Question
My husband has a brain tumor that is behind his optical nerve. It is benign and has not shown growth in 9 years. Are there any reasons he should not seek chiropratic treatment?

Answer
Dear Christina,

Having a benign brain tumor is not a contraindication for chiropractic care, however, the chiropractor should be made aware of the clinical history on initial examination.

I must stress here that the chiropractor should not be treating him at any time for the tumor though. I am assuming that he wants to be seen for a separate issue here.  Otherwise, it should be fine, and a chiropractic physician will make a great addition to his health care team.   

Unless he has tumors on the spine or in other areas of the body that he wants to have the chiropractor address, he should be fine.  I have treated patients with ovarian tumors and cysts, colon tumors, breast tumors, and lung tumors.  But I was treating them for other issues such as back pain, structural rehab of the neck, sprained ankle etc...or adding nutritional adjuncts in correspondence with the patients oncologists because they were undergoing chemotherapy.  So I was not treating the tumors.  

However, if there were tumors in the spine, that would be a separate issue, and I would defer that to the medical oncologist managing the case.

Hope this helps Christina.

Respectfully,
Dr. J. Shawn Leatherman
www.suncoasthealthcare.net