[Stro]

My girlfriend is really big on her chiropractor. She often suggests I see hiim.

I don't know why but I have this natural apprehension towards them that I cannot explain.

My problem is not so much with the fixing back pain stuff. Alot of these guys suggest that spinal manipulation is beneficial to many other aspects of health.

I don't mean to seem paranoid, but I just don't feel right about that. I don't know how to explain it.

Does anybody have a sound, informed, educated opinion on this subject?

im curious...

 

[Dave94LX]

what issues do you have physically?

Before I go into my story, I'll say that they do actually work for some people. I have a buddy that has major back issues, and one trip to the chiropractor will fix things for short term.

I personally have never been to one, my mother is an old school RN, and thinks that chiropractors are bogus. When my back issues started to surface, she told me that a chiropractor would just make things worse... so I stayed away. My issue is a degenerating disc. It got worse and worse, to the point that throwing out my back would end up in 1-2 weeks of recovery. I ended up having a co-worker tell me about a supliment called MSM. It is used for joint and cartlidge health. It's good for people with disc issues, so I gave it a shot. I have been taking it for over a year now and it works wonders! I haven't had a major back issue since, and when I do injure it, I heal quickly.

 

[racethisescort89]

well i dont got a sound educated oppinion. BUT i do however crack my own back daily few times daily infact. and it does feel like tension on my bones and muscles relax my friend who is only 17 goes to the chiropractor every tuesday cuz his moms work covers it. and he seems to not have any aches or pains. i also consistantly crack my own neck as well and it does relave pressure. try it and if its not for you then atleast u can say u tried it and dont like it

 

[crazycarl88]

i dunno about the pro's, i guess, but my friend (a bio major) took some basic sports medicine classes, and whenever i hang out with him i have him do all the chiropractic stuff he learned and i feel amazing for at least a week every time. so, even though i haven't had an official chiropractor work on me, i'd suggest it. if even someone with basic knowledge of the science can make you feel that good, i can imagine a trained pro would be even better

 

[Yoda]

I'm in the health field (student in Osteopathy now) and I've been doing physical rehab for the last 3 years.

Personally, I wouldn't let a Chiro touch me.

Professionally, Chiro's don't fix much. They snap you back in place (shudder) but don't look for the cause of misalignment, which, causes you to come back time after time.

Osteopathy is amazing, at least manual practitioners. They're MD's in the US though, different from here. I'm only in my first year of 5 but have great results in 1 or 2 treatments. Last weekend I fixed somebody's chronic back pain in 1 treatment. Have reduced daily migraines to once weekly (for 50 years) in another person.

 

[Yoda]

Just after reading some other responses here, I think it backs up what I said.

Fixes for the short term. I don't know many that have long term relief. The main problem rarely gets fixed.

 

[ciento44]

Some chiros are good.

The majority seem to be crooks. I work in health insurance. You wouldn't believe the bullshit they try to bull on benefit quotes or submitting their claims.

 

[Onegimp]

I wouldn't let one of those quacks touch my back. If I'm having back issues I see my spinal doctor.

 

[treeps95gt]

just go online and find different ways to crack what you need to crack by yourself, i crack my back neckk ankles and fingers, nothing bad has come of it, just the temporary pain relief.

 

[madmatt2024]

I never actually had one work on me but I have heard they can work wonders. My lifelong friend has Scoliosis and his parents took him to a chiropractor ever since he was diagnosed. The chiropractor was actually able to stop the curvature from getting worse and actually made it better from what I understand.

Seeing a chiropractor can be quicker and cheaper than seeing a specialist. Imagine your in pain now and you can't get in to see a specialist for 2 weeks or more. In the meantime you still have to go to work and deal with life and the likely hood of the specialist being able to provide relief on the first visit via a method other than pain pills is slim. A pain pill is not the ideal solution to any problem.

