Chiropractic Care - The Fallacy about Strokes

Many people are fearful of going to see a chiropractor. This is because there have been so many stories and studies purporting to link chiropractic treatments and procedures to strokes. Some accounts claim that visiting a chiropractor puts a person at a higher risk of getting a stroke, for example, or that a certain percentage of chiropractic patients have suffered strokes. However, these studies have not been proven to be true.

About the Strokes

Yes, there have been people who have gotten strokes after a chiropractic treatment—this is where the stories and studies originated. However, read the studies and you will notice that the type of stroke is not mentioned. This is the most important factor.

The type of stroke that a small percentage of people have had following a chiropractic procedure is one that involved a weakness in the center lining of one of the arteries in the neck. This artery has three layers, which are like tubes within tubes. The center tube weakens and tears in certain situations. When it tears, a blood clot can form. If the blood clot breaks free, it can block off some part of the blood flow to the brain, and can cause a stroke.

The issue here is that the tear in the artery lining can happen at any time—it can be present before the patient goes to the chiropractor.

When Did the Arterial Tear Happen?

After the stroke happens, there often isn’t a way to find out if the patient had an arterial tear first—before he went to the chiropractor—or if he had the arterial tear as a result of visiting the chiropractor.

Much of the time, no one bothers to try to find out. People just assume that if a person has a stroke after a chiropractic visit, then it had to be a result of the chiropractic treatment.

The Stroke Would Have Happened Anyway

If a person has an arterial tear, he doesn’t need to visit a chiropractor in order to cause it to result in a stroke. A stroke would have occurred at some point anyway—it was inevitable.

The next time that person did a big sneeze, or blew his nose, or vomited, he would have had that stroke. Or if he had engaged in sexual activity, he would have had that stroke. Physical exercise that is strenuous on the body—jogging, perhaps, or weight-lifting—could make the stroke happen.

The point is, the chiropractic treatment wasn’t the cause of the stroke—it just made it happen. The arterial tear was the cause.