Have you ever been to a chiropractor?

[Math Is Hard]

Main Question or Discussion Point

Have you ever been to a chiropractor? Did it help?

 

[phyzmatix]

Yes and yes. When I walked out of there I felt lighter (if that makes any sense) and a lot of aches and pains were gone.

I'd recommend it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I tried it a couple years ago. He scrunched and twisted me into positions I did not think possible. That was interesting. Additionally he massaged my back with a very large mechanical vibrator. That was great, and made me much more relaxed.

However, walking home I noticed an very intrusive clicking in my neck. That lasted a few days.

When I went back the next week I told him about this and he dismissed it as something I had probably always had but had gotten used to. Other people reported the same thing, he said, but he thinks it's just because the treatment made them more aware of things they had become unconscious of. It was clear to me then that he wasn't listening to his patients, and I didn't go back.

(I had the same experience of not being listened to when I tried acupuncture a long time ago. I was surprised that, despite every claim I'd heard that it doesn't hurt, there was a bit of a sting each time he put a needle in. I mentioned this to him, and he got a little angry and claimed he knew I had felt no pain because he hadn't drawn blood.)

Anyway, I don't recommend chiropractic. The effectiveness of a thing like this is, obviously, it's weirdness: it is psychologically novel and interesting to have someone sort of "therapeutically" manhandling you with wrestling maneuvers that result in joints cracking. You're somewhat alarmed and helpless, but then it all works out. You feel relieved, refreshed. However, that was ruined for me by the persistent clicking over the next few days, which just made me wonder if he hadn't damaged something.

I think any regular sort of massage is much better.

 

[Averagesupernova]

I've had creaks and clicks since I can remember which is long before I went to a chiropractor. I would say that chiro's have definitely helped me. However, I do think that they play a few mind games. For instance, on several occasions I've gone to my chiro for a dull stomach ache. Yeah, I know it sounds totally wierd. Every time I've gone for this it is taken care of. There are nerves in my back that are pinched or whatever which deals with the digestive system. Before I get on the table I'll tell him what ails me. When poking around on my back he finds a spot on the spine that hurts and he'll say 'that's why you have a gut ache'. Technically I think he could find any point he is pretty sure hurts and blame whatever problem I have at the time on that particular point. So, if someone like me who is by nature a skeptic can have a chiropractor help, I'd have to say they are ok. Although there are quacks in the chiro business like anything else.

 

[f95toli]

It also depends on the chiropractor. I actually know someone who first trained as a chiropractor but got tired of it after a couple of years and went back to university and became a medical doctor. He knew a LOT more about e.g how the spine/back works than an "ordinary" doctor and he was actually allowed to give lectures on this topic already during his first and second year at university.
My point is that many of the things chiropractors know and do isn't very different from more traditional medicine. This doesn't mean that it is always a good idea to go to a chiropractor, but then it is not always obvious that more traditional methods of treating e.g. pain (such as strong pain killers) are any better either.

As they say here in the UK: consult your GP

 

[Borek]

Ah, subtle language differences. In Poland chiropractors deal just with spinal manipulation. It happens that I am surrounded by people suffering from back pains - starting with Marzena - and as far as I know from them it helps.

 

[turbo]

MIH, if you can find one close to you, you might want to try an Osteopathic doctor. They are trained in manipulation. Do your homework first though. A couple of them in this area are heavily into homeopathy and chelation treatments and one in particular is "certified" in iridology AND reflexology. You want to avoid those people. You'd be just as well off to consult the Tarot-card lady at the hippie soap shop.

 

[HallsofIvy]

Borek makes a good point- and not just about Polish chiropractors. I have known several people who go to chiropractors in order to get joints "eased" and they swear that they felt much better afterwards. On the other hand, I have know people who go to chiropractors and chiropractors themselves who talk about the "flow" of "psychic energy" through the spine and maintain that chiropractic treatments can cure diseases, break habits like smoking, etc. That's non-sense.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Thanks for the comments. A couple of people have recommended I see a chiro (I've seen my GP already and she says she will probably send me to a physical therapist next - I didn't ask her about the chiro). But I am mostly asking out of curiosity.

My neighbor goes to one and she said he has this device that detects heat around a pinched nerve. That seemed weird so I googled it and I found this:
http://www.chirobase.org/06DD/nervoscope.html

Did your chiro use one of these things on you? It really does sound quackish.

