Chiropractors: Respectable Doctors or Money-Hungry Quacks?

Great Debates
21

Put me down for QUACKS (mostly). I’m a defense attorney (insurance) so it may seem like my opinions are skewed, but I also used to have a good friend who was a DC… And, I also used to defend DC’s…

If I get in a suit where a Plaintiff was in a wreck and went immediately to a chiro for months, I automatically think BS and want to try the case, but, if I see a Plaintiff went to an MD or a DO, I will evaluate the case and potentially try to settle it. It is a practice of many chiro clinics to have the patient come in multiple times a week for months if the chiro knows the person is suing. Furthermore, a lot of these chiros may send bills, but they don’t expect to get paid by the patient…rather they wait for the outcome of the suit and sometimes the patient will assign the claim to the chiro…

I have also seen chiros double bill on a consistant basis for the same therapy…and have seen multiple instances where a clinic bills for appointments when the patient never even showed up. Many chiros also have “hidden” relationships w/ MRI facilities and rehabilitation facilities. These are used extensively if the individual is a Plaintiff whereby the meds are jacked sky high…

I suppose there are a few chiros who are upstanding and want only to treat the back, and who realize the limitations of their “art.” However, I have seen few of these… Many do think of themselves as doctors, but they are not, and it will be a cold day in hell before I let one of these individuals “adjust” my neck…as it protects my spinal cord…think of it…a mistake and what can happen?! I’ve seen it…

22

Quacks.

My first programming job was writing office systems for chiropractors. Much of our value-added code (beyond basic billing and patient databases) was geared toward getting bigger insurance settlements. The whole business made me morally queasy and I jumped ship as soon as I could.

23

The only ones I’ve seen that aren’t quacks are ones with training in other fields, and are willing to accept the limitations of what they do and combine knowledge from as many areas at once.

I wish I could find it, but I have seen (more than once) a cite that states in effect: good chiros will admit that those neck adjustments are only a tempoary stopgap thing, like popping your joints. Else, if they push things like that, they’re only after your money. Of course, my google skills would have to fail me now. (Has anyone else seen what I’m talking about here?)

Also, most of them are trying to ‘align’ the body back into ‘proper’ posistion before the surrounding area is ready to support it. If the injury was slight, and all your body needed was to have it shoved back into the right place so it could finish healing itself, then this works out. Else, you’re just treating symptoms and not the underlying cause. (Which, I will admit in some cases is all you can do.)

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck…

<< An error? Impossible! My modem is error correcting! >>

24

The chiropractor I went to was convinced that aluminum causes Alzheimer’s disease. She cited the one Navy study that purported to show a correlation, and dismissed out of hand all the subsequent studies that showed NO correlation because they were “obviously” financed by the evil aluminum companies.

25

I think you’re wanting to get rid of the pain as quickly as possible is natural -but these type of injuries take time to heal. Your doc said a few weeks. If I understand correctly, you followed his advice for a few days before seeking out an alternative solution.

My experience is that a lot people don’t follow their doctor’s advice. This is probably because they want a cure right away. Most people refuse to “take it easy”. They don’t want to accept the fact that they will have pain over an extended period of time. They don’t follow through with ice or heat applications because it’s a hassle. They take their medication intermittently.

If you feel your regular physician is incompetent or his advice is ineffectual, my suggestion would be to go back and ask for a referral to a physiatrist, a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

My belief is that a registered physical therapist can do as much for you as any chiropractor could and do it with more safety and for less money.

26

I have had extremely good results from visiting a massage therapist who works at my sports club. He manage to deal with the stiffened neck I picked up during my separation and divorce, over two visits of a 1/2 hour each, which was $60 out of my pocket.

Several months later, I went back because lower back pains were nagging me. He not only worked out the cramps (and boy, did that feel good!), but he then showed me stretches to do at work so the nasty chairs won’t have me in knots all the time.

It has been working like a charm. :slight_smile: He was liscensed, too. In Texas, one has to take two years of training and pass an exam to have a massage therapy liscense.

27

…“a neurosurgeon suggested an MRI, which revealed a disk that had been squashed into my spinal cord. Probably not a good idea to let someone jerk your neck around when you’ve got that type of injury…though the chiro was insistent that it was the perfect, nay the ONLY, solution.”

This is what’s really scary about chiropractic - that people have forceful “adjustment” of their anatomy by people who 1) have little idea of what condition they are trying to treat, and 2) subscribe to a bogus theory of human pain and disease causation.

It’s understandable that some people report good results from seeing chiropractors. Beyond the role of chance and the human body’s own remarkable capacity for healing, chiros with charm and good patient rapport can sometimes achieve beneficial results through the simple act of “laying on of hands”. It also helps them con people into returning for multiple unnecessary followup visits and potentially dangerous x-rays.
Someone suffering from chronic pain unrelieved by the best medical therapies might justifiably try a chiropractor. If it were me, I’d be damned sure to have my condition diagnosed by a reputable professional first.

