InTheShop said...
it's a mixed bag. They never helped me much, but I have a couple of friends who swear by them.
Same here. My wife's cousin spoke highly of one in town, so my wife decided to try him out for her chronic back pain. Since she signed up for a 1 year family plan, I decided I would go also just for the heck of it. It seemed to help my wife some in the first few months, but she ended up not liking the treatment and after a year or 2, quit completely.
I, on the other hand, am still going over 8 years later, once a week. Full disclosure: I seem to do better than most people do with various "natural" approaches that I try. So, maybe I have some sort of big time placebo thing built into my system. However, in several things over the years, I wish I could have gotten more placebo for traditional medical treatments that I have tried with little success.
Anyway, the only thing I joined my wife down at the Chiro for was chronic neck pain. Like, 50 years worth and getting worse. My neck was always bothering me, frequently had "cricks" in my neck, often waking up with them. But starting when I was on crutches for about
4 months back around 1990 or so, it got significantly worse. My entire life I had been able to "pop/crack" my own neck just like my knuckles, but after the crutches that ability completely disappeared and never came back. Then I started getting shooting pains down both sides of my neck, felt like electricity. Finally, I started losing range of motion and would have to turn my entire torso around to back up the truck, with occasional severe pans shooting down through my shoulders.
I probably could have found a neuro surgeon glad to offer me surgery, a vertebral fusion or cervical laminectomy or something. But having provided anesthesia for those surgeries for many years, I knew I didn't want any of that medicine unless there was no other choice, plus there was a good chance they wouldn't help. So I offered my neck up to the chiro, not really expecting much. Well, when he "adjusted" my neck. I though "Oh my goodness, WTH has happened". Loud cracks down one side and then the other, and a feeling not of pain really, but a tingling all through my neck and other places. But after a few seconds to get over the shock of my neck being popped for the first time in over 10 years, I realized it felt good. And as the day went on, I thought maybe my neck actually felt a little better than normal. I went several days a week for those first weeks, and after a couple of weeks my neck was 95% better than since I started high school. I can't remember how many years have gone by now, I think 7 or 8, and I still have no significant trouble with my neck. I basically never think about
my neck any more. Except during my adjustment every Monday morning. Didn't do a darn thing for my wife who is the one who wanted to spend the money with this guy, in fact she felt he might have made her worse, at least temporarily. But I sure suffer way less with my neck than before he got hold of me. My previous physical therapy and steroid shots to shoulders helped a little for a while, but this helped much more and has lasted.
I could tell you of a couple of other chronic issues he has helped with, but I guess that is enough for now. His office has always been packed, many long term repeat customers all of whom have to pay out of their own pockets, and who have failed to get adequate help from traditional medicine/surgery. Most of them claim to have some degree of improvement, a little or a lot. Placebo? I don't know. But at the very lest, they, like me, failed to get either that placebo or real(not placebo) improvement from MDs.
So, I guess you pays your money and you takes your chances. Kind of like some prostate cancer treatments.
BTW, early on I was shocked to meet, at the Chiro's place, the retired head MD anesthesiologist I used to work for over many years . He told me that for the first time in many years, he was starting to feel his feet, which had been numb. But a few weeks later he had a stroke, and carotid endarterectomy (neck artery surgery) for it. He recovered well, but never came back to the Chiro. But the Chiro was so glad he had never let him touch his neck. Because, if he had his neck worked on shortly before a clot broke loose in his carotid artery, it would have been natural to blame it in the Chiro. In fact, I am surprised that does not happen, just by chance.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 9/12/2018 11:01:30 PM (GMT-6)