How long does a chiropractor appointment usually last? What do they do?
I’ve recently started seeing one, and he puts electrical gizmos on my back with a heat pad for 10 minutes, then spend 3 minutes cracking my back, then I leave. I guess I was just expecting a bit more?
Opal —
You are a dear friend, & I will always be grateful to you for getting me through the Great Board Failure, so I gotta say…
Get away from that quack right this second!
Chiropractors do not and can not cure anything other than a backache. And a Certified Massage Therapist can do the same thing, for much less money.
Think about it: These clowns claim to cure cancer with backrubs!
WTF!?! :smack:
Go to a massage therapist or a legit MD–ASAP!
No back-talk to yer Unca Bosda. now! GIT! 
Hey there!
I’ve had really good experiences with chiropractors. But I’ll give you the curing cancer bit. That is quackery. Many chiropractors are into holistic medicine, and as such will claim all kinds of things, like that cracking your spine will cure allergy symptoms. Don’t believe it. But use the chiro to get your back in shape and out of pain.
A good chiro will have a certified massage therapist on staff, who you will see just about every time you have an appointment. The massage will loosen and relax you so that the chiropractor can more easily manipulate your spine.
The heat works toward the same purpose, though it isn’t as relaxing as a massage.
Also, the chiropractor should be taking his time to teach you how to care for yourself, showing you exercises and stretches you can do at home, much as a physical therapist would do.
What tips me off that the chiropractor you’re seeing might be a quack is the “electrical device,” which is snake oil that’s been peddled for centuries. You might snoop around in the site Chirobase, which investigates various practices of same.
I see a chiropractor and have for about 5 years. I have been to 3 in that time. I love the one I see right now and he does the most stuff to me in one visit of all 3 I’ve been to. First I lay face down on this table that flutters my legs up and down slowly and every time my legs are down he presses on my back firmly in different places. I assume this helps to loosen the muscles. After he does that for oh, 5 min or so, he moves the top of the table so that I’m doing a side bend (but still lying on my stomach and with my legs going up and down) and does the same thing again on each side, pressing down. After both sides are done, he moved the top part back to the middle and proceeds to “crack” my back. Next we move to a stationary table where he does a bit of physical therapy with me. He has me drop one leg off the side while laying on my back, and putting my other leg up by bending my knee and putting my foot flat on the table close to my rear end. Then he brings my extended leg up brifely bending it at the knee, then back down. At this point he makes me press up against his weight with my extended leg, does this 3 times on each side. Next, I lie on my side with my upper leg bent and my lower leg almost straight. He then proceeds to push back against the front of my shoulder while at the same time pushing down on my knee and hip of my upper leg until my back “cracks” again. Then the other side. Next he feels my neck and can tell which of my muscles are tender he rubs a little then he flexes whatever muscle and presses on it for 30 seconds. After he does all those muscles in my neck that he thinks need that, he twists my next to each side quickly to crack it in each direction. After that, he turns my head to the side and I again push up against his resistance on each side. He checks the muscles again and that’s all he does.
But that’s not all! After that I get what they call electrical stimulation (electrodes put on by his nurse, who is also his wife cooincidently), with those pulsating electrode things, that is great, it has a low and high frequency. After about 10 min they automatically switch to the higher frequency, feeling a bit more intense, but very pleasent still. I get that on both my neck and my lower back in turn.
But hey, that’s me! I’ve got a bit of scoliosis (sp?) in my spine and my skull sits a bit crooked on my spine 
Hope that gives you the info you were looking for OpalCat, oh and btw, I don’t think ALL chiropractors are quacks! Just like every other profession there are good ones and bad ones. I have noticed much improvement since I’ve been going to this new guy for a while, much more than the first two I went to. There is my two cents worth:)
Err… well my back is why I’m seeing him. And it doesn’t feel like a muscle thing, it feels like a spine thing.
Have you seen an actual doctor about it? Just because it feels like a spine thing doesn’t mean it is. Of course, to chiropracters, everything is a spine thing.
PLLEEEEEEZZZEE go to an MD. Get an X-ray. Have him check you out. And, try the massage therapist.
Quackery is running amok in this field, and the Surgeon General doesn’t recommend anything that a chiro does.
Back pain can be caused by kidney troubles as well. Did your so-called “doctor” mention that?
Get ahold of one of the docs who post here, & ask if they recommend chiro.
Most insurance agencies won’t pay for chiro, & they never pay for anything that won’t help. If it did help, they’d prefer chiro.
Don’t do this very unwise thing. <puppyeyes>Please?</puppyeyes>
I have been to a chiro for two incidents. Each time, after 3-4 visits, I was back in the swing of things.
