Blue Wode

Editor of an anti-quackery website with a strong focus on chiropractic (which needs to be defined unambiguously).

[Complementary Meds @compandalt]

A worrying trend over recent years has been the increasing use of nonsensical pseudoscientific "treatments" for animals. Animal #chiropractic is one example. It's nonsense with no evidence of effectiveness for any condition

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Shematologist, MD @acweyand]

You only have to see one child with a catastrophic stroke following chiropractic manipulation to not be a fan.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[𝔐𝔞𝔪𝔪𝔬𝔫 @c_ceranowicz]

Don't do this. Do not have chiropractic treatment done on your dogs, it is negligible at best and has led to cranial and spinal injuries for uncountable dogs.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[San Angelo LIVE! @SanAngeloLIVE]

A San Angelo man is suing a local chiropractic clinic and three doctors, claiming negligent treatment for neck pain in 2022 caused a stroke, vertebral artery dissection and vocal cord paralysis.
https://t.co/yp4YkU413I

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[ambrose @krillyboy]

@creepydotorg chiropratic is pseudoscientific non-medicine founded by someone who claimed to have been taught the practice by the ghost of a dead doctor. go to a physical therapist or get a massage, but there is no reason to ever patronize chiropractors.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Diary of Freshness @freshnessofuk]

@creepydotorg Chiropractic care is basically Russian Roulette for your arteries. One routine click and your life is effectively over.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Creepy.org @creepydotorg]

In June 2022, 28-year-old Caitlin Jensen went to a Georgia chiropractor for a routine neck adjustment.

Shortly after the procedure, she became seriously ill and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors found four dissected arteries in her neck.

The injuries triggered a stroke, cardiac arrest, and a traumatic brain injury. Caitlin lost her pulse for about 10 minutes before doctors were able to revive her.

She survived, but the damage changed everything. She was left paralyzed, with limited movement, and can no longer speak.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[BirdieBittern @BirdieBittern]

What a quandary, chiropractic/covid/both?

She had suffered a bilateral vertebral artery dissection,

two mini strokes called Transient Ischemic Attacks (or TIAs)

and a third and more severe stroke that put her in the ICU for five days
😷
https://t.co/rfsR4d8iyR

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Gina @GinaaRoxx]

@aakashgupta My coworker’s sister died after a stroke caused by a chiropractic procedure.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Sunnysideup @CASunnysideup98]

@aakashgupta I know someone who had a stroke at 24 hours after a chiropractic manipulation. It's rare, but it happens.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Hauntaro @_Hauntaro]

Chiropractic Gone Wrong

A 29-year-old woman died after going to a chiropractor

A 29-year-old woman went to a chiropractor after hurting her neck at the gym.
She thought it was just pain from training.
But after getting her neck adjusted, things went horribly wrong.
Her symptoms got worse.
Paramedics were called multiple times.
At first, it was reportedly treated like a migraine.
But it wasn’t a migraine.
She had suffered a stroke.
Two days later, Joanna Kowalczyk was dead.
Investigators later found she had serious underlying risks, including arterial dissection and other health factors — and the chiropractor reportedly didn’t check her full medical history before treating her.
That’s the terrifying part.
Sometimes, the “neck crack” isn’t just a crack.
It can be the moment an already damaged artery becomes a disaster.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[MisterBodyMassageMachineGo @Valkyrie927]

URGENT: Hearing Tuesday - Act Now to Stop NY A.4706C
As a vascular neurologist who has seen their fair share of cervical artery dissections following chiropractic manipulation, this part scares me the most: the bill grants chiropractors authority to perform spinal and joint manipulations on patients under twilight or general anesthesia. Yea, great job! Now it will take even longer for these quacks to recognize that they’ve caused a posterior circulation stroke. 🤦🏻‍♀️
https://t.co/3U4vp0GPPB

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

A New Path to Chiropractic Care Starts at Alfred University https://t.co/ccJxzTRwUG cc @FriendsOfSciMed #SinghBCA #quackademia

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

Chiropractor discipline transparency questioned https://t.co/6g2NiesEgw via @edzardernst #SinghBCA

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

‘Something is awry’: Chiropractor discipline transparency in Texas questioned https://t.co/zeuemOARaD #SinghBCA

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

#SinghBCA

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Caitlin Jensen, 28, walked into a Georgia chiropractor in June 2022. She came out with four dissected arteries, a stroke, cardiac arrest, and a traumatic brain injury. It took her nine months to say "Mom" again.

She had come in for lower back pain.

Your brain runs on four arteries. Two carotids in front, two vertebrals in back. The vertebrals don't run free. They thread up through narrow bone tunnels inside each cervical vertebra, C6 to C1, then loop around the top vertebra in a tight horizontal curve called the V3 segment.

When a chiropractor performs a high-velocity rotational thrust on the upper neck, V3 gets stretched and snapped against bone. The inner artery wall tears. Blood seeps between the layers. A flap forms. Flow blocks, or clots break off and travel to the brainstem.

In Caitlin's case all four vessels tore. Paramedics worked 12 minutes restoring her pulse. Surgeons placed a stent in one artery and repaired what they could in the rest. The brain injury came from the bleed that followed the stroke that followed the dissection.

One in 20,000 spinal manipulations triggers this. Arterial dissection causes 2% of strokes overall but 8 to 25% of strokes in patients under 45. In 55% of cases symptoms start within 12 hours of the adjustment. No screening test identifies who's at risk beforehand.

The American Chiropractic Association's own spokesman told the New York Times patients should get vascular scans before neck manipulation. Almost none do. Informed consent matching a surgical risk disclosure isn't standard. The average victim is 40.

Caitlin's back pain lived four vertebrae below the artery the thrust tore.

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

California Mom Suffered 3 Strokes, Left Permanently Disabled After Chiropractic Adjustment https://t.co/dqzPomHvRf #SinghBCA

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

Intracranial Hypotension Following Spinal Manipulation https://t.co/AsuqeyMyPc via @edzardernst Always refuse neck manipulation. #SinghBCA

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

.@GenChiroCouncil "welcomes the National Centre for Chiropractic Research and announces funding support" https://t.co/bR5dM2Jr55 Good luck with that, you're going to need it. #SinghBCA

[Blue Wode @Blue_Wode]

The neck cracking won't have helped. #SinghBCA

[The Sun @TheSun]

I suffered 3 strokes when arteries burst - I feared neck cracking was to blame https://t.co/c5izqu6Doe