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Chiropractors are bullshit

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71–80 of 144 posts

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#71

I've lived both sides of this. I once went to a chiropractor for back issues and he made me seriously worse and it took months to recover because what he thought just needed to be put in was actually a herniated disc. Fast forward more than a decade and I have an amazing chiropractor. Every time I go there, I walk away feeling better, walking straighter, and in less pain. My daughter also goes there and the chiroprac…

> If anything I think it's a shame that the quacks and the Good Guys can share the same title. But it's the same in any profession, isn't it?

I actually agree with most of your post, but want to comment on this: yes, it's the same in any profession, but the profession itself also matters. Some are grounded in science, some aren't, and this matters. People are going to be people, but the foundations of their jobs matter.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#72

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…

    I would love to have a practitioner look at my entire musculoskeletal system in order identify the specific areas that need work ...
What you are looking for is a Physiatrist ( https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/spine-specialists/wha... ). I learnt about them when I asked a doctor to refer me to a good neurosurgeon for my back pain (which I suspected was because of a nerve being pinched). He told me that if I went to a surgeon the treatment plan offered would be surgery and instead referred me to a Physiatrist who diagnosed my issues correctly and suggested Physiotherapy to treat it. That worked out great for me.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#73

What are HNers thoughts about public chiropractors that record and publish their treatments and results? I still remember Ian Rossborough (even though he got suspended after adjusting a baby) and his famous video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpNcnM0FkTM making a boy walk straight in 10 days. Honest question, is this a stunt? Scam? Fake? Magic? Bullshit?

I watched until he asks about continuing the first correction and then after the kid agrees he whacks him in the back from the other side of the the body. He can’t even fully see where he’s is striking. Like some sort of magic martial artist. I’d call it bullshit.

Is that on 2:40?

Isn't that just a strike on kid's lower vertebra, where he holds his fingers beforehand?

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#74

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…

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Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#76
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me start by saying that I agree that doctors do suck. They are people and that should be enough to understand them. But all self regulating industries with a financial incentive to lie suck. I realize this topic treads deeply into quasi-religious territory so forgive me in advance, but couldn't this just be the placebo effect? Mixed with the healing effect of someone caring about you? Maybe your physio actually g…

No: I had stopped seeing my physical therapist months earlier for various reasons, including that I was experiencing setbacks that I found emotionally demoralizing. What a "grade 5 lumbopelvic mobilization"--what all the medical science people (online) were saying I needed to get done (like, I was at the point where I was watching talks from conferences on lumbar spine radiculopathy issues)--does is it takes the iliu…

Fwiw I have no dog in this fight, but I am personally very skeptical of chiropractors. Nevertheless my doctor said he might actually prescribe me to see one for a long term (decade+) back and neck issue. His exact words were "normally I would never send anyone to a chiropractor, but one thing they are great at is getting dislocated things back into place." Which sounds like the kind of thing you were dealing with.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#77

I've lived both sides of this. I once went to a chiropractor for back issues and he made me seriously worse and it took months to recover because what he thought just needed to be put in was actually a herniated disc. Fast forward more than a decade and I have an amazing chiropractor. Every time I go there, I walk away feeling better, walking straighter, and in less pain. My daughter also goes there and the chiroprac…

If anything I think it's a shame that the quacks and the Good Guys can share the same title. But it's the same in any profession, isn't it? No. Chiropractic medicine is pseudo-scientific, so inevitably the percentage of quacks will be far greater than in a scientific-based medicine. So not remotely the same.

And I have quite literally watched PhD's ignore science and go based on their feelings- making [incorrect] diagnosis without even standing within 5 feet of the patient. If that isn't pseudo-scientific, then I don't know what is.

So yes, it is remotely the same.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#78
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Literally, a belief that you could, for example, cure cancer, by aligning the spine. I can assure you that 99% of chiropractors would never claim that they can cure cancer.

I agree. But the original basis for chiropractic care would make claims like this. They would blame the cancer on spinal issues. And that’s what I’m saying is bogus. I agree that most chiros now would not say that because it’s ludicrous.

The original basis for pretty much all medical treatment was nonsense. Some people noticed some things worked, that got passed down and added to over time, somebody spotted patterns and built up an elaborate theory and then that got passed down as gospel.

The classic example is Hippocrates' theory of the Four Humours. Galen, world-renowned physiologist, elaborated on this by ascribing psychological temperaments to each Humour… To cut a long story short, he taught us that the Central Nervous System controlled the body, and was in turn controlled by the brain (or, at least, the voice was); and that cataracts can be removed with a needle; and that blood provides life-giving energy and nutrition to the body (specifically, heart-generated blood provides energy and liver-generated blood provides nutrition, and blood passes between the chambers of the heart via a blood-permeable interventricular septum); and that men have more teeth than women.

Medicine has moved on since then. If Chiropractors haven't, that's a good argument, but “Chiropractors used to be quacks” isn't a particularly strong argument that they are now.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#79

The author uses the fact that Chiropractic was started with inspiration from the spiritual world as evidence of quackery and says they are surprised that chiropractors are allowed to practice. And yet ... We allow many organisations which specifically say that taking directly to non-physical beings will solve your problems. So this bullshit is far less surprising than the direct and common bullshit we tolerate every…

"We" don't allow them. I take issue with lots of forms of quackery and faith based "let's pretend we're science" organizations. So I agree there are others practicing quackery besides chiropractors out there.

Re: Chiropractors are bullshit

#80

I've lived both sides of this. I once went to a chiropractor for back issues and he made me seriously worse and it took months to recover because what he thought just needed to be put in was actually a herniated disc. Fast forward more than a decade and I have an amazing chiropractor. Every time I go there, I walk away feeling better, walking straighter, and in less pain. My daughter also goes there and the chiroprac…

If anything I think it's a shame that the quacks and the Good Guys can share the same title. But it's the same in any profession, isn't it? No. Chiropractic medicine is pseudo-scientific, so inevitably the percentage of quacks will be far greater than in a scientific-based medicine. So not remotely the same.

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