Make no mistake though, you should see a doctor if you have severe back pain. A bad chiropractor can also do more harm than good so I would choose wisely if I was going to see one

As for seeing one if you don't have any back problems, I think that's kind of a waste.

 

[PEEWEE91]

what issues do you have physically?

Before I go into my story, I'll say that they do actually work for some people. I have a buddy that has major back issues, and one trip to the chiropractor will fix things for short term.

I personally have never been to one, my mother is an old school RN, and thinks that chiropractors are bogus. When my back issues started to surface, she told me that a chiropractor would just make things worse... so I stayed away. My issue is a degenerating disc. It got worse and worse, to the point that throwing out my back would end up in 1-2 weeks of recovery. I ended up having a co-worker tell me about a supliment called MSM. It is used for joint and cartlidge health. It's good for people with disc issues, so I gave it a shot. I have been taking it for over a year now and it works wonders! I haven't had a major back issue since, and when I do injure it, I heal quickly.

is over the counter dave? my dad has a real bad degenerating disc

 

[FordMan59]

I am disabled because of chronic back pain due to a construction accident 10 years ago. I too had concerns about seeing a chiropractor at first, but after trying, conventional medicine (narcotic pain relievers which I'm still on, spinal injections, nerve root blocks, etc) and nothing seemed to be doing very much good, I decided to go to a chiropractor and even though it had been a couple years since my injury he was able to give me partial pain relief. When I went to him and he looked at my MRI he told me up front that with the damage to my back and as long as it had been since my injury he couldn't make me any promises, so going into his care with this information, I was quite happy that he was able to give me partial relief. A couple years ago I started taking 1500mg of glucosamine and 1200mg of chondroitin daily which can be bought a Walmart for about $20-$25 for a bottle 170 tablets which will last 85 days (two a day) which has given me better mobility and partial pain relief. If your back isn't extremely bad I would suggest trying the glucosamine and chondroitin first since it's cheap and is for joint health. If that doesn't do you any good within about 2 months then I'd say give the chiropractor a try or you might go to the chiropractor first and have him get everything aligned properly and start the glucosamine and chondroitin to help with lubrication of the joints. Don't expect the glucosamine and chondroitin to help immediately. They say give it a couple months to get into your system before expecting a lot of improvement, but I was able to tell some difference in about 2 weeks. I know that's what's helping, because I've tried to cut the dosage in half since the bottle says some people are able to, but within a couple weeks my pain started to increase again and when I went back to the original dosage the pain got better again. I also tried MSN, but it didn't do anything for me. I guess different things work for different people. I also recommended the glucosamine and chondroitin to our pastors wife who has arthritis in her hands and she said it helped her too.

 

[Escort92Man]

I have been to a chiropractor weekly since birth, and I feel GREAT, when I get down sick I go more often than once a week and when I don't go for 2 weeks boy I feel it, it's more than just cracking it's lining up the vertebrae that get out and actually pinch off some of the spinal chord and put a hurting on nerves and such, my grandma, is 82 and goes weekly as well, she is still up and mowing her own lawn! I highly recommend doing the once a week at a GOOD chiropractor, I can actually do chiropractic adjustments to others, a nice smooth wooden dowel and SMALL little 8 oz hammer, just feel down the back and neck find the vertebrae that are out and just gently tap them back into place, I feel it restores your body to full capacity.

I am 21 and kickin! all the scort work I've done and am going to do, I'm glad I have a chiropractor ROFL!

this is my personal experience and .02 cents worth.

 

[Bear45-70]

Last time I saw a chiropractor, 15 years ago, he crippled me up for 6 weeks and claimed he didn't do it. Let's see I rove to his office and walked in upright and had to be helped out of his office to and be driven home. You make the decision. Never going again. Other's opinions may vary.

 

[Stro]

I think what escort92man was talking about is where my problem (lack of trust) lies. It is not the back repair procedures that I have an issue with.

I don't think I would call this "Holistic", I don't think that word quite fits, but alot of these chiros claim that alot of other health issues are fixable (cureable) through chiropractic procedures.

