The Truth About Chiropractic

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I do actually see a use for a GOOD chiro (DC). I have plenty of friends who are PTs and DC’s. They all agree that if a joint is out that they DC can move the joint better than the PT can, simply because they do adjustments all of the time. On the opposite side of the coin most DCs that I know have little to no knowledge about how to rehab a joint or muscle that is causing dysfunction, they refer to the PT because again, they do it all the time.

The area that I have issues with is the medical aspect. I am a nurse practitioner, for those who do not know they are similar to a PA. If I start doing things that are against my scope of practice I can have my license taken away. There was the DC who was giving medical exemptions for the Covid shot during the pandemic. This is not ok.

I also have an issue when I go to a DC office and they are selling all sorts of stuff that have little to do with bones or joints, like supplements for GI health. When I ask how this is in their scope I get many reasons, the best answer I received was “Everything runs through the spine, and since my scope of practice is the spine, everything that runs through it is in my scope of practice”. My back surgeon’s scope of practice is the spine, but that does not mean that I want him to do my bowel surgery. That justification is quite egotistical.

Overall I think that there are plenty of great DC’s practicing out there. And as with any profession, there are also those that are not good and do not provide care in good faith and bring it down. The medical profession has them as well. But it does seem to me that there are fewer consequences when this happens, if I do things like this and I get reported, the State Board comes in and takes my license away. They do this to MDs as well. It seems that if a DC does this nothing happens and then they have a huge following on Youtube where these bad individuals spread more terrible information

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Brilliant article, Dr. Higgins, that outlines not just what chiropractic has to offer, but all types of conservative treatment. Soft tissue and joint manipulation have been around for 2-3 millennia…like since almost the beginning of time depending on what you believe. World wide chiropractic and other techniques are the first line of defense and treatment for musculoskeletal conditions. Dr. Higgins provided 20 references (and even more in his responses) indicating the efficacy for chiropractic care. The results are obviously there.

A couple of things to add:

  1. Stroke, cauda equina syndrome, and severe adverse events- Rare. Almost non existent according to this 2023 article. Everything has risk from your first piss in the morning until collapsing in bed at night. Chiropractic is low to very low to say the least.

Chu, E.CP., Trager, R.J., Lee, L.YK. et al. A retrospective analysis of the incidence of severe adverse events among recipients of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy. Sci Rep 13, 1254 (2023). A retrospective analysis of the incidence of severe adverse events among recipients of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy | Scientific Reports

  1. Chiropractic is not in conflict with patient self-interest because there are plenty of patients to go around. The #2 reason people seek care from a medical professional is LBP (low back pain). This is second only to the common cold. Around 80% of people will experience low back pain in their lifetime. Osteoarthritis is the leading cause of disability in the world. Autoimmune disease is running rampant due to lifestyle and other factors. There are plenty of patients to keep us busy without smoke and mirrors or selling a bag of goods. I’m not saying this doesn’t happen, but nothing you wouldn’t see in the other realms of health care (unnecessary orthopedic surgeries, unnecessary imaging, unnecessary spinal procedures, excessive use of narcotics and NSAIDs, excessive use of antidepressants).

Kirkaldy-Willis WH, Cassidy JD. Spinal manipulation in the treatment of low-back pain. Can Fam Physician. 1985 Mar;31:535-40. PMID: 21274223; PMCID: PMC2327983.

Yeater TD, Cruz CJ, Cruz-Almeida Y, Allen KD. Autonomic Nervous System Dysregulation and Osteoarthritis Pain: Mechanisms, Measurement, and Future Outlook. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2022 Jun;24(6):175-183. doi: 10.1007/s11926-022-01071-9. Epub 2022 Apr 14. PMID: 35420372; PMCID: PMC9189055.

