If chiropractors are frauds, what do doctors do for bad backs?
All chiropractors are not quacks. The ones to watch out for are the ones who tell you that they can help with things that are not related to spinal alignment. (I’ve seen chiros who claim that chiro can help with everything from glaucoma to allergies to ingrown toenails. Those are the quacks.) If her back is repeatedly and frequently “going out”, there’s something wrong that the chiro isn’t fixing. Go see a doctor. Really. GP is fine. Tell the doc what’s going on. Doc will probably recommend physical therapy first, depending on what the problem seems to be. PT will help, unless she’s already got good abdominal and back muscle strength. The doc may also prescribe a good back brace, if her back is in really bad condition. A good PT will also be able to help with mechanisms for dealing with/preventing the “going out”. Standing/sitting/lifting properly will make a big difference in the amount of stress on the back, and may reduce/eliminate the recurrence of “going out”. A good PT may do the
I don’t think it’s accurate to characterize all or even many chiropractors as quacks. Most of them are competent in their specialty and are hard-working, decent practitioners. One of the problems with asking traditional MD’s about chiropractic is that the two specialties don’t speak the same language. We use an entirely different set of jargon. When a chiropractor views an x-ray next to me, they say words, and the words make them decide on a treatment plan, but that process is pretty opaque to your typical MD – much as our own process is opaque to folks who haven’t studied medicine, I suppose. I have two specific criticisms about the chiropractic. First, high velocity neck manipulations are dangerous to people with underlying vascular disease; they can sometimes cause vertebral dissection, which can be fatal or severely debilitating. Second, chiropractors should not be performing or interpreting EMGs, as their scope of practice does not enable them to recognize or treat what they find.
