Yet another example.. dressing the sea monster

[Diane]

I found this this morning:
http://www.neuromodulationtechnique.com/PractitionerSearch.cfm

I checked it out (a little) because I was image googling for "neuromodulation." I am sad to have found this site, another example of someone "shoehorning" plausible science constructs to promote memeplexes/belief systems of dubious origin or substance, that exist only to replicate themselves and make their replicators (passer on agents) money.

I'm particularly sad that they've taken the term "neuromodulation" and have subjected it to this, using it as a "garbage bag" in which to package/sell/pass on their pseudo and antiscience concepts. They've taken Willis' sea monster (http://www.friendsinlowplaces.co.uk/sea_monster_and_the_whirlpool.htm) and put it in sheep's clothing.

[nari]

Interesting logo...a flying brain? Are those funny things wings? Looks like a GI tract truncated in the forebrain. Wow....

Verbose, fluent, not a hint of supportive theories, wild and sweeping statements.....
Another monster from the deep, seeking to suck in swimmers. I note that the expected number of visits are 6-12, babies presumably included.

Nari

[bernard]

Diane,
You're right => It's a chiro! :thumbs_do:thumbs_do:thumbs_do:thumbs_do:thumbs_do

neuromodulationtechnique.com (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=www.neuromodulationtechnique.com)

[nari]

Yes, seems to be involved with transgender issues,as well as neurocranial rearrangements....maybe the same person.

Nari

[bernard]

Contact Info for neuromodulationtechnique.com:
Columbia Chiropractic Clinic
PO Box 527
Hermiston, OR
97838US
+1 541 567 0200
support@neuromodulationtechnique.com

[Diane]

Hey Bernard, You're right => It's a chiro!
Thanks for digging around a bit. I hadn't got there yet. No single profession abuses a good thing the way chiropractic does. I'm a bit surprised.. chiros usually love to tell the world that they are a chiro (where did you spot the chiro info?) This one seems to only love to let on he/she's a "dr." Never mind.. I just saw your last post.

Nari, the logo (which will change again before long) is a version of a mobius strip; I liked the rainbow colour.

[nari]

Diane!!!!!!!:D

Your logo is a great mobius - I was referring to the NMT logo!
http://www.neuromodulationtechnique.com/Images/InLogoNew.jpg

Nari

[Diane]

Oh, ok. It's late and I'm sleepy. I just busted this site on chirotalk. Sorry for being confused over which logo you meant.

[Diane]

Hey Bernard, thanks for pulling up the logo in question. Yeah, brain with wings. Birdbrain.

I've decided to add a new post to this thread. I must still be feeling insulted at the use/abuse/misuse of the term "neuromodulation" by this sales-minded chiropractor, because I found myself using it as an example of what I dislike about chiropractic today, with a patient.

I'll explain: She's a young woman who was hit by a car a couple months ago while cycling and landed hard on her right knee. Not hard enough to actually fracture anything, but major road rash anterolat side of knee, and persistent pain medial thigh, knee, leg. She is an urban planner. Today was her 4th visit. She said she felt 90% better overall, since she started attending in Dec., and she felt 50% better since the last visit than she had felt before it, and acted happy and sort of surprised that it had improved in just one fell swoop. OK, some sort of corner got turned and she was close to discont.

I went to work on her leg, and she asked, what kind of physiotherapy is it you do again? And I answered, soft tissue manual therapy, well actually, neuromodulation. Then I remembered this annoying website with all its crapola and how it used the name "neuromodulation." So I said, actually, I mean the term in the sense that it's meant in strict science useage, nothing like a website I found that uses the term to mean a bunch of quacky stuff.

Well, she wanted to know more, so I talked for a bit about how this chiro in Oregon was using the term "neuromodulation" to spruce up a bunch of quacky tired old ideas about treatment that should have died off long ago, but for being repeatedly resuscitated as belief systems by injecting a little bit of plausibile science into them, having a slick website through which to propogate them. In order to sell them as expensive "courses" to make money off them. Typical in the 'alternative medicine' world.

She asked what that meant. I told her how chiro in particular was fond of doing this. That it was a business model (like multi-level marketing) that sold "health care" as its product, whereas physiotherapy was a health care profession whose members, some of us, utilize a business plan, like sole proprietorship.