Typical visits were short, usually adjusting my legs then twisting/cracking my back.
I, too, was hooked up to the electric stimulation, and found that to be quite helpful.
I never heard of the chiro’s can cure cancer thing, but for my back, I have found them to be quite helpful.
I don’t think chiropractors are all quacks. I think some are. I think there is something to be said for back-cracking though. My dad goes once in a while and it helps him a lot.
Yes, I’ve had x-rays and 4 of my vertebrae are twisted to the left.
My chiropractor doesn’t claim that he can cure allergies or nasal warts or fecal incontenance or anything else.
At ANY time during the lifetime of an ailment, one of three things can happen:
[ul][li]You feel better[/li][li]You feel worse[/li][li]You feel the same[/ul][/li]So, you apparently felt better after electric stimulation. Just why do you think ES caused it? Because the ES came first?
OK, here’s ONE benefit of electrical stimulation:
I woke up one morning with a very stiff neck. After my radio show, I call my chiropractor and he tells me to get in there.
My neck is still stiff. I can’t move it from side to side.
I’m laid face down on a table. The offending muscle is located and an electrode put on the muscle. Stimulus is applied to the muscle at a rate of 3 jolts per second. Oh it hurts like hell.
About 1 minute into the treatment, the pain starts subsiding. After 3 minutes the stimulus is stopped and an adjustment is made to the back and neck area.
Apparently what happened is this: Spine out of adjustment during sleep. Muscle knotted up then “locked” (I know, wrong word but that’s what it felt like). Upon awakening, the normal spinal mis-adjustment would slip back into semblance of normalcy, but the knotted muscle prevented that. Electrical stimuli contracted then released muscle at rate of 3 times per second. When the stimulus stopped, the muscle was so “exhausted” that it relaxed, allowing adjustment.
30 minutes and $30.00 later, pain free and walking normally. Worth it, you bet! A good chiropractor is invaluable when you have back or neck spasms. Drug free instant relief.
Curing cancer, no way. No ethical chiropractor will claim to cure cancer or any disease. The chiropractors I’ve been to will not hesitate to refer me to my MD when they see a problem they can’t handle. Think of your chiropractor as just another weapon in your medical arsenal. They ARE schooled, most are very competant in their field, and they do provide relief.
The electrical things that he uses are different from what you are describing. It doesn’t make the muscles contract. It just tingles, but strongly. It actually feels a lot like a massage. It definitely helps relax, same as a regular massage would.
Odd. My father has been going to one for five years at the advice of his doctor covered by insurance. Apparently its a matter of finding a skilled one.
Out of curiousity though do you have any cites on the ability of a massage therapist versus a trained chiropractor to treat back problems?
Doctor checking in here. The AMA has stated that chiropractic is equivalent to “traditional” medical treatment for lower back pain. There are good chiropractors and bad ones. I try to refer to good ones who treat only musculoskeletal problems and communicate with me. Almost every insurance now pays for some chiropractic care. If they claim to cure anything other than back pain I will NEVER refer to them.
True story-I got a call from a local chiropractor treating a patient’s neck after whiplash injury. He had noticed something unusual in the lower part of her neck X-rays and wanted it checked further. After expensive work-up, we found her Hodgekin’s lymphoma and 5 years later, after chemotherapy and radiation, she is completely cured. I trust this chiropractor with my patients-he has demonstrated that he knows the limits of his expertise and knows when to get a consult. I also give him full credit for saving my patient’s life.
I just checked the OP, and Opal didn’t say her chiropractor claimed to cure cancer or anything else. The reference to the “electrical gizmos” doesn’t sound to me like a quack’s “nothing box.” Just something to stimulate the muscles a little.
But if the chiro starts pushing electronic devices to diagnose medical problems, or dropping hints about the “yet” desease (have you had these symptoms “yet?”), Opal would do well to get out of there.
That said, when you’re in pain and someone says he can help you, you tend to go for it. Years ago I had my back out (probably just from the stress of the blubber hanging over my belt) and there was a guy in the office who was known to do accupressure “unofficially.” I let him crack my back. It was probably stupid of me, particularly since I had always viewed even licensed chiropractors with suspicion. But I was in agony, and I wanted help RIGHT NOW. He had me lean up against a file cabinet, put his knee in the small of my back, grabbed my shoulders and simultaneously pulled them back while pressing on my spine with his knee. I felt something pop. Then I felt fine. No more pain.
I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone else. I was lucky. But licensed chiropractors do have training and can help ease pain. As long as they aren’t practicing medicine, you’re probably safe.
Oh, and all I pay is a $5 copay same as with my regular doctor.