Chiropractors Are Not What You Think They Are

[Quixote1818]

[Liberty Belle]

1. My chiropractor is a miracle worker- without chiro I have unbearable pain.

Multiple disk injuries and nerve damage from two accidents; I tried everything including surgery, and only chiropractic relieves the severe pain. I've been going for years, and am very grateful to the excellent chiropractors I've seen over the years.

[Jim__]

2. The video is 28 minutes, I only watched about 3 minutes.

I'll say this. When I was younger I threw my back out from time to time. When I went to MDs, they gave me muscle relaxers, which worked for as long as I stayed on the muscle relaxers. When I stopped taking them, my back pain returned.

I started to go to chiropractors instead. Over the years, I probably went to about 5 different chiropractors. They all helped me. Essentially, on the first visit they'd "crack my back" and that did the trick. They would usually want me to come back, I learned to just go for the first visit which would resolve the problem.

For the last 25 years I've exercised a lot. If I lift weights, I always wear a back brace. I haven't had a back problem over those last 25 years.

[Nanjeanne]

3. My chiropractor along with massage therapist and Pilates saved my life after car accident.

But there are plenty of terrible ones and people need to really choose one carefully.

[Thunderbeast]

4. I once served on a jury in a civil trial after a car accident

Damages from the accident including direct medical claims had been settled.

The plaintif sued for $126,000 stating that the accident and neck injury caused her to develop cancer. No medical doctors supported that claim. Written depositions from three chiropractors wa the only evidence the plaintif had.

It was late in the day on a hot Friday (no air conditioning in this courthouse). The jury wanted to go home. An award of $26,000 was made so everyone could go home. The vote was 11-1.

The people on the jury weighed the deposition of chiropactors as "good enough" to support this scam.

[Disaffected]

25. The claim that an accident and neck injury

caused cancer is absurd and, another in a long litany of chiropractic nonsense.

[Iggo]

5. When I crack my knuckles, they feel better, all the way to the next time I have to crack them again.

If that’s all chiropractors do, then they are what I think they are.

[Chainfire]

6. I won't even walk on the sidewalk in front of their offices.

I would rather take my troubles down to Madam Ruth...

[True Dough]

31. Madam Ruth?

A tarot card reader, I'm assuming?

[Wounded Bear]

35. I believe she hawks Love Potion #9...

[True Dough]

52. Ah, lyrics from a classic song

I am familiar with the tune, but didn't know the words that well. A little before my time.

[Tanuki]

39. No....she's a gypsy with a gold-capped tooth!

?si=J-OiSN0iozvL1U0T

[Chainfire]

53. My age may be showing!

[Polly Hennessey]

55. Oh, for a minute, I thought it was Dr. Ruth,

a sex therapist. 😊

[Delphinus]

7. That

was a most interesting video. Thanks for posting it.

[hlthe2b]

8. Those that limit themselves to that which they are trained for are fine...

Years ago, I had scores of chiropractic students from Marietta, Georgia's "Life College" trying to convince me that CHIROPRACTIC eliminated polio in the Western Hemisphere--not the vaccine. I'm told that veterinary emergency clinics in Atlanta were seeing them bring in their unvaccinated puppies with parvo about the same time, so I guess they failed at curing that too.

[MOMFUDSKI]

9. I have experienced help from chiropractors.

Threw my back out years back and he found a twisted vertebrae. Got the back crack thingy and voila! When I walked in I couldn’t stand upright and left fully erect and feeling great. One visit

[Emile]

51. Hanging upside down on an inversion table

will do the same thing.

[edhopper]

10. You mean they aren't charlitans

who base their work on debunked pseudo-medicine?

They can be gifted masseuses who give some temporary relief. But I always ask people who tell me chiropractors have been helping them for years, "why do you still have to go to them after years if their voodoo is suppose to work."
Have chiropractors ever cured anyone of anything?

[luv2fly]

32. Great point

I have a friend who's been going to "talk" therapy for years, probably even decades. Same question... if you need to go for that long, what are they really doing for you? I suspect it's something more like a paid friend.

[Aristus]

37. That's what I tell my patients when I advise them to steer clear of

chiropractors.

So many of them say: “I’ve been going to him for ten years and I’m not better yet.”