28

I’m happy with my chiropractor.

First, a little background. I’m good at yoga. At one time I was really good at yoga, but some brainstem at work decided filling a desk in the middle of the floor with old phonebooks was a good idea, and some other brainstem (me) decided it was a good idea to move it. So much for the left side of my tailbone and left hip. I couldn’t stand up properly or sit at all.

I saw a chiropractor for the original injury, He got me so far onto the road to recovery, but only so far. Considering that I was working in the ergonomic equivalent of a Turkish prison, I think he did the best he could via manipulation and a little bit of electricity. I was certainly progressing because I could tell how stiff I was, how much effort he had to put into manipulating me, and how much less painful those satisfying clicks were. He assigned exercises that I was already familiar with from yoga, and recommended ball exercises that my physiotherapist would put me through in the future. I was thoroughly (I thought so, anyway) checked over before anything started, too. It seems to me that nothing was assumed.

I went to a therapist because, as much good as the chiropractor did for me, I wasn’t completely healed. The physio felt good (hot, cold, ultrasound, electricity, acupuncture) but I think the long term effects were due to the stabilizing exercises (different from the ball exercises) the therapist gave me. Still, there was a lot of correlation between my chiropractor’s and my physiotherapist’s recommendations and opinions. They were never at odds with one another. A good sign, I think.

I had to go for quite a few chiropractic sessions (and have started going again) but I don’t think I was being gouged. The treatment schedule started off heavy but soon tapered off to once a month, then I was told to come back if my back ever started hurting full-time again, which it has. After one session, I could suck in my stomach as much as I liked without having my lower back throw a fit. It was paradise. I’m not fully healed, but I don’t think I ever will be.

Oh. What did my regular doctor recommend? Physiotherapy or a chiropractor, and perhaps some over-the-counter anti-inflammatories. Lots of ice too. And a decent chair. Not an X-ray or surgery schedule in sight.

My chiropractor has never mentioned disease control or replacing vaccinations. The closest he ever got was telling me a sore shoulderblade could’ve been from too much time on the computer or possibly from gall bladder issues. “Try cutting back on the coffee,” he said, and that helped immeasurably.

All this for only $25 a pop, and half of that covered by insurance. I’m definitely happy with my chiropractor.

29

Chiropractors can do some good with back injuries.

A few years ago, I had a severely herniated disc in my lower back. Hell, I was walking so stooped over because of the pain that I could have played Quasimodo without any makeup.

I consulted a traditional doctor, a specialist, and a physical therapist. They were kind people, but they did me little good. My mother and others were pushing me to get surgery, but every person I talked to who underwent back surgery had little good to say about the permanent results.

After a couple of months, I consulted two chiropractors in desperation. They did have me coming in for two or three times a week at first, but the visits steadily tapered off as my condition improved. They did take X-rays. I still suffer some back pain, but then I haven’t seen either a chiropractor or a regular doctor in a couple of years. The pain is not incapacitating, and, frankly, I would rather visit a chiropractor once or twice a year and live with some pain then have a back operation.

My chiropractors preached the benefits of regular exercise. I have tried to exercise more since then, and that has helped. They assigned me some exercises to do, and I found those to be quite helpful.

As to the claims about ibuprofen, I will try to find some cites when I have the time, but I believe a recent study got much publicity when it warned about the dangers of taking too much ibuprofen. My regular doctor had me taking 3200 mg of ibuprofen daily for a while and prescribed Loritab, but I found the ibuprofen did little good for relieving the pain, and the Loritab made me so sleepy I quit taking it because I feared the consequences of falling asleep behind the wheel. (In fact, the only drug I found useful during this months-long ordeal was cannabis sativa. Smoking half a joint before bedtime and the other half during the night was the only way I could three or four hours of rested sleep. I ended up trading the remainder of the Loritab for more reefer.)

Ziactrice: The physical therapist who worked on me used some of the same techniques the chiropractors did. The medical profession may condemn chiropractors as quacks, but apparently it is not adverse to borrowing a few tricks.

As for the ice vs. heat debate: My physical therapist used heat on me and the chiropractors recommended ice. I found the ice was more helpful.

DoctorJ: While I agree that claims that chiropractors can cure cancer, impotence, and other conditions are pure, unadulerated bullshit, I think chiropractors are of some benefit in treating back injuries. I also think there are a fair amount of quacks who sneak through medical school. I still remember the doctor who charged me out the ass a few years and the only thing he told me was: “You have congestion.” Shit, I knew that when I walked in the door; why did he think I was there?

As to chiropractors being greedier than doctors, the only thing I can say to that is this: Every time I have visited a standard doctor over the past 15 years, the first question out of the receptionist’s mouth is “How will you pay for this?” not “What is wrong with you?” or “How can we help you?”

Neither chiropractors nor lawyers have a monopoly on greed.