Post by Matti LamprheyPost by Larry GThat's one I've wondered about as well. For years, I would drive by
a "School of Chiropractic". It always seems like something was
missing like "medicine" or something.
I think that you will find that many people believe that what's
missing from chiropractic is "medicine". Others might posit "science"
or even "ethics".
I've suffered over the last thirty years from spasms in my lower back
which are short-lived but acute. The last one occurred four years ago,
and I visited a chiropractor on the recommendation of a neighbour.
After a poke and a prod he did a quick bit of manipulation which has
largely solved the problem, or at least made its occurrence far less
frequent. He may have relied upon a non-chiropractic technique to do
so, perhaps, but it was one that seemed to be beyond the regular general
practitioners I'd consulted over the years.
So far, so good. But what bothered me about the fellow was that he
spent the whole time "selling" chiropractic to me, with fringe science
and anecdote. He had an array of "substances" in little phials stored
in an expensive-looking mahogany case, and he'd use these in a kind of
dowsing fashion; he would arm-wrestle me with a substance in my hand
and then again without it, and draw portentous conclusions about the
apparent difference in the muscle strength this effected. I found the
situation made it difficult for me to raise objections to what he was
doing without seeming churlish, but it has made me reluctant to continue
with him.
If anyone else has experienced chiropractics, I'd be interested to know
whether this kind of thing is typical.
I've been to a number of chiropractors over the years, and can
attest that they can cure problems that the conventional
medicos and physiotherapists are totally incompetent to handle.
Some of them have been good, some bad, but none of them have
tried to sell me those substances. It sounds as if you met
someone who was a herbalist on the side. My experience with
herbalists and -- damn, I've forgotten the name of those quacks
who specialise in taking poisons and diluting them down to
pure water -- has been uniformly bad. As it happens, I do
believe that some herbs can have healing powers, but I also
believe that herbalists lack the competence to use herbs
effectively.
(I'm feeling frustrated that I seem to have lost a word from
my vocabulary. Traditional magic relies on the principles of
similarity and contagion. The quacks I am thinking of, the
ones who sell bottled water, base their entire theory on those
two principles.)
My current chiropractor, who trained in Canada, is somewhat
evangelical in that he seems to think that only regular
chiropractic treatment can assure one of a long and happy
life. I just ignore the sermons and let him ease the pain.
Australian-trained chiropractors don't sermonize.
Many years ago I injured my lower back, and every so often the
damaged thing-that-goes-between-the-bones (I'm having a lot of
memory lapses this evening) pops out of place and leaves me
in severe pain, sometimes to the point where the only way I
can get out of bed is to roll over until I fall onto the
floor. Conventional medicine has never helped me with that
problem, unless you count my nephew-in-law who is a
kinésthérapeute. (A term that is impossible to translate into
English, but is roughly halfway between a physiotherapist and
a chiropractor.) Chiropractors do help. The quality control
in that profession seems to be poor, and there are some whom
I would classify as incompetents, but there are also some who
are very good.
There was one chiropractor I knew who could straighten out
my spine, and ease the most intolerable pain, in a single
session. He did not believe in multiple sessions. It was
a real loss to our city when he retired. I only needed to
see him once in every three or four years. The modern trend,
in both conventional medicine and the so-called alternative
therapies, is to require multiple visits.
--
Peter Moylan http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au
Newcastle, NSW, Australia