chiropractic care and injury prevention (Page 2)

I did PT last year and they worked a lot on my hips, which are stronger and more flexible now. It wasn't that long after PT that I was injured again. I've got pretty good core and upper leg strength. However, I have a theory now that it's my flat feet that are the problem. I want to strengthen them. Now to find a practicioner who will help me with that....

I've had relief from back issues in a past life, as well as a pinched nerve in my neck, from chiropractors.

My experience with doctors has been only that they do expensive tests, diagnose me, prescribe meds and tell me to run if it feels ok and rest if it doesn't. Guess I haven't found the right one.

That's pretty much what I thought. This guy has signs up all over the office about how subluxations make you die young by cutting off nerves (his theory is that the way my spine is curved cuts off nerves to my lower legs so they're more injury prone.) Oh, and signs that say that you don't need medicine if you can harness God's healing power in you (paraphrased). Yeah, it seems a little whack to me.

I love my chiro!  But, in my experience, they run the gammut...some great, some just-wanting-your-money.  I have seen chiros on and off for the last 15-20 years starting from when I was 16 and couldn't unbend my back after mowing the lawn with the riding lawn mower - totally out of nowhere.  They definitely work for my back issues - though most of them came from my weightlifting days and caused by lifting - my fault.  But I swear by them.  I actually haven't been back to one in a few years as situps and core work REALLY helps keep your back good and out of the chiro's office.

I have been fortunate in that my last and only 3 chiro's adjusted me for only two to three sessions when something hurt and that was it.  Only once I had a pain that took about 4 sessions.

My wife wasn't that lucky.  She went to a place that pretty much wanted you to sign your name to several months of treatment and regular sessions before she even got cracked - like your experience sounds like.  A cattle farm.  BS...her back was just tweaked.  She went to mine and got it fixed in a session.

If you find the good chiros that don't force you into multiple monthly sessions, try it.  Let pain guide you.  If after one or two sessions the pain leaves, and there is no pressure for more appointments, you have a good chiro and it works.  If the pain doesn't leave after one to two sessions, it may be time to see a different type of physician.

Does he adjust your back and neck? How often do you have to see him?

So you feel like regular adjustments are part of what keeps you running strong?

This seems to be the general consensus. My plan is to keep seeing this guy for the injury treatment, because it *IS* working, and because I don't have the extra time to shop around for chiropractors (nor do I have any recommendations from anyone), get an assessment, try to get an appointment, etc. I want to be back in the game sooner rather than later.

However, after this injury is better, I'm going to be done with him. The complicating factor is that my good friend is the office manager and she is terrified of what will happen to me if I don't follow through with the "treatment plan" of getting the subluxations fixed. She told me I shouldn't run until that happens or I'm gonna have some serious injury. (I think and hope she was a little drunk when she said all this.) I love her, but she's a little neurotic and she's gonna be fun to deal with. But that's what I get for mixing business and friendship.

OK that made me laugh
I used to date a chiropractor and had never been to one prior - still have mixed feelings but do believe there are good ones out there. I will tell you that a "foot" adjustment was absolutely heavenly when marathon training. It was nothing more than making my feel feel good though.

I've been seeing a chiropractor similar to what you describe for about 3 years.

I started because at 40 years old I had back pain every day. Some days I could barely move. I went in and heard the whole thing: subluxation, God designed the body to self heal, etc . I looked at my xrays with him and he showed me where things were mis-aligned. Then he described a rehabilitation plan to restore my spine to near it's designed shape. Eating right, sleeping enough, regular exercise, rehabilitation weighting, and regular adjustments. It cost me about $1600 for a year. For about 6 months I saw him 2 or 3 times a week. More if I felt I needed it. I wore weights to help restore the proper curvature in my back. I also began to eat healthier and get more exercise. The affect it has had on me has been pretty amazing. I can see the difference on the xrays between the old me and the current me.

I'm now on a maintenance plan that covers my family of 4 for about $2000 a year. At 43 years old I almost never have back pain. When I do I stop into the office for an adjustment. I still try to stop in at least once a week (usually on my way to a workout).

Since I've started running (last year) and swimming (last year too) occasionally I have a knee or ankle issue and I'll see him for an adjustment on that too. It usually clears the problem up after one adjustment.

Now, also understand that I'm a christian so I do buy into the God designed part of all that too.

