Chiropractic Nutrition

Nutrition Forum, May, 1999 by Samuel Homola

* "Nutrient deficiency" questionnaires typically contain a long list of symptoms and conditions that the patient checks off. The information is then fed into a computer that reports what products the patient should take. Some symptoms might occur in a vitamin deficiency disease or glandular disorder, but many have nothing to do with nutritional status. The questionnaire might also ask about diet, health habits, or other lifestyle factors. The computers are programmed to recommend products for everyone.

Dubious Treatment Systems

Many chiropractors use elaborate systems that include a nutrition component. The numbers using such systems range from a few hundred to many thousands.

* Applied kinesiology (AK) is based on the idea that every organ dysfunction is accompanied by a specific muscle weakness, which enables health problems to be diagnosed through muscle-testing procedures. Testing is typically carried out by pulling on the patient's outstretched arm. Proponents claim that nutritional deficiencies, allergies, and other adverse reactions to foods or nutrients can be detected by having the patient chew or suck on them or by placing them on the tongue so that the patient salivates. Some practitioners have the test material held in the patient's hand or placed on another part of the body. A few even perform "surrogate testing" in which the arm strength of a parent is tested to diagnose problems in a child held by the parent. Many muscle-testing proponents assert that nutrients tested in these various ways will have an immediate effect, that "good" substances will strengthen specific muscles, whereas "bad" substances will cause weaknesses that indicate trouble with the associated organ or tissue. The recommended "treatment" can include special diets, food supplements, acupressure, and spinal manipulation.

The International College of Applied Kinesiology (ICAK) maintains that practitioners who do not follow its standards are not doing AK, and that muscle-testing results should be combined with other clinical findings and not be used by themselves. However, critics respond that the nutrition-related claims and practices of those affiliated with ICAK are no less bizarre than those of other muscle-testers who do not.

* Biological Terrain Assessment (BTA) uses a computerized analysis of blood, urine, and saliva specimens to recommend nutritional programs, vitamin and mineral supplements, homeopathic products, and/or herbs. Proponents claim that BTA gives evidence of disease at the cellular level which enables "imbalances" to be detected and corrected in their early stages. Neither the rationale nor the recommended strategies make sense.

* Biomagnetic Therapy is based on the idea that disease cannot exist when the body is "biomagnetically balanced" and "all nutrition" is available. It has been promoted through seminars at which chiropractors are taught how to use magnetic and nutritional procedures tot "normalizing organs and systems."

* Contact Reflex Analysis (CRA), an AK offshoot, involves pushing down on the patient's outstretched arm while touching "reflex points" located in various parts of the body. Proponents claim that "the testing arm," which is like a circuit breaker, "will remain strong if there is no interruption of nerve energy" but will "draw excessive electrical energy" and become weak if it becomes unhealthy. Proponents further claim that "weakness" of the arm points to problems in corresponding areas and that nutritional supplementation can solve these problems.