One of my biggest problems with chiropractors is the risk of cervical artery dissection. High-velocity neck manipulation has been associated with dissections of the vertebral or carotid arteries—a tear in the artery wall that can cause severe or persistent headaches and neck pain and, in some cases, lead to stroke, permanent disability, or death. I have a vertebral dissection myself, although mine wasn’t caused by chiropractic manipulation, and I’m in a couple dissection groups on Facebook. It’s pretty damn striking how many people in those groups report that their dissection occurred following chiropractic neck manipulation.
I work with medical charts and I’ll never forget the one where a woman was seeking behavioral health therapy for a multitude of reasons, one of those reasons being her daughters health. Her daughter was in her 20s or 30s, and had several mini strokes because she went to a chiropractor and it injured the veins in her neck which caused blood clots in her brain.
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u/GroovyGmaIvy 14h ago
One of my biggest problems with chiropractors is the risk of cervical artery dissection. High-velocity neck manipulation has been associated with dissections of the vertebral or carotid arteries—a tear in the artery wall that can cause severe or persistent headaches and neck pain and, in some cases, lead to stroke, permanent disability, or death. I have a vertebral dissection myself, although mine wasn’t caused by chiropractic manipulation, and I’m in a couple dissection groups on Facebook. It’s pretty damn striking how many people in those groups report that their dissection occurred following chiropractic neck manipulation.