I’m a medical worker, and I’ve been trying to read about the history of chiropractice. It’s fascinating to me how the field was started as a spiritual practice. But with the background of chiropractic care being challenged by modern science, and spinal manipulation being disproven to have any benefits, how is chiro so mainstream today? It’s covered by health insurance, even though medical researchers are regularly publishing data that disproves the benefits. DISCLAIMER: IM NOT TRYING TO HATE ON ANYTHING, I’m genuinely interested in the history and how the practice became so mainstream with a somewhat unsteady foundation.
In: Biology
From what I understand, there is value in it for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Not much different from PT in that regard, but exercises/stretches over a long period can help.
My MIL who lives in the UK went to the ER and after that could only see a chiropractor because the NHS often rations care out there. He ordered an X-ray of the upper back, where’s they only did one of the lower back, revealing broken vertebrae that were missed previously.
When Chiropractors are honest and know their limitations, I think they can be valuable. I don’t know how many of them fall into this category, but it’s something to keep in mind.
That said, the whole manipulation/adjustment thing is a load of crap at best and dangerous at worst.
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