I start them out with physical therapy, and I tell them that a really good, first class therapist wants to treat you and then never see you again because they’ve treated the underlying problem, and not just the symptom, and there is measurable improvement.

[edhopper]

50. Yes

a good physical therapist is worth a dozen chiropractors.

[Maru Kitteh]

11. Chiropractic was founded as a religion by a con man, and one need only

ask around to see all the snake charmers yelling AMEN!

I didn't know that L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology ripped off a bunch of wackadoodle chiropractic stuff but that totally tracks.

Totally understandable that people are reticent to take medications and wish that roller tables and other funny little machines could make things better but the truth is the sprains, strains and minor tears that lead most to seek out chiropractic "treatment" are bound to resolve or show measurable improvement in a roughly equivalent time frame as you will be told you need chiropractic "treatment." In other words, it would have resolved anyway, but they are very happy to be there to help recover any of your unused wallet contents.


Woo.

[Disaffected]

12. Chiropractors are quacks

in just about every sense of the word. There are a few, very few, that confine their "practice" to more physiotherapy types of treatment (part of the so-called "chiropractic reform movement" ) but, if that's all they do, why not just go to a licenced physiotherapist and skip the BS?

There will always be the anecdotal evidence about seemingly miraculous results from chiropractic treatment (usually with claims that conventional medicine was ineffective) but it is worth keeping in mind an old saying by IIRC, George Bernard Shaw, that m/l goes "The only greater liars than the quacks themselves are the quack's patients".

OTOH, not all chiropractic patients who report good outcomes are lying. The problem is, and this applies to all forms of quackery, they go for treatment, sometimes in conjunction with conventional treatment, and the condition improves or resolves completely, not because the quack treatment did any good but because the conventional treatment helped or the condition resolved itself (as the great majority of ailments do). And, often in cases like this, the quacks for some reason get the credit.

One reason why quackery continues to be popular is the a successful quack talks a good game. They typically spend more time with the patient, listen sympathetically to their problems and gives them reassurances that their treatment methods will surely work where others have failed. It's about salesmanship, placebo effect and false expectations more than anything else.

And, very importantly, if you insist in going to a chiropractor, NEVER, NEVER let him/her adjust your neck - the benefits are minimal to non-existent and the risk of paralysis or death is to high to be ever justified.

BTW, a good relevant resource is Quackwatch:

https://quackwatch.org

"Quackwatch, which is operated by Stephen Barrett, M.D., is a network of Web sites and mailing lists maintained by the Center for Inquiry (CFI). The sites focus on health frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Their main goal is to provide quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere. To help visitors with special areas of interest, there are sites that cover autism, chiropractic, dentistry, multilevel marketing, and many other problematic areas."

Highly recommended....

[Rebl2]

24. That was my exact

thought. Don’t let them touch your neck for the reasons you stated.

[Aristus]

38. Adverse conditions resolving on their own are how I explain to patients

why I’m not going to prescribe antibiotics for their viral infection. “But I had this before. The doctor gave me antibiotics, and I got better!”

I tell them that you got better on your own, as you do when you have a viral infection, and you thought it was the antibiotics that did it.

[Disaffected]

44. An excellent example.

As was mentioned elsewhere on this thread, sometimes the best treatment is "tincture of time".

[Warpy]

13. Um, yes and no

A study was done a thousand or so years ago (OK, it was late 70s, early 89s, that long ago) wherein people with low back pain had fake chiropractor manipulation and the real thing. Other than that, they were urged to use ice, do light activity, and strengthening exercises. The group with the real chiropractors healed several days sooner.

Other studies have been less dramatic.

Things to watch out for are the scams about having one leg longer than the other, you can shift your butt over half an inch and make the opposite leg look like the long one. Neck manipulation can be dangerous, people hoave thrown clots, lacerated blood vessels, and had other complications from that---rare but there. Side hustles like selling vitamins and other supplements are common, you can get that stuff cheaper at Wally's.

Bottom line: medical intervention can't do much for low back pain short of surgery,, which they won't attempt until pain is radiating down one or both legs and physical therapy doesn't work. Some people do claim significant paid relief from chiropractic manipulations of the area. I'd say go for it if that is the case.

