I had crippling sciatica a few years ago, and I went to see a local chiro. I had to sit through a movie and shit, but once he treated me 4 or 5 times for a misaligned spine, I was cured and it hasn’t returned.
Back in January, I slipped on ice and hit the ground hard. My only issue (thank god; it could have been much worse) was a yoinked neck, which my chiro fixed.
I’m a firm believer that chiros can successfully treat spinal misalignment issues.
My only experience with acupuncture was kind of interesting. It was a small group setting, and the amateur acu-doer stuck us with pins (mine was in my left ear), which I think was supposed to induce relaxation. I started to experience an erection, which if you know anything about male physiology, is the result of the relaxation of certain muscles.
In the UK I don’t think anyone would think you were a goofball for going to a chiropractor - very definitely mainstream for back and neck pain. Accupuncture is probably seen as a bit more far out but pretty widely accepted, again for long term pain. In some areas they are both available on the National Health Service.
As to whether they work - my answer would have to be sometimes. I tried a chiropractor for lower back pain and although it helped temporarily it didn’t do any long term good but I know a couple of other people who got complete relief from their pain. Accupuncture I haven’t tried but Mrs Marcus found it really helped her back pain.
In high school I hurt my knee running during the winter and my mom sent me to a chiropractor (who also happened to do physio I think). He would crack my leg and put those electro-pad things (that make your muscles twitch for a while). He said I should keep coming back until it didn’t hurt anymore. After about 2 months of visits, it still hurt and I finally just lied and said I was all better. A few months after that the pain WAS gone and I imagine if I had stuck with the treatments it would have been attributed to his work.
One thing I think is important to keep in mind with things like chiropractic (especially with extended treatment) is that the body often heals itself. You may experience positive results but without a legitimate and verifiable theory behind the treatment (which chiropractic definitely lacks), there’s no way to properly attribute the results to the treatment.
I used to a listen to a podcast called “Quackcast” which was created by an infections disease doctor who had a hobby of investigating “quack” medicine. He did an episode on investigating the efficacy and risks of chiropractic where he concluded (if I remember correctly) that in terms of back pain chiropractic and physio therapy are equally effective but chiropractic has a significantly higher risk of injury. Here’s the sources he used for that episode.
2.5 years ago I started having pain in my right hip that started out very small and gradually became very painful. It also affected my lower back and left knee. My family doctor said that the hip pain was due to lower back issues which were a result of weak core muscles.
He gave me excercises. They did nothing.
I saw a PT. He gave me different excercises. They helped, but didn’t resolve the problem with my hip.
I had my back and hip run through an MRI. No injuries to the bone was found, but my right gluteous medius was found to be smaller than the left one. More PT helped to strengthen it, but I still had hip pain.
So I went to see a Chiropractor. He did his adjustments and told me to take 500 mg of calcium daily to reduce my hip pain. He also was asking about injuries to my body that never happened. I’m definitely never going back to a chiropractor again after that.
Turns out the problem was plantar faciitis in my right foot, causing the rest of my body to be thrown out of alignment. I figured this out myself. The Chiro never even asked about my feet, but then neither did my family doctor or PT. So I guess I don’t know who to trust now because they all missed the root cause.
I’ve periodically had back pain and stiffness stemming from a lower back injury sustained many years ago.
When my back goes out, I take it easy and use pain medication, and the pain and soreness go away within days to a week or so. Obviously, not seeing a chiropractor is the key to my recovery.
Studies show that chiropractic is about as effective as massage and other forms of physical therapy for back pain. Some will get relief better with manipulation, others not.
What should be avoided, as previously noted here, are chiros who use machines that they claim will do all sorts of wondrous things (the promotion of useless gadgets has long been a part of chiropractic quackery). Also, claims that manipulating the spine will help with allergies, infant colic, and various other physical complaints that have zero to do with spinal alignment and spinal nerves should be viewed as quackery. And stay away from chiros who do forceful neck cracking (which can damage the vertebral artery and cause strokes).
