Chiropractors?

AsrarHussain

I was thinking of trying a chiropractor to see if my body needs work to be done to perform optimally.
What are your guys thoughts?
Is it a waste of money and time or is it worth it ?

Shawshankcan

Most are a waste. And a chiropractor will always say you need work done and to come back twice a week.

L1zardQueen

Get a massage instead! When I have aches and pains from doing too much, I get a massage ( deep tissue massage). I feel soooo much better. You need to be careful picking chiropractors.

DeficitDuchess

Have you ever, had your vehicle; fixed & then a, week later there's something else that; has to be fixed every time? Well that's my Mother's experience, when she saw 1 after; an accident!

sunburntgalaxy

I think most are going to find things wrong no matter what BUT I did hurt my back and went to one - I saw him the first time, he did some adjustment/massage/something that helped a lot. He said ok well that should take care of it but if you ever need to come back feel free. No trying to get me to come back for multiple treatments or anything like that - I was shocked and honestly it did help a lot. I went on a friends recommendation (I had seen one years before after an accident and that one seemed never ending so I finally just stopped going because it was crazy). I do get back issues now (years and years later) and think about going but I know that doctor has moved (the building he was in is long gone) and don't want to see one who says to keep coming back. I think he was one of those extremely rare in it to actually help and not keep you constantly coming back to make money guys.

Gisel2015

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

Get a massage instead! When I have aches and pains from doing too much, I get a massage ( deep tissue massage). I feel soooo much better. You need to be careful picking chiropractors.

I love massages (not deep tissue ones) but they are not covered by my health insurance and my chiropractor is.

I get an adjustment and also acupuncture treatment once a month. I just had both today and I am enjoying the benefits. The DC doesn't tell me to came back (unless I am really bad), I just do it on my own because I need it and I reap the benefits.

OP: Bottom line is, that you need to get a good chiropractor and recommendations help, and you need to see one with a clear goal and explain what your problem is. If you don't like her/him and if you don't see any benefits, just don't go back.

ninerbuff

I wish I could get "adjusted" every day. I "crack" my knuckles all the time and like the "loose" feeling. I can't do my back the same way.
That said, I don't believe in all the hokey crap about curing asthma, improving digestion, etc. pseudoscience.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Packerjohn

My insurance will only cover chiro visits for acute conditions, no "maintenance", which I believe is reasonable. A chiro can treat some issues, but they should not consider a patient their annuity by having them back indefinitely for "adjustments". A good chiro should show the patient home exercises that can help with the issue being treated.

TonyB0588

AsrarHussain wrote: »

I was thinking of trying a chiropractor to see if my body needs work to be done to perform optimally.
What are your guys thoughts?
Is it a waste of money and time or is it worth it ?

I'm absolutely not going near those guys, but my wife has definitely benefited from them.

serenityfrye

I have scoliosis and see a chiropractor, a kinesiologist and a massage therapist about once a month each to keep me functioning and pain free. If I get off balance I tend to really hurt myself lifting. If you have pain then they can probably help you, but if you're otherwise feeling fine you might not need one.

VegasFit

Depending on how I'm feeling I will drop into my chiropractor. I'm lucky that my insurance covers and that my chiro is an athlete so he can relate to my occasional aches and pains. Finding a reputable one is important or it's just a waste of time IMO.

nutmegoreo

Love my chiropractor, but he is pretty good about letting me go by how I feel for frequency of visits and he doesn't try to sell me on any crap. He's patched me up and sent me out on a number of injuries.

smantha32

I go three days a week. My neck is out of alignment from a car accident and he's gradually putting it right, and I have constant lower back pain from a spinal birth defect and he helps me manage the pain.
Choose one carefully, because there are losers who don't know their stuff and they can hurt you. I'd go with friends recommendations, or try a few until you find one you click with.

sijomial

I prefer the Osteopathic style of treatment and you don't get the woo often associated with Chiropractors.

Also feel Osteopathy is closer aligned with Physiotherapy principles and it's interesting over the years how there's quite a crossover in techniques which wasn't apparent decades ago.
My Osteopath only performs the adjustments after soft tissue massage - so he can gauge the force required as he's had extended "hands-on" time. That's one of my reservations about the short appointment duration Chiropractors often use - being manipulated "cold" means they may be using more force than necessary and you end up tense and sore.

Having said that I did get a really good diagnostic assessment from the Chiropractor I saw. But the short duration, frequent adjustments really didn't suit me at all - seemed to aggravate my injuries as much as help.