I.E. I have suffered from massive stomach problems for years. Mostly acid reflux.

He is convinced that by releasing some of the pressure on the nerves going from my spinal column to my stomach, that he can fix this.

Now, I know that these nerves exist, my problem is beleiving that:

A. - They are pinched and this is what is causing my acid reflux. My acid reflux is from a much bigger problem. I have something called "Ehler Danlose Syndrome" It is likely that almost nobody here has heard of this. It is quite uncommon, and has very different effects on different people. For me, it mostly means I cut and bruise very easily. In this case, the 'valve' in my stomach that controls my acid levels, does not seal shut properly because of this condition.

How the F*** can a chiropractor fix this

and

B. - If they really had such power, so to speak, would there not be a much bigger deal made about this?

Anybody else have an opinion, with this additional information considered?

 

[Dave94LX]

is over the counter dave? my dad has a real bad degenerating disc

Yep, it's about $17 for a bottle of 300 at the vitamin shoppe. I took 2 a day for the first week, and have only been taking 1 a day since. You can pick it up at any store with a pharmacy. It's not for everyone, but worked wonders for me. If he does decide to try it, just make sure to tell him it isn't going to be an over night difference. It takes a good month before he will start feeling the effects. You can't take it if you are allergic to sulfur though(just FYI)

http://www.msmsupplement.com/

 

[racethisescort89]

my lower back gets so tense i cant walk, and fall over cuz the my lower back gets so stiff but AS soon as i sit i feel the pressure release. sometimes i have to get my gf to step on my back and it cracks all the way up but my lower back feels like it needs to pop but wont. maybe its cuz i weight 255Lbs but not to sure yet cuz ive always been a big guy.

 

[Nihil]

i've been to a chiropractor a couple times with pretty good results, but i guess like everywhere else in life it depends on the type of person you're dealing with. the guy i saw was really professional and informative and i learned a good bit from him.

basically my problem is that my right leg is a little shorter than my left, and that is what used to cause me a lot of lower back pain...it got to the point where i could barely bend down to tie my boots in the morning before work.

specifically, this off-balancedness (i might be makin up words here) was causing inflammation of my sacroiliac joint. i was prescribed for a heel lift to wear in my shoe to level out my hips, which has definitely helped in the long run. but he used to pop that joint specifically by makin me lay in a certain position and putting pressure on my hips and i gotta say that was one of the best feelings anybody's ever given me, haha...it felt like i had a brand new lower back and hips.

i can usually crack my back in all kinds of places whenever i feel the need to, but that one spot sorta picks when it wants to let me pop it. sometims i'll get out of the truck at work after doin driving and lugging stuff around all day and that one precise, pinpoint spot will be giving me pain, and after like 30 seconds of sitting in my car in a different position it'll just pop on its own; sometimes i hafta really work at i it to get it to pop. i'd like to find some surefire way to crack that joint, cuz sometimes it'll just feel a little tight and uncomfortable but without any pain, and i can tell it needs to be cracked but i just hafta wait it out until whenever it happens to happen. it's kind of a pain in the butt...quite literally.

 

[PEEWEE91]

is over the counter dave? my dad has a real bad degenerating disc

Yep, it's about $17 for a bottle of 300 at the vitamin shoppe. I took 2 a day for the first week, and have only been taking 1 a day since. You can pick it up at any store with a pharmacy. It's not for everyone, but worked wonders for me. If he does decide to try it, just make sure to tell him it isn't going to be an over night difference. It takes a good month before he will start feeling the effects. You can't take it if you are allergic to sulfur though(just FYI)

http://www.msmsupplement.com/

thanks so much, i hope it can do something good!

 

[FordMan59]

I do know from experience that the nerves in the back can have a large impact on different body functions, because when my back gets real bad it will usually cause me to have diarrhea until it gets better. I've also heard of chiropractors treating children for bed wetting problems.