This generalization is insane. I don't go to chiropractors regularly, and my situation was clearly be anecdotal, but there was one afternoon where any movement in my back caused me extreme pain. I scheduled a body massage to try to alleviate at least some of the pain but when I went it didn't help. Then my fiance suggested trying a chiropractor and I walked in, explained my pain, and in about 30 seconds it was all gone. I know there are skeezy chiropractors as well because I have a friend who worked for those kinds of people who swore they could cure anything. That's bull shit. But this article is a gross over generalization of a practice. The chiropractor I went to didn't try to sell me anything afterwards, he didn't promise any mirale weight loss, I just explained my pain and he fixed it. I respect that.
This made me curious about its effectiveness for back pain, so I tried to find a meta-analysis. Turned up this on plos one. (note, I can't speak for the article's quality).<p>> Moderate evidence suggests that chiropractic care for LBP appears to be equally effective as physical therapy. Limited evidence suggests the same conclusion when chiropractic care is compared to exercise therapy and medical care although no firm conclusion can be reached at this time. No serious adverse events were reported for any type of care. Our review was also unable to clarify whether chiropractic or medical care is more cost-effective. Given the limited available evidence, the decision to seek or to refer patients for chiropractic care should be based on patient preference and values. Future studies are likely to have an important impact on our estimates as these were based on only a few admissible studies.<p><a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0160037" rel="nofollow">http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....</a>
While I've never realized Nirvana through my chiropractic experiences, they have been immensely helpful in the short-term.<p>For example, several years ago I spent the winter on the north shore of Oahu (Hawaii) surfing. The waves are often perfect and glassy, but pack a serious punch when you fall. I took a heavy wipeout, which left me as stiff necked as I've ever been. For a few days I could barely move my head from left to right. I needed to do something, so went to a chriropractor.<p>The chiropractor had seen the surfer's whiplash injury many times before; after some light warmup massage work to loosen up the muscles, a quick jerking of the head, and crack!!, done. All the tension gone in an instant. Walked out a new man, was back in the water the next day.<p>Less extreme, as a computer worker I often find myself in strange/unhealthy positions while consumed with solving yet another problem. This leaves my back not feeling all that great. So, 3 or 4 times a year I go to a chiropractor I know (in Montreal) and get an adjustment. While there's no permanent realignment, there is most definitely a temporary one, which feels great.<p>I'd say it depends on the chiropractor (YMMV), and not that the profession as a whole is a hoax.
No it is not bullshit, not for back problems. I hurt my back and was suffering for 2 years. I went to a physiotherapist and they made me do stretches and other exercises. I took Advil and aleve and both eventually stopped working. It was debilitating and I desperation I went to a chiropractor. I am a huge skeptic and thought chiropractors were scams too but I was desperate.<p>Within 6 weeks the pain disappeared permanently. This was over 10 years ago. Occsssionally i will tweak my back from carrying my kids on my back and I will go for s few sessions and I feel great afterwards.<p>It's not bullshit, at least for back problems. Some chiros say it cures colds etc which is bullshit. You just need to find a chiro that doesn't deal with that stuff.
I've never seen so many downvoted top level comments. Is the term "chiropractor" what's causing the problem in this discussion? Can anyone call themselves a chiropractor where the author of this article is based? It seems like it's a protected title in many European countries. In Norway & Denmark for instance the title can only be granted by studying medicine. Over there chiropractors can prescribe MRIs and some drugs.<p>It looks like some folks in this thread are talking about quacks who brute force your back into oblivion, whereas others are talking about physical therapy spinal manipulation. I'm assuming these are not the same thing?
I'd like to see a study of the correlation between people that believe Chiropractics is bullshit and people that believe climate change isn't real.<p>Seriously, if you've ever been to a chiropractor for back and neck related problems, you know that it's at the VERY LEAST not bullshit. Claiming it's all just quack science is completely ignorant.<p>I do know that chiropractors have long struggled to keep clientele, because people come when they're hurting, and stop coming when they feel better. So, some chiropractors have taken to questionable methods to keep people coming back. The ones on the up-and-up will, quite correctly, tell you that just cracking your back isn't going to fix your problem, and that you need to do strengthening exercises of the core muscles that keep your bones in the correct spots, and to fix your posture problems.
