Do Chiropractors actually work?

[beer]

All summer I've been working out less because there has been a constant pain in the lower part of my neck, where it connects to my back.
I never had any problems like this before - the problems I had before were with tight muscles, and in the lower part of my back. The cause of that was deadlifting, and it wasn't as much painful aws just sore. This new pain feels really high up there, almost to the top of my back.

I think I have a good assumption as to the cause - when I live in my apt I have a soft mattress that I can sleep on my back on. Last year my mom decided it would be kind of her to buy me a stiff-as-a-board firm mattress, which really doesn't work all that well for sleeping on your back, so I've been sleeping on my stomach.

Well this weekend somethign must've happened because I can feel my neck grinding and cracking whenever I roll it. I used to never be able to pop my neck, period, and now I can with no problems at all. But the pain is slightly below the point that I can pop on my own. It feels like it needs to get popped really badly...but I can't do it.

I've been thinking about skipping the orthopedic surgeon route and going straight to a chiropractor. What should I do?

 

[filmmaker]

I would see the chiropractor first to see if there is anything they can do about the pain.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: filmmaker
I would see the chiropractor first to see if there is anything they can do about the pain.

The problem is, chiropractors are deemed 'alternative medicine.' I know a lot of people who have been helped by them, but I'm wondering if there are people that have been hurt...

 

[Ferocious]

They are sorta like Massotherapists.

Some are great and can work wonders........while others are fairly worthless and sometimes leave you feeling worse.

Ask people you know and trust for some names.

 

[dullard]

Yes and no.

Chiropractors are good at one thing: easing pain. When I was young I seriously harmed my mother's back on accident (she was picking me up and I struggled too much). She was in immense pain and the doctors said there was nothing they could do. It bothered her for years. She went to a chiropractor and he gave her good massages, taught my dad to do the same massages, and gave my mom some exercises that will keep the pain to a minimum. Shortly afterward the number of complaints I heard from her diminished by at least 90%-95%.

Chiropractors are quacks at everything else - especially diagnosing disease. I have a friend who is addicted to his chiropractor. He goes there weekly and each week his chiropractor discovered some new disease and prescribed his own brand of vitamins to solve the problem. Of course the chiropractor says all other vitamin brands (especially multivitamins) are useless. So my friend is hooked, and pays thousands of dollars a year for dozens of vitamins a day. Needless to say, they are all a waste and he is perfectly healthy.

So it depends on what you expect. If you expect a doctor to diagnose and fix your diseases they don't work. Their 'alternative' medicine is junk science simply done to earn them money. But if you want the best massage to relieve back pain, then I think you'll find chiropractors are great.

 

[cheapgoose]

you know, I just went to one for the first time yesterday and I gotta say, my back is feeling better already. I guess there is something to "getting adjusted".

anyway, my visits only cost $55 for the first 3, then $5 for each additional. I am a student and the place I went to was a chiropractic school, Palmer West in san jose, the guy treated me was an intern, or student at that school, but a real professional was there also, I guess to keep an eye on him and making sure everything was right.

 

[richardycc]

Don't do it, because once you've popped, you can't stop!

 

[Farmall]

Originally posted by: richardycc
Don't do it, because once you've popped, you can't stop!

lol - I hope you are joking!

Chiropractic in general is great - as has been said before some are better then others, but thats no different for your average MD.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Originally posted by: cheapgoose
you know, I just went to one for the first time yesterday and I gotta say, my back is feeling better already. I guess there is something to "getting adjusted".

anyway, my visits only cost $55 for the first 3, then $5 for each additional. I am a student and the place I went to was a chiropractic school, Palmer West in san jose, the guy treated me was an intern, or student at that school, but a real professional was there also, I guess to keep an eye on him and making sure everything was right.

Wow, thats so cheap. I wish they were that cheap around me, they are so damn expensive. Did you have to pay for x-ray costs also or thats included?

 

[Pacfanweb]

Most insurance covers chiro care nowadays.

Yes, they do work, and yes, just like MD's, there are a few quacks.

