Two separate data sources were used to examine chiropractic mortality rates. One source used obituary notices from past issues of Dynamic Chiropractic from 1990 to mid-2003. The second source used biographies from Who Was Who in Chiropractic – A Necrology covering a ten year period from 1969–1979. The two sources yielded a mean age at death for chiropractors of 73.4 and 74.2 years respectively.

The mean ages at death of chiropractors is below the national average of 76.9 years and is below their medical doctor counterparts of 81.5.

Le cliché en chiropratique selon lequel » La chiropratique ajoute de la vie aux années et des années à la vie » a été examiné pour en prouver le bien-fondé. On a émis l’hypothèse que les chiropraticiens et les chiropraticiennes seraient eux-mêmes les mieux informés sur les avantages pour la santé des soins chiropratique puisqu’ils auraient vraisemblablement reçu un certain nombre de traitements et ce, sur une longue période. Si la chiropratique améliore d’une façon sensible la santé en général, alors l’espérance de vie des chiropraticiens et des chiropraticiennes devrait être plus longue que chez la population en général.

On a utilisé deux sources différentes de données pour étudier le taux de mortalité chez les chiropraticiens et les chiropraticiennes. L’une d’elles était la nécrologie des exemplaires de Dynamic Chiropractic de 1990 jusqu’au milieu des années 2003. La seconde source provenait des biographies de « Who Was Who in Chiropractic : A Necrology » s’étendant sur une période de dix ans de 1969 à 1979. On a obtenu une moyenne d’âge au décès pour les chiropraticiens et chiropraticiennes de 73,4 ans et de 74,2 ans respectivement pour chacune des sources.

La moyenne d’âge au décès chez les chiropraticiens et les chiropraticiennes est en dessous de la moyenne nationale de 76,9 ans et en dessous de la moyenne de 81,5 ans chez les médecins.

Cette revue des taux de mortalité n'a fourni aucune preuve visant à soutenir l’affirmation selon laquelle des traitements chiropratiques « Ajoutent des années à la vie ».

Chiropractic has its own cliches, and with repetition and time they take on a life of their own. Some common clichés in chiropractic include “When Your Spine’s in Line, You’ll Feel Fine” ; or “Find it, Fix it, and Forget it”; or (as a technique criticism) “It’s just Push, Poke, Pop, and Pray”.

This paper will examine a common chiropractic cliché: “Chiropractic adds Life to Years, and Years to Life”. This cliché reflects a common assumption that chiropractic care has a definable positive effect on overall human health and longevity.

Few would argue that the twentieth century brought dramatic improvements in human health and longevity. At the beginning of the twentieth century life expectancy for a U.S. male at birth was 27.2 years.¹ By the year 2000 that male life expectancy had risen to an all time high of 76.9 years.²

Never before in recorded history has such a dramatic change in human health and longevity occurred. The greatest relative improvement has taken place in younger ages with the control of infectious diseases.¹

At the turn of the 20th century the major causes of death were respiratory, infectious, and gastrointestinal diseases that together accounted for 40% of all mortalities. Today the leading causes of death are heart disease and cancer. As diseases are controlled, especially childhood diseases, human longevity and population increase. Obviously, if a disease that kills people is controlled, then people will not die from that disease and will thus live longer. The dramatic increase in world population in the past century is the direct result of this declining mortality, not increased fertility.³

Even before the 20th century improvements in longevity during the Industrial Revolution resulted from improvements in public health, food supply, sanitation and living standards. By the early 20th century further increases in longevity came with the control of smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. Looking to the future, if further improvement in human lifespan is to be made it will come by controlling cancer and heart diseases, today’s biggest killers.³ Can chiropractic demonstrate a measurable effect on either of these ailments?

Within the phrase “Chiropractic Adds Years to Life” lies a certain presumption. If the cliché is valid, and not just marketing hype, then chiropractors themselves should be exemplars of it. If anyone benefits from living the “chiropractic lifestyle” it should be chiropractors themselves. Who else would be the best living examples of the health and longevity benefits of chiropractic care if not chiropractors themselves?