  1. It is your best approach to musculoskeletal care or treatment. And if it isn’t, what are your other options? Do you really believe your ‘real’ doctors (excluding orthos) have a better understanding of the musculoskeletal system than Chiros and PTs? They are primarily trained and daily practice to diagnose and treat infectious disease (common cold, flu, GI stuff) and refer to a specialist. And according to most insurance companies, chiropractors are a specialist. Good luck explaining to your primary provider how you injured your back, hip, or knee squatting. The majority probably couldn’t begin to understand the biomechanics surrounding the squat let alone injuries associated with it…and they probably really don’t care to understand. They are busy doing other things.

Hays RD, Shannon ZK, Long CR, Spritzer KL, Vining RD, Coulter ID, Pohlman KA, Walter JA, Goertz CM. Health-Related Quality of Life Among United States Service Members with Low Back Pain Receiving Usual Care Plus Chiropractic Care vs Usual Care Alone: Secondary Outcomes of a Pragmatic Clinical Trial. Pain Med. 2022 Aug 31;23(9):1550-1559. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnac009. Erratum in: Pain Med. 2022 May 30;23(6):1198. PMID: 35060609; PMCID: PMC9434322.

Matzkin E, Smith EL, Freccero D, Richardson AB. Adequacy of education in musculoskeletal medicine. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2005 Feb;87(2):310-4. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.D.01779. PMID: 15687152.

The chiropractic scope extends past the neck and low back. Many practitioners have no problem assessing and treating extremity injuries. Others prefer to specialize or pursue a nutrition based practice. Some specialize in soft tissue techniques, needling, or acupuncture. Lasers, cupping, ultrasound, EMS, traction, and PT based clinics have become common…take your pick. Limiting a chiro’s potential to ‘cracking’ or ‘popping’ backs is narrow minded and shows a poor understanding of the profession.

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Name 2 studies. I’ve been going to the same chiropractor for 40 years. I’m 72 now. There are always going to be a few “bad apples” as there are for medical doctors. Your opinion is about 50 years old.

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Chiropractic is a pseudo-science. I’ve read a chiropractic medical journal. It’s all anecdotal stories about how someone felt better after whatever prescribed therapy. They don’t seem to really include large controlled trials which actually measure objective data and factor in different possible variables. Also, they are not true doctors. They are in the sense that your professor in college is a doctor. But to equate them with medical professionals is extremely dangerous. There’s simply no comparison.

I have treated patients with bad outcomes because their “doctor” of a chiropractor told them to go off of their blood pressure medication because they could fix it with adjustments and homeopathic “medicine”. Chiropractors are essentially physical therapists that too often try to practice medicine outside of their scope of knowledge.

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Just always know that MD physicians practice the “best” medicine. Then science advances and we find what was the “best” medicine is no longer so.

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Lol, get a clue. My comment is plainly and obviously directed at the integrity of the article. Clearly I already do naturally avoid groups that decide, arrogantly, amongst themselves to aggregiously bestow upon themselves the lofty title of “Doctor”. With the addition of “of chiropractic medicine” because they are forced to by law to avoid outright, blatant public fraud. However, thanks for the obvious advice. Quasi-regulated, unsubstatiated, pseudoscience and snake oil contraptions have no place in the offices of any actual, real Medical Doctor, borne of actual medical school. I know there are educated, well intented chiros out there but invariably there is more bathwater than baby here.

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Thats right! “Best Medicine”! Neither Medical Doctors nor current bodies of knowledge are or will ever be perfect, as nothing is. The principle of evidence based medicine derived from the best (sometimes faulted) empirical data is the pinacle of what is offered inour society. In the future, when AI is offering a nearly unflawed diagnosis, it will be based on the same platform and concepts of information derived from gold standard studies and of the most unbiased body of knowledge as medicine folliws today. Doctors practice medicine and dont appropriate titles for credibility. Pretty soon your local grocers will decide they want to be called Doctor too. At least they sell the best medicine there is.

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Such an angry man, take a chill pill

you ain’t changing anything

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Are you so sure it is unbiased?

I have some age on most members of this forum. I recall when the PDR had written in a bold box in every description of anabolic steroid “Anabolic steroids do not enhance athletic ability.” Do you suppose that was an unbiased statement, or were they trying to influence behavior on an untested “wish”? All of us who were taking AAS laughed out loud at that garbage.