Just my 2¢ as a migraine sufferer - although I am wary about getting adjusted (I fear having too many adjustments would increase the frequency at which I need adjustments) on more than one occasion, while suffering tremendously with migraine I've had chiropractors be able to make an adjustment that stops the migraine like flipping a light switch. (A $40 light switch lol). For me, this enabled me to drive home from the city where I was visiting (I was there every week on business and a migraine would have left me stranded unable to drive home, for hours)<p>So just be aware that there are real cases where chiropractic, though expensive, can be insanely (and immediately) effective! There's no room for doubt in my experience, just what would be a potentially expensive habit if I kept going.
There's evidence that chiropractic is effective in certain domains, the problem is that the scope of practice of chiropractic is not limited to those domains.<p>It's essentially pseudoscientific alternative medicine that has since had utility confirmed in some areas. But then, so is much actual medicine, the problem is that quackery remains more pervasive in churopractic. You can find chiros that aren't quacks, though; it's not like homeopathy.
Just to be clear, the fact that someone bills themselves as a chiropractor doesn't mean that they exclusively offer chiropractic "treatments". Some offer quasi-legitimate physiotherapy-like treatment, advice on lifestyle modification, and guidance on over-the-counter drugs. Any of which might end up being useless or harmful depending on how knowledgeable and sensible a given chiropractor is. But the extent to which they do this corresponds pretty closely to how much they deviate from chiropractic theory and accept proven understandings of physiology.
Sample size 1 observations:<p>I've been going to chiropractors off and on for a few years. I started with a lower back injury, saw my primary care physician, went to PT, and after a few visits she recommended seeing a chiropractor. It took a while before I found a chiropractor I was comfortable with. Most over-promised and had a ton of halo-effect services they constantly pushed. I found one that also offered massage and didn't try to upsell any of their other services and I found that combination worked for me.<p>After I moved, I stopped the massage part. I stopped the chiropractor part. But the back pain hit me again in a big way. I've found that in times of high stress like I experienced several weeks ago an adjustment lasts for 1-2 days tops before it returns. My current guess based on this slightly-sensational article is that the massages help prevent muscles from messing with the entire system, so that's something I'll need to try.
N=1 situation: Found that drinking more water helped the joints of my back ease and reduced lower-back-pain.<p>After that, you need to do functional movements and lift-heavy-things, often. Not too heavy, but enough to prompt your body to improve its capabilities.
Hmmm, the author doesn't seem to realise there are several different branches/systems/approaches of "chiropractors".<p>The bone cracking ones which the author seems to be familiar with I'd personally agree.<p>There is a system called NeuroLink though which (in personal experience for several years) does work:<p><a href="http://www.neurolinkglobal.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.neurolinkglobal.com</a><p>No bone cracking required. :)
I visited a chiropractor in Denmark. It was manual therapy, the doctors were knowledgeable and used massage and acupuncture in addition to "breaking bones" - all was very relieving and made a lot of sense. The one here in the US I did not trust. I looked more like a waster of money.
This article is pretty long, a lot of it is interesting, but quite a lot is redundant. All I would really want to see is a summary of a study showing that chiropractors don't reduce pain. But if even a like to such a study is there, I didn't see it.
Totally not bullshit.<p>Hospitals alone kill close to 100,000 Americans alone each year. <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-us-hospitals" rel="nofollow">https://www.propublica.org/article/how-many-die-from-medical...</a><p>Chiropractors are good:
1) Personal experience. They have helped my spine recover multiple times, in record recovery time.
2) Modern medicine consists of prescribing drugs, or high risk surgeries. Paralysis for life is a real risk.
3) If you get a great one, they will add years of pain-free time for your life<p>Chiropractors are also bad:
a) There are some 'religious schools' founded by 'bodies for Christ' aka Maximized Living that make some interesting claims. Unfortunately these are becoming common
b) many new chiropractors have poor technique. This often goes back to the previous point.
c) Unless the person is really good don't let them mess with your neck. There is a growing link between neck manipulation and strokes, especially when 'fast techniques' are involved. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Deanna_Rothwell/publication/11997403_Chiropractic_manipulation_and_stroke_A_population-based_case-control_study/links/540d21960cf2d8daaacaefaa.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Deanna_Rothwell/publica...</a><p>TLDR;
This doesn't mean that Chiropractors are bad. There are many many great ones and it really works.<p>There are many quacks who drink the cool aid. They are mostly new graduates.<p>Modern medicine's approach to back and neck pain is utterly subpar and medieval. There are many quacks there too, and they kill a lot more every year.<p>And the medical community also disavowed Surgery as 'quackery' not too long ago: <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/66664/how-uneducated-butchers-and-barbers-became-todays-skilled-surgeons" rel="nofollow">http://mentalfloss.com/article/66664/how-uneducated-butchers...</a>