Judy Foreman

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Is it dangerous to have chiropractic treatments if you have osteoporosis?

March 27, 2006 by

Scientifically, there is little data on chiropractic in people with osteoporosis, said Anthony L. Rosner, a Brookline biochemist who is now director of research and education for the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research. There is also little data suggesting that people with osteoporosis are injured by chiropractic treatment, in which the spine is manipulated to restore proper alignment of vertebrae.

Osteoporosis should not keep people from seeing a chiropractor, he said. Instead of manipulating the spine in a way that produces what laypeople call “cracking” or “popping” sounds (caused by the release of gases between joints), chiropractors can use “low-force techniques” such as massage, Rosner said.

Often, chiropractors take X-rays of patients with osteoporosis so that they can use different techniques on them. But the X-rays used by chiropractors are much less sensitive than the ones (called DEXA scans) used to gauge bone density. That means that by the time osteoporosis shows up on regular X-rays, a patient could have lost 30 to 35 percent of b one mass, said Dr. Suzanne Jan de Beur, an osteoporosis expert and chief of endocrinology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

And don’t let the chiropractor “crack” your mid-back if you have osteoporosis. “The biggest potential problem is in the thoracic spine,” Dr. Joseph Kornfeld, a chiropractor in Lynn. “A hard thrust can break the ribs.”

That happened to Dr. Jerry Gerrard, a chiropractor in Mesa, AZ who is on the board of governors of the American Chiropractic Association. Once, in 35 years of practice, he said, he broke an osteoporotic patient’s rib. He had warned her about the risk, he said, but she wanted to proceed anyway because of a pinched nerve. (She later recovered.)

So, if you have osteoporosis, tell your chiropractor. And ask for low-force techniques.

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