The Short Version
The claim that manual therapy is "not closely associated with pseudoscience" is misleading. While some manual therapy techniques have moderate evidence for short-term pain relief and are recommended by the WHO as adjunct care, the field is an umbrella covering diverse practices — some grounded in evidence, others rooted in pseudoscientific rationales. Peer-reviewed sources explicitly note that pseudoscientific explanations persist in parts of manual therapy practice, particularly in certain chiropractic and osteopathic traditions. The blanket denial of association with pseudoscience significantly understates this documented reality.