Here’s some good advice about what you should expect a chiropractor may be able to do for you.
*"If you decide to consult a chiropractor, try to find one whose practice is limited to conservative treatment of musculoskeletal problems. Ask your family doctor for the names of chiropractors who fit this description and who appear to be competent and trustworthy. If your doctor cannot provide a name, ask other people and, if they recommend one, be sure to ask what conditions the chiropractor treats. If the chiropractor claims to treat infections or a wide range of other diseases, look elsewhere. But don’t depend upon the Yellow Pages. You should avoid chiropractors who make extravagant claims or who advertise extensively.
When you have selected a chiropractor, go for a consultation or conduct a telephone interview to find out how he or she practices. If the chiropractor treats infants, offers spinal adjustments as a treatment for visceral disease or infection or as a method of preventing ill health, requires that every patient be x-rayed, or requires payments in advance for a long course of treatments, call another chiropractor."*
I hope he’s written up the case for the Journal of Reptilian Subluxation.
I’ll go to real doctors, who base their diagnoses on scientific discoveries that are reproducable. I will absolutely not allow someone who does not have real medical training, does not know what it is they’re actually DOING, who does not have significant oversight by the FDA or any real clinical regulation, manipulate my spine or poke me with needles.
Doctors can be wrong, sometimes. Chiropractors can be right, sometimes. I would still rather bet on the guy who knows what he can and can’t do because he’s basing his practice on actual knowledge over the guy who claims he has found the Medical Theory of Everything and can fix your entire life with a cheap miracle treatment.
Question for US dopers: are chiropractors in the States regulated or can anyone stick a sign of their door and start manipulating backs? In the UK they are regulated and it is illegal to call yourself a Chiropractor if you are not registered with the General Chiropractic Council (who set training standards) in the same way as Doctors, Dentists, and Nurses.
Acupuncture isn’t explained by bad theory. It’s explained by a theory within a completely separate paradigm, that is often translated poorly. People are generally speaking of the poor translation when they assault acupuncture.
I’ve been to both. I am a trained massage therapist. There is nothing at all loopy about Chiropractic. Obviously you don’t go to a Chiropractor for a sore throat.
Generally the issue here is a matter of the practitioner. Acupuncture can do a lot of stuff that defies explanation. The issue though is finding a really expert practitioner. There is a whole system of pedagogy regarding Chinese medicine that treats different layers of issues as the practitioner becomes more skilled as they progress. Not every practitioner can get into the deeper stuff, in fact most cannot, though plenty claim that they can. Also, a Doctor of Chinese medicine does not use acupuncture alone, they use herbs, massage, and diet as well. Anyone claiming that they can do anything with needles alone doesn’t even know their own craft that well.
This is something I find really annoying. Chiropractors and Acupuncturists are generally judged by the lowest in the field. If we judged western medicine by the worst doctors, no one would trust western medicine either.
When I was in my twenties, I had a rather awful job which involved long hours walking around with a backpack full of papers and crap. After a few years of this nonsense I quite unsur
Could a moderator please nuke that post (the one right above, with my name on it) to death as soon as possible? It was part of the first sentence of the one I am actually trying to compose; my fingers slipped and i hit “Post quick reply” by accident. Thanks in advance.
When I was in my 20s, I had a rather shit job which involved (among other things) carrying a big backpack full of papers and crap all over the streets of various Bay Area cities on foot. Naturally, this job eventually paid me a dividend of impressive lower back pain.
I had no insurance, so my options for getting relief from the back whack seemed limited indeed. The I found out that I could get a series of free treatments at a nearby chirpractic college - in order to get their certification, California law demands that chiropractor students must log in a certain amount of hands-on time with real subjects (under the watchful eye of a fully qualified instructor, of course), and they often get said hands-on time by offering free or minimal-cost sessions to low-income people.