Just stay away from the neck, please.

[Disaffected]

26. What is the actual difference between

fake chiropractor manipulation and the real thing?? Seems to me they would be indistinguishable.

[Texasgal]

40. My Father was diagnosed

with spinal stenosis several years ago, but not before he went to a Chiropractor for neck and back pain. I am so relieved that my father had a good doctor that told him to NEVER return to a chiropractor for fear they could paralyze him!

He later had surgery and plates installed that has helped him immensely!

[Warpy]

43. Neck work should be avoided

by anyone with neck pain. Even the young and healthy should avoid it, nature always siding with the hidden flaws in all of us.

Uncomplicated lower back strain without radiating pain or numbness is fair game, although I personally prefer to shove an ice pack down my jeans and wait for it to numb the pain enough for me to go back about my businessm, whatever it is. It's cheaper.

[NowISeetheLight]

14. Help

I've visited chiropractors for my chronic back pain. Honestly the massage and electrical stim and heat help me than the "adjustment". I won't let them do anything with my neck as I've read medical articles of transacted carotid and other really serious and near fatal injuries.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. The "founder" of chiropractic said he got the information from a ghost, so.

[Elessar Zappa]

16. My dad swears by it.

He usually gets relief for a few months after the chiropractor. As for myself, I’m not sure. There’s not much evidence that it works so perhaps my dad is experiencing the placebo effect. Either way, it helps him so I’m glad of that.

[Archae]

17. All we need to do is look at how chiropractic got "acceptance."

That is, "acceptance" by the medical community. Not all of them, mind you.

Not through showing through science how good they do.

Chiropractors went the political route.
That's right, they convinced the suckers...I mean politicians on their payroll to support them.

In the meantime, we just had a chiropractor leave town after he was claiming to cure covid.

[Disaffected]

27. Exactly the case.

Chiropractors tried to gain scientific acceptance, failed miserably and instead took the political route with great success, as you said.

They were greatly assisted in that endeavor as most politicians (>95%?) are science illiterate and many are actively science deniers.

[Sneederbunk]

18. How many chiropractors does it take to change a lightbulb?

One, but it takes several visits.

[Bayard]

19. I've only had one chiropractor do me any good

He didn't do, "adjustments." He practiced Kinesiology. I thought he was nuts when I first started going, but several months later, I realized it was working. After several months, we agreed I was in pretty good shape again, and could call it quits unless something stupid happened again. This chiro was recommended to me by a happy patient.

I was pretty messed up from my horse falling on top of me in a concrete wash stall, that was really stupidly configured. I slammed into the wall, and broke my right shoulder across horizontally (apparently, not very common,) and did a number on my back. When I finally climbed back in the saddle, I had to wear a back brace.

Sadly, I left him behind in Cincinnati. I could sure use him now. I've been to a few of the local standard ones, and its just BS. I bought my own TENS unit and massage gun.

[Raine]

20. I'm so grateful to my chiropractor, if it wasn't for him

I'd be in constant pain and probably unable to get up and get around.

[TomSlick]

22. Chiropractic is a farce that sometimes works.

It may be the placebo effect, or it may be the tincture of time, or doing something a physical therapist or masseur could do for less money.

If a chiropractor says you need "adjustments" for several weeks, go see a real doctor. If a chiropractor says that you need special Digital Motion X-rays, you're being scammed. If a chiropractor claims to be able to treat a medical condition - not simple aches and pains - RUN.

[Captain Zero]

23. I found a Chiro who was a subtle sadist

After about 5-6 visits he was leaning in my face and trying to inflict pain. He didn't care. A female Chiro I got hooked up with had a half a gallon of Estee Lauder perfume slathered on. I had much better pain relief from Therapeutic massage.

[patphil]

28. I never bought into the chiropractic heals everything, but it certainly helped with my back pain.

It's the best way to put your back into balance when something goes out.
I went to Chiropractors on and off for a couple decades, and, in my opinion, it's fundamentally a form of physical therapy.
And it works.
As a result of my experiences, I do stretching and twisting exercises as recommended, and sometimes use and inversion table at home. As a result, I am essentially pain free, and have been for over 20 years.
I would not hesitate to recommend Chiropractic treatment to someone with chronic back pain.

