chiropractor yes or no

5uspect · 07-07-2014 02:17PM

johnb25 wrote: »

I was helped for a back problem, not a general medical condition. This is the area of the body Chiropractors work on, and the one the OP needs help with. As I mentioned above, I am also skeptical about the claims to heal other conditions. Sharing a positive experience of one Chiropractor for a back problem does not promote the whole discipline as being beneficial for a range of medical conditions.

They claim that a whole host of diseases are a direct result of spinal misalignment, even denying that vaccinations are effective. What you've seeing is the blunt edge of the wedge. Sharing a positive experience of massage as a means of treating back problems is fine. That's very different to saying that the chiropractic technique was beneficial.

This distinction is important.

Akrasia · 08-07-2014 08:55AM

Also, testimonial evidence is scientifically worthless because the human body is a dynamic system that is constantly trying to repair itself and also because many conditions go through normal cycles of remissions and flare-ups by themselves.

As an individual, you don't know if going to the chiropractor improved your back pain, made no difference, or even delayed recovery. You can not know, any chiropractor who talks about 'in my experience this treatment works' is demonstrating an utter lack of understanding of how statistics and data and medical science works.

The only way we can judge the efficacy of chiropractic is through high quality medical studies and of those studies that have already been carried out, the highest quality studies show the least benefit.

Below is an extract from a Cochrane review of the best available research on the efficacy of Chiropractic. Note, of the 12 studies conducted, 9 of them were considered at risk of Bias (in favour of chiropractic) that the review specifically excluded treatments where only spinal manipulation was included, so all of these treatments would also have included some level of physiotherapy or massage as well as actual chiropractic treatment

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21248591
Short-term improvement in disability was greater in the chiropractic group compared to other therapies (SMD -0.36 [95% CI: -0.70 to -0.02]). However, the effect was small and studies contributing to these results had high risk of bias. There was no difference in medium- and long-term disability. No difference was demonstrated for combined chiropractic interventions for chronic LBP and studies that had a mixed population of LBP.

CONCLUSION:
Combined chiropractic interventions slightly improved pain and disability in the short term and pain in the medium term for acute/subacute LBP. However, there is currently no evidence that supports or refutes that these interventions provide a clinically meaningful difference for pain or disability in people with LBP when compared to other interventions.[/quote]

The conclusion that I take from this is that even where 75% of the studies are potentially biased in favour of chiropractic treatment, they still couldn't show that chiropractic was worthwhile compared with the alternatives especially considering the risks and other consequences of allowing pseudoscience access to the medical profession

turbot · 08-07-2014 09:07AM

OP,

I spend long hours in front of computers too. I've never been to a chiropractor.
My only symptoms are that sometimes I need a shoulder massage if I've been working for long hours.

You need conditions that support long term back health - I think thats better value that remedial services of what in practice may be hard to determine efficacy. If I did go to a chiropractor, I'd want to first speak to 5 recent patients who reported massive improvements within 5 sessions or less.

But as lifestyle conditions go, what helps me immensely is:

1) Get a comfortable high-end ergonomic chair. Like one of these:

http://www.businessinteriors.co.uk/the-top-ten-best-office-chairs-in-the-world/

2) Wear shoes that are well fitting and comfortable. Personally I think that Rockports (with their addidas soles) are like wearing trainers that pass as formal shoes. Solid plastic heels etc just strain your whole system

3) Make sure your posture is good. This is all about having stronger stomach muscles and good habits. You need to study this. It's all about how you walk and sit.

4) Stretch your muscles out

5) As alternative therapies for postural enhancement go, I'd choose a really good Feldenkreis practitioner over a chiropracter, but for both, it would entirely depend on the person.

chiropractor yes or no

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