Remember this guy? A local chiropractor put up signs all around town touting “The Cancer Cure” (but taking care not to promise one, since he’s only a chiropractor). Those signs suddenly disappeared shortly after I complained, but it’s typical of these fringe wellness quacks — publicly veiling their promises while implying miracles. These guys are still in operation, of course, and still making bizarre claims, like that chiropractic allows the body to heal itself by removing any nervous system interference
.
You won’t be surprised to learn that, on the national scale, chiropractors are generally big fans of Robert Felching Kennedy Jr.
When Kennedy ran an anti-vaccine non-profit before running for president, chiropractors were hefty donors. In 2019, for instance, they donated nearly half a million dollars to the cause — about a sixth of the organization’s revenue that year. When Kennedy created the MAHA Alliance super PAC for his presidential candidacy, more than half of its initial donors were chiropractors. And when Kennedy’s nomination to lead HHS seemed like it was on the rocks, a raft of chiropractors signed a letter of support for him.
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 13: U.S. President Donald Trump, shakes hands with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alongside Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner (L) after Trump signed the "Fostering the Future" executive order the East Room of the White House on November 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.Many of Kennedy’s most ardent chiropractic supporters are now at the forefront of his Make America Healthy Again movement, posting on social media and finding TikTok virality in a bid to spread his agenda to a larger audience and recruit more disciples. Their passion for Kennedy is palpable.
To be fair, not all chiropractors are on the MAHA train.
“RFK Jr. is a natural fit, because those people who believe in that vertebral subluxation myth are the same ones who think, ‘No, you don’t need vaccines because we can just align your spine so that your body can heal itself,’” says Aaron Kubal, a chiropractor based in Minnesota who does not subscribe to the spine theory and has gone viral online for his videos debunking MAHA-aligned chiropractors.
“align your spine so that your body can heal itself” sounds like what our local chiropractor, Christopher Wollner, preaches. I wonder if he’s a MAGA/Trump voter? Because that kind of unscientific idiocy meshes perfectly with that brand of political idiocy. It’s totally free of any nervous system interference
, after all.
<Ugh.> I hate this.
One of my best friends from High School is mostly a farmer, but also became a chiropractor while waiting for his inheritance.
I like him. I still consider him one of my best friends, even though High School was 45-ish years ago. And he’s one of “the good ones,” solidly evidence-based. The evidence points to the sad fact that neither chiropractic nor scientific medicine really does much for acute nor chronic musculoskeletal pain. We just keep the patient entertained while they heal of their own accord. (And prevent further injury with appropriate splinting, and immobilization followed by early mobilization—but we can both do that.) But you won’t catch him trying to treat an asthma attack with manipulation!
But, incidents like this still make me uncomfortable, when he and I have our infrequent long-distance phone calls. I want to talk about it—we have GREAT conversations comparing patients we’ve both had—but I don’t want to make him uncomfortable, and I don’t want to find out that he has some pockets of particularly dangerous “woo” to possibly hurt our friendship. (The chronic “woo” it’s too late to do anything about, I’m afraid.)
Like I said, <ugh,> I hate this.
I hope the fine folks of Morris, MN, show they have more sense than to fall for this non-sense. But I doubt it. They’re just good people who don’t know any better, mostly.
This is the core of chiropractic. If there are chiropractors out there, such as presumably Aaron Kubal, who reject ‘vertrebral subluxations,’ but may be genuinely helping people somehow; they are helping people through means other than chiropractic, and one wonders that they remain chiropractors.
Chiropractic controversy and criticism
Is RFK Jr’s middle name actually “Felching,” or is that a typo? I’d suggest googling it, but it’s NSFW.
@3
Wikipedia says its ‘Francis’
Who do you trust, wikipedia or me?
Of late, the only nervous system interference I’ve encountered has been MAHA’s interference with my central nervous system…
Which, sadly, will probably lead to some unproven cultish therapy involving improving a feeling of peace by not paying attention to MAHA, because ignorance of what others’ ignorance is doing is bliss. Or something like that.