She listened closely, nodded and said, I think it's like what I had to deal with with the term, "sustainable." It got co-opted by all sorts of different parties because it sounded good, but it got so bent out of shape that no one even knows what it really means anymore.

Exactly, I said.

Fight for your word, she added, a bit later. Don't let them take it away from you. Explain to everyone what it really means. Don't let your word get so abused that no one wants to use it, or can even remember what it means anymore.

She didn't come in to end up cheering me up, but that's what happened. Then she departed as people usually do who have gotten a whole lot better; I told her she could come back in sometime if she thought she could use some more work, but as long as she was doing ok, she was quite free to never have to come back. Oh, and I thanked her for pouring a bit of fuel on my fighting instincts.

So this post is me reclaiming the term, "neuromodulation", in the way it was intended to be used, as a way of affecting the nervous system for the better through sensory input; NOT as some catchy scientific sounding way to promote quacky belief systems and memes and make some chiro in Oregon rich through doling out treatment info one little gob at a time to susceptible enrollees in his/her "seminars."

[nari]

Diane, that is a very worthy post; and apart from the wise words the urban planner said, it raises the topic of 'ownership' of words and phrases.
That is an area I won't go into, because I do not know enough about it; but I have noticed the same battle going on in the USA as to who can practice "physical therapy"; unfortunately the phrase belongs to nobody in a legal sense (as far as I'm aware....Barrett / jon?...) and anyone can call themselves 'physical therapy practitioners', certainly outside the USA, which is the only (?)country that uses the phrase for physiotherapy.

Neuromodulation will come under more and more threat, I think, as people 'catch on' to what 'neuro' and 'modulation' mean; next thing someone will say that ultrasound neuromodulates, which it may do; no-one knows.

That doesn't mean that you don't fight for your word.


Nari

[Diane]

Thanks Nari.
Next thing we know some idiot will be trying to patent the term "neuromodulation" as if it were actually ownable..

I would like to add that, while I don't know for certain whether or not this chiro individual tracked my posts and took the concept from them (to package and sell as disguise for frayed old recycled memes and beyond due date belief systems)... here's the thing: It's a parasitic, pirate-like act. Chiros (or anyone) like this are like hagfish that attach to other species.

[Jon Newman]

Hi Nari,

"Physical therapy" is legally protected in the U.S. but the exact nature of that protection may vary from state to state. In WI no one expect a licensed PT or PTA may use the term to refer to the skilled service they provide. However, they may use terms like "physical therapy modality" or other variations if they'd like to prey on unsuspecting consumers.

[nari]

Thanks jon...I had an idea that it was not fully 'copyright' across the country.

nari

[Diane]

While I'm on the topic of chiro rip-off I thought I'd add this link (http://chirotalk.proboards3.com/index.cgi) to my thread. Chirotalk is a skeptical chiro discussion forum started by Allen Botnick DC, two years ago. (I'm a helper/moderator/admin person there.) Allen related his personal experience and disenchantment with being a chiro student and subsequent practitioner in an article called "Why I Quit Chiropractic." (http://www.chirobase.org/03Edu/botnick.html)

In particular, I want to draw peoples' attention to this recent thread (http://chirotalk.proboards3.com/index.cgi?board=advice&action=display&thread=1137865264&page=1#1138474128) there: In it you'll find a link (http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-01/010620monkey.html) to James Randi's skeptic site, and to an item called "Bitten by Chiropractic" (http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-01/010620monkey.html#i5), which doctor SJ has come out as having authored. There is another item there called "More About Chiropractic". (http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-01/012006bigfoot.html#i3) Coming out as a chiro who has become skeptical requires a series of steps; safety afforded by anonymity is part of the process, and is offered on Chirotalk.

Chirotalk invites any and all practitioners who are interested in opposing quackery, particularly of the meme-replicating chiro variety, to visit. You are bound to learn a lot from the regular posters there, most of them ex-chiros who tell it like it is. Ignore the chiro ads at the top, which pay costs so that we can run a free board, and which often provide fodder for discussion. :D

[Diane]

I've posted a blog (http://humanantigravitysuit.blogspot.com/2006/01/proprietorship.html) on this topic, called "Proprietorship"?, for anyone interested.