I sustained a back injury at work in 1991. Initially went to a chiropractor recommended by my boss....kept me out of work for 3 weeks....I was better, but started back hurting almost immediately upon return to work.
Then started a 2 1/2 year trek of MD's, Neurosurgeons, PT, more PT, and a pain clinic. None of which did anything. Never had surgery, was told it wouldn't help.
Ex wife was working at another chiropractor at the time, and after hearing about what I had gone through, offered to see me for free. I went, and he tried different adjustments until one worked......I've been MUCH better since.
I still go about every other month just to keep tuned up.

Another thing: I had surgery on my left knee in 1998. I am an avid bowler, and that's the knee I slide on. Started back bowling about a year after surgery, and was ok at first, then it started hurting again. I lived with it getting progressively worse until March 2002. It had gotten to the point that if I didn't ice it every night, I had a limp the next day, and it hurt all the time.
So I was at the chiropractor just getting my back tuned up, and happened to mention my knee. He checked it, said my tibia was twisted to the outside, and adusted it.
I got up, and the knee hasn't hurt since. The next weekend, to test it, I went and bowled 12 games straight.....no pain. I found a bunch of other muscles that hadn't spoken to me in a long time, but the knee was perfect.
Still is, and I just shot another 300 game 2 weeks ago.

 

[cheapgoose]

Originally posted by: LuNoTiCK

Originally posted by: cheapgoose
you know, I just went to one for the first time yesterday and I gotta say, my back is feeling better already. I guess there is something to "getting adjusted".

anyway, my visits only cost $55 for the first 3, then $5 for each additional. I am a student and the place I went to was a chiropractic school, Palmer West in san jose, the guy treated me was an intern, or student at that school, but a real professional was there also, I guess to keep an eye on him and making sure everything was right.

Wow, thats so cheap. I wish they were that cheap around me, they are so damn expensive. Did you have to pay for x-ray costs also or thats included?

yea, it 's damn cheap, x-ray would have been included but I didn't need it because my injury wasn't from an impact, it's more of a climbing injury.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: dullard
Yes and no.

Chiropractors are good at one thing: easing pain. When I was young I seriously harmed my mother's back on accident (she was picking me up and I struggled too much). She was in immense pain and the doctors said there was nothing they could do. It bothered her for years. She went to a chiropractor and he gave her good massages, taught my dad to do the same massages, and gave my mom some exercises that will keep the pain to a minimum. Shortly afterward the number of complaints I heard from her diminished by at least 90%-95%.

Chiropractors are quacks at everything else - especially diagnosing disease. I have a friend who is addicted to his chiropractor. He goes there weekly and each week his chiropractor discovered some new disease and prescribed his own brand of vitamins to solve the problem. Of course the chiropractor says all other vitamin brands (especially multivitamins) are useless. So my friend is hooked, and pays thousands of dollars a year for dozens of vitamins a day. Needless to say, they are all a waste and he is perfectly healthy.

So it depends on what you expect. If you expect a doctor to diagnose and fix your diseases they don't work. Their 'alternative' medicine is junk science simply done to earn them money. But if you want the best massage to relieve back pain, then I think you'll find chiropractors are great.

then your friend is going to a quack.

a good chiropractor will limit himself to certain areas. Specifically the alignment of the spine.

Elemental, where do you live? if you are in Central Jersey, I really really recommend my chiropractor, he is VERY good.

 

[Bulk Beef]

<nother chiro success story.

 

[CPA]

I have been going to a chiro for years and won't stop anytime soon.

Think about this: all functions of your body are controlled by your brain. And your organs and senses are connected to your brain by nerves and such that run from your brain through your spine and to the organs and other areas of your body. Look at the spine as a bridge between your body and the brain. If the bridge is not kept properly (is subluxed, out of alignment) then the ride for the messages from your brain to your body is going to be bumpy (organs won't function 100%, numbness and tingling may occur, pain in portions of your back, swelling of the cartilege between your disks). If your back is really a mess, then organs can come close to shutting down completely or you may have long term numbness or pain. Medicine from a normal doctor does not cure this, only adjustments will.

I have had far less sickness, headaches and other maladies because I try to keep my back in alignment as much as possible, but age, activity and other issues prevent that from happening. So I continue to go and will continue.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: CPA
I have been going to a chiro for years and won't stop anytime soon.