But not all Osteopaths are the same and the same obviously goes for Chiropractors.

inertiastrength

I went to one who damaged my basilar artery causing a massive stroke. Almost died and spent the next year relearning to walk and talk. Highly don't recommend

yellingkimber

Maybe I just got lucky with my chiropractor, but I'm absolutely grateful for mine. He double-majored in Biology and Physiology in university before going on to get a Bachelor & Doctorate from National College of Chiropractics. Not sure how much goes into those second two qualifications, but the first two were enough for me to start trusting him.

Anyway, I woke up one day at age 15 and I was completely unable to move my neck to look to the left. My aunt shuffled me over to her chiro. He took x-rays of my entire spine (I also had reoccurring pain in other places from horseback riding) and then he had me able to turn my neck again in under 5 minutes. He was able to pinpoint why I was having problems with certain spots on my back and set me up on a plan to alleviate that pain. I walked out after 10 minutes feeling like a whole new person. I stuck with the plan (I think it was like 3 months) and kept coming back afterward because I was still horseback riding.

I eventually stopped going to him when I lost my insurance (I think I was 17 at that point) and I turn 23 in a few months. I haven't had any of that neck or back pain come back since then, so that chiro is my hero. I swear, at least half of my town has been in to see this guy for at least one problem or another. He's a bit of a town celebrity and you really should see his office around Christmas time with all of the baskets he gets.

zyxst

Some are loonies that propagate woo to sell you stuff and some fix what's wrong with you (or send you to someone who can). I've had no woo problems with any chiropractors I've seen. The last one I went to "cured" my Bell's palsy. I say "cured" because no one knows what causes Bell's palsy. I always felt it was from a pinched nerve and I think I was right.

Try one out. I'd suggest if s/he starts on a selling supplements spree, walk away.

JeromeBarry1

I owe my life to a chiropractor. That's the sort of anecdotal extremism you'll find online. It's not proof that you'll benefit at all, but rather that in one acute circumstance I benefited from skills that only a chiropractor had trained for. In your OP you frame it as using chiropractic as a tool of general wellness. I personally don't think that's going to do any good and suggest that either massage or yoga would cost as much and do what you want.

canadianlbs

i do chiro as-needed, not so much on the regular maintenance plan.

the one i've been seeing for 20+ years is a kinesiology/sportsmed kind of guy, so very low on the woo and very high on bringing out his skeletal models and showing me what's gone wrong why.

once something is wrong it's very hard to know how 'right' feels, so i find my own self-help stuff is not as helpful. chiro for me is a way of bootstrapping myself into 'normal', then after that i use the new baseline to manage the weakness.

i just see it as a tool in the kit, i suppose. for me handing the whole task of optimization or fixing off to one narrow niche doesn't work very well.

ninerbuff

zyxst wrote: »

Some are loonies that propagate woo to sell you stuff and some fix what's wrong with you (or send you to someone who can). I've had no woo problems with any chiropractors I've seen. The last one I went to "cured" my Bell's palsy. I say "cured" because no one knows what causes Bell's palsy. I always felt it was from a pinched nerve and I think I was right.

Try one out. I'd suggest if s/he starts on a selling supplements spree, walk away.

Actually Herpes is linked (along with a few other diseases) to Bell's Palsy. My wife had it, but at the time she was having issues with migraines too. She got over it and hasn't had it since.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Packerjohn

From experience, if a chiro doesn't try.to sign you up for multiple visits or sell you supplements you may have found someone that can and is interested in helping you

Gisel2015

fascha wrote: »

I went to one who damaged my basilar artery causing a massive stroke. Almost died and spent the next year relearning to walk and talk. Highly don't recommend

I am very sorry to hear of what happened to you and I am glad that you are doing better now. You have the right of not recommending THAT chiropractor, but please don't generalize.

laurenmichellefrank85

DONT GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR GO TO A LICENSED PHYSICAL THERAPIST!!!! I've had back and neck pain almost all my life and have seen both chiropractors and PTs and from what I've seen PTs are much better. Chiropractors tend to offer quick fixes, pop something back in place, move something around, but generally the problem isn't your bones, it's your muscles pulling on things or working wrong. A PTs goal is to get you out of pain and have you stop coming, they will show you how to move properly as well as do adjustments that need to be done. I have friends who have gone to a chiropractor every week for YEARS and they still have frequent pain. I have to go back to a PT maybe once every few years for a couple of months at a time and that's because my problems have been so severe for so long, but each time my pain is less severe and I always finish a round of PT with almost no pain! You may have to hunt for a good one, but a PT is generally a better bet for the long run!!

nutmegoreo

laurenmichellefrank85 wrote: »

