Chiropracter Experiences

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 Anthony Hirst 20 Jan 2020

I have just had my first consultation with a chiropracter with regards to a hip/groin issue. Following an x ray I have advised that the hip joint is worn but that I don't need a replacement hip, which is good news. Before I commit to the recommended treatment I thought that I would ask if others on the forum had undertaken similar/general chiropractic treatment and whether it had been sucessful.

Thanks

Tony Hirst

  

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 SouthernSteve 20 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Why pick a chiropractor (a complementary or alternative medicine) rather than a physiotherapist (conventional medicine)? 

I would find a good physio if it was me. I have no experience of chiropractor however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic_controversy_and_criticism

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GoneFishing111 20 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

I have experience of physio and an osteopath.

I went to a physio multiple times for my shoulder and back, their recommended exercises worked but i had to be consistent and it took a long time and stopping what i was doing permanently to cure the shoulders, my back is no better really.

The osteopath however was instant, i bent down sideways to pick up a trowel at work and something funny happened in my side that took my breath away and remained incredibly painful/uncomfortable afterwards. Anyway the osteopath cured it in about 5 minutes with an odd manoeuvre, something to do with a rib apparently. I have been back for other things and i find the practice in general very helpful.

In reply to Anthony Hirst:

I’ve used Chiropractors and it totally works for me.

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 Baron Weasel 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

I've had back issues over the years, I fractured T11 bouldering about 20 years ago and every so often I put my back out. I've seen various chiropractors, physios etc. Some of whom have helped, while others have made it worse. About 10 years ago I had really bad sciatica and I was recommended to try bowen technique and it fixed the problem first time. I have been back every time I have put my back out since it has worked like magic. The theory behind it is resetting your muscle memory but without physically cracking bones and it works for me. 

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 girlymonkey 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

I use a McTimoney chiropractor, which has none of the "violence" of normal chiropractors. Really effective and gentle. 

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 alex_arthur 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Chiropractors are at best a waste of money and at worst could actively cause you harm.

A chiropractor is not qualified in anyway to interpret a hip x-ray or offer advice about if a hip replacement is indicated.

Interesting how the report of the x-ray suggests a problem you should continue to see him for...but not serious enough to consult a qualified medical practitioner. 

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 Robert Durran 21 Jan 2020
In reply to alex_arthur:

> Chiropractors are at best a waste of money and at worst could actively cause you harm.

So how do you explain the numerous people including myself and those posting here who have had their backs "miraculously" sorted by chiropractors?

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 mark s 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Over 10 years ago I fell off a route and really hurt my back.

My dad said he paid for me to see someone. I went along , it was a chiropractor.  He said it's just a bit of muscle damage. He put one of them tens machines on me. He wanted me to go back. I went to see a real doctor instead.

Turned out I'd fractured 2 vertabrae 

Avoid the scam artists at all cost is my view 

See someone who has proper qualifications 

 Bob Kemp 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Robert Durran:

You might find this interesting:

https://www.painscience.com/articles/does-chiropractic-work.php

-the section on joint-popping in particular.

 Robert Durran 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Bob Kemp:

> You might find this interesting:

Yes, I am aware that some chiropractors make many false claims and I would be the first to be sceptical about alternative medicine, but how do you accouint for all the people who have "miraculously" had their backs sorted - you walk in hardly able to walk and come out pretty much fine? It happened to me and I find it very hard to believe it was just coincidence, luck or placebo.

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GoneFishing111 21 Jan 2020
In reply to alex_arthur:

> Chiropractors are at best a waste of money and at worst could actively cause you harm.

Not according to the NHS.

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 alex_arthur 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Robert Durran:

I don’t feel the need to explain isolated examples of success in the same way I don’t feel obliged to explain the outcomes of faith healers or homeopathy.  There is a huge body of evidence which shows no benefit to chiropractice. There has been a huge amount of work looking at this. Chronic Back pain costs the NHS and the wider economy hundreds of millions annually. 

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 alex_arthur 21 Jan 2020
In reply to GoneFishing111:

Care to explain further? I’m not aware of any NHS funded chiropractor services

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 Robert Durran 21 Jan 2020
In reply to alex_arthur:

> I don’t feel the need to explain isolated examples of success in the same way I don’t feel obliged to explain the outcomes of faith healers or homeopathy.  

