Why are so many people afraid of chiropractors?!


Question: I don't understand why people are so afraid of them.

Any insight?


Answers: I don't understand why people are so afraid of them.

Any insight?

For some of the same reasons Samharvey raises. Sam seems to have some major issues with Chiropractors and alternative medicine in general. Just look at his track record on alternative health answers. Notice how the "recent article in the Australian journal of medicine" didn't have a full citation?

That being said, the fear of chiropractors is the fear of the unknown. Only 10% of the US population sees a chiropractor. There are a variety of reasons for this, mainly stemming from lack of knowledge of what we as chiropractors truly do (and know). Most old-school MDs (Samharvey) would rather cite half-truths and bash something they don't know about, rather than learning about a completely viable and capable treatment method. Generally since people don't know much about chiropractors, people with bad experiences tend to tell more people than those people who have had good experiences. The funny part is they don't mention how they ignored the DC's recommendations, or didn't follow a treatment plan that was agreed upon. Granted there are DC's out there who could merit the "quack" label just as there are MD's, DO's, PT's and others who are quacks.

Another reason is that since MDs don't fully understand what chiropractors do, they tell patients they "aren't allowed to go to chiropractors" which naturally allows fear to grow, even though the MD has no rational basis for forbidding their patient from going to a chiropractor (This type of withholding the best care for a patient is known as guess what??--Quackery on the part of the MD!!)

Just as in any profession, there are people that are excellent at what they do, good at what they do, mediocre at what they do, and those who show up to get a paycheck- Medicine, Nursing, Physical therapy and Chiropractic are no different. But because chiropractic isn't completely mainstream, people think that all chiropractors are the same, but we are not.

I'm not afraid of them, but I don't like them, and I don't trust them. Their evaluations are not thorough, they fail to apply medical knowledge to the conditions, which, at times, leaves the patient with more of a problem than s/he presented with.

I saw a chiropractor for low back pain. It's obvious upon evaluation that the pain is caused by scoliosis and obesity. The "doctor" did x-rays, and treated me (even though only one x-ray came out).

His treatments did not remove the cause for the problem (scoliosis and obesity), and actually made it worse (the scoliosis, anyway). On the day of my last treatment, which was only about half-way through is "plan" I was barely able to walk out of the office.

There has been a hundred year long misinformation campaign against Chiropractic by the Medical Establishment which wishes to protect its monopoly on a trillion dollar industry (in the US alone).
People are also brainwashed by Hollywood movies into thinking that people can be killed by having their necks "cracked" by a bad guy. I believe studios get bribed to put this in movies by the Medical/Pharma industry, and believe it or not this is the most common reason people are afraid of Chiros!
I dare anybody to show me evidence that one time, any where in the entire world somebody has ever been killed this way!!! It never has happened - the neck is way too strong, up to 600 pounds before anything can possibly break and a typical adjustment used 3-4 pounds maximum. The "popping" that happens is no different than if you pull on your pinkie, and no more likely to hurt anything. The try to do studies about the "dangers" of Chiropractic, and they study large populations (thousands) to see how many get hurt, and the problem is, nobody in the control group ever does!!! A major study studying a large control group just came out and the worst they could find was minor stiffness and muscle pain, or occasional mild numbness which went away anyway! - no serious reactions at all!
That's not to say nobody has ever had a bad reaction to a Chiropractic adjustment, but it always has to do with preexisting health conditions that the Chiropractor did not create, such as severe atherosklerosis or occult bone cancer, which usually gets missed by the Medical Doctor too.
It does not come from the adjustment (the "cracking")! This is a carefully orchestrated lie!

fear of the unknown most likely
most in our country have grown up with the idea that good health comes from a pill, ie; we have a headache because the body is not making enough aspirin. Direct marketing on Rx drugs to the public foster this belief.

b8k3p had a really bad experience with an unskilled chiropractor and classifies all 60,000 in the US the same. From what he answered, it is understandable. If a bad experience with MD or Do kept people away from all MDs/DOs where would we be...

DCs are well trained, the schools are accredited by the same federal agency that accredits medical schools. Unfortunately all do not practice what they are taught.

Perspective
a death reported in Australia
16,000 DEATHS in this country annually from arthritis drugs
190,000 DEATHS annually in hospitals from medication errors
chiropractors seem pretty safe to me!

all doctors who graduated in the bottom 50% of the class are called.........doctor

Some people are afraid of chiropractors because of the whole idea of spanal manipulation. Others have heard of some of the stupid things individual chiropractors have done or said. A friend of mine had a chiropractor tell her son that it's just like taking meth to take paxil. It seems that most chiropractors are under the impression that spinal manipulation should do the trick for just about any problem - maybe that's the case, but some people need medication to gain immediate relief from their problems.

Many chiropractors have substandard medical training and think that they can "cure" virtually any condition by manipulating the spine.One student in my medical school class was a chiropractor who, after the fist semester, stated he was astounded by his lack of real medical and scientific knowledge after his chiropractic education.And to David R....the Medical Journal of Australia recently published a study of numerous bad outcomes from chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine including a DEATH in a 29 year old woman!

I was afraid of chiropractor for a long time. Once I fell down a flight of stairs and went to the chiropractor afterwards. He took x-rays and assured me nothing was broken. After more than a year of treatments and still going 3 times a week, I went to a medical doctor who ordered x-rays. I was told that I had a compressed disk and fractured vertebrae. The chiropractor was pushing on this spot on my back for over a year, marveling at the fact that my back would not stay in place. After a few months of physical therapy, I was free of pain. Now you know why I was afraid of them.

Oh that's right SAMHARVERY I forgot that prescription meds never hurt anyone!!!! What's one of the leading causes of death in North America again???...not chiropractic manipulation, i'm pretty sure its prescription meds and negligent medical practioners! There are many intelligent chiros and many unintelligent chiros (definitely cannot generalize) - same as any medical doctor - many are very good at what they do and some, well they just suck! There is no one in ANY medical field that has all the answers to everything....its all about complementary medicine, where we utilize all the beneficial things that many people have to offer!!!





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