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Chiropractors are bullshit

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Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#11

Post by cj »

I come from a long lineage of chiropractors (although I’m not one).

I’ve never been a big believer in the practice, and yes there are very rare cases where a chiropractic adjustment can lead to a stroke but again, it’s extremely rare. (Perhaps less rare if you’re going to the guy at the mall kiosk..)

I’d like to see some scientific studies proving chiropractic adjustments are harmful.

A lot of physical and mental health has to do with simply having awareness and being conscious of your body. For some people, going to a chiropractor monthly gives them 20 minutes in a room where their doing nothing but thinking of their body and talking about their body with the chiropractor.

Again, I’ve never been a big believer of the science behind it. But I am a believer that any activity that makes you sit down and think about your body and what you could be doing differently to reduce your aches/pains is likely to have some degree of positive outcome.

There are lots of links in the article and I didn’t click them all. But if there are actual studies showing damage (aside from 1 in a million adjustments causing a stroke), I would love to read them.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#12

Post by thathndude »

The historic scientific basis for chiropractors is total BS. The idea that everything stems from the spine, and if you get the spine and alignment, everything else will follow. Literally, a belief that you could, for example, cure cancer, by aligning the spine.

That’s no better than energy healing, and the idea that you have energy flows that get interrupted and need to be corrected by using a certain crystal.

Having said that, chiropractors can fix muscular skeletal issues, that the typical medical community often ignores.

My chiropractor anecdote is this: I was in college and I had a bad pain in my neck and jaw. It came out of nowhere, and lingered as an annoying pain. I went to the student health clinic, where the doctor promptly prescribed me antibiotics for 30 days. I took the antibiotics, and things sort of improved. But the pain never went away.

I went to a chiropractor, who gave me one, single adjustment. When he adjusted my neck, it hurt like heck. 24 hours later the pain was greatly diminished. 24 hours after that, the pain went away and I never felt it again.

There was no infection; the antibiotics did nothing. The relief I felt over 30 days was merely the healing of the body on its own. There was still something incorrect in my neck and jaw, and who knows if it ever would have resolved. The chiropractor fixed it in literally 30 seconds.

So, it’s a mixed bag. And certainly, I hope everyone criticizing chiropractic care is similarly critical of Western medicine, and dumb doctors like the one who simply threw antibiotics at me and sent me on my way.

One more thing, I’m a lawyer who does the occasional personal injury work. A lot of that industry is based on chiropractic care. And there are some over billing charlatans making bank doing that chiro care. I guess the bottom line is that I’m not willing to completely toss out chiro cares potential, but there are lots of bad actors.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#14

Post by qsort »

candiddevmike wrote: post #5

At best, Chiropractors are bullshit. At worst, they kill or paralyze people. Their manipulations offer temporary pain relief because they forcefully mobilize the joint/bone structure. The only way to fix this long term is by correcting the muscle imbalances through physical therapy. Most people would rather get immediate pain relief vs months of therapy and exercise, so they have a constant supply of victims. Chiropr…

This is unfortunately a common pattern for bullshit pseudomedicine. They make up something random that looks like treatment and has some limited, short-term effect. By doing so they gain followers, who keep repeating the standard story.

It's scary effective.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#15

Post by whalesalad »

grenoire wrote: post #7
whalesalad wrote: post #4

Chiropractors frustrate me because they tend to treat symptoms - not root causes. You can get 'adjusted' a million times but if you have a muscle imbalance or perpetual tightness that is pulling something out alignment you will always fall back into that state. For instance, if you sit for hours in the same funny position on your couch every night. Or if you tend to sit on one leg constantly. Or if you sleep in the s…

Dealing with this shit right now with muscle imbalances in my back on one side, chiro obviously didn't help more than 30 minutes after a session so I dropped it. Physio is a little better but it still feels very symptomatic in approach. Gonna' see if I get get an MRI scan in a third world country because nobody will afford you one in the West if it's just a wee pain with 'no cause.'

This is a technique used by a lot of athletes but I personally believe it is one of the most helpful body maintenance tools for any human.

https://performanceforhealth.com/8-mobility-ball-exercises-t...

After spending 30 minutes with a lacrosse ball I can feel my entire body relax. Using it on your ass cheeks will do wonders especially if you sit constantly. Your muscles will bind up and kinda stick together - the ball helps loosen up knots and tightness.

It is not pleasant for the faint of heart ... but if you can push past it the first few times you will eventually learn to appreciate the relief more than the torture of doing it. A lot of times you will physically feel pain melt away.

I got nothin better to do on this Sat morning so I am gonna get mine out right now and do some mobilizing.

Psoas release is also very helpful for those of us who are sitting all the time: http://recoveryourstride.blogspot.com/2012/05/this-works-flo...

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#16

Post by MaxBarraclough »

For a good laugh, check out the Wikipedia talk page where people contest whether 'chiropractic' deserves to be called pseudoscience. [0] I particularly enjoyed someone pointing out that These are in-universe sources.

For all Wikipedia's flaws, it does a good job of talking straight about this kind of thing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Chiropractic

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#18

Post by marvindanig »

I hadn't heard of the term 'chiropractors' until our family moved into the suburban parts of the US. The other fancy shops that surprised me by their existence were these healing crystal stores and astrologers and whatnot. Eww.

I mean it is downright unacceptable these days.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#19

Post by cj »

whalesalad wrote: post #4

Chiropractors frustrate me because they tend to treat symptoms - not root causes. You can get 'adjusted' a million times but if you have a muscle imbalance or perpetual tightness that is pulling something out alignment you will always fall back into that state. For instance, if you sit for hours in the same funny position on your couch every night. Or if you tend to sit on one leg constantly. Or if you sleep in the s…

> For instance, if you sit for hours in the same funny position on your couch every night.

For what it’s worth, good chiropractors will dig in and give advice like “don’t drive with your wallet in your back pocket because you’ll sit crooked”

Chiropractors tend to be more holistic in their thinking in my experience compared to regular doctors who ignore lifestyle issues.

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