5 ms·

Tangent topic; I have often wondered if back pain was less likely in the past? How did they manage without chiropractors?

cortic 5y ago
>How did they manage without chiropractors? We've always had charlatans pretending to have solutions to our problems before chiropracty and homeopathy, we had traveling salesmen peddling fish oil as a cure-all and of course the power of prayer. Not sure if it speaks to the gullibility of humanity or craftiness of private enterprise.
klodolph 5y ago
I imagine the answer is different depending on whether you have agriculture. Agriculture can be back-breaking work.
jeltz 5y ago
Excerise and especially walking and running does a lot for back health but at the same time they probably did a lot heavy lifting and handicraft (weaving, shoe making, etc) in bad ergonomic positions.
- 1123581321 5y ago
  Poor ergonomics are almost non-existent in traditional cultures. This makes some intuitive sense as only in a wealthy industrialized society is poor posture and back/leg weakness de-correlated from surival. This is one starting point to research it: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/08/412314701/lost-posture-why-indigenous-cultures-dont-have-back-pain https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/08/4123147...
XorNot 5y ago
Chiropractors are charlatans so it was the same as any other healing elixir scam that was being run (which are notable and commonplace throughout history).
- hirundo 5y ago
  My brother is a chiropractor who mostly agrees with you. He thinks that most chiropractors do about as much harm as good, or more. Of course, he believes otherwise about his own particular school of chiropractic, the Gonstead Technique. As a long time beneficiary of that method I've come to agree with him. It has helped me quite a bit, and the long list of his vastly improved patients (many or most who are refugees from other chiropractors) is impressive and convincing to me. Some healers are quacks; in some disciplines, most are. But that doesn't make them all quacks.
  - cmiller1 5y ago
    I've done some research on this and it seems there is some evidence that what chiropractors do, Spinal Manipulation Therapy, is effective when combined with traditional medicine and physical therapy at reducing chronic back pain (and can help some people manage it with reduced pain management medication which is a plus!) However if a chiropractor tells you they can fix your stomach or headaches or anxiety by cracking your back they're a quack.
    - hirundo 5y ago
      Strong disagree with regard to headaches. I've had immediate relief from debilitating headache pain after an adjustment.
      - abz10 5y ago
        Have to ask, are you weirdly flexible?
        hirundo 5y ago
        No.
    - abz10 5y ago
      I have hEDS hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (so does possibly 2% of the population.) The vast majority don’t who have it don’t know it. My stomach issues and headaches are caused by joint problems with a likely vagus nerve link. It’s entirely possible that the kind of people the go to chiropractors could benefit in this way. They may be on to something without knowing exactly what.
ekianjo 5y ago
You dont have to wonder. Look at regions with poor levels of mechanization and you will find farmers in pretty bad shape.
michaelmachine 5y ago
Chiropractors don’t actually help with back pain or any of the other problems they claims to help. The practice is based on “re-aligning” subtle subluxations in the spine. Two problems: there is no evidence that these subtle subluxations exist, and there is no evidence that spine alignment even extreme ones cause any ailments other than pinched nerves. Here is a good summary about the history of this pseudo-science: https://theoutline.com/post/1617/chiropractors-are-bullshit https://theoutline.com/post/1617/chiropractors-are-bullshit
- agumonkey 5y ago
  so it's a high grade placebo placebo massage ?
croes 5y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27164956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27164956
throwawayboise 5y ago
> How did they manage without chiropractors? Tough it out. You had to work/farm/hunt to survive.
wearywanderer 5y ago
All of the answers you've received seem rather unsatisfactory. Here is my take on it: Chiropracy is a complex nonsensical system of commercializing a simple principle: cracking your back feels nice. What did people do before chiropractors? They cracked their own backs. I can crack my spine from my tailbone up to my skull. From this, I experience temporary relief from general back discomfort (which is the most chiropractors are capable of.) To the commenters calling it quackery; you're never going to convince somebody who experiences relief from cracking their back that their experience of relief is fraudulent crackery. Subjectively, it's as real as it gets. Skeptics handicap themselves with this sort of over the top rhetoric.

