A Houston Chiropractor’s
Spine-Tingling YouTube Videos
Have Earned Him an Army of
Crack Addicts’—and Controversy
Texas Monthly,
by
Peter Holley
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
1/18/2020 2:00:01 PM
By 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, the beleaguered patients—their bodies creaking and popping, their central nervous systems aflame—have packed a cramped waiting room in an office building overlooking the traffic-clogged Sam Houston Parkway.
Old and young, white and brown, wealthy and working class, they are a quintessential assemblage of twenty-first-century Houston. And yet, many of the patients at Advanced Chiropractic Relief have arrived here from far away.
Among them is Sergio, a bulky, thirty-year-old construction worker suffering from excruciating back pain, who has made the seven-hour drive from Oklahoma City. Shekynah, a 23-year-old flight attendant with a herniated disc
Reply 1 - Posted by:
StormCnter 1/18/2020 2:00:52 PM (No. 291853)
I'm super-leery of chiropractors. But, it seems to work for some.
13 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 1/18/2020 2:15:13 PM (No. 291857)
This chiropractor will keep on doing his stunts until someone comes in with a cervical fracture that he couldn't see on an x-ray, and his manipulations complete the lesion around the cervical disc, and he turns his patient into a quadriplegic.
I handled bodily injury claims on and off for over 30 years for the latest auto insurance company in the country. Chiropractors were the bane of my existence in "no-fault" states, where they burned through personal injury protection coverage limits in a hurry - and their patients NEVER got any better.
Essentially, the so-called "science" of chiropractic is nothing more than folk medicine. But, some people swear by them and think they're miracle workers. Go figure.
15 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Californian 1/18/2020 2:55:31 PM (No. 291871)
Chiro: just don't.
If you need medical care go to a physical therapist who is performing a course of treatment prescribed by a real doctor medically trained in the areas you have problems.
If you want to be generally healthy, get a physical trainer at the gym.
If you want sore muscles rubbed out go to a massage therapist (no, not that kind).
If you want to end up in agony for life in a wheel chair or spending money forever because chiro doesn't actually fix anything then it's your call if that's how you want to risk your health and waste your money.
Sure, maybe a few aren't criminal crackpots but those still can't fix anything not covered by a real professional.
7 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 1/18/2020 4:19:06 PM (No. 291920)
Sorry, my take is they're snake-oil salesmen. They call it "decompression of nerves," and maybe it is, but most of the time nerves will go back to a state of compression. Chiropractors can't figure out WHY they're being compressed, because by law they can't order anything but X-rays. That's like using juju bones to predict tomorrow's weather instead of what we use today. MRI/CAT/PET/EMG are tests that only specialist MD's can order. Our vertebrae grow "bone spurs" like coral in an attempt to curtail inflammation, or excess movement. Even removing an offending bone spur won't be permanent. Oh, and about that last "neck twist" he does, it should be noted that that maneuver has resulted in serious injury, even death when arteries are severed in the neck.
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
snakeoil 1/18/2020 6:02:58 PM (No. 292005)
Am a skeptic about chiropractics, faith healers, drinking beet juice and all the other miracle cures. But if you are desperate you'll try anything. The best take on chiropractics is H L Mencken
https://www.chirobase.org/12Hx/mencken.html
2 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
millstream 1/18/2020 7:34:39 PM (No. 292049)
lots of people with personal opinions but few with correct facts on this site. First appreciate that the majority of the patients this chiro is working on as the story states have been living with problems for years if not decades...how many have gone through the full spectrum of medical diagnostics and treatments without substantial improvements...probably most if not all. This treatment is an attempt to make changes in patients that have not responded to other interventions. Second listen to the patients responses to see if this was worthwhile. Just because you may not understand the potential changes in the spinal biomechanics doesn't mean they aren't appropriate and valuable to the eventual healing and or symptom relief. Don't mistake his folksy southern demeanor as snake oil sales. Third it's the right of a patient to chose the healthcare they feel most effective for their condition. If I get in an accident I choose the care I deem most effective for my healing and not the benefit of my lawyer.
7 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
lakerman1 1/18/2020 8:47:14 PM (No. 292074)
As a medic, I had heard bad things about Osteopaths, from the M.D.s I worked for, and when I returned to civilian life, I avoided them.
Then when I was in graduate school, age 33, I injured my back carrying a box of books, and I had also been treated for tendinitis in my left elbow.
After several cortisone injections in my elbow and medications for my back pain, I finally went to an osteopath who had been in practice for 50 years, and was highly recommended.
(Osteopaths are trained physicians, who are taught to do manipulations of a chiropractic nature. They practice medicine with the additional skills of osteopathic manipulation.)
On my first visit, the osteopath manipulated my spine, and I felt immediate relief. His receptionist scheduled me for a return visit in 2 weeks.
When I made my return visit, I sat in the waiting room, and a man came in and gave his name in a whisper, and was ushered into the examining room ahead of me. I asked the receptionist if I heard correctly, that the man identified himself as 'Docior.'
The receptionist smiled and said, 'we have several M.D.s as patients, with back problems. We work them into our schedule.'
At the end of my second appointment, I mentioned to the osteopath that I had developed chronic tendinitis in my left elbow, and were there any exercises that he could recommend. The osteopath said, 'sit down and put your hand between my knees,' He then used an upward motion as he held my elbow, with his knees clamped on my left hand. I heard a pop, and that was a permanent cure for the tendinitis. And that was 48 years ago.
My current family physician is an osteopath, and I would recommend him to anyone who needed medical care.
Osteopaths are dedicated to holistic care, and have overcome the marginal reputations they had suffered from the medical community.
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Peeps 1/18/2020 9:06:57 PM (No. 292083)
Very helpful #8, thanks.
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
ARKfamily 1/19/2020 8:36:29 AM (No. 292380)
I have not been a believer in chiropractic medicine for one reason. It kind of has to do more with the "underdog" kind of situation. It always seems like chiropractic people are trying to paint MD's and Physical Therapists in a negative light. It seems like this is being done so that their field of medicine is viewed in a positive light. If they could stand on their own without dissing MD's and Physical Therapists, I might be more on board.
0 people like this.
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