Spine-cracking colic relief: Australian chiropractor’s video makes doctors speak out

Doctors and chiropractors have long debated on how certain medical conditions need to be treated. However recently, an Australian chiropractor has received flak and sparked tremendous controversy by sharing a video of him cracking the back of a four-day-old premature baby to provide her relief from reflux and colic pain.

The video shows chiropractor Ian Rossborough holding the colic-suffering baby girl and then stretching her body and using his fingers to put pressure on the spine of the baby till a crack is heard. The baby starts crying instantaneously. However, she cools down soon afterwards and is seen in a relaxed state and nearly asleep. The chiropractor is all the while speaking to the parents of the baby and explaining his procedure. The parents return after a week and are happy with the result.

However, Dr. Frank Jones, president of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and many others did not approve of the chiropractor’s ways.

“Well I think that this is an unnecessary and seemingly almost cruel process that there is actually no evidence to support. Why would you ever ever do that? It should not be advertised, it should not be practiced. There is actually no evidence whatsoever that manipulating the spine makes any difference to things such as colic or asthma,” Jones told Daily Mail Australia.

Watch the video here.

Source: YouTube/Chiropractic Excellence

Melbourne surgeon John Cunningham said he did not understand why a newborn’s spine needs to be adjusted.

“There would be risks of harm. There would be risks that the child could suffer some sort of fracture. Why would you do it? This is the thing that goes through my mind when I watch that video. Why on earth would you do that to a newborn?” he told the ABC.

An edict was issued by the Chiropractic Board last month where it urged chiropractors to not promote treatments that do not have a strong evidence base. This included spinal manipulations to treat non-muscular skeletal conditions. In February, Cunningham complained formally to the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) against Chiropractic Board and wanted it to be sacked.

“The Chiropractic Board is meant to be serving and protecting the public. Unfortunately, it seems to want to protect its own practitioners, rather than the general public, a lot of the time,” Cunningham said.