cortic 5y ago

>How did they manage without chiropractors? We've always had charlatans pretending to have solutions to our problems before chiropracty and homeopathy, we had traveling salesmen peddling fish oil as a cure-all and of course the power of prayer. Not sure if it speaks to the gullibility of humanity or craftiness of private enterprise.

klodolph 5y ago

I imagine the answer is different depending on whether you have agriculture. Agriculture can be back-breaking work.

jeltz 5y ago

Excerise and especially walking and running does a lot for back health but at the same time they probably did a lot heavy lifting and handicraft (weaving, shoe making, etc) in bad ergonomic positions.

1123581321 5y ago
Poor ergonomics are almost non-existent in traditional cultures. This makes some intuitive sense as only in a wealthy industrialized society is poor posture and back/leg weakness de-correlated from surival. This is one starting point to research it: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/08/412314701/lost-posture-why-indigenous-cultures-dont-have-back-pain https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/08/4123147...

XorNot 5y ago

Chiropractors are charlatans so it was the same as any other healing elixir scam that was being run (which are notable and commonplace throughout history).

hirundo 5y ago
My brother is a chiropractor who mostly agrees with you. He thinks that most chiropractors do about as much harm as good, or more. Of course, he believes otherwise about his own particular school of chiropractic, the Gonstead Technique. As a long time beneficiary of that method I've come to agree with him. It has helped me quite a bit, and the long list of his vastly improved patients (many or most who are refugees from other chiropractors) is impressive and convincing to me. Some healers are quacks; in some disciplines, most are. But that doesn't make them all quacks.
- cmiller1 5y ago
  I've done some research on this and it seems there is some evidence that what chiropractors do, Spinal Manipulation Therapy, is effective when combined with traditional medicine and physical therapy at reducing chronic back pain (and can help some people manage it with reduced pain management medication which is a plus!) However if a chiropractor tells you they can fix your stomach or headaches or anxiety by cracking your back they're a quack.
  - hirundo 5y ago
    Strong disagree with regard to headaches. I've had immediate relief from debilitating headache pain after an adjustment.
    - abz10 5y ago
      Have to ask, are you weirdly flexible?
      - hirundo 5y ago
        No.
  - abz10 5y ago
    I have hEDS hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (so does possibly 2% of the population.) The vast majority don’t who have it don’t know it. My stomach issues and headaches are caused by joint problems with a likely vagus nerve link. It’s entirely possible that the kind of people the go to chiropractors could benefit in this way. They may be on to something without knowing exactly what.

ekianjo 5y ago

You dont have to wonder. Look at regions with poor levels of mechanization and you will find farmers in pretty bad shape.

michaelmachine 5y ago

Chiropractors don’t actually help with back pain or any of the other problems they claims to help. The practice is based on “re-aligning” subtle subluxations in the spine. Two problems: there is no evidence that these subtle subluxations exist, and there is no evidence that spine alignment even extreme ones cause any ailments other than pinched nerves. Here is a good summary about the history of this pseudo-science: https://theoutline.com/post/1617/chiropractors-are-bullshit https://theoutline.com/post/1617/chiropractors-are-bullshit

agumonkey 5y ago
so it's a high grade placebo placebo massage ?

croes 5y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27164956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27164956

throwawayboise 5y ago

> How did they manage without chiropractors? Tough it out. You had to work/farm/hunt to survive.

wearywanderer 5y ago

All of the answers you've received seem rather unsatisfactory. Here is my take on it: Chiropracy is a complex nonsensical system of commercializing a simple principle: cracking your back feels nice. What did people do before chiropractors? They cracked their own backs. I can crack my spine from my tailbone up to my skull. From this, I experience temporary relief from general back discomfort (which is the most chiropractors are capable of.) To the commenters calling it quackery; you're never going to convince somebody who experiences relief from cracking their back that their experience of relief is fraudulent crackery. Subjectively, it's as real as it gets. Skeptics handicap themselves with this sort of over the top rhetoric.