In marked contrast to a recent flurry of studies documenting increasingly positive consumer attitudes toward alternative medicine in general 1 Eisenberg DM Kessler RC Foster C Norlock FE Calkins DR Delbanco TL Unconventional medicine in the United States: prevalence, costs, and patterns of use. N Engl J Med. 1993; 328: 246-252 Crossref PubMed Scopus (3618) Google Scholar , 2 Spiegelblatt L Laine-Amara G Pless IB Guyvey A. The use of alternative medicine by children. Pediatrics. 1994; 94: 811-814 PubMed Google Scholar , 3 The Landmark Report on public perceptions of alternative care. Landmark Healthcare, Inc, Sacramento (CA)1998 Google Scholar , 4 JAMA. 1997; 278: 2111-2112 Crossref Scopus (20) Google Scholar , 5 Borkan J Neher J Anson O Smoker B. Referrals for alternative therapies. J Fam Pract. 1994; 39: 545-550 PubMed Google Scholar , 6 Astin JA Why patients use alternative medicine: results of a national study. JAMA. 1998; 279: 1548-1553 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2341) Google Scholar , 7 Fisher P Ward A. Complementary medicine in Europe. Br Med J. 1994; 309: 107-111 Crossref PubMed Scopus (67) Google Scholar , 8 Blumberg DL Grant WD Hendricks SR Kamps CA Dewan MJ The physician and unconventional medicine. Alt Ther Health Med. 1995; 1: 31-34 PubMed Google Scholar , 9 The future of complementary and alternative approaches [CAAs] in US health care. Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, Va1998 Google Scholar and chiropractic in particular, 8 Blumberg DL Grant WD Hendricks SR Kamps CA Dewan MJ The physician and unconventional medicine. Alt Ther Health Med. 1995; 1: 31-34 PubMed Google Scholar , 10 The future of chiropractic: Optimizing health gains. Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, Va1998 Google Scholar , 11 White K. Manual therapies: advances in osteopathy, chiropractic, massage, and other techniques. Altern Compl Ther. 1996; 2: 9-15 Crossref Scopus (3) Google Scholar , 12 Health Trends. 1995; 7: 1-8 Google Scholar a signed editorial appeared recently in The British Medical Journal that speculated that chiropractic may be hazardous to one's health. The authors, Edzard Ernst and Willem Assendelft, 13 Ernst E Assendelft WJJ Chiropractic for low back pain: we don't know whether it does more good than harm [editorial]. Br Med J. 1998; 317: 160 Crossref PubMed Scopus (27) Google Scholar concluded from the vantage points of (1) strength of evidence, (2) safety, and (3) cost-effectiveness, that presumed advantages of chiropractic over other forms of health care intervention for the treatment of low back pain were insufficiently established to be accepted; in fact, they suggested that more evidence may exist to the contrary. In their estimation, chiropractic may do more harm than good. 13 Ernst E Assendelft WJJ Chiropractic for low back pain: we don't know whether it does more good than harm [editorial]. Br Med J. 1998; 317: 160 Crossref PubMed Scopus (27) Google Scholar