[tanyev]

29. I went to a chiropractor a couple decades ago,

after I popped something in my upper back myself and it did not feel good afterwards. He did get that sorted out for me, but, yeah, he got me going on once a week maintenance visits which I did for awhile, but then finally deliberately missed my last appointment and never went back.

Years later, I did something to my lower back and tried an Airrosti clinic. We have quite a few in the DFW area--I don't know how prevalent they are elsewhere. The doctors you see there are chiropractors, but it's nothing like the chiro I went to before. They don't do adjustments or manipulations. It's all pressing on soft tissue points to get whatever's borked up to release. And they give you relevant exercises to do.

Their stated goal is to get you feeling better and done with treatment in as few visits as possible. I think I had 5 or 6 visits the first time I went there. I was fine for years after that but I recently had a similar issue pop up and I went back there right away. Only needed 3 visits this time. The pressing into what's sore can be painful, but I found their treatment very effective.

[intelpug]

45. chiropractic

Several years ago I went to one because the company I worked for would pay for it. While there I mentioned how my right arm and shoulder hurt so bad when I put my arm behind my back it was almost unbearable. He told me the problem wasn't in my arm but in my neck. He showed me the x ray and explained that my neck had gotten way too strait with no curvature left and this was pinching nerves that led to the arm and shoulder thus causing the pain. I ran a road grader at the time all day for several years , He said that he saw this problem a lot in equipment operators whose job compelled them to look down all day like at a road. He did not offer to ''crack'' my neck, instead he told me that we would have to work at restoring the curvature of the neck to get the pinch off the nerves. To this end he told me to roll up a towel, not a pillow as a pillow would not work,, Place the rolled up towel under my neck for no more than twenty minutes at a time once or twice a day but not to fall asleep as this would be too much at a time for it After a week or so it proved he was right, as my neck regained it's natural curvature the pain correspondingly went away till I regained full range again. I do not know what a regular MD would have recommended but I know at least this time a chiropractor sure worked for me

[Tree Lady]

30. I went to a chiropractor for years

in my 30's when I had back pain, never helped.

Finally I read Dr Sarno's book Healing Back Pain and now belong to group called Pain Free You on FB its all about Mindbody and how the brain creates pain from stress and thinking you are in danger when you are not.

That is what healed me of years of back pain.

[bagimin]

49. My two favorite books..

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno!

[multigraincracker]

33. I had bad experience with one and never tried

it again. However I did buy a “Back to Life Machine” at a yard sale for $25. It was a miracle. When ever I come down with sciatic pain, I use it for 20 minutes and it goes away. Go figure. Might come back once a year and I use it again once and it goes away again.

[NickB79]

34. I gave myself a bulged disk when I was 28

Too much physical labor at work, like an idiot.

Eventually the disk ruptured and I needed a few months of physical therapy to get healed up (but no surgery, thank God).

The chiropractor I saw first, however, told me I had a bone spur on my vertebrae, based off an x-ray he took. He suggested weekly adjustments and electrical stimulation therapy, which felt good but didn't fix anything.

The actual doctor who got me an MRI when my disk ruptured said there was no sign of any "bone spurs".

I'll never trust a chiropractor again.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

36. My daughter is celebrsting 20 years as one.

She has had her own clinic for 19 years. She earned her Undergraduate degree in Kneisiology from the University of Minnesota in 1999. Her Doctor of Chiropractic in November of 2003.

She has additional certificates as a Certified Sports Physician and a Pedeatric Chiropractic Physician. These took her years to get during her practice.

What she knows has helped so many. Her patients, office staff, and Interns LOVE her. We as older parents, are blessed

[Kennah]

41. Cry quack all you like. Mine is all but my prime care doc.

From 1989 to 2005, I suffered debilitating back and neck pain that recurred about every 12-18 months and lasted 1-2 weeks each recurrence. I was 31, and I had a cane that I needed from time to time.

In 2005, I started seeing a chiro regular. He gave me a copy of the book "The Chiropractic Way", and it was an enthralling read. However, over time, my back pain continuously reduced. Today, it's about every 3 years that the debilitating pain comes back, and it lasts only 2-3 days.

