Chiropractic Trivia
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150 free Chiropractic trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free Chiropractic trivia questions with answers. Chiropractic began in 1895 when a magnetic healer in Davenport, Iowa adjusted the spine of a janitor who said he had been deaf for 17 years. This chiropractic trivia quiz covers what followed: D.D. Palmer and his son B.J., the Palmer School, the word's Greek roots, the jail sentences, the split between straights and mixers, the neurocalometer, the state-by-state fight for licensing from Kansas in 1913 to Louisiana in 1974, Medicare coverage in 1972, and the 1987 Wilk v. AMA antitrust ruling. It also covers how the profession works today: the Doctor of Chiropractic degree, the Council on Chiropractic Education, the Diversified and Activator techniques, what the World Health Organization says about safety, and where evidence for spinal manipulation is strong and weak. A final section covers the spine itself: 33 vertebrae, the atlas and axis, the sacrum and coccyx, and the nitrogen bubbles behind a cracking joint. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on chiropractic, the Palmers, joint cracking and the vertebral column. Suitable for a clinic open house, a health-class quiz or a pub round.
30 of 150 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who founded chiropractic in 1895?
Daniel David Palmer
He was a Canadian-born magnetic healer. Andrew Taylor Still had founded the rival system of osteopathy, also in the Midwest.
Q 02In which Iowa city was chiropractic founded?
Davenport
Palmer had practised magnetic healing there and in Burlington since the mid-1880s. Palmer College still has its main campus in the city.
Q 03Who was D.D. Palmer's first chiropractic patient, who said his hearing was restored?
Harvey Lillard
He claimed 17 years of severely reduced hearing that had begun with a 'pop' in his spine. Days after the adjustment he said it was almost fully restored.
Q 04The word 'chiropractic' comes from Greek roots meaning what?
Done by hand
Cheir means hand and praktikos means practical. The term was coined by Samuel Weed, another of Palmer's patients, not by Palmer himself.
Q 05What was D.D. Palmer's occupation before he founded chiropractic?
Magnetic healer
He had also been a beekeeper, schoolteacher and grocer after emigrating from Ontario in 1865, and dabbled in spiritualism.
Q 06In which country was D.D. Palmer born?
Canada
He was born in 1845 in Pickering Township in what is now Ajax, Ontario, and moved to the US at age twenty.
Q 07From whom did D.D. Palmer claim to have 'received' chiropractic?
A doctor who had died 50 years earlier
He said it came from 'the other world'. He and his son seriously considered declaring chiropractic a religion for legal protection but decided against it.
Q 08What did D.D. Palmer call chiropractic?
A science of healing without drugs
Its roots lie in the folk practice of bonesetting, mixed with vitalism and spiritual inspiration.
Q 09What is the vitalist life force that early chiropractors believed flowed through the nervous system?
Innate Intelligence
They held that interruptions to it caused all disease. Many chiropractors today treat it as a metaphor for the body's self-healing, or homeostasis.
Q 10What term did Palmer use for the spinal misalignments he believed interfered with the body's function?
Subluxation
In mainstream medicine the same word means a partial dislocation visible on X-ray; the chiropractic sense is a functional concept the WHO defined in 2005.
Q 11In what year did Palmer begin teaching chiropractic to students at his new school?
1898
He had kept it a family secret until then. Palmer College, established in 1897 as the Palmer School and Cure, was the world's first chiropractic school.
Q 12Which of the founder's sons took over the school in 1906 and became chiropractic's great promoter?
Bartlett Joshua (B.J.)
He rapidly expanded enrollment and later became convinced the upper cervical spine was the key to health.
Q 13What happened to D.D. Palmer in 1906 under Iowa's new medical arts law?
He was jailed for practising medicine without a licence
Q 21In what year did Medicare begin covering chiropractic treatment of the spine?
1972
A 2013 Inspector General estimate later found 82 percent of Medicare Part B payments to chiropractors, $359 million, did not comply with program rules.
Q 22What did the American Medical Association label chiropractic in 1966?
An unscientific cult
Until 1980 it told members it was unethical to associate with chiropractors, a de facto boycott that ended with a landmark court ruling.
Q 23In which 1987 case was the AMA found to have conspired in restraint of trade against chiropractors?
Wilk v. AMA
Chicago chiropractor Chester Wilk led the antitrust suit. The decision ended the AMA's boycott.
He chose jail over the fine and served 17 days before paying up, then sold the school to his son and moved west to found schools in Oklahoma, California and Oregon.
Q 14Per court records, what struck D.D. Palmer from behind during a 1913 parade, weeks before his death?
A car driven by his son B.J.
The official cause of death two months later in Los Angeles was typhoid fever, though some blamed the injuries. Father and son had a famously bitter relationship.
Q 15What did the Palmers scornfully call chiropractors who used instruments and mixed in other therapies?
Mixers
They themselves were 'straights'. By 1924 B.J. estimated only 3,000 of America's 25,000 chiropractors were still straight.
Q 16What diagnostic technology did B.J. Palmer endorse in 1910, prompting a faculty exodus from his school?
X-rays
He courted more controversy in 1924 by inventing and promoting the neurocalometer, a temperature-sensing device.
Q 17What was the neurocalometer, B.J. Palmer's controversial 1924 invention?
A temperature-sensing device
Even fellow straights objected to it. The Activator technique's spring-loaded tool and the Thompson drop table came later.
Q 18Which future president got his first broadcasting job at B.J. Palmer's radio station WOC?
Ronald Reagan
He was hired to broadcast sports. The call letters were rumoured to stand for 'World Of Chiropractic' but had actually been assigned to a previous owner.
Q 19Which was the first US state to pass a chiropractic licensing law, in 1913?
Kansas
Louisiana was the last of the fifty, in 1974. B.J. co-founded the Universal Chiropractors' Association to defend arrested chiropractors in the meantime.
Q 20Which was the last state to license chiropractors, in 1974?
Louisiana
That same year the US Commissioner of Education recognised the Council on Chiropractic Education as an accrediting agency, opening federal loans and grants.
Q 24What degree does a US chiropractor typically hold?
Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.)
They may be called 'doctor' but are not physicians. Chiropractors are not normally licensed to prescribe drugs or perform major surgery in the US.
Q 25Which body accredits the profession's schools in the United States?
Council on Chiropractic Education
The General Chiropractic Council regulates the profession in the UK. The CCE requires a 'mixing' curriculum, so straight-trained graduates may not qualify in some states.
Q 26Which US state was first to let 'advanced practice' chiropractors prescribe certain medications?
New Mexico
In Switzerland chiropractors have been able to prescribe a limited set of drugs since 1995, and only trained medical professionals may practise there.
Q 27What is the most common reason people seek chiropractic care?
Low back pain
Back and neck pain are the profession's specialties, though surveys show many chiropractors also treat other complaints.
Q 28What do chiropractors call the spinal manipulation that is their main treatment?
An adjustment
It is a high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust that takes a joint just past its normal range, producing an audible release.
Q 29Which adjusting method uses a small spring-loaded tool to deliver precise thrusts?
Activator
Diversified, or full-spine manipulation, is the most common technique; Thompson uses a drop table.
Q 30What is the most widely used adjusting method, used by 93% of Belgian chiropractors in one study?
Diversified
It is a full-spine approach that draws on several schools of technique.