What are the key takeaways from this Science Vs episode?

Key insights include: **Back and neck pain treatment:** Low-quality evidence shows spinal manipulation provides modest pain relief for adults with multiple sessions, sometimes outperforming anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and opioids after one year of treatment in comparative studies.; **Pediatric chiropractic lacks evidence:** International research reviews found no good evidence supporting spinal manipulation effectiveness for any pediatric condition including asthma, autism, breastfeeding difficulties, excessive crying, or bedwetting. Australia now bans chiropractic treatment for children under two years old.; **Subluxation theory unproven:** The core chiropractic concept that misaligned spines cause disease through blocked energy or nerve compression has no scientific basis. One in four chiropractors surveyed acknowledge lacking clinical trial evidence for most treatments they use.

What did Carl S. Cleveland III and Chris Sorry discuss on Science Vs?

Science Versus examines chiropractic medicine's effectiveness for pain relief, exploring its mystical origins, current research on spinal manipulation for back and neck pain, pediatric chiropractic controversies, and potential risks including rare but serious complications. Key topics include: **Back and neck pain treatment:** Low-quality evidence shows spinal manipulation provides modest pain relief for adults with multiple sessions, sometimes outperforming anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and opioids after one year of treatment in comparative studies.; **Pediatric chiropractic lacks evidence:** International research reviews found no good evidence supporting spinal manipulation effectiveness for any pediatric condition including asthma, autism, breastfeeding difficulties, excessive crying, or bedwetting. Australia now bans chiropractic treatment for children under two years old..

How long is this episode of Science Vs?

This episode is 36 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Science Vs

Chiropractors: Are They Legit?

December 4, 2025

36 min episode · 2 min read

Carl S. Cleveland III,Chris Sorry,Katie Sorry

Episode

36 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Psychology & Behavior, Science & Discovery

AI-Generated Summary

Published Dec 25, 2025

Key Takeaways

✓Back and neck pain treatment: Low-quality evidence shows spinal manipulation provides modest pain relief for adults with multiple sessions, sometimes outperforming anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and opioids after one year of treatment in comparative studies.
✓Pediatric chiropractic lacks evidence: International research reviews found no good evidence supporting spinal manipulation effectiveness for any pediatric condition including asthma, autism, breastfeeding difficulties, excessive crying, or bedwetting. Australia now bans chiropractic treatment for children under two years old.
✓Subluxation theory unproven: The core chiropractic concept that misaligned spines cause disease through blocked energy or nerve compression has no scientific basis. One in four chiropractors surveyed acknowledge lacking clinical trial evidence for most treatments they use.
✓Rare but serious risks exist: While most side effects like temporary headaches or dizziness resolve quickly, spinal manipulation can cause arterial tears, blood clots, bone fractures, and death. Estimates suggest one death per few million manipulations, though exact rates remain uncertain.

What It Covers

Science Versus examines chiropractic medicine's effectiveness for pain relief, exploring its mystical origins, current research on spinal manipulation for back and neck pain, pediatric chiropractic controversies, and potential risks including rare but serious complications.

Key Questions Answered

•Back and neck pain treatment: Low-quality evidence shows spinal manipulation provides modest pain relief for adults with multiple sessions, sometimes outperforming anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and opioids after one year of treatment in comparative studies.
•Pediatric chiropractic lacks evidence: International research reviews found no good evidence supporting spinal manipulation effectiveness for any pediatric condition including asthma, autism, breastfeeding difficulties, excessive crying, or bedwetting. Australia now bans chiropractic treatment for children under two years old.
•Subluxation theory unproven: The core chiropractic concept that misaligned spines cause disease through blocked energy or nerve compression has no scientific basis. One in four chiropractors surveyed acknowledge lacking clinical trial evidence for most treatments they use.
•Rare but serious risks exist: While most side effects like temporary headaches or dizziness resolve quickly, spinal manipulation can cause arterial tears, blood clots, bone fractures, and death. Estimates suggest one death per few million manipulations, though exact rates remain uncertain.

Notable Moment

The founder of chiropractic, Didi Palmer, was a magnetic healer who claimed ninety-five percent of diseases stemmed from spinal blockages and wrote that blaming germs for disease was unjust, yet Medicare now covers chiropractic treatment for subluxation.

Know someone who'd find this useful?

Episode Transcript

Hi. I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus. This is the show that pits facts against Oh. Ah. The satisfying sound of a back being cracked. Because today on the show, chiropractors. Are they legit? Millions of people have back and neck pain, and it can be pretty hard to treat. There are drugs that can help, but they can also have some pretty nasty side effects. And so people are desperately looking for other solutions, like going to the chiro. Around one in ten adult Americans went to the chiro in 2022, mostly for pain. That's according to the National Institutes of Health. And of course, it's not just Americans going to the chiropractor. Several years ago, producer Caitlin Sorry called up her parents who are big fans of going to the Cairo. Katie, how is New York going? It's good. So, you're still riding your bike to work? Yeah, I do. Don't worry, I'm safe. Your mother is worried. Katie's mum is Chris and her dad is Bill, and the whole Sorry family had been going to the chiro for years. So, Katie, tell us all about it. Yeah, so my parents have been going to the chiro for ages and I actually didn't know about this until we called them up to talk to them about it. But I was actually taken to the chiropractor as a newborn baby. Wait, why did they wanna take you to the chiro? Because my delivery, my birth was really rough. They had to really yank me out, and so the idea was that maybe my bones were misaligned, so they wanted to take me to the chiropractor to see if it could help. Yeah. Because you had such a traumatic birth. You know, like, you had huge marks around your face where the forceps grabbed your cheeks, so you you didn't look too terrific for the first few days because of that. And mum says visiting the Cairo seemed to be good for me. I slept better, and so when my brothers were born, they were also taken off to the Cairo. And my parents still go for neck and back pain. Dad has smashed himself a fair bit over the years. So I've fallen out of a tree, I've fallen off a motorbike. Yeah. Dad's been thrown off a motorbike, he's fallen off a ladder, so the kiro makes him feel better. Same with mom. My muscles feel a lot more relaxed and my neck feels like it's not so grindy, is the best way to describe it. Wait. So do you remember going as a kid? Yeah. So the whole family, we went right up until I was 18, all five of us every six weeks or so. Okay. So, I've never been to a chiro. What do they actually do when you get in there? Yeah. So, the main thing that chiros do is this thing called spinal manipulation. So, they're basically checking your spine, …

Get the full transcript (6,079 words) + summary by email — free

One-time email with the complete transcript and AI summary of this episode. No account needed.

One email, no spam. We’ll also show you what SignalCast does.

Browse all Science Vs transcripts →