Think about this: all functions of your body are controlled by your brain. And your organs and senses are connected to your brain by nerves and such that run from your brain through your spine and to the organs and other areas of your body. Look at the spine as a bridge between your body and the brain. If the bridge is not kept properly (is subluxed, out of alignment) then the ride for the messages from your brain to your body is going to be bumpy (organs won't function 100%, numbness and tingling may occur, pain in portions of your back, swelling of the cartilege between your disks). If your back is really a mess, then organs can come close to shutting down completely or you may have long term numbness or pain. Medicine from a normal doctor does not cure this, only adjustments will.

I have had far less sickness, headaches and other maladies because I try to keep my back in alignment as much as possible, but age, activity and other issues prevent that from happening. So I continue to go and will continue.

my chiro feels (and so do i) that chiropractic CHECKUPS should be viewed like Dental Checkups or Physicals. Something one should do every year.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Finally,

IF chiro's were TOTAL Quacks and they DID NOT work at all, would Insurance companies pay out?

Chiropractors regularly collect from Health insurance companies, Personal Injury cases, Workers comp cases.

DO you honestly believe all these major insurance companies would pay for Chiropractic care if there was NO benefit there?

 

[naddicott]

I have had two points in my life where a couple adjustments took me from a state of major pain (could barely move - musles in back locked in spasm) to complete relief in a matter of weeks.

On the other hand, the x-rays clearly showed exactly where my spine was misaligned and that was exactly where the chiropractors did their adjustments. My spinal x-ray also showed that my lowest vertebrae is fused to my hip, which makes me prone to misalignments when doing high impact/load bearing activities (like carrying a 50lb backpack for three weeks as a 110lb teenager for instance).

If your spine isn't misaligned, I have no clue why the hell you would go to a chiropractor. I find it even more disturbing that some chiropractors don't just refer you off to more appropriate treatment in those circumstances.

Buyer beware, but if the source of your pain is suited for that type of treatment (i.e. spine related) and you can find someone who isn't a quack, there is no better source of relief.

Even better, stay fit with flexible but strong muscles all around your waist, torso, shoulders, and neck and you may never bother needing chiropractic care in the first place...

[edit: changed "you can never bother..." to "you may never bother..." to make it clearer that I'm expressing an opinion based on my experience, not medical fact.]

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: naddicott
I have had two points in my life where a couple adjustments took me from a state of major pain (could barely move - musles in back locked in spasm) to complete relief in a matter of weeks.

On the other hand, the x-rays clearly showed exactly where my spine was misaligned and that was exactly where the chiropractors did their adjustments. My spinal x-ray also showed that my lowest vertebrae is fuzed to my hip, which makes me prone to misalignments when doing high impact/load bearing activities (like carrying a 50lb backpack for three weeks as a 110lb teenager for instance).

If your spine isn't misaligned, I have no clue why the hell you would go to a chiropractor. I find it even more disturbing that some chiropractors don't just refer you off to more appropriate treatment in those circumstances.

Buyer beware, but if the source of your pain is suited for that type of treatment (i.e. spine related) and you can find someone who isn't a quack, there is no better source of relief.

Even better, stay fit with flexible but strong muscles all around your waist, torso, shoulders, and neck and you can never bother needing chiropractic care in the first place...

and you know this how, Do you not realize, that what you just did, give medical advice with no real knowledge, makes you MORE of a quack than most chiropractors?

muscle strenth alone is not enough to keep you spine healthy and adjusted for a lot of incidents in life, for eg. Whiplash, your car gets hit from behind, muscular strength makes NO DIFFERENCE. periods of stress in your life, selling a house, getting married, breaking up with a SA, these types of things can affect the health of your spine and tho excercise can help, it will may not totally resolve your problems.

reading too much can also severly affect the health of your spine. the spine in your neck should have a nice curve, unfortunately reading with your head down negatively effects this natural curve, leading to all kinds of headaches etc, muscular strength will NOT resolve this situation.

your comment is like saying there is no such thing as carpal tunnel, if you just excercise your muscles it won't be a problem

Excercise is NECESSARY and beneficial, but it does NOT solve all health problems.

 

[amnesiac]

My g/f went to a chiro after a car accident and he ended up making her back WORSE. Now instead of having temporary back problems it has turned into a permanent issue.

