Chiropractors?

[EnygmaEve]

At length, I discussed chiropractic with the sweet little girl that cut my hair yesterday. I have a unique experience with chiropractic that has given me a pretty staunch viewpoint on it, and I'll tell anyone who will listen what I think about it because I feel that strongly about it. It's probably the only thing that I could move my ass to be an activist about, because I'm the type that's usually on the "live and let live" side of the fence.

For my own amusement, I'd like to hear what the NF community thinks of chiropractors, and I'll give my 2 cents after some people weigh in.

Discuss.

[KillerGriller]

trollin' trollin' trollin'...keep those peeps a-trollin'....

[EnygmaEve]

trollin' trollin' trollin'...keep those peeps a-trollin'....

Are you calling me a troll because I'm curious?

[KillerGriller]

Colour me paranoid Batman but it sounds A LOT like "Tell me what you think, and I'll tell you why you're wrong"

[EnygmaEve]

Colour me paranoid Batman but it sounds A LOT like "Tell me what you think, and I'll tell you why you're wrong"

I know that the internet is full of those type of people, but I don't count myself as one of them. I know that YOU don't know that about me, thanks to the anonymity that the internet provides, but obviously there was a conclusion that was jumped to before there was a chance for me to prove it one way or the other.

[Hermione Gainser]

I'd suspect trolling if Enygma had fewer posts.. but given I've come across a handful of others I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here.

Assuming we can all have respectful conversation, which is a very safe assumption given this is NF and not every other board on the webs, I'll go ahead and post my thoughts.

They are concise: I love my chiropractor. I only recently started seeing her and she's done wonders. The more I learn about it the more I like it. I feel like it fits really well with everything else I do. I take care of all the parts of me.. so why not my skeletal system?

Ok. Go.

[pixieopower]

My chiropractor saved my form. My ribs were all screwy and i had no curvature in my lower back. she cracked my bones and my form got SOOO much better i got strong muscles to STAY in good alignment

[Librarian of Doom]

My chiropractor was the only thing that kept me functional through my last pregnancy.

[Ammo]

I've had good & bad chiros. The best one I ever had practiced something called the Thompson method. She straightened out my spine which was literally corkscrewed (the center of the vertebrae in my neck were twisted to one side and slowly rotated all they way to the other side by the time you reached my tailbone).

The worst one used only an activator with no hands on at all. He was my chiro before the good one and never even mentioned how effed up my spine really was. The good one took an x-ray and showed it to me.

I no longer live in range of the good one, which sucks. My most recent chiro was okay. He was good at correcting immediate problems and got me through a low back sprain, but couldn't do the therapeutic stuff, which I still need a little of.

Personal opinion - great chiros are amazing, but extremely hard to find. Most of them kind of suck.

[Raikas]

I'm neutral. No personal experience, although I know plenty of people who swear by them and a few who seem to find the very idea of them offensive.

I gather that Chiropractors are one of those professions that are aren't regulated (in terms of education and licencing) in every country the way other health professionals might be, so I imagine that if you're in a place without regulation it might be much harder to find the properly qualified ones.

I know that the internet is full of those type of people, but I don't count myself as one of them. I know that YOU don't know that about me, thanks to the anonymity that the internet provides, but obviously there was a conclusion that was jumped to before there was a chance for me to prove it one way or the other.

Fair enough, but why ask for opinions before sharing your own? You can't deny that that phrasing (especially alongside "for my own amusement") sounds like more of a challenge than an invitation for dialogue, no?

[EnygmaEve]

Fair enough, but why ask for opinions before sharing your own? You can't deny that that phrasing (especially alongside "for my own amusement") sounds like more of a challenge than an invitation for dialogue, no?

There is a term is psychological research that I can't quite remember, but it involves getting erroneous results from a study due to "priming" subjects with information before the study begins.

Yes, I probably should have not phrased things the way I did, but I did truly want to start a thread about discussion rather than a "this is how I feel, who's with me" type thing.

Please forgive my faux pas, I have PMS and a sinus headache. Probably should have put this discussion off a week, but it was fresh in my mind and by next week I'd have forgotten the whole thing.

[TheOtherScott]

It bothers me that "chiropractic" is both the noun and adjective of what they do. Just drives me absolutely nuts. But that's a separate issue.

But my wife had some pretty serious neck pain, and a chiropractor made it go away after one adjustment. So I can't dismiss it outright, even though I'd sooner take a yoga class.

