The Question of all Questions....Can a Chiropractic Adjustment Cause Stroke?

Everyone always asks the question....can a chiropractic adjustment of the neck cause a stroke?  The very simple answer is, well yes, anything is possible. But upon a closer look at the statistics out there, they show that the actual chance of this happening is extremely small.  In fact, The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association recently released a statement that there is insufficient evidence to connect cervical adjustments and cervical arterial dissections (stroke), although all practitioners should inform patients about possible risks.  Shouldn't ANY practitioner inform their patients about possible risks however remote they may be, isn't that something as healthcare providers we take an oath on?  For the overwhelming majority of patients, cervical manipulation will pose no potential problems.  The most credible study on the subject by Cassidy et found has found that the association between a neck adjustment and a possible stroke is less than 1 per 1 million or roughly 1 in 5.85 million adjustments!. Last year alone 27 million people sought the care of a chiropractor (if you multiply that by the number of times they saw their chiropractic.....that's a lot of adjusting going on)  Lets take a look at some other maybe less known stats.  Overall risk of death from spinal surgery 1,800 per 1 million, risk of serious side effects from spinal surgery, 500 per 1 million.  Did you know that roughly 1.5 million people are injured each year in errors over prescribing medications.  Or that over 100,000 people are a year are hospitalized over complications from taking NSAIDs (Ibuprofen).  The risk of death from taking a simple aspirin is 25 per 1 million!