Faith heling and homeopathy cannot possibly have any direct physical effect, so any benefit must be placebo or psychological in origin, whereas at least it is plausible that a "cracked" spine might do good - it certainly has a physical effect!

So are you saying that those of us on this thread (and many others) who have gone to a chiropractor with a bad back and come out with it sorted are benefitting from a placebo effect or the coincidence with another reason for the pain to go away?

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 alex_arthur 21 Jan 2020

Without knowing all the details of the cases you describe, I would agree placebo effect or the pain resolving spontaneously are likely explanations. 

Post edited at 14:48
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 Robert Durran 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

My experience with a chiropractor was a bad lower back which had been getting steadily worse for a month until I was in constant pain and struggling to do much at all. I had tried a physio with no improvement. A friend recommended a chiropractor who had several time sorted his similar problem. I had two visits in a week and was out winter climbing no problem the next weekend.

I visited the same chiropractor with debilitating sciatica a year or two later without success. A friend recommended an osteopath. He did all the same bone cracking stuff as the chiropractor but also released very tight muscles by applying extreme pressure with his fingers. This seemed to sort the problem out. I have been back to him for bone cracking my lower back with success a couple of time since. He has also sorted out a shoulder which was suddenly too painful to climb on at all by releasing a tight muscle behind my shoulder blade (the instant relief seemd almost miraculous) and performed a similar miracle when I woke up one morning with a very painful neck and shoulder.

I went to the Osteopath with a sore shoulder which had become increasingly bothersome and was stopping me climbing, but the treatment didn't seem to be working. I tried a highly recommended climbing physio who diagnosed a standard impingement and his treatment and exercises sorted the worst of it out in a few weeks and have allowed me to manage the problem since.

So it seems to me that chiropractors are probably good for some specific back problems (mine was the misalignment of the joint between pelvis and spine) but that some of their wider claims are nonsense (I believe some chiropractors don't make such claims anyway), osteopaths do the same stuff but are also good at releasing chronically knotted muscles and physios can treat a broader range of problems but possibly not as readily as the ones which chiropractors and osteopaths are specifically good at.

Post edited at 15:04
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 johnjohn 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Robert Durran:

>  how do you accouint for all the people who have "miraculously" had their backs sorted - you walk in hardly able to walk and come out pretty much fine? It happened to me and I find it very hard to believe it was just coincidence, luck or placebo.

years ago I finished a weights session aware I'd done something to my back. Drove three hours to London immediately afterwards (fetching daughter's friends for her birthday next day). Stressful drive: heavy traffic, gales. Stayed with friends, long night out. Woke next morning in pain, unable to move. Tried some stretching but basically couldn't make it round the corner to the shops. Was flat out on the floor wondering what the hell to do. No way I could drive, let alone go and pick up two kids and get them up north. Ibuprofen wasn't touching it. 

Anyway, the friend I was staying with had to go out to meet his then boyfriend who was a GP. Said he'd try to obtain powerful drugs. An hour later this guy (young GP I think just out of training and not particularly impressive) phones me, we talk briefly. He says it sounds like I'd probably torn something minor and the rest of my back muscles have gone into spasm to (over)compensate. But exercise is good, keep it moving if possible, I certainly wouldn't make anything worse (and not to worry - strong drugs were on the way). 

By the time we'd finished talking I was on my feet getting dressed, thinking about what to do next, and putting the pain out of my mind rather than focusing on it. No need for drugs. Rest of weekend proceeded to plan (with a slightly twingy back obviously which recovered over a few days). But still - confidence conferred by medical advice = miracle cure. 

Alternative medicine relies on the fact that most of what we go to the GP with - bad backs etc - tend to be chronic things that come and go. You go when they're at their worst so they're going to improve regardless. If an expert gives you attention and a bit of a boost, they get the credit.  I'd generally say good luck to them as proper doctors benefited from this for years, but chiropraxy is based on pure driven bollocks and actively harms a proportion of people. 

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GoneFishing111 21 Jan 2020
In reply to alex_arthur:

It was my GP that put me on to the osteopath. That and chiropractic and osteopathic services are available on the NHS, albeit on a limited basis - its on their website.