In regards to the lack of regulation/licensing, in Canada, chiropractors require training from an approved institution. At least, that's what the Canadian Chiropractic Association says on their website.

[Eatesalot7]

My mother cooked me wrong.

I was in pain for 3.5 years with no relief.. after being diagnosed with different diseases (one that my great uncle actually wrote the first paper on) and different conditions I tried a chiro. He was amazing. That was one of the only things that kept me playing soccer.

I stopped going to him... and 5 years I finally went back to one... he was the BIL of a co-worker. He is amazing. I only go every other month or so. But in the last 3 years, my body has finally gotten itself right. He was a major player in getting me back phsically to a point where I could work out. Literally every vertebra was out of place when I started to go. Now, don't get me wrong, I go to a guy who works on a bunch of the Steelers and he actually did the Pro Bowl this year ( I was going to him prior to all of this).. so he's not some punk off the street.

With the way my back is, extremely loose, I am very cautious on who I see. My guy is good. Really good. I trust with him with everything.

But I don't like all chiro's... there are too many people that don't really listen to the patients and it's such an easy profession to make people worse.

[Hermione Gainser]

But my wife had some pretty serious neck pain, and a chiropractor made it go away after one adjustment. So I can't dismiss it outright, even though I'd sooner take a yoga class.

In regards to the lack of regulation/licensing, in Canada, chiropractors require training from an approved institution. At least, that's what the Canadian Chiropractic Association says on their website.

Funny you mention that. My boyfriend saw a chiropractor for a time but he stopped because he said he wasn't getting anything out of it that he couldn't get from yoga. this was before my venture into chiropractic care so I didn't know what that meant. To me, it means he had a not so great chiropractor.

And maybe that's part of the whole regulation thing? I went to mine because she had good reviews from my boss. My boyfriend found his via his insurance. Would regulation affect the type of care administered? I don't konw.. but it's interesting to hear all our experiences..

also, i'm not fully caffeinated yet so if this was nonsensical, I apologize.

[Church]

My chiropractor has been amazing. I stumbled in randomly one day when I just needed some relief from a crippling flash migraine. She didn't adjust anything, but she kind of poked and prodded for a few minutes, had me turn my head one way or another and I could literally feel the pressure drain away.

It. Was. Amazing.

And she wouldn't even accept payment for it cuz she said she didn't do anything. I went back weakly after that. And when my body got good enough to tone it down, I did so on her recommendation.

She really had my best interest at heart.

Then I went away to work for a few months and when I got back there was a deferent doctor running the clinic. And she's been amazing too. Now I go back every three weeks when I'm home from camp. She's literally the first person I see after the plane lands.

That reminds me, I need to book an appointment!

[KillerGriller]

As been mentioned here a few times, Chiros are practitioners and practitioners are as individual as the patients they see and the conditions they have. So if you've had a good/bad experience it's probably a combination of what you need/what they can do for you/your personality/their personality etc. I.e. - You could have the best Chiro on the planet with the worst bedside manner etc., does it mean that all Chiros are bad? Probably not.

Aside from that, there is so much cross-over area in healthcare that ti's really hard to paint one type of care as bad or good. Like Laura and Church's experiences; there are a hundred different ways to approach any problem. I've been to Chiros that do acupuncture, Osteopaths that do ART, Physios that do massage etc. etc. I've seen (professionally) Physicians, Chiros, Osteopaths, Massage Therapists, and Physios for various issues, and I started to notice the crossover areas pretty quickly. I've also had good and bad practitioners but those were purely people-based issues and not necessarily the field they were in.

What you need to look for is someone who will look out for you, not simply process you like a piece of meat.

Like Church said "She really had my best interest at heart", this is where it's at.

my $0.02

[BadWolf]

I haven't gone in awhile, but when I messed up my back and sciatic nerve she was a godsend, then again when I fell down the stairs at the train station and landed with my lower back against a metal step. I found mine because my aunt and my Mom both see her. She would also hit some pressure points for my Mom if she was so congested she couldn't breathe. So, I generally have a good opinion of them, they've straightened out (pun intended) myself, my Mom, my Dad, two of my Aunts, and my brother. However, like any category of people there are good ones and bad ones.

[Sea Level]

It bothers me that "chiropractic" is both the noun and adjective of what they do. Just drives me absolutely nuts.

This.