What do chiropractors really cure?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

For non-specific (meaning without a known cause) back pain chiropractors are about the same as a medical doctor. However between 33% and 66% of people report INCREASED pain after visiting a chiropractor. Additionally chiropractic neck adjustments can literally kill you, although this is rare. Of course there are down sides to legit medicine but those are usually more in line with the benefits and the doctor will tell you about them, instead of hiding them like chiropractors do. Also, chiropractors require you to visit them about three times a week for the rest of your life. Even if you need lifelong visits to an MD for the same problem, they will be more along the lines of once a month or so. All in all I would recommend going to an MD or physical therapist and getting massages instead of seeing a chiropractor. It would be cheaper, easier, and at least as effective.

For everything else chiropractors are completely and utterly worthless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropracti…

Chiropractors are required to go to 4 years of schooling AFTER completing 4 years of an undergraduate degree. That is 8 YEARS of training. They are known for working on the back, but they also treat other minor injuries, such as shoulder pain, knee pain, and even wrist and finger pain (this can be caused by car accidents, work place illness like carpel tunnel syndrome, sports injuries etc). They can also do massage like procedures and give at home exercise techniques. If you see one, and do not want your spine manipulated (or "cracked") tell them, and they will adjust your care plan. Good luck!

worked as a Chirporactic assistant for 8 months

Chiropractors are not "real" doctors - ie physicians. Their treatments have been proven to exceed the efficacy of placebo only for low back pain, and even for this, they are no better than real medical care.

A small number of chiropractors restrict themselves to treating muscular-skeletal complaints for which physical manipulation might actually have some efficacy, but such ethical chiropractors are rare. Most chiropractors "treat" disease conditions for which they have no competence. The chiropractic theory of disease — involving imaginary "subluxations" — is just plain ridiculous.

The "HIO" (Hole in One") chiropractors — championed by another writer below — believe that ALL disease (OK- 95%) are caused by the misalignment of just one vertebra — the so-called "Atlas" vertebra at the top of the spinal column. Even mainstream chiropractors laugh at HIO practitioners.

It is often said that chiropractors may start out honest, but invariably they need to cheat patients or insurance companies or both, just to stay in business. It's tough making a living as a chiropractor these days — even tougher for honest chiropractors.

If you want a soothing back-massage, see a masseuse. Cheaper, and you don't get the chiropractic mumbo-jumbo.

http://chirobase.org/

Their specialty is muskuloskeletal pain and injuries. This can involve spinal manipulation, and adjunct therapies such as interferential treatment, ultrasound, low intensity laser etc. Chiropractic is excellent for sports injuries.
Chiropractic is a recognized form of medical treatment worldwide. Claims that it's somehow not legitimate are ludicrous. In the 1980's the Chiropractic profession sued the AMA over nonsense allegations in an anti--trust suit and won.
You can take painkillers for back pain, but this doesn't make any sense if your spine is misaligned and nerves are being impinged. It makes much more sense to realign the spine and free up the pinched nerves.. Curing the cause is always superior to just putting a bandaid on symptoms. It's a no brainer.
The horror stories that annoy me the most are the ones where properly prescribed drugs kill hundreds of thousands of people a year.

I see a chiropractor and I love it. It's like a little mini massage in my opinion! I have some ribs that are fussy and pop out of place causing me some pain as well as a lot of annoyance and discomfort. My chiropractor helps with all of that, but for me its a temporary fix unless I want to go through surgery which I'm not into. Chiropractors can cure back pains caused by bones and/or muscles. Slipped discs, muscles spasms, subluxations (things out of place) are some things they help with. According to chiropractors, any misalignment or irriation in your back/spine can cause anything from headaches to heart arrhythmias, and so on. Do I, as a nurse believe that? Not really, no. Does my guy give me relief from my back pain and a few irritation-free weeks? Yes. In my opinion, he's like a massage therapist and I love it.
As for how legit they are, they go to school for a long time, just like any other doctor. I couldn't just go to a few classes or read up on it and call myself a chiropractor. They are intune with a person's body, anatomy physiology and how to manipulate the bones, tissues and joints. They're medical doctors with degrees and go through major testing to achieve licenses for what they practice. In my opinion, they're legit healers and can make a difference in people's lives.
HTH

i was having bad back pain 2 weeks ago so i went 3 times to a highly recommended chiropractor that week and by the third visit i was feeling better. it usually takes 3-4 visits before noticing a difference. the do back, neck, wrist, leg and a bunch of other kinds of pain. they will adjust you which to me feels amazing and then for me they stretched me out because my back was really tight.

Lower back pains. If they claim to cure anything else such as asthma or colic or anything else, they're quacks.

Chiropractor = expensive massage.

(apropos again parrots the rants of well established liars, since he has no knowledge of the subject.) now for the truth. chiropractic is about one thing and one thing only-the correction of subluxation caused nerve interference. period. i don't care what your "chiropractor" does or does not do, or wether you like it or do not. that single objective is his sole responsibility. it is not the purpose of chiropractic to "treat" anything. the purpose is to fix the short circuit by clearing the pressure off the spinal cord due to vertebral misalignment in the upper neck. that is all. since most illness is due to this common cause, many things can resolve naturally when this is done. i have a sample of over eighty conditions for which previous sufferers have recovered, ranging from allergies to migraines, stomach problems to hypoglycemia, depression, etc., etc.. the misrepresentation by persons who should know better is the major source of misunderstanding of what it is. the lies of the malicious outsiders would quickly be overcome if those who should know better all did what they are supposed to.