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chiropractors make their money off of ignorance. if you feel better after going to a chiropractor it's because the muscles that support and stabilize the spine

chiropractors make their money off of ignorance. if you feel better after going to a chiropractor it's because the muscles that support and stabilize the spine (especially the posture muscles of the lower back) are weak. do some basic exercise like stretching, hyper extensions, and yoga and your back problems will go away. there's a reason chiropractors don't grab a chunk of the lucrative physical therapy market, their techniques are a stop gap, they don't improve your condition.

tom_b 17y ago
There is no doubt that many claims made by chiropractors are bunk. Many chiropractic practitioners are a little "out there" in my experience. That said, I think it is a mistake to entirely dismiss chiropractic care as not providing real benefits. I worked with a chiropractor who was also a trained physical therapist (with many years of PT experience) and the combination of the two practices was key in resolving long-term plantar fascia problems I suffered from. Weird, but the combination of good physical therapy with actual adjustment of my problematic foot bone structure solved a chronic issue after orthopedic physicians had told me to basically give up or consider a surgical solution. So while chiropractic care is over-promoted and over-blown by many, it can be helpful as an adjunct mode of care. Whenever people ask, I always point out that the chiropractor I worked with was also a physical therapist and that I think the physical therapy side of the treatment was more helpful than the chiropractic, but that I found both treatments helpful.
- jerf 17y ago
  There are really two chiropractices, from what I can see. There is a limited, scientific chiropractice that limits itself to physical injuries, and while its domain is not zero, it's so limited I sometimes wonder at if it's really enough to be its own specialty. Maybe it is, it just seems thin to me compared to a full physical therapy regime. Then there's the total quack chiropractice that gets covered by things like http://www.chirobase.org/ http://www.chirobase.org/ . (I observe that they call the first type of chiropractor a "straight" chiropractor.) It is a pity they have the same name, as if Astronomy was still called Astrology. It really messes up debates over chiropractics.
krschultz 17y ago
Have you ever had a spine/neck injury? There is no amount of streching or yoga that will fix it. I fell rock climbing last summer and was in serious pain for weeks. I went to a physical therapist not a chiropractor, but "cracking" your back is necessary for some injuries and it is the only way to fix it. It took a hell of a lot of force to get my spine back in line but it feels better almost immediately. After that comes the therapy to rebuild the muscles, but that takes a LONG time, and resetting the spine is done multiple times in there.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- nazgulnarsil 17y ago
  people don't go to chiropractors for serious injury unless they're loony.
- ricree 17y ago
  Sure, strengthening back muscles is not enough for real injuries, but neither is going to a chiropractor. At best, the chiropractor is a physical therapist with a focus on the back. But mixed in with those people are a good number of others who believe in treatments with no basis in evidence. And at times, as gcheong pointed out, the treatments can result in making the condition worse.
gcheong 17y ago
"...they don't improve your condition" And often they make it worse, much worse as in giving you a stoke after manipulating your neck. See http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=94 http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=94 for an interesting summary.

tom_b 17y ago

There is no doubt that many claims made by chiropractors are bunk. Many chiropractic practitioners are a little "out there" in my experience. That said, I think it is a mistake to entirely dismiss chiropractic care as not providing real benefits. I worked with a chiropractor who was also a trained physical therapist (with many years of PT experience) and the combination of the two practices was key in resolving long-term plantar fascia problems I suffered from. Weird, but the combination of good physical therapy with actual adjustment of my problematic foot bone structure solved a chronic issue after orthopedic physicians had told me to basically give up or consider a surgical solution. So while chiropractic care is over-promoted and over-blown by many, it can be helpful as an adjunct mode of care. Whenever people ask, I always point out that the chiropractor I worked with was also a physical therapist and that I think the physical therapy side of the treatment was more helpful than the chiropractic, but that I found both treatments helpful.

jerf 17y ago
There are really two chiropractices, from what I can see. There is a limited, scientific chiropractice that limits itself to physical injuries, and while its domain is not zero, it's so limited I sometimes wonder at if it's really enough to be its own specialty. Maybe it is, it just seems thin to me compared to a full physical therapy regime. Then there's the total quack chiropractice that gets covered by things like http://www.chirobase.org/ http://www.chirobase.org/ . (I observe that they call the first type of chiropractor a "straight" chiropractor.) It is a pity they have the same name, as if Astronomy was still called Astrology. It really messes up debates over chiropractics.

krschultz 17y ago

Have you ever had a spine/neck injury? There is no amount of streching or yoga that will fix it. I fell rock climbing last summer and was in serious pain for weeks. I went to a physical therapist not a chiropractor, but "cracking" your back is necessary for some injuries and it is the only way to fix it. It took a hell of a lot of force to get my spine back in line but it feels better almost immediately. After that comes the therapy to rebuild the muscles, but that takes a LONG time, and resetting the spine is done multiple times in there.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
nazgulnarsil 17y ago
people don't go to chiropractors for serious injury unless they're loony.
ricree 17y ago
Sure, strengthening back muscles is not enough for real injuries, but neither is going to a chiropractor. At best, the chiropractor is a physical therapist with a focus on the back. But mixed in with those people are a good number of others who believe in treatments with no basis in evidence. And at times, as gcheong pointed out, the treatments can result in making the condition worse.

gcheong 17y ago

"...they don't improve your condition" And often they make it worse, much worse as in giving you a stoke after manipulating your neck. See http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=94 http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=94 for an interesting summary.