They don't work for everything, but for me on that occasion it did when nothing else helped just panning the idea as quackery is a little shortsighted. 

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 alex_arthur 21 Jan 2020
In reply to GoneFishing111:

Sorry your wrong. 

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GoneFishing111 21 Jan 2020
In reply to alex_arthur:

No im not.

Besides i agree with you, a lot of their claims are bogus but for me, and others this particular osteopath has worked wonders when conventional medicine for whatever reason didn't. I don't know why that is, i am just presenting that facts as applicable to me.

Post edited at 15:47
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In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Great for athsma, or so they claim.

I could take you on as a patient for my homoerotic medicine. You send me money, I send you pictures of well groomed gentlemen, topless in leather gear and the placebo effect takes care of the rest. 

How does £250 sound for a months course? 

Post edited at 15:53
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 Bob Kemp 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Robert Durran:

> Yes, I am aware that some chiropractors make many false claims and I would be the first to be sceptical about alternative medicine, but how do you accouint for all the people who have "miraculously" had their backs sorted - you walk in hardly able to walk and come out pretty much fine? It happened to me and I find it very hard to believe it was just coincidence, luck or placebo.

I wasn't particularly trying to point out the problems with chiropractors - the bit about joint popping was the most interesting thing for me. Maybe results like yours emerge from something around that mechanism?

(The other interesting bit was that some chiropractors are also very critical of chiropractic.)

 Carless 21 Jan 2020
In reply to GoneFishing111:

I think there's a fair amount of difference between osteopathy and chiropractic

In reply to GoneFishing111:

Agreed. GPs in some areas can refer patients on to a chiropractor. 

GoneFishing111 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Carless:

I believe so. Although the differences aren't abundantly clear reading the NHS pages.

 petemeads 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

I was assessed by a physiotherapist when my lower back was giving me pain and stiffness a few years ago, she sent me to a chiropractor because she suspected a sacroiliac problem and he had an x-ray machine. My spine was OK but the fascia joints were displaced, he manipulated me reasonably firmly and I walked away with a spring in my step. Next day knocked 20 seconds off my parkrun time. Repeated this twice more and since then only had a couple of visits, none now for two years. I had BUPA cover but an excess of £200 was about the same as I spent at the chiro. Lord knows how long the NHS would have taken to fix me. And I know the chiropractic concept is very suspect but my treatment worked...

Oh, and you probably will need a hip replacement - my hip pains started as a groin strain sensation and took a couple of years to develop...

Post edited at 19:08
Removed User 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Diagnostics, diagnostics, diagnostics.

 AdrianC 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

If you're interested in whether it's likely to be a successful treatment then asking people for their experience is not the way to find the answer.  The medical profession threw out that approach quite a while back and went from harming to helping their patients.

For a readable summary of "alternative" treatments and their efficacy try Trick or Treatment by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst.  (A article Singh subsequently wrote ended up in a court case with the British Chiropractic Association which Singh won.) 

 artif 21 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Went an osteopath/chiropracter, had x rays etc for a persistent back pain. He did fix the problem, but not because the treatment. On the last visit he asked me what car I drove and when I replied he just nodded but said nothing.

It was then that I realised the back pain started shortly after buying the car. A quick change of seats and all was good.

In reply to Anthony Hirst:

I was persuaded to see to see a chiropractor when I had a bad back. I thought it would be a waste of money.

I stand corrected. 

 Nicola 23 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

Make your own mind up based on a number of very positive personal experiences online, but also consider some of the counter evidence:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK91735/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-50397867

 Ava Adore 24 Jan 2020
In reply to Anthony Hirst:

My experience of back and neck pain being treated by my usual chiropractor is nothing but positive.  Every time they hurt it will take at most two sessions with him to sort whereas when I've gone to physio it's taken several sessions.

However, I have been to other chiropractors in desperation when mine hasn't been available and it's never been as good and sometimes they've made the problem worse. 

So from my experience, it depends entirely on how good a chiropractor you find.

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 Ava Adore 24 Jan 2020
In reply to girlymonkey:

My chiropractor of choice is also McTimoney


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