I bring all this up because I saw a chiropractor the other day — my first visit as a patient after having written a number of columns questioning the qualification of chiropractors to treat diabetes, which is a growing trend in the industry.
In the first place: I don't care. IMHO, there is not anyone in the health care industry that has provided me with more direct relief, more precise fixing of problems, than chiropractors. Nearly everyone who does hard physical labor will know exactly what I mean. Everyone that works goes to bone-crushers, and those that don't are really missing out.
I know a guy that rides a cubicle for a living. He has had persistent lower back pain for years - Almost a decade. Most of that time, as he suffered more and more, he has been in the care of physicians, and of course medicating.
Since the distribution of opiates has tightened up, and in mortal fear of his next step, a recommended surgery, his fierce determination that all chiros are quacks was finally overcome, as he flailed about looking for another, any other solution.
He FINALLY listened to what everyone in our mutual social group had been telling him.
His first adjustment gave him so much immediate relief that he was instantly a believer. He went back about every three days for a month or so - His back and hips were so out-of-whack that it took a bit of work to to get the adjustments to stick, and new positioning to be retained... He also began walking regularly (on the chiros advice), to strengthen his lower back and offset the maladies presented by what was largely a sedentary lifestyle, continually sitting.
The second month, he went about once a week, and the third month he went twice... And thereafter, only when pain returns, which is far less.
It took ONCE to provide the relief the doctors could not give him in 10 years, and but three months to correct the damage of a couple decades.
And to these particular points:
From the article:
First: Why do chiropractors get to call themselves doctors? They’re clearly not doctors, lacking both the extensive training and prescription-writing ability of a medical doctor. Yet to a lay person, it may be hard to distinguish between the two professions when they share a common (and highly prestigious) title.
This is a false statement. My brother is a chiropractor, and went through years of medical training, and rigorous testing and internship. He deserves the title of doctor as much as anyone.
from the article
Second: While the therapeutic benefits of a spinal adjustment seem undeniable — you do come away from a session feeling refreshed — why does what is basically physical therapy have to be wrapped up in so much pseudoscience and possible quackery?
I will grant you that chiros can tend toward odd and even unfounded remedies, secondary to their main profession, and I would be careful with some of it. But, nearly thirty years past, when I was feeling ill, my chiro at the time suggested a 'green drink' fast to purge toxins and restore vitality. for sixty days I ate nothing but the juice from dark-leaved raw vegetables, with other veggies and some fruits added in.
It really didn't work that well for me until, against his advise, I added some meat back into my diet. Then it worked a charm. And everyone knows the value of 'juicing' nowadays, and an entire industry has proven it's popular health effects. So much for what was, at the time, 'quackery'.
From the article:
Modern chiropractors focus primarily on the spinal column, seeking “misalignments” that might affect joints, muscles, nerves and organs. The basic idea is to restore a sense of balance to the body and help it heal naturally
This is again, false. Chiros DO focus on the spine, because anything having to do with carriage begins at the spine. But a good chiro will certainly venture well away from the spine as well - Hips, knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, fingers and toes. A good exam will involve the whole body.
To conclude, yes there are chiropractors that consider you a 'milk cow' - an epithet often used in conversation and warning among those who frequent bone crushers... And yes, they can go down unproven trails and promote 'quackery'... But so do doctors. Which is the quackery in the story listed above? The chiro, who fixed a long term malady and relieved a decade long bout of suffering, or the medical doctors who treated the symptoms for years and years, medicated the pain, and were recommending expensive back surgery when they should have been recommending a chiropractor?