There's an alternate type of chiro that uses machines to do the alignement. Apparently it's a lot safer than having someone use their hands.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
My g/f went to a chiro after a car accident and he ended up making her back WORSE. Now instead of having temporary back problems it has turned into a permanent issue.

There's an alternate type of chiro that uses machines to do the alignement. Apparently it's a lot safer than having someone use their hands.

there can be bad practitioners in any field, that does not disqualify the field.

 

[Turkey22]

Unfortunately there is something to not being able to stop. I had a lot of back problems in high school and went to the chiro, which took care of all my problems but I noticed if I stopped going I would get different problems. Eventually I fell into a groove where I wasnt having any problems for a while and stopped going. Since then I havent had any problems with my back that weren't due to me sleeping on it wrong or doing something I wasnt supposed to. One of the best things I learned was how and how not to crack parts of your body and how not to sleep. I think the overall education helped me more than the actually adjustments did in the long run.

Oh yeah btw don't expect to feel better after the first visit if you have any serious pains. First time it took about 2 visits to start feeling better and 3 or 4 to be free of pain.

 

[naddicott]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: naddicott
Even better, stay fit with flexible but strong muscles all around your waist, torso, shoulders, and neck and you can never bother needing chiropractic care in the first place...

and you know this how, Do you not realize, that what you just did, give medical advice with no real knowledge, makes you MORE of a quack than most chiropractors?
[...]
Excercise is NECESSARY and beneficial, but it does NOT solve all health problems.

Of course direct trauma can cause back problems even in individuals who exercise their back and neck (and use proper posture and sleep in healthy positions on good mattresses). I apologize for assuming a base level of independent thought among those reading this thread.

Anyone who takes medical advice from anonymous strangers on internet forums without a HUGE dose of skepticism is a fool and I refuse to take personal responsibility for decisions someone takes based off of what they read on ATOT. One should make important medical decisions based off the advice of a trained (and hopefully trusted) medical practitioner.

My knowledge of avoiding back problems with exercise is based off of my personal experience, which is all one could expect from an ATOT post. That is more than "no real knowledge", but certainly not enough for someone else to base a medical decision off of. Medical Quacks are worse than that quote of mine, IMO because they claim a greater level of expertise than they have. Of course one should defer to a non-quack chiropractor's knowledge over anything they read here.

I'm sorry if I offended your ethical code for Forum based medicine.

 

[Cerb]

Go for it.
I was recommended to one when I was a kid. I wet the bed a lot.
Saw him three times that week.
By the end of the week, I was cured of it.
Alternative? Yes. Works? Yes.
Also was able to clue my mom and I in about my allergies.
Overall I had more energy after treatments, as well. I probably should go see his son one of these days (Sr. died, Jr. took over the practice).
I don't know about most of them, but my experiences are far more positive than those I've had with traditional doctors.
Many problems my normal docs have found have been treated by the two chiros I've been to.
However, as with going to any doctor, schedule an appointment first to talk to them, not doing any treatment.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

I think they are kinda quacks. I know of a ton of people that figure they need one and go to them and never stop going to them. I figure if you have to keep going to them then they basically are doing nothing. The fact that insurance companies pay for them does not mean anything, I know some hospitals that started doing "theraputic touch" which is a joke all by itself.

Has there been any studies that proved that chiropractics or "adjustments" did anything at all? Last time I heard there was none but I'm curious if any had been done.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Antisocial-Virge
I think they are kinda quacks. I know of a ton of people that figure they need one and go to them and never stop going to them. I figure if you have to keep going to them then they basically are doing nothing. The fact that insurance companies pay for them does not mean anything, I know some hospitals that started doing "theraputic touch" which is a joke all by itself.

Has there been any studies that proved that chiropractics or "adjustments" did anything at all? Last time I heard there was none but I'm curious if any had been done.

means nothing?


do you keep going to a dentist? to your family doctor? if you keep going does it mean they don't cure anything?

if dentist had their way, you would come in for cleaning's every 3 months, you would get invisiline to correct your teeth of the smallest defect. you would be in their office 4 or 5 times a year. are dentists quacks?

there are economic incentives for all doctors, dentists, chiropractors to get you to keep coming back. that does not make them QUACKS, it just means some people are not intelligent enough to make their own decisions.

btw, spines are harder to maintain than teeth and more vital to overall health, so which do you think you should spend more time and money on?