Posted: 8/7/2008 6:36:02 PM EDT
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So my wife works as a chiropractic assistant, and after listening to how much these people make for such a short amount of work I am impressed. Not to mention the guy owns his own practice and sets his own hours. To me this seems like an ideal job. Help people feel better, set your own hours and make good money doing it. From what I have researched school is approximately four years. Which isn't too bad I am still kinda young. Any advice, comments or concerns? |
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The only time I have ever been to a chiropractor he cracked my neck and my face went numb on one side for at least an hour. He was also smoking a cigarette in the office. What a quack! Not saying all are quacks, but this one was! They scare me now because I have a rod in my spine and do not want my back popped, even though it would feel good. |
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My dad is a Chiropractor, in practice for 35 years. I'm 38, and aside from two large cuts that required stitches, and some dental work, I've never been to an MD for anything but a physical. Good Chiropractic care is amazing for keeping you healthy. Having said that, and I'll make this as short and concise as possible, very few Chiropractors know much about Chiropractic, because what has been taught in the schools for the last 40 years ranges from "close, but not quite right" to complete BS. It isn't the fault of the doctors; they try to do what they were taught, and what nearly every other Chiropractor does, but only get limited success with it, so most start to "branch out" to other areas, like physical therapy, massage, to even things like herbal treatments. Plus, the AMA has spent the last 30 years actively undermining Chiropractic, making it very difficult for most people to get their Chiro care covered by insurance. These days, you almost have to have a referral from an MD, and few MDs are willing to stray from their "pill solutions." Honestly, most Chiropractors are having a rough time, mostly due to the insurance issue, but also because what they are taught in school doesn't help them get many of their patients well. It certainly does help some, but it could be vastly more effective than it is if only the right things were taught. Unfortunately, it is a fairly small community, and extremely political, with a lot of people in high places who want to protect their pet method or instrument or technique. Plus, you have to fight the perception of many people that Chiropractors are quacks, and unfortunately, many of them are. Over the last 10 years, Chiropractic colleges have seen enrollment drop by half. That's not to say that you can't have a successful practice, but IMO you would need to build an up-scale practice catering to well-off folks in order to do well, so you'd need a good chunk of money to get started. You'd need to do this in an area where there is a large population of well-off people; you couldn't just do it anywhere. For a new doctor who isn't an "expert" right out of the gate, that's a lot of risk. I could go on at length, but you're probably bored already, so...  -Troy |
What you make ain't so hot compared to what goes out for insurance. Look into that there. You're basically fucking with people's necks and spines. People who already have problems. You're going at it blind. Easy to fuck that up.... real bad. |
I've never heard of a Chiropractor who doesn't start by taking a series of X-rays at the very least. No one is "going at it blind"; if they did, they'd be sued into oblivion. -Troy |
Really? I've been to three for extended periods, and never an x-ray. I suppose two of the three practitioners it's understandable, but the third is a pretty highly regarded practice around here. |
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Witch doctors and a sham of a profession. Sorry, don't beat me up because of my opinion. How many people that you know went to a chiropractor quit going after a couple of sessions? I don't think it natural to be "popping" things back in place. Know why chiropractors stay in business? Because you have to keep going back to get things "popped" back in. Go to a regular doctor, and get some pharmaceuticals. Then go to the liquor store. Then take a hot bath. Take a day off. I have had many injuries, but a chiropractor would be my last choice of all doctors. |
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Wow. I would be very afraid. The biggest problem with Chiropractic is the lack of focus on scientific method and objective testing, both of which were integral to the foundation of Chiropractic and its early development. Unfortunately, the brilliant doctor/scientist/inventor/businessman (B.J. Palmer) who developed Chiropractic was also a crappy father and husband, largely ignoring both his wife and son to focus on furthering Chiropractic. When he died in 1961, his estranged son took over Palmer Chiropractic College, threw out most of the staff and virtually all of the techniques, instruments, and data that his father had developed, and invented his own "method", without the benefit of any actual scientific methodology to determine if it worked or not. B.J. Palmer was on the cutting edge of instrumentation and sensor development, with many major breakthroughs in X-Ray technology, among many others, being financed and developed to meet his needs in furthering Chiropractic study. He was a committed scientist, never afraid to discard an idea, instrument, or method that proved to be incorrect or inadequate. His son, intensely bitter about his father, destroyed all that, and Chiropractic has never been the same. -Troy P.S., B.J. Palmer owned one of the first AM stations, WOC (Wonders Of Chiropractic) in Davenport, Iowa and gave Ronald Reagan his first "real" job as a sports broadcaster there. He also owned one of the first electric typewriters in existance, an early prototype of the Northeast Electric Company, which eventually became Remington Rand. |
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Speaking out my a$$, with the limited exposure I have to chiropractors. Chiropractors, and massage therapists seem like decent ways to help people get the range of motion, needed to do the the physical therapy that would really fix their back problems, in the long run. |
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The problem is that "real" Chiropractic is all about the central nervous system, not about massages or bad backs. Your brain contains the information that your various cells and organs need to heal you when you are injured (obviously major trauma requires additional care) and keep you healthy. A surgeon can patch you back together or replace a joint, but your body still has to do a lot of its own work to heal you. Your skin, bones, and muscle tissue doesn't heal by magic, but by processes in your body that are controled by your brain, with messages sent via the CNS to the appropriate areas of your body. Your brain is pretty well armored, and normally not subjected to a lot of physical stress. Your spinal column, and your neck in particular, is much more exposed, and much more subject to "damage". If the vertebre in your neck are pulled or injured out of alignment, you constrict your spinal column in that area, and message traffic from your brain to the rest of your body slows down/is impaired. It's kind of like stepping on the garden hose; the water goes from a full stream down to a trickle. The true (and largely lost) idea of Chiropractic is to remove those misalignments to restore full function of the nervous system, allowing the body to be able to heal itself at full efficiency. That's a simplified overview, but you get the idea. As I said earlier, most of what the average Chiropractor does today has very little, or nothing, to do with Chiropractic. True Chiropractic *works*. What most Chiropractors do doesn't. -Troy |
The only problem is that chiropractic medicine is quackery, for the most part. You give people an expensive massage, call it an 'adjustment' and claim it's scientifically based. Reference this from the post above injured out of alignment, you constrict your spinal column in that area, and message traffic from your brain to the rest of your body slows down/is impaired. It's kind of like stepping on the garden hose; the water goes from a full stream down to a trickle. Clearly, it's not an empirical science. Your best hope as a chiropractor is that they don't have a medical condition that you exacerbate, but do have a medical condition that you prevent them from getting a medical cure for, such as posture and lifestyle changes, or physical therapy. If you have disc involvement in your back/neck injury STAY AWAY FROM A CHIROPRACTOR. Go to a doctor, get an X-ray or MRI, and get physical therapy. Otherwise, it's an expensive massage with some placebo effect. |
My wife is getting certified as an Xray tech (paid for by the office she works for) so that she can start taking the Xrays instead of the doctor. It is something they do on every new patient. |
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If you go for it just be a good doctor. The Chiropractor I see is also a Psychical therapist and he is very good. I heard all the horror stories but keep hearing one name coming up as good. So when I needed it I went to him it was like night and day & he has since treated at least 3 of my firefighters and probably half a dozen of my friends. |
At best, a chiro is an unlicensed DPT. At worst, they are a nutjob who believes in something that has no medical basis. Become a real healthcare professional and at least you can sleep at night knowing that you're not ripping people off. |