DONT GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR GO TO A LICENSED PHYSICAL THERAPIST!!!! I've had back and neck pain almost all my life and have seen both chiropractors and PTs and from what I've seen PTs are much better. Chiropractors tend to offer quick fixes, pop something back in place, move something around, but generally the problem isn't your bones, it's your muscles pulling on things or working wrong. A PTs goal is to get you out of pain and have you stop coming, they will show you how to move properly as well as do adjustments that need to be done. I have friends who have gone to a chiropractor every week for YEARS and they still have frequent pain. I have to go back to a PT maybe once every few years for a couple of months at a time and that's because my problems have been so severe for so long, but each time my pain is less severe and I always finish a round of PT with almost no pain! You may have to hunt for a good one, but a PT is generally a better bet for the long run!!

This has not been my experience with my chiro. He works with me when I come in injured, and he sends me home with a plan for improvement. As with any profession, there will be good and bad.

heybales

I found a chiro that starts with ART (Active Release Technique) with the theory that I was kind of looking for anyway - help the muscle balance so you aren't pulling things the wrong way - you may not even need the adjustments to put anything "back" - when really things should just be moving freely anyway.

I had a PT assessment for muscle imbalances that were messing up lower back. Even after much stretching for all the overly tight ones, and discovering and compensating for unequal leg length and it's bad effects I'd had my whole life to some degree, some muscles just couldn't be as loose as the other side.

After some research on my own about the intramuscular scarring that can occur after injuries causing a stretch to fail, a friend recommended this. She was a massage therapist that had learned it, and recommended a chiro that did it too.

1 visit for current issue was all it took. I came back after 2 weeks just to confirm nothing more, and for some work on now noticeable other tight spots. 1 visit again. He never pressed for more, said to return as I needed.

Beautiful. Except he doesn't keep as busy as he should, and had to join a chiro group - and many of them are negative type mentioned above. I hope he hasn't succumbed.

kavahni

Depends on what you mean about wanting your body to "perform optimally." Athletically? Digestively? Regarding general aches and pains or fatigue?
I've been to 4 in my life. Three because of back issues. One was wonderful. One turned out to be a molestor. One over adjusted my neck and scared the hell out of me. They all started with extensive X-rays, then intensive courses of adjustment 3 days a week.
My current chiropractor is Palmer trained but way more a soft tissue manipulator--Active Release Technique. No X-rays, a visit once a week or two weeks. So far, he's fixed everything but a long-shot issue that was the result of a bad nerve surgery I was willing to give him a go at. He's an elite athlete and is often working with athletes across the country. His soft tissue work is excruciating, but he usually resolves the issue in one, possible two, visits.
The other recommendation is for a PT. They can be utterly brilliant just watching you walk and move and figuring out what's up. Good ones understand the need to keep the number of visits down, if possible.

dpwellman

Try physiotherapist, first.

inertiastrength

Gisel2015 wrote: »

fascha wrote: »

I went to one who damaged my basilar artery causing a massive stroke. Almost died and spent the next year relearning to walk and talk. Highly don't recommend

I am very sorry to hear of what happened to you and I am glad that you are doing better now. You have the right of not recommending THAT chiropractor, but please don't generalize.

Stroke is a very rare risk you take going to any chiropractor. In Canada you usually have to sign a waiver acknowledging such a risk exists.

I realize it's rare, but I'd rather see a osteopath vs take that risk, especially in my case.

deannalfisher

I've been seeing my chiropractor for close to 7 years now - I go as needed. Started using one in high school when I was having issues with my shoulders during Crew - all a doctor wanted to do was give me anti-inflamatories, which were doing nothing. now I use my chiro in conjunction with physical therapy and massage therapy (she has all 3 at her practice)

girlgroves

Personally I've had a very good experience with a chiropractor, and also with physiotherapy, for lower back pain, frozen shoulder and tendonitis, however my husband has had a completely different, and quite negative experience with (albeit a different) chiropractor that actually had him going with lower back pain and ending up with excruciating sciatica and a much longer recovery time. So you can never tell. If you're not in pain, or have a specific issue you need sorting out, why would you risk it? I'm not sure I'd recommend it for 'performing optimally' if you're performing perfectly well at the moment.

RachelElser

Yeesh, a lot of Chiropractor hate here. I have went when I hurt myself, as have my mother and father who both have lower back issues from a car accident. My mom's back is all out of whack and she feels much better when it's more the shape it should be, than the shape it wants to be.

Just like finding a new doctor, do your research. Where did they go to school? Any lawsuits against them? What do people around town say about them?