And who has forgotten the silencing of any who questioned the safety of the COVID “vaccines”? You mean that unbiased science?

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Very informative and useful post, thanks.

I’ve been suffering with piriformis syndrome for nearly 2 years. A physio with an osteopath background helped to a certain extent, but the symptoms are still very much there when squatting and deadlifting heavier weights. Could a chiropractor help?

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My chiropractor fixed about ten years of nagging shoulder and elbow pain in a few simple sessions (with the graston technique) and has helped me massively over the years on a few other things.

I don’t see him that often but if I have an issue then I ring him up, book an appointment for about 24 hours (or less) later and after either a single session or maybe 2-3 I’m ok. The last thing I saw him for was when (due to a poor choice of shoe and a slippery floor) my left foot shifted slightly sideways whilst holding about 500 pounds at the top of a deadlift causing an issue in my lower back on one side. A ten minute session with him manipulating my shoulders, legs, feet and back and I walked out in a lot less pain and the following day was pain free.
I also like the fact he doesn’t pressure me for repeated sessions and therefore repeated payment, he tends to do a session and send me on my way to see how it goes and to rebook should I need it.
I wholeheartedly recommend mine but understand that like any industry there’ll be some unethical assholes.

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I knew we would eventually get some comic relief. Medical doctors kill, maim and poison 15 MILLION Americans every single year in the United States of America and 90,000 of them die. The AMA lobby has made medical doctors the most protected segment of society we have. They can amputate the wrong leg, or both of them in one case I know of in Florida where the woman was in the hospital to deliver her baby, and the doctor will be back on the gold course, from where he was called to deliver the baby the next day.

I have used chiropractors since April of 1994. Read my post above. Unlike the poison that doctor dispense, an atlas being put back into place can be proven immediately after it is returned to where it belongs. One thing you cannot do is come into a conversation and claim someone’s 29 years of experience didn’t happen.

The guy who discovered the practice did so by returning hearing to a patient who went to see him for a different issue and he pushed a lump in his spine back into place and the deaf guy’s hearing returned. It is hard to argue that if a spine is subluxated and the nerves that feed the entire body go through the tube that is out of wack and the nerves get pinched, that it will not have an impact on the body.

There are different qualities of chiropractors just like there are different qualities of anyone else. I wen to one chiropractor that screw me up pretty bad. I went back to an atlas orthogonal chiropractor after that. I have to drive 130 miles each way a could of times a week to get straightened out again.

Chiropractic works when you get a good doctor. They have to study all of the same thing that a medical doctor does. Oh, and by the way, and MD is the lowest of the doctors. They essentially are only trained in prescribing drugs.

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Ummm

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Medicine and physical well being are application specific.

I don’t go to the e.n.t. for heart stuff, or the cardiologist for sinus problems.

Chiro does what they do, MD’s do what they do.

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That seems a little too general, though I have never been educated in either one.

Just wondering: About what percent of the doctors should be chiropractors on a Level 1 Trauma Team?

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You are making too much sense, stop it

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You’ll never guess what my brother the plumber does. :rofl:

As it happens, I’m at the cardiologist as we speak, for :drum:

A heart check up.

Not gonna act like the exception is the rule, but I do know a guy who can do both.

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A level one trauma team has other certification than an “MD”. Their training did not stop. Take a typical MD from your neighborhood family practice, and he would not do much if any better than the chiropractor.

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@flabbrgastd, Great summary and advice. Agreed, an individualized approach is best. There are chiros who come from a hard-core medical and rehab background and those who are more philosophical. Those more structural, neuromuscular, or soft tissue, and those who are neurological and physiological or a mix.

So, getting recommendations, and evaluating their approach and techniques will help you find a practitioner who can help you best. I personally do free 10min consults when either I or the client is unsure it is a problem I can help. A great practitioner will also have recommendations and people they can refer you to. Some of my best patients have been ones I referred out and who remembered that and come back to me later for other issues because they trusted I had their best interest in mind.

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Did a quick poll on T Nation Instagram:

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