Cyropractors and bosses

[SRW]

My boss has migraine headaches, recently she started daily visits to a chiropractor. She and some others in the office are always talking about the marvels of chiropractory...well actually they gossip about experiences and share notes on herbal/natural cures.

I was in an car wreck years ago (Dodge Ram Rear ended my Opel GT small sports car). My lawyer convinced me to see a Chiropractor.

 

[SezMe]

... and? Not sure where you want to go with this.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I tried chiropractic to solve my migraine headaches. Didn't work. Actually, it was a homeopath who solved the problem. Now, I'm almost entirely headache-free.

 

[SRW]

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78029

opps this thread posted before I was ready.

 

[SRW]

I tried chiropractic to solve my migraine headaches. Didn't work. Actually, it was a homeopath who solved the problem. Now, I'm almost entirely headache-free.

I bet it's not worrying about all the extra money you used to have that cured you. The homeopath just lightened your load.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

Nah. She didn't charge me anything. She was a homeopath on this forum who suggested that my migraines might be caused by clenching my teeth. Then she pointed me to an FDA-approved device to stop the clenching of my teeth and thus stopping the migraines. It worked. So, a homeopath did end my migraines, just not via homeopathy.

 

[Causality]

I tried chiropractic to solve my migraine headaches. Didn't work. Actually, it was a homeopath who solved the problem. Now, I'm almost entirely headache-free.

I had a friend who was a skeptic, as I am, and he loved to see his homeopath for health issues. I asked him why he would use such a woo method, and he said they were the best at providing the placebo effect, and it worked for him every time! I know the placebo effect can be as good or better than modern drugs, so I'm actually all for a placebo effect practitioner. No side effects.

 

[Minarvia]

My mother was in a car accident about 30 years ago and a couple of her vetebrae were broken and out of place. The only relief she gets is by going to a chiropractor once in a while. It helps her more than I would have thought. After one of her treatments she is in much less pain for about several weeks to a month or more.
I guess chiropractic does help some people.

 

[Big Al]

I had a friend who was a skeptic, as I am, and he loved to see his homeopath for health issues. I asked him why he would use such a woo method, and he said they were the best at providing the placebo effect, and it worked for him every time! I know the placebo effect can be as good or better than modern drugs, so I'm actually all for a placebo effect practitioner. No side effects.

Placebos only make you feel better. Ibuprofen, for example, will actively reduce swelling and reduce a fever. I can't see how any placebo could ever be better than a modern drug - after all, a drug from a doctor will have its own inherent placebo effect, so even if it's pharmacologically useless (as homeopathy is), it would surely still have the same placebo effect.

Unless I'm in particularly severe pain, I tend to avoid drugs of any kind. I figure they'll work better when I really need them, as opposed to building up a tolerance or a habituation. Also, you don't have to be the first on your block to discover some hitherto unexpected or long-term side-effect.

My usual treatment for migraine (thank the FSM I stopped having them about 20 years ago) used to be lying in a darkened room moaning softly - sometimes for 2-3 days.

I did find some pills that had some effect if I had enough advance warning of an attack. I can't remember what they were called, but there was a yellow one to take if you got warning of an impending migraine, and an orange one to take mid-attack. I never found the latter at all effective, so I stopped taking it. Later on, the drug was withdrawn, so it looks like that was the right decision.

I don't even take aspirin for headaches until I'm finding it hard to think straight. Keeps me free of stomach ulcers.

 

[CynicalSkeptic]

My mother in law gets migraines. She's trying to detox with soup and herbs, and getting her colon cleansed.

 

[Fnord]

Nah. She didn't charge me anything. She was a homeopath on this forum who suggested that my migraines might be caused by clenching my teeth. Then she pointed me to an FDA-approved device to stop the clenching of my teeth and thus stopping the migraines. It worked. So, a homeopath did end my migraines, just not via homeopathy.

Did she tell you to "Apply Directly to the Forehead"?

 

[Big Al]

My mother in law gets migraines. She's trying to detox with soup and herbs, and getting her colon cleansed.

I thought migraine was a neuroelectrical "brainstorm", akin to epilepsy (if you have one, you don't get the other). If all the doctors are wrong, and it's some acute toxicosis, perhaps the bleevers would like to tell us what the relevant toxin is?

 

[Ove]

My mother was in a car accident about 30 years ago and a couple of her vetebrae were broken and out of place. The only relief she gets is by going to a chiropractor once in a while. It helps her more than I would have thought. After one of her treatments she is in much less pain for about several weeks to a month or more.
I guess chiropractic does help some people.

