Best kind of chiropractor?

[thalberg]

I've seen a million chiropractors......there is more than one kind of technique.  Anyone with experience or knowledge have any perspectives on the types?  What's worked for you and what hasn't?

[quantum]

Scroll down to "Kenko Flex".  24/7 personal chiropractor.  It works.

https://www.iact1.com/enikken/ShoppingCart/Shop.cfm?CurrPage=FrontPage&NextPage=CategoryDetail&CategoryID=85&pid=2561546931841

[pianistimo]

try cycling.  it strengthens your lower back.  what happens, imo, is the back easily goes out of place when the muscles are not worked enough during the day.

[jlh]

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[timothy42b]

I've seen a million chiropractors......there is more than one kind of technique.  Anyone with experience or knowledge have any perspectives on the types?  What's worked for you and what hasn't?

There wouldn't be so many techniques if there were any science behind it.

None of them do significantly better on outcome measures than any other type of massage.

All of them will make you feel a bit better.  Decide if it's worth the cost or not. 

[pianistimo]

maybe picking the right bed to sleep on?  my son had some back problems a few years ago.  we bought a new bed that was a bit firmer and more support and what do you know! the back got better.  he is quite tall for his age.

[rebby]

What is a chiropractor?






Come on i am only 12. How i am i supposed to know.
By the way those that know what an emo is, there is a way cool song that goes like this...

My life is spiralling downwards........cos....

"I'm an emo kid
Nonconforming as can be
You'd be nonconforming too if you looked just like me
I have paint on my nails and make up on my face
I almost emo enough to start shaving my legs"

"Cos i feel real deep when i'm dressin in drag
I call it freedom of expression girls just call me a fag
Cos the dudes look like chicks and the chicks look like dykes
Cos emo is one step below transvestite"

"Stop my breathing and slit my throat.......I must be emo
I don't jump around when i go to shows........I must be emo
I play guitar and write suicide notes.........I must be eeeeeeeeeemo."

I love this song, there is more but i can't be arsed to type any more, but verse 2 is where my signature comes from, oh yeah i love this verse....

"Cos i feel real deep when i'm dressin in drag
I call it freedom of expression girls just call me a fag
Cos the dudes look like chicks and the chicks look like dykes
Cos emo is one step below transvestite"

I love this verse, yay.

[thalberg]

What is a chiropractor?






Come on i am only 12. How i am i supposed to know.
By the way those that know what an emo is, there is a way cool song that goes like this...

My life is spiralling downwards........cos....

"I'm an emo kid
Nonconforming as can be
You'd be nonconforming too if you looked just like me
I have paint on my nails and make up on my face
I almost emo enough to start shaving my legs"

"Cos i feel real deep when i'm dressin in drag
I call it freedom of expression girls just call me a fag
Cos the dudes look like chicks and the chicks look like dykes
Cos emo is one step below transvestite"

"Stop my breathing and slit my throat.......I must be emo
I don't jump around when i go to shows........I must be emo
I play guitar and write suicide notes.........I must be eeeeeeeeeemo."

I love this song, there is more but i can't be arsed to type any more, but verse 2 is where my signature comes from, oh yeah i love this verse....

"Cos i feel real deep when i'm dressin in drag
I call it freedom of expression girls just call me a fag
Cos the dudes look like chicks and the chicks look like dykes
Cos emo is one step below transvestite"

I love this verse, yay.

what?

[rebby]

Don't worry Thal.
It is called the emo song.
I love it but Shortyshort hates it, hahahaha, i wonder why *jokes.

[jlh]

There wouldn't be so many techniques if there were any science behind it.

None of them do significantly better on outcome measures than any other type of massage.

All of them will make you feel a bit better.  Decide if it's worth the cost or not. 

I just had a professional massage the other day!!  OOOOOOHHHHHH YEAH!!!

What a good way to get rid of built-up tension in your muscles! 

[thalberg]

There wouldn't be so many techniques if there were any science behind it.

None of them do significantly better on outcome measures than any other type of massage.

All of them will make you feel a bit better.  Decide if it's worth the cost or not. 

"If there were any science behind it"--well, chiropractic is pretty new, invented less than a hundred years ago by B.J. Palmer.  They haven't gotten it totally together yet, but some people have gotten marvelous results from it.  (Many have not).

Modern medicine used to be TERRIBLE and it's way older.  It's pretty recent that they've gotten their act together to the point where they can help people.  It's not long ago that doctors were doing bloodletting or swinging patients around till they vomited.

