Chiropractors...your opinion?

Went to one today and got my pain reduced from near panic level to manageable, but my wife is a nurse and she gets quite irritated if I go...which is like, once every 7 years.

My wife went to one for nearly two years. His treatment helped, but seemed to "wear off" more and more quickly. She then went to physical therapist and he did far more good with less degradation between visits, and has now graduated her, so she only sees him if something changes.

It works when you need it, but you shouldn't need it for very long. Exercise those muscle groups so the work that is done stays done.

They can help with some problems but generally speaking they only give relief to problems that need to be fixed. I know a few chiropractors and they are not but a small step from fantasy medicines in their minds. They think they can fix anything with a simple adjustment which is BS but then again they are selling a service.

My main beef is that chiropractors are not regulated the same way as doctors are but they like to think they are just as qualified. One year of Chiropractor school and then a 6 month internship is not the same as nursing school let alone more advanced education in the fields.

I understand that the research data on common back pain (NOT NECK!)shows that chiropractic treatment significantly beats medical treatment. Also, that they have no clue what they (chiropractors) are talking about as to why what they do, in that regard, works. They have a fantasy RPG in which the human body and its functions are described in their rule book. It has no connection with life on Earth.

Because they need more patients to make more money, they have branched out into all sorts of new age and alternative treatments for other ailments, none of which to the best of my knowledge exceed the placebo effect. But their treatment of back pain (NOT NECK!) has a pretty good track record.

Your wife would hold the standard medical world view of chiropractors, for the reasons above and for what Master said. However, some doctors recognize that for common back pain, a visit to a chiropractor can help.

Yes. I'm a believer. My family has used them for many years.

Just going to throw my 2 cents in here on a few points, given that I mostly agree with what the others have already written:

1- agree with back only (thoracic and lumbar) is OK, for the cervical spine I would stay away from chiropractic manipulation- some studies show that cervical manipulation and VBI (vertebro-basilar ischemia) have a strong correlation, similar to the correlation between VBI and motor vehicle accidents involving whiplash.
2- everybody after the age of 35 begins to develop degenerative disc disease, from simple osteophytes (minor bony growths on the vertebra) to compression and minor bulging of the discs to herniation (extrusion of the spinal cord out of the spinal column- if a nerve gets pinched that's the usual source of pain and radiating pain down the limbs). DDD is usually asymptomatic but can be very painful, and often resolves and recurs spontaneously without any medical intervention at all; this is believed to be related in part to point 3- below:
3- people often don't realize that the back muscles provide a significant function in stabilizing the back. Performing daily mild back exercises is most often a better long-term treatment to maintain a healthy back than "one-off" chiro treatments. You should see your family doctor and/or physiotherapist to find out about proper exercises you can perform at home to maintain your back muscles.

I'm not a medical expert, but I do work in worker's comp and have to review back cases, attend professional conferences etc... on a very frequent basis. About 60% of cases I review involve the back.

Many doctors are not as qualified as they like to think they are.
Pill peddlers many of them. There are entire areas and modalities of healing that are not taught in medical school
DIET is a huge one, as that's where a great many problems stem from that many (not all) doctors throw pills at.


Western medicine for the most part treats symptoms, not root causes. Yes there are exceptions to this statement
both with individual doctors and broader courses of treatment across the board. For the most part though it's
driven my the pharmaceutical companies.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of doctors as much as anyone, but I realize their limitations as well. When it's appropriate,
they're great. What I'm saying is that they use what's in their tool bag, and their tool bag is not complete.
You have to look elsewhere sometimes.

My chiropractor thinks he can fix any problem stemming from a subluxation with an adjustment...and he's right.
I had a neck issue stemming from an old high school wrestling injury. I couldn't turn my head all the way to the right.
I had this for 20 years. A few years a go my chiropractor did an adjustment and BAM...now I have a full range of motion.

I don't let him do neck adjustments on me anymore though because it just freaks me out. The problem he fixed has
stayed fixed going on 4 years now.

I worked next to one, and have known people who've gone to them, and most of them sound like charlatans to me.

I had a friend who had Bell's Palsy, where one side of her face became paralyzed. She went to see a traditional doctor and he outlined her options that I think sums up the chiropractor situation pretty well. He said it usually goes away in 2-3 weeks all on its own, or he said many chiropractors say they can treat it and make it go away, and it typically does after their treatment - in 2-3 weeks.

As far as pills go, I tweaked my back a few years ago and it was incredibly painful for a few days, so I went to see a doctor. He gave me some muscle relaxers and I felt relief the first night, and was almost completely better after the second day, never to have the problem again. He could tell it was a muscular issue, and that relaxing the muscles would allow the vertebrae to re-align, and it did.

I believe that some of what chiropractors do can be helpful (heck, even a good massage can be helpful), but they are a one-trick-pony, so they have to find a way to get that one trick to work on as many different conditions as they can. All they have is a hammer, so everything they see is a nail. Of course not every chiropractor is shady, but it seems most are.

