Do chiropractors really help?

Depends on your chiropractor
Although I never had any pain, my chiropractor has helped me fix my posture

I’ve never been to one personally but from the many different reactions I’ve heard from other people I think it’s all in your head, for the most part anyway. I’ve had rather bad neck pains before but they went away after a week or so of just relaxing to let the muscles loosen a bit and then rubbing the area gently for awhile.
I suppose if you have the money it can’t hurt to try though.

I used to go to one for years when I was a gymnast…didn’t really help. Give it a try if you have the money though.

OMG, I’ve gone to them since I was a kid. Of course they help. They can do in half the time what a doctor will try to do with all the ‘conventional’ methods. Once you find a good one, he’ll definately help. Word of mouth is the best. Ask around & get references.

Yes. I went to one during my entire first pregnancy, and after I gave birth because of a rough delivery. My father now sees one, and he was recently diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the spine. He says it helps.

I don’t like going to doctors because 9 times out of 10 it is unneccessary and your body will heal itself. But I’ve hurt my back before, pretty badly once playing soccer, and I went to the chiropractor every couple days for a few weeks or maybe a month (I don’t really remember) and it helped a LOT.

My mom hurt her shoulder/back pretty bad a couple months back and, even though she is skeptical of doctors, she went to a chiropractor and felt better almost immediately.

I’m sure it depends on who you go to of course.

I’d go to a Physiattrist first.

My pelvis gets out of alignment or something like that and then my whole body goes achy. It affects my left knee, my left hip, and a sore neck as well. A couple of trips to the chiro always fixes with, without meds which is important to me.

If I go monthly, the problem usually doesn’t arise at all, but I get lackadaisical about it until the pain sets in.

Absolutely, especially chiropractors who specialise in upper cervical chiropractic: http://www.nucca.org/ Most of them take xrays and are more precise than regular chiropractors – I used to suffer from headaches nearly every day until I began seeing my chiro!

Check out FAQ #3:
http://www.nucca.org/faq.php#faq03

You might want to get a medical diagnosis first. If it is due to muscle tightness, poor posture, or something like that, then a chiropractor (or a good therapeutic masseur) can help. However, if he has a damaged disk or something like that it would be a very good thing to know as mishandling that can cause greater damage.

I believe they provide great short-term relief.

Sure! Ever see Jacob’s Ladder? But physiatrists are perfect for this as well, and much more likely to be covered by health insurance if you have any. Also, try a good physical therapist.

Don’t let a chiropractor touch your neck, ever. Danger, danger, danger. The only thing chiropractic has shown any benefit for is for low back pain. Any chiropractor who tells you otherwise isn’t being honest about chiropractic, since there are no other real clinical trials of chiropractic versus placebo versus doing nothing at all.

You can certainly try things you can do at home first. I can scan the stuff my chiropractor gave me and send it to you if you’d like.

@Darwin has a good answer though.

My chiropractor helped a little, but he said I’d only need so many visits. Well, I did all the visits a year ago, and although I felt better while I was going to him, now I feel the same as I felt before going to him, minus $500. My hip is still uneven and I still have some lower back pain.

@shilolo That’s not true. You’ve never been to MY chiropractor, obviously. I’ve not only gone fo him for over 20 years, he’s a friend. I know him well. When you have a pinched nerve in your neck, or can hardly turn your head, they CAN do wonders. He keeps my body in line from top to bottom.

@jbfletcherfan No offense, but compared to what? There are no comparison studies, and in fact, I have seen far too many chiropractic catastrophes in just 10 years of medicine to feel comfortable with it. More shockingly, many cervical chiropractics make claims about curing diseases for which the nerves don’t even run through the neck. A classic example is trigeminal neuralgia. The nerve that causes the pain from trigeminal neuralgia, the 5th cranial nerve, never enters the spinal cord. How a cervical manipulation could alter the sensation from a nerve that never enters the cervical cord is, of course, unexplained.

@shilolo I have to take your side on this one. All the years I went to a chiropractor I NEVER let him touch my neck. Even as a kid, something seemed horribly wrong with what they did to necks.

Yes, this is a presentation by a medical doctor, but there are very real dangers to neck manipulation. This Google search turns up other examples.

In my personal experience with a chiropractor, the man in question was very aware of what he could and could not fix, and was happy to help me get a timely appointment with an orthopedist when he came across something that was beyond chiropractic’s scope. He also refuses to touch necks.

What you all want to do with your necks is your business. What I do with mine is my business. I live in MY body & MY doctor knows what he’s doing. Period.

I’m done.

@jbfletcherfan Fair enough. Caveat emptor.

I assume there are osteopaths in the US, because that would be another option and probably a little gentler.

This will send chills down your spine:

http://thestir.cafemom.com/healthy_living/137568/chiropractor_dangers_will_send_chills?utm_medium=sm&utm_source=rss&utm_content=healthy_living_rssfeed