Zooby, that's such an interesting story about the clicking in your neck. How often was it? Did you sound like a Timex watch? When did it go away?

 

[turbo]

MIH, many Osteos drift into quackery, and IMO chiros begin and end there. Physical therapy is probably a more productive and less dangerous route to take. I had a really stubborn case of tendinitis that was finally resolved with some several-times-weekly therapy and (ouch) cortisone injections. The Osteopath that I was seeing was absolutely useless, so I switched to an MD, got some PT and some medical treatment. Problem solved. It seems incredible now, but at the worst of the the inflammation, I had a very hard time picking up a coffee cup with my right hand, and I am right handed.

BTW, as someone who could repeatedly bench my body-weight just a year earlier, it was really depressing not to be able to grab a coffee cup.

 

[Math Is Hard]

MIH, many Osteos drift into quackery, and IMO chiros begin and end there. Physical therapy is probably a more productive and less dangerous route to take. I had a really stubborn case of tendinitis that was finally resolved with some several-times-weekly therapy and (ouch) cortisone injections. The Osteopath that I was seeing was absolutely useless, so I switched to an MD, got some PT and some medical treatment. Problem solved. It seems incredible now, but at the worst of the the inflammation, I had a very hard time picking up a coffee cup with my right hand, and I am right handed.

BTW, as someone who could repeatedly bench my body-weight just a year earlier, it was really depressing not to be able to grab a coffee cup.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely go the PT route first. But if they have a jacuzzi, I might get addicted.

Glad your hand is better.

 

[turbo]

Glad your hand is better.

Me too. It would have really sucked not to have been able to use it productively for the past 10-15 years. It's commonly called tennis elbow, but it is the tendons that connect from your elbow to the muscles that contract your fingers that get inflamed. I could hardly bear to grasp anything with that hand. Repetitive stress injuries can creep up on you.

BTW, if the doctor recommends cortisone injections, and asks if you want to have local anesthetics injected first, the answer is YES

 

[Math Is Hard]

No worries. I don't see any cortisone injections being suggested. I scream and cry when they take my blood pressure.

 

[turbo]

No worries. I don't see any cortisone injections being suggested. I scream and cry when they take my blood pressure.

The cuff?!!!! NO!!! Not the Cuff!!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Zooby, that's such an interesting story about the clicking in your neck. How often was it? Did you sound like a Timex watch? When did it go away?

It only resulted from neck motion, as if he had pushed a neck vertebrae out of place and it was getting hung up on the bone above or below when I moved my head even a small amount. It was constant the day of the treatment after I left his office , and I noticed it happening now and then for about four more days. I call it a "clicking" but it was actually just a sensation, very like the sensation you get when you "crack" a joint.

 

[Borek]

Interesting (?) sidenote. Many of those spinal manipulation specialists in Poland are blind. Two reasons for that. First - as they are blind they have much better feeling (touch sense? not sure how to tell it in English) in their fingers, so they can much better 'see' what's inside, below the skin. Second - there is a very good Medical Massage School for those people in Cracow (as you may guess, selection of the school profile is not accidental, school was established after WWII, initially for those who lost their sight during war).

 

[hypatia]

I went once because my neck hurt and it sounded like crunching glass when I moved it. He bent me up like a pretzel, then told me to take a big breath.
He pushed hard something went pop, and it really hurt. Then he told me to take another deep breath, I said no, cause its gonna hurt. He looked at me like this I never went back.
It felt better on its own after about 2 months, and I have sense done neck strengthening techniques, and I have never had the problem again.


I also have a friend who went several times after he was involved in a slip and fall accident. The chiropractor took x-rays, then did not read them correctly and ended up doing the manipulations on a broken neck..

Your going to get two views to this type of treatment. You will just half to weight them out, and do what your comfortable with.

 

[Moonbear]

I'll say it outright...I think chiropractors are quacks. The best one can hope for is a really great massage if the problem is nothing but sore muscles. At the worst, they can inflict real injury. Most of what they do has all the healing power of cracking your knuckles, which is to say it does nothing.

I do wonder if turbo has osteopathic medicine confused with something else, though. Schools of osteopathic medicine do provide a full medical training, but with more emphasis on the patient as a whole. When they graduate with a D.O., they are qualified to do a residency right along with M.D.s.

 

[Enuma_Elish]

My rule is "good teacher/practitioner." If somebody's is good in what they are teaching/practicing, they are unlikely to cause any damage, and might even benefit. So I agree with MB: I'll take a good massage anytime; the downside is, a massage usually does not qualify for insurance or health expense, but a chiro session might.

