the AMA was monopolizing the healthcare field. On September 25, 1987, the Supreme Court found the American Medical Association guilty of conspiracy and of trying to contain and eliminate a competing profession.
So this biased opinion of Chiropractics stems back from the pressure the AMA placed on medical doctors to not associate with chiropractors.
What was interesting about said lawsuit was that it made it easy for the AMA; all they had to prove was that they were acting in the best interest of the public by protecting them from the “unscientific cultists”, the chiropractors. What was found was they couldn’t prove that chiropractors were doing harm, because a lot of the defendant’s testimonies proved to be in favor of Chiropractics. Also during the trial, it was disclosed that research being done by the AMA, proving Chiropractics to have positive effects, was being suppressed form the public.
There are reasons why a lot of people have this fear of Chiropractics and now we know it originates from the monopoly the AMA practiced against chiropractors, proven by the Supreme Court in 1987.