They also usually try to set up recurring appointments for most people, which regular doctors rarely do. My current girlfriend was seeing one once a month, and would go on about how much they helped, I think largely based on what the chiropractor would tell her he found. Then her insurance or something changed and she stopped going, just temporarily of course, but found that she wasn't doing any worse than when she went once a month. She hasn't gone in years, as far as I know, and hasn't had any back pain.

Chiropractors are just like any other profession: you have good ones and you have bad ones. We've got two locally. One milks your insurance for all it's worth and will schedule you appointments as often as he can get you to agree to. The other (the one I go to) asks what hurts, gives you a once-over, adjusts you and sends you on your way.

I woke up with a pinched Sciatic nerve yesterday morning. If you have never had this condition, it is VERY VERY painful. Went to my chiropractor and got an adjustment and had ZERO hip pain when I left. I did strain a couple of muscles in my calf while they were knotted up and they're still a bit sore, but I can walk today.

I get adjusted about four to six times a year, depending on how bad I feel I need it. I have an old back injury that hurts 24/7 that chiropractic adjustments give me a great deal of relief from.

I'd say to find one you trust and make up your own mind. Most people that call chiropractors 'quacks' have either never been to one at all or not to a good one. Most of the medical doctors I've seen in my life have been quacks and pill-pushers, but I still go to one on occasion.

Well, I was in the military for 25 years where they didn't believe in Chiropractors. So, I had to pay for my own. When pulling Gs trashed my back and I went to the flight doctor, they shoved a bottle of pills into my hand and sent me on my way. Several days/weeks later, it would have healed itself...which I don't consider medicine precisely.

20 minutes in a chiropractor, and I'm walking upright...perhaps not healed, but definitely better and without destroying my liver with ibuprofen (I prefer to destroy it myself with Scotch ;-) ). And when some student racked on a 7G turn in the wrong direction and I couldn't turn my head anymore, my chiro, for the princely sum of $25, set me back to rights. In my opinion, the occasional visit to a chiro was an absolutely essential contributor to me staying in the cockpit.

In my book, as far as the back/neck goes, the score is like Chiropractors: 1 million, Doctors: bugger all.

Deacon

Exactly

Most are not.

Your "have a hammer, so everything is a nail" analogy works both ways.
Go to a surgeon, and they're going to want to cut you.

I never said pills are never the answer, we can all recount instances where a pill did a job.
The point is that they're not the answer nearly so much as western medicine and the pharmaceutical companies
would have you believe.

I've been going to Physical Therapy twice a week for over 4 years with no end in sight because of what a Chiropractor did to me and she was what I would classify as a good one. Go see a DO instead (Doctor of Osteopathy) and if it's a chronic issue try to get into PT keeping in mind that there are also bad therapists. I'm on my 3rd clinic and 8th therapist (had I gone to the place I'm at now first I may have been fully recovered a couple of years ago).

For those that remember me, thats why I stopped playing ArmA in January 2008. It's only been in the last year or so that I can sit or stand long enough to play (I have a sit or stand setup at home and work).

Edit: I had been going to Chiropractors for the 19 years prior to all this.

Doctors kill people routinely with mistakes - lets no get silly

When you guys say a chiropractor does an "adjustment", what exactly do you mean? Is it like that Simpsons episode where Homer uses the trash can to fix Moe's back?

(Edit- serious question. Do they put you on a rack or something and stretch you, or what? The idea of somebody "adjusting" my spine makes me very nervous).

Every couple years my back "goes out" and I head over for a tune up. Three years ago I had severe, bent over, walking sideways, dragging one leg pain and went in and I walked out of there feeling awesome. I was also having issues with a rotator cuff from pitching in an over 30 mens baseball league. He worked on my shoulder for 20 minutes and it hurt like a #%&*$#. Wouldn't you know it the next day I was throwing bb's...I had an impingement he fixed. That impingement, had I gone to my doctor, would have been an MRI and 5-6 trips to rehab...

Yep
The ignorance about Chiropractors is astounding.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-end-of-chiropractic/

While some chiropractors have rejected the subluxation paradigm, it is supported by the major chiropractic organizations and schools and is considered essential by the great majority of practicing chiropractors. In two recent studies cited in the Mirtz et al. article, 98% of chiropractors believed that “most” or “many” diseases were caused by spinal misalignments and over 75% of chiropractors believed that subluxation was a significant contributing factor to 50% or more of visceral disorders (such as asthma and colic), an implausible idea that is not supported by any evidence whatsoever. Simon Singh was sued for saying so when he correctly referred to “wacky ideas” and “bogus treatments.”

The chiropractic definition of subluxation, or vertabral subluxation.
Basically, that small mis-alignments of the spine can cause disease.

