Live data from Hacker News

Chiropractors are bullshit

theoutline.com

21–30 of 90 posts

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#21
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.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#22
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There only exists two proven methods for stopping back pain: Physical exercise and rest. Many things tend to go away by themselves (regression to the mean), back pain appears to be one of them and we haven't found better ways to treat it. Chiropractors often make one feel good for a few days but the effect does not last.

I love how everyone thinks they are an expert. I went to physiotherapy for over a year. I took medications for longer. Neither worked. I took a short course of chiro and the pain permanently went away.

Don't know why people are downvoting the above comment. Yes It's anecdotal, yes it contradicts the articles argument but It's still an interesting personal account.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There only exists two proven methods for stopping back pain: Physical exercise and rest. Many things tend to go away by themselves (regression to the mean), back pain appears to be one of them and we haven't found better ways to treat it. Chiropractors often make one feel good for a few days but the effect does not last.

I love how everyone thinks they are an expert. I went to physiotherapy for over a year. I took medications for longer. Neither worked. I took a short course of chiro and the pain permanently went away.

That's the problem with anecdata: Whenever I had muscle or joint pain, physiotherapy and massages helped massively in easing them. Who of us is right now?

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#24
post #16

Totally not bullshit. Hospitals alone kill close to 100,000 Americans alone each year. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-many-die-from-medical... 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…

I don’t know what the more common treatment paths are but im fairly sure that the first line treatment path from modern medicine is working with a physical therapist, not surgery.

Depends where you are located. First line for me was pain killers. Then injections of pain killers, then chymopapain. Then surgery. My doctors did not 'believe in' physical therapy by non-doctors.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you hurt your back then come back and respond. There's nothing worse than an armchair expert googling Wikipedia for their "knowledge".

Even if I did, it would still be an anecdote. It would prove nothing either way. For that we have to look to data.

ya I take this back

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if I did, it would still be an anecdote. It would prove nothing either way. For that we have to look to data.

ya I take this back

> You only need anecdotes to prove that it's not bullshit.

Oh dear. No. That's not true at all. Suppose I have back pain. Then I eat some dirt. Then I feel better. Then I start claiming that dirt ingestion cures back pain. Someone would be well within their rights to call that bullshit, despite my anecdote. Even if I could find a dozen people who had the same experience, it would still be bullshit.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There only exists two proven methods for stopping back pain: Physical exercise and rest. Many things tend to go away by themselves (regression to the mean), back pain appears to be one of them and we haven't found better ways to treat it. Chiropractors often make one feel good for a few days but the effect does not last.

I love how everyone thinks they are an expert. I went to physiotherapy for over a year. I took medications for longer. Neither worked. I took a short course of chiro and the pain permanently went away.

No, you went to a bad physiotherapist. Most likely you should have gone to a Physio that actually gets stuck in and manipulates your facet joints and vertebrae to help get the muscles out of spasm and get the joints comfortable moving again.

The reason people get relief from chiropractors is manipulating joints is shown to help free up joints and take muscles out of spasm.

Physiotherapists practice evidence based medicine, chiros try stuff and get lucky, it happens that there is an overlap in the Venn diagram of those two fields.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#29

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. Within 6 weeks the pain disappeared permane…

I had a problem with my shoulder, for which doctors recommended surgery. Decided to try a chiropractor and the problem went away permanently after a few sessions.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#30
post #9

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 go…

You should read up on the placebo effect.

edit: Just to clarify, there is no scientific evidence that chiro is effective as anything other than placebo. All evidence provided is anecdotal and hence useless.

Post reply on HN