[elspeth]

I just had a professional massage the other day!!  OOOOOOHHHHHH YEAH!!!

What a good way to get rid of built-up tension in your muscles! 

They're marvellous, aren't they! I'm nursing a back injury at the moment and regular massage is the only thing that's preserving what little sanity I pretend to have left....

[timothy42b]

"If there were any science behind it"--well, chiropractic is pretty new, invented less than a hundred years ago by B.J. Palmer.  They haven't gotten it totally together yet, but some people have gotten marvelous results from it.  (Many have not).

There isn't any research being done, so there is no "getting it together" in a scientific manner happening.  They are just repeating BJ's musings to each other.  I'm not saying you might not get some good out of it, but certainly it is not scientific in the slightest, nor do any of the principles make any sense.  Pretty much like acupuncture.  Or crystal healing, iridology, any of the new age stuff. 

Medicine has had a long struggle as well, as you point out.  But today all of it that works has scientific basis.  And the progress is based on research and theory on the molecular and genetic levels - pretty amazing stuff. 

[soliloquy]

The ones who kiss you before they *** you, because that's all chiropractors do.

[electrodoc]

Reading this thread reminded me of a conversation with an acquaintance. We were talking about the necessity for piano practice and this person remarked that she had not realized that any practice was necessary. She had thought that one just sat down and played. Of course, this was a remark made by someone who is not a musician and made from genuine ignorance.

For those who are not familiar with the practice of acupuncture to label it as unscientific shows a similar ignorance. When talking of acupuncture one should first differentiate between the theory adopted by the Chinese over 2,000 years ago, and modern western concepts. The Chinese theory as a working model has stood the test of time and has been shown to deliver many good results for various conditions where western medicine has failed. Western thought has also contributed to the understanding of acupuncture. There is the gate theory of pain, for example, that suggests that acupuncture when used for pain relief promotes the release of endorphins in the brain.

Russian equipment has enabled acupuncture points to be made visible on the skin. A dialectric material such as a piece of tissue paper is placed over the skin to be examined. A high voltage at low current is passed through the subject who is grounded. A spark jumps from the search electrode to the skin through the tissue. Since current wishes to find the shortest way to ground the current will go to points of lowered skin resistance. These happen to coincide exactly with the ancient Chinese diagrams! Similarly, apparatus was developed in Germany that demonstrates that acupuncture points are small points of lowered skin resistance or high conductance. There are methods of diagnosis that in skilled hands can be highly effective at diagnosing the cause of an illness where medical tests have drawn a blank. This can be done under blind test conditions.

We also remind ourselves that western medicine is not always as scientific as we would to believe. Aspirin was used for over a hundred years before its mechanism was understood. The problem with our medicine is that it is reactive rather than preventive. A patient known to me asked a distinguished medical professor what was the cause of her illness. The professor replied, “We don’t do causes – we treat the symptom”!

Instead of attacking some of the more accepted complementary therapies let us seek to understand them and use scientific method to refine them further.

In answer to the original question, contact the authorised register of practitioners to find a list of people in your area and then, if possible, go by recommendation. Also remember that chiropractic (or osteopathy) is not suitable for all conditions. Discuss the matter with the practitioner. if they are professional they will give advice that may suggest that this is not the best form of treatment for the complaint. Beware if they give any sort of promise or guarantee of success. No one but a foll or charlatan can do that.

[thalberg]

Thanks, electrodoc.

What you're saying is quite true.

[timothy42b]

Thanks, electrodoc.

What you're saying is quite true.

??

There are elements of truth in what he posted but by far the vast majority is bogus.

Sorry.

The theory of chiropractic is that subluxations (small displacements) in the spine affect nerve impulses which control organ systems, therefore when anything goes wrong in the body you can fix it by fixing the subluxations.   There are four things wrong with that theory: subluxations cannot be detected by medical researchers or x-rays and when chiropractors themselves do blind diagnoses they don't agree either; changes in nerve impulses would be detectable easily but we can't seem to find any; organ systems are controlled by known functions and don't respond to the nerves as chiropractic claims;  and manipulating the spine has not been shown to affect the functions of any organ system.

It does feel good to have your back cracked, no question.  And when your back goes out, as most of ours will eventually, chiropractic is one method of getting a little relief while you wait for your back to heal.  But scientific?  Nah.