Chiropractic may not be the way to go for everyone, but it has worked for me.

I can only relate my personal experience with chiropractors:

I've had two serious back injuries as the result of accidents, one was a "fall" (understatement) and the other was an impact to my head.

When I went to Dr. Marcus Imsande, a Chiropractor in Dearborn, Michigan, he made adjustments once a week. My running improved (specifically, I went faster more comfortably), my legs hurt less and I generally felt better- less "creaky".

Dr. Imsande went so far as to participate in a bike fitting experiment I did where we X-rayed parts omy body on a bicycle in the riding position to examine skeletal alignment. Here is a photo of Dr. Imsande comparing different bend aerobars in my X-rays:

The bottom line for me was it helped. If I had the opportunity and/or resources to do chiropractic again I would.

It's my consensus, too. I'm one of the people who also knows a fair bit about physiology and kinesiology (I used to tutor at a university's physical therapy program and biology department), loves certain chiropractors for certain things and hates others, for most of the reasons already mentioned.

Ultrasound and e-stim are common modalities throughout the medical fields. Just so you know. Generally the chiros I have loved are the ones who are well-versed in widely used modalities (not just chiropractic manipulation) and who are used, recommended by, or even work with allopathic (doctors) and allied health (physical and occupational therapist) practitioners. Several of them are also endurance athletes, and all of them have worked extensively with them.

I know you probably don't want to hear this (having ignored it forever myself and to some degree still do), but it may also be that you need a different approach to your running. Some people do have to completely rest/heal and then start up excruciatingly slowly/limitedly, but then with more frequent running. (As opposed to, say, a triathlon plan that has three days a week of running). In the long run (heh), whatever is going to be best for you ultimately is what saves time and money, and most importantly, those lovely lower legs of yours which are going to have to last you for the rest of your life.

People keep saying that ultrasound and e-stim are common, but I've never seen them being used at my orthopedist's office (and I've gone through lots of PT there; never saw anyone hooked up to anything like that in the PT area.)

A little bit of a rant/vent: what's been driving me nuts about doctors and health practicioners in general lately is that nobody ever seems to recommend anything other than what THEY do. I found the massage/ART guy myself and then told the chiropractor I'd had a session with him and he was really helpful. Chiro's response: "Oh yeah, I know that guy. He's worked with a lot of my patients and yeah, he is really helpful." I'm thinking, ya dolt, if you KNOW something is helpful why not tell me about it?? I showed up the other day wearing compression socks and he says, "Oh yeah, I bet those feel great." Then why didn't you ever tell me that compression would be helpful? You didn't know I knew that. It's not just him, it's every doc I've ever had. I feel like most of the things that have helped injuries that I've had, I've had to research and figure out on my own. Is that just me??

I don't mind hearing it. You're quite possibly right that I need a different approach. I'm just trying to figure out what that looks like. However, once I'm back to running, I'm going to be following Fink's plan (I should be about in the beginning of phase 2 right now) and he's got 5 runs a week, more than I've ever done, and maybe that will work out better. Before now, the base phase had 3 runs and one brick, which I was doing, but tweaked for the marathon training plan I was doing (so all the runs were longer). I think said marathon plan does not work for me, because this is the second time I've been injured following it. And, in retrospect, it may not have been the smartest thing ever to combine marathon and IM training, although I was letting some of the bike/swim slide if I was tired from running.

I've seen three different chiropractors and I agree that just like everything in life, there are good and bad.  I went to three different ortho surgeons and got three different opinions so despite their science, there is always the human factor I guess. 

I'll report back on whether or not things work out for me but on Sunday, I was stuck on my stairs for 20 min.  I was later stuck on the floor for 2 hrs because of something in my back.  I had to have my son pull crutches out of the closet in order to get to the chiropractor on Monday morning.  When I returned Monday evening, I was able to walk in without them.  I was skeptical that she did anything because my former chiropractor was one of the ones that would jump on you and seemed to score points for the loudest crack.  This lady did somewhat impress me in that she didn't ask what was wrong.  She did Xrays, then came in and told me what she thought may be going on based on the xrays.  She was spot on so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. When doing a treatment, she used a table that has spots that drop away quickly so there is no pain.

She only charges $25 a visit and wants me to come in twice a week for a while so I'm going to see what she can do.