How do you feel about Chiropractors?

[Die Hard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beQa2yFjS-c&feature=related

Getting your health advice from Penn and Teller?

Remind me to never listen to you. Ever.

---------- Post added October-26th-2011 at 12:34 AM ----------

If one exercises correctly and on a regular basis one does not need a chiro.

This statement is idiotic.

I'm in the healthcare industry. A very large percentage of people who comprise our case loads are people who exercise regularly. Come into my office... I'll show you soccer players, hockey players, volleyball players, runners, yoga instructors, etc.

You don't think contact sports inflict trauma? You don't think doing any repetitively causes damage? Or even just standing/sitting incorrectly (ie. bad posture) doesn't cause pain? What about sleeping in terrible positions? You don't think exercise and high impact activities don't cause damage and wear-and-tear on joints? Strains muscles?

Yes, movement is good. The body needs to move. Every organ and tissue has it's own inherent natural motility and mobility. I stress natural. Unfortunately, a lot of the activities we do are not "natural" movements that the human body is designed for. And when it's done too much.. or too strenously... it causes health problems.

If you don't understand... you don't understand. Find someone who has dedicated their lives to health that you trust... that's the most important thing. But there's a lot of ignorance in this thread from people who haven't spent more than 10 minutes and a Men's Health magazine learning about the health.

With all that being said... I really dislike chiropractic and distrust chiropractors. I believe chiropractic is very crude and harmful.... and it's been my experience -- and I haven plenty -- that all they care about is money. Of course, most people I've come across on this board don't seem to fault others for trying to make money... so.

---------- Post added October-26th-2011 at 12:49 AM ----------

Electrotherapy (TENS, Interferential Current) is OK. I've taken the courses for it.... but I don't use it. There's no evidence to support it.. it's all theoretical and ancedotal.

It basically stimulates tactile receptors (touch, vibration, etc) which sends information to the brain faster than nociceptors (pain nerves) and thus numbs the area to pain. It doesn't address the problem of what is stimulating the nociceptors to begin with. So essentially, it's good for treating the symptoms.

The good part is.... there are no side effects unlike medication. The bad part is.... those units run around $100 and need batteries... which is a helluva lot more money than buying Advil for $10.

Either way... if you don't treat the cause of the pain... you're going to be dealing with chronic pain for the rest of your life.

---------- Post added October-26th-2011 at 12:56 AM ----------

I 've been fighting back pain for 25 years and recently went to a chiropractor for the first time. I went 3 times, he made my back feel good which lasted about 15 minutes each time and then went back to hurting each time.

When you take prescription medication that's a 30-day allotment (4 weeks).... do you take 3 pills on the first day and then if the problem persists then you don't take any more meds?

When you work out at the gym... do you do 1 set of 3 lifts... and then wonder why you are not completely ripped out?

You've got 42 years of life in your body... and 25 years of chronic back pain expression... and you expected a total of 45 minutes total of manual treatment -- WHICH IS DESCRIBED AS A "CONSERVATIVE* MEASURE OF TREATMENT -- to permanently alleviate your pain?

After you get your next invasive surgery... and then doctor prescribes MONTHS of rehabilitation... remind him/her that you're only going to go 3 times before you expect results. See how that goes over.

P

[Barney B]

I went to a chiropractor regularly for months, and won't be back to another. Learned my lesson the hard way.

And that was a long time before this article ever appeared:

Chiropractic's Dirty Secret:

Neck Manipulation and Strokes

Stroke from chiropractic neck manipulation occurs when an artery to the brain ruptures or becomes blocked by a clot as a result of being stretched. The injury often results from extreme rotation in which the practitioner's hands are placed on the patient's head in order to rotate the cervical spine by rotating the head [1]. The vertebral artery, which is shown in the picture to the right, is vulnerable because it winds around the topmost cervical vertebra (atlas) to enter the skull, so that any abrupt rotation may stretch the artery and tear its delicate lining...

...In 2001, Canadian researchers published a report about the relationships between chiropractic care and the incidence of vertebrovascular accidents (VBAs) due to vertebral artery dissection or blockage in Ontario, Canada, between 1993 and 1998. Using hospital records, each of 582 VBA cases was age- and sex-matched to four controls with no history of stroke. Health insurance billing records were used to document use of chiropractic services. The study found that VBA patients under age 45 were five times more likely than controls to (a) have visited a chiropractor within a week of the VBA and ( to have had three or more visits with neck manipulations.

Edit: It's too late to retract this post, so I'll just add that it was indeed a real reach, as Die Hard correctly points out below, based on my eagerly misreading the numbers.

That's not to say that Quack Watch doesn't perform a valuable service, because they do.

But just because my chiropractor turned out to be a charlatan, doesn't mean that you can't trust any of them.

[Die Hard]

I went to a chiropractor regularly for months, and won't be back to another. Learned my lesson the hard way.