I had a back that hurt entirely too much for a guy in his 20s and this was the first option I’d found that offered even a possibility of getting relief, so I went for it, and signed up for graduate practice (or whatever they called it)at a chiropractor school in Oakland. There wasn’t any woo-woo stuff involved, mine being a straightforward case of a young man who’d fucked his back up.
I remember my first treatment vividly indeed. My chiro-in-waiting laid me down on my belly, got into position over me and –whooooomph! Krk-k-k-kPOP! there was this series of, ermmmm, events that I heard as much as I felt, and -like that!- my freaking back did not hurt any more.. After a week I was started getting some pain again, but considerably less; another treatment took it away again and the pattern went like that for the 14 weeks I was going in every 10 days – each time it hurt a lot less finally I had no recurrence to speak of. My student chiropractor also gave me a set of back and leg stretching exercises which seemed to help a lot too.
So yeah, I believe a good chiropractor can do wonders for a messed up back, even though the new-agey ones who claim they can practically cure baldness and death are definitely full of bullcakes. Between whatever it was that young doctor-to-be was doing to my lower vertebrae and those exercises he gave me, I managed to keep working at that job for several more years --until my* feet *were pretty much permanently fucked
Well, when I was pregnant with my son, I went to a Chinese practitioner (acupuncturist) and a standard OB/GYN for prenatal exams. The OB/GYN was a month off in estimating weeks of gestation. (they said 3 months.)
The acupuncturist was spot on. (she said 4 months.) While I was in her waiting room, I spoke to a working-class-truck-driver type of guy who said he never would ever have gone to an acupuncturist; but he had been in a car accident and Western medicine had not been able to help his chronic pain. Finally he tried her in desperation, on the advice of a friend, and he said he was amazed at how much she was helping.
So… I have a question for the believers here. I’ve been considering seeing a Chiropractor.
My problem: For the past several months, I’ve had pretty consistent upper/mid back pain. Mostly on the left middle back area and in the shoulder blades. By in the shoulder blades I mean… it almost feels like its under the shoulder blades. (A little on the right shoulder blade, but not nearly as bad.) The spine itself is ok.
This has gone on for long enough, that I don’t think its going to go away on its own.
Is this something that a Chiropractor would be able to help, since it does not appear to be spinal- even though it is back pain? Somebody asked what exactly does an adjustment consist of, but it was never answered. Anyone?
(I have a friend who has a chiropractor who she highly recommends. My friend is a very science/nerdy type, and in no way whatsoever new wavy. I specifically asked if her Chiro was one who believes they can align your spirit and cure you of cancer and all that, or one who believes that can help alleviate back problems and she assures me it is the latter. So I believe, I at least have a solid Chiro in mind and not a whack job.)
I see a chiropractor every once in a while when I have a back or neck problem. I used to go regularly when I played a lot of tennis. I started going because of a painful sloppy shoulder. Every chiropractor I saw did the same neck adjustments and they would work for 6 to 12 months. Whenever I have gone I have received some relief. No chiropractor has ever mentioned it being useful for anything other than skeletal problems.
I once saw an acupuncturist when I had Bell’s Palsy (facial paralysis). I was receiving standard medical care and the doctor told me it would last weeks. I figured that acupuncture may help and had a couple of treatments a week. I was over the palsy in half the time the doctor had said but don’t know that there was any direct relationship. I only used acupuncture because the idea of nerve stimulation for a nerve problem made sense.
I think it was me that you are referring to who asked the same question. This being the SDMB, I figured someone would answer this basic question although no one ever did. In fact, I have never gotten anyone to answer the question of what the physical techniques of spinal adjustments are and I think that is very strange. I have pain similar to yours and I would go to a chiropractor in a New York second if I thought they would help but no one will ever say what they do for such a thing. It makes Scientologists look like a group of scientific method geniuses.
What technique would a chiropractor use to relieve upper back tension/pain?
Well…I may just go and see whats up. Even though my friend assures me this isn’t one of the shady Chiro’s- I still have skepticism that’s keeping me away. I’d like to go in with an open mind. If I go, I’ll let you know what happened.