 

[turbo]

I do wonder if turbo has osteopathic medicine confused with something else, though. Schools of osteopathic medicine do provide a full medical training, but with more emphasis on the patient as a whole. When they graduate with a D.O., they are qualified to do a residency right along with M.D.s.

The Osteopathic doctors around here are generally trained in spinal manipulation, too - at least they perform those services in their offices. The ones in private practice (not affiliated with a hospital) seem to be the ones who start dabbling in iridology, reflexology, aromatherapy, chelation services, etc. All D.O.s are not created equal. I have a friend in CA who is a D.O. and who is a very busy surgeon. He is a no-nonsense guy, a war hero, and well-respected in his field. He was involved with the assessment of the US's disaster-readiness. You may have read about some of the reporting years back regarding how close hospitals and other medical services are to their maximum capacities and what could be done (Navy hospital ships perhaps) to increase the availability of such services, especially if some of the medical infrastructure is damaged in the disaster.

 

[Proton Soup]

there are some things often practiced by chiros(and maybe some D.O.s) that are well-regarded, like Active Release Technique, for treating muscular injuries. but i doubt you'll ever see many MDs treating patients that way because there's simply not enough money in it.

 

[chroot]

I dated a girl in college who had persistent pain in her lower back. Despite this being very unusual for a skinny 19 year old girl, she had been going weekly to a chiropractor for almost two years.

The pain went away for a few days after each treatment, but was never really eliminated. The chiropractor (who happened to be one of the more "scientific" sort) told her that it was normal, and that many people need weekly spinal adjustments for the rest of their lives.

She eventually went to a real doctor, who discovered a softball-sized primitive neuroectodermal tumor growing in her lower back. The tumor had probably quadrupled in size since she first sought treatment from the chiropractor.

She spent the next 18 months out of school, enduring several surgeries, the removal of part of her pelvis, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Thankfully, she survived. I'm pretty sure she never went back to the chiropractor.

- Warren

 

[turbo]

there are some things often practiced by chiros(and maybe some D.O.s) that are well-regarded, like Active Release Technique, for treating muscular injuries. but i doubt you'll ever see many MDs treating patients that way because there's simply not enough money in it.

This is probably feel-good quackery, no better or worse than reflexology, homeopathy, etc. I wonder why the practicioners aren't crowing about treating stars like Tiger Woods, the Williams sisters, MLB pitchers, etc? If the technique is "well-regarded" (by whom?) why do top sports stars rely on their doctors, coaches, and trainers instead of getting stuff fixed with ART?

 

[turbo]

I dated a girl in college who had persistent pain in her lower back. Despite this being very unusual for a skinny 19 year old girl, she had been going weekly to a chiropractor for almost two years.

The pain went away for a few days after each treatment, but was never really eliminated. The chiropractor (who happened to be one of the more "scientific" sort) told her that it was normal, and that many people need weekly spinal adjustments for the rest of their lives.

She eventually went to a real doctor, who discovered a softball-sized primitive neuroectodermal tumor growing in her lower back. The tumor had probably quadrupled in size since she first sought treatment from the chiropractor.

She spent the next 18 months out of school, enduring several surgeries, the removal of part of her pelvis, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Thankfully, she survived. I'm pretty sure she never went back to the chiropractor.

- Warren

Many years ago, my wife visited a chiropractor in Waterville, ME because she had persistent lower-back pain, and he sent her home with a treatment schedule that would have bought him a new car and put us in the poor-house. We went out and bought a firm Serta mattress, and put the old bed in the attic and put the Serta on the floor of our bedroom (no box-spring). For the next couple of weeks, I tried to warn her whenever I noticed her slouching on the couch or easy chair, and she got used to the firmer mattress. Before the month was out, her back problems had disappeared and she was able to join me in jogging, workouts, etc without pain. Bad posture and a soft mattress were the problems. A few years later, we got a water bed and MY back went bad. We ditched the water-mattress and bought a firm California King conventional mattress - back problem cleared up within weeks.

 

[silver77]

Have you ever been to a chiropractor? Did it help?

I know I am a week late of this thread but I have to say that if you have not been it is a must. I use to suffer from terrible muscle spasms due to sitting in a cubicle all day. A few months back I visited a chiropractor just to see if it could help and wow they do miracles for me :)