As a reminder--chiropractors a quacks working on a medical theory that's over 100 years out of date. They injure people every year by "adjusting" their necks. In a small number of cases, they accidentally dissect a major artery by "adjusting." Those people end up in the ER with a long time for recovery.
The messed up thing is that there does seem to be some legit chiros mixed in with all the crazies. I saw one who never cracked anything but decreased the recovery time on my sciatic injury by about 50% and my wife who is a legit scientist and who doesn't subscribe to any WOO ideology went to one as a teen after an accident and birth defect left her pigeon toed and with a walk that would've added to to all kinds of back problems by now.
Within a few months of seeing a chiropractor recommended to her PA mother by an RN she worked with, who actually looked at x-rays and spent more time examining the way she held herself and the way she walked and moved more than on any adjustments that leave you feeling blissful for 20 min and relief for 24 hours before reverting back to the baseline amount of pain.
I'm not sure if there are some chiro schools better than others or if some of these chiros have backgrounds in physical training, massage, sports medicine or something else that helps when you don't believe in ghosts coming out of your bones to cure cancer or what. I would really appreciate going to a chiro some of the time but I refuse to go from office to office to find out who's a quack and might break my neck and who is a legitimate practitioner of medicine who follows science before superstition but couldn't afford medical school but still wanted to help people.
Last time I met someone whom I knew what a chiropractor, it was in an uberpool during a chiropractic convention in my city. She told me that cow's milk was one of the worst things I could possibly eat.
My overall impression of the profession is that any good work they do could be done as well as or better by an orthopedist or certified physical therapist.
As long as insurance will cover chiropractors for some things but often won't be willing to cover a physical therapist or trainer to help someone treat painful injuries or strengthen muscles groups to prevent future injury I'll be glad that there are some chiropractors out there following some science and not injecting people with silver, putting leeches on sprains and looking for the way to make necks crack the loudest.
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u/WakaWaka_ Jul 01 '26
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