There is no doubt that chiropractors can provide pain relief when it comes to muscles and joints. A lot of people with backpains and similar benefits from chiropractore or simply from a good massage. It gets gritty when chiropractors claim they can cure diseases..

And your mother might as well see a physiotherapist, the results would be similar or even better since the physiotherapist has a basic anatomic training.

 

[RemieV]

My usual treatment for migraine (thank the FSM I stopped having them about 20 years ago) used to be lying in a darkened room moaning softly - sometimes for 2-3 days.

This sounds like my migraine treatment (stopped having them a few years back, but used to get those pesky menstrual migraines.) Only my solution involved more screaming punctuated with the occasional bashing of the head into a wall.

A neurologist, an MRI, and four different kinds of pills later, I just stopped having them

 

[tkingdoll]

I had a friend who was a skeptic, as I am, and he loved to see his homeopath for health issues. I asked him why he would use such a woo method, and he said they were the best at providing the placebo effect, and it worked for him every time! I know the placebo effect can be as good or better than modern drugs, so I'm actually all for a placebo effect practitioner. No side effects.

For the symptoms of many illnesses, knowledge of placebo effect renders the treatment ineffective, and in things like depression, learning of the placebo effect not only undoes any good it had done, but sends the depressive into a worse spiral than before the treatment.

Therefore, you would have to admisinster placebo without the patient knowing that's what it is. That's called "unethical".

Also, in very many cases, you could be masking symptoms of an ilness which needs to be treated. Homeopathy might make your symptoms go away for a bit, but it hasn't treated the underlying cause. In the case of a cold or a phantom illness or injury, that's fine, but for everything else, it's not fine.

I think you will find the vast majority of homeopathy patients are not aware of the placebo affect and/or do not attribute their diminishing symptoms to it. This is confirmed by the fact that homeopaths and the homeopathy industry does not market its products and treatments as placebos, but surrounds them in mysterious claims of magical efficiacy.

Homeopaths will claim that their medicines can treat causes, not just temporarily banish symptoms.

Why not tell your friend to create his own voodoo ritual at home to banish his symptoms? He could save a fortune and give the money to cancer research.

 

[ponderingturtle]

There is no doubt that chiropractors can provide pain relief when it comes to muscles and joints. A lot of people with backpains and similar benefits from chiropractore or simply from a good massage. It gets gritty when chiropractors claim they can cure diseases..

And your mother might as well see a physiotherapist, the results would be similar or even better since the physiotherapist has a basic anatomic training.

It is also somewhat problematic as they do not nessacarily limit their treatment to the problem area, and chiropractic neck manipulation can cause strokes.

 

[Calcas]

I was in an car wreck years ago (Dodge Ram Rear ended my Opel GT small sports car). My lawyer convinced me to see a Chiropractor.

The reason your lawyer told you to go to a chiropractor was so that you coluld build up your medical expenses ("specials" as claims people call them.)

The higher your med bills, the higher the ultimate settlement for pain and suffering.

You didn't really think your lawyer cared about your HEALTH, did you?

 

[Causality]

For the symptoms of many illnesses, knowledge of placebo effect renders the treatment ineffective, and in things like depression, learning of the placebo effect not only undoes any good it had done, but sends the depressive into a worse spiral than before the treatment.

Therefore, you would have to admisinster placebo without the patient knowing that's what it is. That's called "unethical".

Also, in very many cases, you could be masking symptoms of an ilness which needs to be treated. Homeopathy might make your symptoms go away for a bit, but it hasn't treated the underlying cause. In the case of a cold or a phantom illness or injury, that's fine, but for everything else, it's not fine.

I think you will find the vast majority of homeopathy patients are not aware of the placebo affect and/or do not attribute their diminishing symptoms to it. This is confirmed by the fact that homeopaths and the homeopathy industry does not market its products and treatments as placebos, but surrounds them in mysterious claims of magical efficiacy.

Homeopaths will claim that their medicines can treat causes, not just temporarily banish symptoms.

Why not tell your friend to create his own voodoo ritual at home to banish his symptoms? He could save a fortune and give the money to cancer research.

I actually did tell him to create his own placebo at home. He seem to revel in the idea that he could feel better by some remedy that was pure fantasy. Even though he knew it was placebo he said it worked for him. He was a very eccentric (and successful) guy and I think he just got a kick out of it. Sometimes it's fun to do weird things.