So you have a sample size of one and you are using that as the basis for your advice to a group of people who are not you? Not to rag on you, but this is a common problem with health advice. As soon as we move away from studies people have a thing that works for them that they swear by. We need actual studies and science before we decide one thing is better than something else. Anecdotal evidence is pretty worthless - not totally worthless cause when you are struggling you'll try anything, but pretty worthless.
But just for fun, to balance your one chiropractor I'll give you a different chiropractor story. I hurt my back playing rugby when I was younger, my mum had a chiropractor who she swore by and brought me to. After about 8 weeks of treatment with no improvement I insisted we go to a real doctor. Turned out I'd broken bones in my back. The chiropractor was just treating me for a slipped disk "because 90% of people who come in have them".
I was in a torso cast for 3 months. Needless to say I'm not a huge fan of chiropractors.
You had a bad chiropractor, who probably would have made a bad doctor as well by the sounds of it (just assuming a rugby injury is a slipped disk? did he even check? was he even able to check?)
You'll find tons of stories of malpractice by all sorts of doctors. (I wouldn't go to a chiropractor if there was a chance that x-rays might be necessary for diagnostics.)
A chiropractor isn't a doctor though, does malpractice even apply to them? It's just quackery from start to finish isn't it? That'd be like suing your palm reader for fraud because they made some prediction that turned out wrong.
Chiropractice is not quackery from start to finish. A chiropractor solved my rsi with simple adjustments and some home stretching and joint exercises. A chiropractor fixed my mom's debilitating back pain after pregnancy. But there are many quacks in the field because it is unregulated, and many practitioners also hold metaphysical or folk beliefs that are totally unscientific at best. I have stories about those too. But a good chiropractor will simply diagnose the level of adjustment needed and provide it, and show you how your muscles and skeletal structure are causing you pain.
> Chiropractice is not quackery from start to finish.
I would say it is. The wiki page is quite enlightening.
vertebral subluxation leads to interference with an "innate intelligence" exerted via the human nervous system and is a primary underlying risk factor for many diseases.
It goes on.
Your fortune teller could tell you they predict your health will improve if you lose weight and eat better, or you might get a real psychological benefit from acupuncture that helps your health for example. It is not that no "alternative medicine practitioner" or snake oil salesman can ever give good advice or help anybody in any way, it is that their practice is not based on science.
I'd never ridicule someone for using alternative medicine, or even doubt they get benefits. And I completely understand the draw of trying alternatives when people are desperate with health problems or have been failed by the medical system one way or another. I can't say I wouldn't try alternatives myself, and I know for a fact the whole medical system can be a shit show and is not always aligned to getting the best outcome for the patient. But I am happy to make people aware that chiropathy is not a field of medicine or based in science if it is being recommended, so they can make an informed choice. It masquerades as being a legitimate medical field, which is the real problem with it and is why I call it quackery.
And many many chiropractors do not subscribe to those kooky theories created over 100 years ago. They just focus on maintaining your spinal and skeletal (and muscular) health and examine the impact on your body. Those are the good ones.
It's still pseudoscience. Some remedial massage and stretching and exercise techniques they do may happen to help, but the rigorous scientific medical disciplines for that kind of thing comes under physiotherapy, orthopedics, etc.
An astrologist could tell me the passage of Jupiter indicates I should maintain a healthy weight and exercise, and while they don't really believe in the kooky theories I should still take the advice. It is good advice and it would help my health if I follow it, and it might work for me and I might be happy. That doesn't mean astrology is a legitimate practice or that I should recommend other people seek out astrologers for their health issues.
The chiropractor I'm talking about asked a lot of questions and gave me a lot of advice about what to do at the gym:
- get a trainer for a while and
- work on stabilizer muscles
- pull 3x as much as pushing
- warm up before the training session so as to get the most of the trainer
- stretches to do after the workout
- etc.
I've never had a doctor of any kind be as helpful as that. All GPs nowadays see you for just 5 minutes. Specialists see you for a bit longer, and even then there's barely enough time to cover half of what the chiropractor I'm talking about did. Now, one of the things about that chiropractor is that she speaks really fast, so there's that.