A little history about where chiropractic procedures came from:
http://www.ukskeptics.com/chiropractic.php

Chiropractic was invented in 1895 by Canadian-born Daniel David Palmer; a medically unqualified layman. He had been a grocer before becoming a "magnetic healer" (transferring "healing energy" to patients by touching or waving hands over them) in Burlington, Iowa, USA.

He also dabbled in Phrenology (the belief in a relationship between the shape of a person's skull and their intelligence and personality), and he was influenced by mesmerism (a mystical healing force believed to work through hypnotic induction), spiritualism and vitalism. Vitalism is the belief in "vital energy" or a "spark of life" which distinguishes living from non-living matter; the same concept as its Chinese equivalent "chi" and its Indian equivalent "Prana".

Palmer called his vital energy: "Innate Intelligence". His belief was that this Innate Intelligence flowed through the body from the brain, through the spine, the nerves and on to the various organs of the body.

I'm sorry, but that all sounds pretty flaky to me.

I have no idea how accurate this is, but if true, I think it says volumes about the state of modern chiropractic practice: In the 1997 Journal of Canadian Chiropractic Association, it was cited that 74% of chiropractors "do not accept the view that controlled clinical trials are the best way to validate chiropractic methods".


While I'm sure there are many surgeons who stack their suggestions in favor of surgery, there are more checks and balances in place for surgeons than chiropractors, so I think unhelpful surgery is far less likely to happen than other procedures.


My point wasn't so much that pills could help, it was that a doctor looked at my back, figured out what was wrong and prescribed a pill that fixed the problem. He wasn't just "pill-pushing," he was prescribing the appropriate medication to treat the ailment.

Again, I never made a "it's this way all the time" statement, so you can stop feeling the need to
use your own experience to validate western medicine. I have similar experiences. I also have good
experience with Chiropractors, which means I'm appropriately equipped for the discussion.
I thought I was very with my posts above.

There are good and bad doctors, good and bad chiropractors - pretty simple.
To poo poo all chiropractors is telling of ignorance equal to one poo pooing all MD's.

For me it's simple, I can now turn my head all the way rot he right - the end.

Since you're a fan in internet links, do some research on how many people are killed by
doctors each year - how and why. Might help with some balance in your outlook.

I see one twice a month for my back & neck ..a temp fix but better than surgery imo. gettin lots of pink tabs that don't really help anything except my head:D

This isn't a thread about doctors. I've got plenty of doctor silliness, too (including death)

I had to go to a Back cracker twenty years ago after traditional Doctors couldn't help me with back pain sustained from when I fell out of a plane. I went 2 days a week for 7 weeks. I never had to go back until today after suffering for 3 days with bad back pain. I think the pain started after rough housing with the kids. Feels great now and look forward to my next crackin' on Thursday.

Personal recommendation is the key.

I jumped into the water from a rather big height ten years ago, was
sort of flexed backwards and had pain in the lower back afterwards.
For a year I stil felt "something" there, but my doctor told me that
was normal and just a strained muscle. He was right.

Then two years ago I had a period of terrible arguments with my then
girlfriend, and one day got a sharp pain in the exact same spot,
mid-to-left lower back, next to the spine. Lay prostrate on my floor
for two days and couldn't get up, the pain was excruciating. The
doctor who came to see me asked if I had done any movements that could
have provoked it? - No. Was I stressed? - Well, yes! He said that
everybody (every body) has a weak spot somewhere, and that is the
place that gives in during stressful periods. So that lower back area
is my weak spot. He didn't explain what he thought caused it, but got
me medication and the pain went away by itself after some days.

Got rid of the girlfriend, so when I got a pain there again half a
year later it was in fact due to sports, a bad movement during a
squash match. It was the first match after the summer holiday, so I
was out of shape, but my partner had been practicing secretly .

This time colleagues recommended a chiropractor (here in Belgium
they're called osteopate or kinesi-therapeute) and I went to him. He
was excellent. Asked me about my history of pain in that area and I
told him the above story. Then proceeded to twist me around a bit on
his couch, explaining exactly what he did and also perfectly
predicting how I'd feel after each movement. "You will now be able to
lift your left leg, but not your right", etc. At the end he told me
the pain would be 3/4 gone by the day after and totally gone three
days later, and he was spot on.

He also proceeded to explain to me exactly what was the issue. A long
muscle going from the inside thigh through the pelvis attaches at its
upper extreme to the lower back. He said it was the top attachment
which had been weakened and now sometimes would get inflamed when
over-stressed. I was so relieved to hear it wasn't a spinal issue, a
partly slipped disk or something. At the end of the visit he told me
of a very particular exercise that would work pin-point on that very
muscle attachment. I use it from time to time.

Best thing about this fellow is his total knowledge of the muscles and
bones of the body and his willingness to patiently explain me things.
I can only say I consider him a true artist. And he took all of 25
euros for the half hour I was there.

I'm sure there are a lot of incompetent quacks out there, so personal
recommendations must really be the decisive issue. Sorry for the
long-winded story...

LOL - I hear ya