Other sources of chiropractic mortality data was the text “Who Was Who in Chiropractic – A Necrology,”⁴ college publications and individual websites, and other sources. Most of the chiropractic mortality data used in this study were derived from Dynamic Chiropractic and “Who Was Who in Chiropractic – A Necrology.”

Dynamic Chiropractic was the primary data source for the period from 1990 to mid 2003. “Who Was Who in Chiropractic – A Necrology” was the main source of data for an earlier decade 1969–1979. These two data sets were compared with each other and with similar data on medical doctors and the general U. S. male population.

Because of data limitations the study was restricted to male doctors who were presumed to be Caucasian and who died from natural causes. Because this study sought to determine natural longevity deaths from accidents or other than natural causes were excluded where such could be determined. Also excluded were those names where all the necessary death data was not available.

Where known the specific cause of death is listed, otherwise the deaths are considered as being from “natural causes.”

The deaths listed in Dynamic Chiropractic and “Who Was Who in Chiropractic – A Necrology” reflect a cross section of chiropractors, including educators and association leaders, and many general practitioners from all parts of the U.S. and some from Canada. Even still, it is uncertain whether the deaths appearing in these publications represent a valid sample of all chiropractic practitioners in general.

Further, the amount of chiropractic mortality data available was limited. Nationally there are approximately 2 deaths per 1,000 for people aged 25–44, 7 deaths per 1,000 for people aged 45–64, and 50 deaths per thousand for people over age 64.⁵ Thus with over 60,000 chiropractors we can assume many hundreds of doctors pass away each year. Only a few of these deaths will be noted in Dynamic Chiropractic or other chiropractic publications.

A total of 55 doctors who died during or after 1990 are presented in Table 1. The mean age at death of these 55 doctors is 73.4 years, with a standard deviation of 12.8.

The causes of death, where known, are most commonly heart disease and cancer, consistent with the general population. Life Colleges had the unfortunate circumstance of having three of their faculty pass away from cancer at relatively young ages: Doug Thorpe at age 44, Ian Grassam at age 57, and John Grostic (46, age est.).

Table 2 lists 67 doctors who died during the decade of 1969–1979. Their mean age at death was 74.2 years with a standard deviation of 10.5. Data for this table was derived primarily from “Who Was Who in Chiropractic – A Necrology”.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a similar study in 1995 of medical doctor longevity based on obituaries published in the BMJ during that year (Table 3). The mean age at death of medical doctors in the United Kingdom was 75.2 years, SD of 13.4. In the rest of the English-speaking world, including Canada and the U.S, the mean age at death for medical doctors was 81.5, with a SD of 9.8.⁶

Unfortunately, such claims, even those made in refereed journals, are often typified by single case reports, poor study design, or over-interpretation of results.

If chiropractic is going to claim it advances life span it must demonstrate, among other things, long-term changes in the immune system to fight cancer, and relief of high blood pressure for heart disease.

Chiropractors often claim immune system benefits of chiropractic by citing the study by Brennan, et al., which demonstrated increased respiratory burst of polymorpho-nuclear neutrophils (PMNs) following spinal manipulation.¹⁶ PMN bursting, however, is a common rapid bodily response to any number of potential outside events unrelated to spinal manipulation.^17–20

For chiropractic to demonstrate that it increases life span it would have to show that it effectively manages high blood pressure. While Knutson found a temporary drop in systolic blood pressure following a chiropractic adjustment,²¹ similar drops in blood pressure are also found after drinking tea,²² taking a red clover food supplement,²³ meditation,²⁴ and restricting dietary salt intake.²⁵

In a study from Life Chiropractic College West treatment for high blood pressure with chiropractic care showed no long term benefit compared with non-treatment controls.²⁶ Similarly, a larger study by the Berman Center for Clinical and Outcomes Research also found chiropractic treatment offered “... no advantage in lowering either diastolic or systolic blood pressure compared to diet alone.”²⁷

To date no single quality study has been produced that shows chiropractic spinal care is the treatment of choice, or is even influential, in the long-term management, prevention, treatment, or cure of cancer, heart disease, or any other systemic disease. If chiropractic care cannot materially change the course of these diseases then it is unlikely chiropractic care can be successful in increasing human life span