Acupunture has a theory that is even worse.  This mysterious supernatural fluid called chi flows through the body within channels and when out of balance causes all our illnesses.  By inserting needles at points we can bring the chi flow back in balance and cure the illnesses. 

Same basic four things are wrong with that theory as well.  Chi can't be detected today, we only know of it by writings from the ancients, who must have been a heck of a lot smarter than us.  The channels can't be detected either, but in the old books you can find maps of where they are.  Oh, yeah, three different systems of maps - even the Chinese don't agree on where the channels go.  The points aren't detectable either, and again practitioners don't agree on where they are.  And there isn't any outcome based evidence that the needling produces any changes in health, except of course in the kind of vague discomfort complaints (fatigue, nonspecific pains, other unmeasurable stuff) that placebos have the most effect on. 

You are free to claim that both systems work fine despite not having a scientific basis;  some things work before knowing the reason.  But to claim there is any science behind either of these is completely bogus. 

And if they really worked beyond placebo, by this time there would be outcome measures and progress toward a scientific theory.  (Unless you think it's all a conspiracy by the big drug companies to keep it all secret) 

[jlh]

Acupuncture is a subject of considerable controversy.  For a good discussion of both sides of the issue, check out the wikipedia article and accompanying sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture

I've had acupuncture after an overuse injury several years ago.  The practitioner stuck the needles in and then connected wires to the needles, pulsing a very mild electric current through the affected area of my body.  Interesting experience, for sure! lol

[timothy42b]

There's a study discussed in the April 2006 Discovery magazine issue that tested placebo acupuncture against placebo pills.

The acupuncture won, it was more effective.  The pills were fake, and the acupuncture needles retractible so they didn't actually touch. 

Both groups had exactly the side effects the experimenters warned the subjects about. 

Both groups had some people get side effects so severe they had to drop out of the study. 

[thalberg]

??

There are elements of truth in what he posted but by far the vast majority is bogus.

Sorry.

The theory of chiropractic is that subluxations (small displacements) in the spine affect nerve impulses which control organ systems, therefore when anything goes wrong in the body you can fix it by fixing the subluxations.   There are four things wrong with that theory: subluxations cannot be detected by medical researchers or x-rays and when chiropractors themselves do blind diagnoses they don't agree either; changes in nerve impulses would be detectable easily but we can't seem to find any; organ systems are controlled by known functions and don't respond to the nerves as chiropractic claims;  and manipulating the spine has not been shown to affect the functions of any organ system.

It does feel good to have your back cracked, no question.  And when your back goes out, as most of ours will eventually, chiropractic is one method of getting a little relief while you wait for your back to heal.  But scientific?  Nah.

Acupunture has a theory that is even worse.  This mysterious supernatural fluid called chi flows through the body within channels and when out of balance causes all our illnesses.  By inserting needles at points we can bring the chi flow back in balance and cure the illnesses. 

Same basic four things are wrong with that theory as well.  Chi can't be detected today, we only know of it by writings from the ancients, who must have been a heck of a lot smarter than us.  The channels can't be detected either, but in the old books you can find maps of where they are.  Oh, yeah, three different systems of maps - even the Chinese don't agree on where the channels go.  The points aren't detectable either, and again practitioners don't agree on where they are.  And there isn't any outcome based evidence that the needling produces any changes in health, except of course in the kind of vague discomfort complaints (fatigue, nonspecific pains, other unmeasurable stuff) that placebos have the most effect on. 

You are free to claim that both systems work fine despite not having a scientific basis;  some things work before knowing the reason.  But to claim there is any science behind either of these is completely bogus. 

And if they really worked beyond placebo, by this time there would be outcome measures and progress toward a scientific theory.  (Unless you think it's all a conspiracy by the big drug companies to keep it all secret) 

I've had tons of acupuncture.  None of it worked in the slightest.

I've been to so many chiros I lost count.  All but one were useless.  The one is in South Carolina, and I'm thinking of moving back there--he had me nearly cured.

He had plans to go to medical school, but ran across a rare chiropractic procedure that made such a difference in his health that he cancelled his med school plans to learn and do this procedure.  It nearly brought me back to health--but I moved.  Wish I hadn't.

[jlh]

Here's a video that shows how dangerous acupuncture really is!!

https://www.metacafe.com/watch/521170/funny_dutch_commercial/

[thalberg]

Here's a video that shows how dangerous acupuncture really is!!

https://www.metacafe.com/watch/521170/funny_dutch_commercial/

LOL!!