The February 12, 2018 article by Steven Salzberg MD entitled "Medicare Data Reveal $564 Million Wasted On Chiropractors And Osteopathic Manipulation" contains both misinformation and inflammatory language and leads the reader to wrong conclusions.

I write this as a patient with a rare disease that causes chronic pain and bodily dysfunction. I'm 67 years old. After a dozen regular MD doctors had given up on diagnosing or treating my life-altering, painful, symptoms that left me with debilitating, chronic pain, Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment, OMT, is the only treatment that provides me with relief without addicting opiod pain medications. OMT, 20 years later, continues to keep me healthy and functioning without drugs.

Dr. Salzberg states or implies that there is no proof that OMT is helpful to the human body, yet there is a growing body of peer-reviewed published scientific papers that strongly support the use of OMT. I have listed the titles of a few at the end of this letter.

I point particularly to two randomized controlled studies – which are designed to prove cause and effect -- on lower back pain. Both studies found that OMT reduces pain and improves functionality. They are both published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association: "Recovery From Chronic Low Back Pain After Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial" ( [jaoa.org] ) and "Targeting Patient Subgroups With Chronic Low Back Pain for Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment: Responder Analyses From a Randomized Controlled Trial" ( [jaoa.org] ).

There are many older adults with chronic pain and other symptoms like me who are thriving because of OMT and are free of addicting opiod pain medications. We need Medicare to continue to pay our OMT doctors. They are keeping us alive and are relieving our pain and increasing our functionality.

Here are titles of a few scientific studies that support the use of OMT:
The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (https://jaoa.org).

• "Manipulative Therapy Efficacious for Patients With Chronic Migraines"
• "Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy Shows Promise for Improving Postdiskectomy Recovery"
• "Ultrasound Measurement of Vertebral Artery Blood Flow Before and After High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Thrust Therapy"
• "Lymphatic Vessels Found in the Brain—Osteopathic Considerations"
• "Extensive Case of Subcutaneous Emphysema"
• "Basic Mechanisms of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment: A Must Read"

[chirobase.org]

The more you know.

One of the benefits of freedom believe in whatever you want

**I was amazed when insurance companies started treating chiropractors as if they were legitiment Medical. In my opinion that is a belief base therapy. I spent my fair share until the treatments casued more problems than they cured. I had a severe neck injury on I think the C4 vertrabe. The chropractor ended up causing me probably 6 months of severe pain. I will not let one touch me now!

Some people really believe this treatment is the best cure for anything. From digestion problems to addictions, and not to mention the back issue. If I wait in a small room and some one comes in with a doctor's jacket on,,, then it seems we are trained to believe them. So many of us have been duped.

Mixed feelings on chiropractors, OMT and massage therapy. After a work-related back injury over 20 years ago I was putting myself in a Pain Clinic-worst idea ever, submitted to skin-rolling deep massage that made me cry, and a few years of chronic back pain. A fibromyalgia diagnosis led to steroids,trigger points and chronic fatigue. I was a mess for a while. My primary physician(after sending me to surgeons, rheumatologists,neurologists and chiropractors)decided to try ritalin. With it was able to get out of bed everyday and go back to work. Stayed on it till my leukemia was diagnosed in 2012. Have had muscle and back issues since then and turn to plain old physical therapy now. Medicine is always changing.

if you are going after abuse and waste, there are much bigger thieves than chiropractors.

"The report says that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare, estimates that last year some $60 billion of American taxpayer money, or more than 10 percent of Medicare’s total budget, was lost to fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments."

[abcnews.go.com]

Compare that with Nancy Pellosi's net worth, reportedly $500 M received while serving in congress, taking PAC money, and screwing over the working class. Add corruption of all congressmen, senators, and other politicians who get rich from payoffs, then add all the cost overruns by the Defense Department with their $ 3/4 B budget, and the waste by commercial insurance companies, and the medicade waste on chiropractors is small. Complaints about the cost of social services is inevitably a smoke screen to cover all the corruption by organized crime doing business with the government.

I've not been to a chiropractor, but have had physical therepy, and the physical therepist said they have about the same training as a chiropractor. I imagine a chiropractor is more expensive, and probably get an outrageous amount for a missage. But, they are not the devil causing problems in the US or elsewhere.

1 Anyone can become a Doctor of Chiropractic with a High Scbool diploma plus just 2 years of (possibly on-line) school.
2 I had a brain-stem injury caused by neck manipulation, with the same results as a stroke, at age 38. NO Neurologist wil Ever recommend neck manipulation for this very reason.

You know, if we were able to eliminate even half the wasted taxpayer dollars, there would be enough for every man, woman, and child, to have 100% covered healthcare, free college through grad school, free quality childcare, and fund the space program, for the next 200 years.