And that was a long time before this article ever appeared:

Chiropractic's Dirty Secret:

Neck Manipulation and Strokes

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/acetaminophen_overdose

March 2006

Each year, overdoses of acetaminophen (sold as Tylenol and other brands) account for more than 56,000 emergency room visits and an estimated 458 deaths from acute liver failure, reports the March issue of the Harvard Women’s Health Watch. And according to a new study from the U.S. Acute Liver Failure Study Group, acetaminophen-related liver failure appears to be on the rise.

--> One of our resources is taken from "Quack Watch"... the other by Harvard. Keep that in consideration.

--------------------------

582 cases in 5 years? Do you have any idea of how many chiropractic manipulations occur every minute in Ontario alone?

How many people die during surgery? Over-does? Wrong prescriptions or mixtures? Allergies from benign stimulus?

Here's ground-breaking news.... medicine isn't an exact science. That's why doctors "practice" medicine.. on their patients.

When dealing with health... there is ALWAYS a population in every category that has vulnarabilities to severe reactions -- and sometimes death - to any kind of treatment. That's just healthcare.

[DeadExField]

my most recent GF has been going to one for the past 3 years. She is a dance major that wakes up with back pain regularly. I've always been skeptical about why she has to keep doing almost 3 times a week for her back when she wakes up in pain. But when I express my concern for the lack of obvious progress, she gets upset at me for being critical and tells me its best for her.

Back in school she used to carry a huge loaded back-pack and she is a dance major currently in her senior year.

One of the major red flags that raised was when he put her on a 6 week plan and then x-rays, well during the six weeks she was misdiagnosed... so she was rediagnosed and put on another 6 week plan after that... and he said he would share her x rays with his colleagues because he believes she has a very unique issue.

idk what to think about that, I wish I could say something without getting sassed

[Special K]

idk what to think about that, I wish I could say something without getting sassed

I've found it's best to just shut up and let your spouse/significant other do his/her thing. If my husband thinks it helps him, that's fine.

I just know for me, I don't trust chiropractors on the whole. I'm going to go to a real MD if I have a problem, then based on those recommendations, pursue treatment. I highly doubt any MD I know would recommend chiropractic treatment...

[DeadExField]

I've found it's best to just shut up and let your spouse/significant other do his/her thing. If my husband thinks it helps him, that's fine.

I just know for me, I don't trust chiropractors on the whole. I'm going to go to a real MD if I have a problem, then based on those recommendations, pursue treatment. I highly doubt any MD I know would recommend chiropractic treatment...

Yeah I hear ya, I just fear that she may be a little naive about it which may be why she doesn't discuss this with me in the first place... At times when I ask her about how its going, I never get a legit straight forward answer... maybe because I ask in skeptical way, I can be more supportive.

[PeterMP]

I'm curious if the people that have gone to a chropractor and had success, tried going to a physical therapist at all and how that worked?

Anybody?

[ACW]

Getting your health advice from Penn and Teller?

Remind me to never listen to you. Ever.

:secret: They interview real doctors. So I guess I shouldn't listen to MDs either and instead just listen to quacks like Kevin Trudeau

[DCBnG21]

I've found it's best to just shut up and let your spouse/significant other do his/her thing. If my husband thinks it helps him, that's fine.

I just know for me, I don't trust chiropractors on the whole. I'm going to go to a real MD if I have a problem, then based on those recommendations, pursue treatment. I highly doubt any MD I know would recommend chiropractic treatment...

My regular doc does an adjustment for me now when I seem him. He's the one that recommended it for my chronic headaches, which...went away after regular treatment.

[Destino]

my most recent GF has been going to one for the past 3 years. She is a dance major that wakes up with back pain regularly. I've always been skeptical about why she has to keep doing almost 3 times a week for her back when she wakes up in pain. But when I express my concern for the lack of obvious progress, she gets upset at me for being critical and tells me its best for her.

Back in school she used to carry a huge loaded back-pack and she is a dance major currently in her senior year.

One of the major red flags that raised was when he put her on a 6 week plan and then x-rays, well during the six weeks she was misdiagnosed... so she was rediagnosed and put on another 6 week plan after that... and he said he would share her x rays with his colleagues because he believes she has a very unique issue.

idk what to think about that, I wish I could say something without getting sassed

If she's had back pain like that for a long time and she's young she needs to see an Orthopedist and potentially get an MRI. I'm not a fan of letting chiropractors "diagnose" a problem. When telling her this respond to her defensive position with something along the lines of "if the goal is to solve the problem it's best to have it looked at from several perspectives. Plus a chiropractor can't order an MRI."

The fact that they are selling her "plans" instead of scheduling based on her progress is concerning but they seem to be short at 6 weeks so maybe it's not that bad. She should absolutely bring an MD into the mix though.

---------- Post added October-26th-2011 at 09:07 AM ----------

I'm curious if the people that have gone to a chropractor and had success, tried going to a physical therapist at all and how that worked?

Anybody?

A physical therapist did wonders for my shoulder. Chiro did well with my back. All treatments for me have starting with a MD specialist that I trust to diagnose the problem and then I seek treatments because the bottle of pills the MD gives you might as well be a bottle of whiskey.