I had seen chiros before, but they never did me much good. The guy I found in 2005 was a graduate of Sherman College. Sherman is different. Find a chiro who's a graduate of Sherman.

My pain likely came from three car accidents and a fall in the mid-1980s. Never had any chiro treatment for it.

In 2009 and 2013, I was in car accidents. I saw a chiro for these, and my recovery was fairly quick. My kids were in the 2013 accident, and I took them to chiro. They bounced back much faster.

My youngest was 3, and I took all 3 out trick or treating for Halloween. Youngest stumbled and whined a little bit. He seemed fine, but I figured he was tired, so I took them home. The next morning, the 3-year-old is limping around in pain. He's on the autism spectrum and does not communicate well to this day at age 14. Took him to the pediatrician. There was nothing broken, no need for imaging, and he recommended no meds. Then took him to the chiro, who had been treating my son periodically for about 5 months. Doc watched him walk, did some light manipulation of my son's foot, and the kid's walking without issue. He's a smart kid, but he didn't call the chiro and arrange to punk me.

[Archae]

42. I've seen a term in the posts here...

What sounds like a legitimate science.

Kinesiology, the study of human movements.

But many chiro-quacks distort it.

A reporter for a local Vegas TV station went to a chiropractors' convention, most of the displays and presentations were not medical.
They were how to SELL.

Sell more "treatments," and of course, selling supplements.

Applied kinesiology (not to be confused with kinesiology, Wikipedia the scientific study of human movement) is a major chiropractic-based woo that is based on the idea that the way your muscles respond to being pushed against can tell the "doctor" what you're suffering from, including food sensitivity (as distinct from actual immune response), toxins, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity.[1] It has even been claimed that applied kinesiology can detect parasites from "parasite energy signatures".[2] Apparently the practice can also be used to turn your body into a human lie detector.[3] The things these people believe…

The applied kinesiology scam is a trick used by some chiropractors and purveyors of "power bracelets" to fool someone concerning the efficacy of an object or therapy. It entails placing someone in an unstable position or touching them in a way designed to momentarily distract them, then pushing or pulling on them to make them unbalanced. The procedure is then repeated, but with the aid of the 'magic' item. However, this time, the subject is subconsciously prepared for the action and is able to successfully resist the pushing or pulling.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Applied_kinesiology

[summer_in_TX]

46. I'm able to walk without pain with each step

thanks to my chiropractor. I’d had a foot injury that would not heal, where I could not take a single step without pain and couldn’t take even short hikes for a year. Then I learned about a great chiropractor who was a ballerina when younger and so in her training and now her practice, she took an interest in healing foot and leg pain. I started getting treatments from her in September and by the end of October I was able to walk several miles without any pain.

No surgery needed and no physical therapy. Just knowledgeable deep tissue massage and pressure point manipulation.

These days most chiropractors have many different techniques to heal, not just spinal manipulation.

There are good ones and poor ones. I’m lucky to have found a great one. She has also resolved lower back and shoulder pain I’ve had.

[pansypoo53219]

47. i slipped om some stairs + later sciatic. tried er. not even a xray. went to chiro that was back specialist. i had

a dislodged spine. it took a while, but she fixed than, but along the way she had fixed my scoliosis. i had 1 curve when they found it. posture + backpack on 1 shoulder, later 2 cutves, then 3. she sped it up. i stopped the neck shit tho. go for other shit now.

[Celerity]

48. great video

banker David Hannum from Syracuse, New York, talking about P. T. Barnum's dupes

[CrispyQ]

54. I've had two great experiences with chiropractors & one not so good one.

The not so good one was one of those "this will take years of sessions."

The first good chiro correctly diagnosed a medical condition my primary doctor had pegged as something completely different & wrong, & the second good chrio got me to the point of being able to walk again & at which point she recommended physical therapy. My sessions with her stopped shortly after. She used this little miniature pogo stick type device that she'd sort of pop on my lower back & hip area. It wasn't any longer than a pencil & there was never any cracking or twisting.

[Historic NY]

56. Mine never makes claims like that...

in fact he has sent people to a real Dr when he discovered that the patient had a serious medical condition. The problem is some patients think that are always the answer. I go for my back and have for several decades. I've tried acupuncture in recent times for an unresolved injury and it seems to work.