Back Pain? A Chiropractor Can Help

It's easy for most to many chiropractors as a potential treatment for back pain, but there are many things a they can do that an ordinary family doctor cannot.

Personal experience and ongoing treatment has provided me with the following information that can help make your life more blissful if you are suffering from back, neck, or leg pain. If you have been to the doctor for any muscular pain, but nothing they prescribed has worked, I highly recommend reading this article.

The belief that chiropractors are quacks is purely a myth spread by people who have never visited one. Sure, you may have had a somewhat underwhelming experience with a chiropractor, but the truth is, they are licensed heath care professionals. Like other healthcare professionals in other fields, they sometimes make mistakes or don't address the problem correctly each and every time. However, if your pain stems from the misalignment of your spine they are your best option for treatment.

Chiropractors specialize in neuromuscular disorders and can re-adjust or re-align your spine to help improve your physical and neurological health.

If someone tells you that chiropractors aren't helpful, they have either been to an inexperienced one or have never had to deal with pain a traditional doctor couldn't treat.

As I was unloading a truck at work I lifted a heavy box and felt a sharp, tingling pain in my lower back. I had felt similar pains before so I went about my normal routine. After a few days passed, the pain was still evident and seemingly worse than before. I decided my best option was to go to a doctor and possibly get some pain killers and/or muscle relaxers.

As suspected, the doctor gave me pain relievers and muscle relaxers after feeling of my lower back and determining I had just strained a muscle. The doctor explained that because my lower back was inflamed I must have pulled a muscle. I accepted the doctor's diagnosis and carried on with normal life until my prescriptions ran out.

After all of the refills on my prescriptions were used, the pain in my back was even worse. So, naturally, I went back to the doctor for the same issue. Since it was about 3 months later, the doctor assumed it was due to re-straining the muscle and I was offered the same prescriptions along with a prescription for steroids to help promote quicker healing.

After taking steroids for two weeks straight and continuing to take muscle relaxers each day and night, I was still hurting. At this point, I decided to deal with the pain and hope it got better after taking it a little easier at work.

A year passed by and my back pain had progressed into pain in my buttocks and right leg. Often, coworkers would ask why I was limping around like an old man - I was 28 years old at the time. Fed up with having to deal with this pain and suffering, I gave in and decided to seek out other methods of treatment.

My wife, who was a medical student at the time, suggested I go to a chiropractor. In my mind, a chiropractor was someone who treated old folks for their back pain. I could remember going with my mother to the chiropractor's clinic when I was a child and it never seemed like the chiropractor helped her, at least not that I could tell. I was suffering from the same delusion many suffer from by categorizing chiropractors with "Quacks".

After complaining about my pain, night and day and hobbling around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, my wife scheduled me for an appointment at a local chiropractic clinic.

I walked, or more accurately, limped into the clinic expecting minimal results. I signed in and took my seat in the waiting area. After ten minutes I was called back.

Doctor Teas, had been practicing his art for about 50 years. I call it art because I don't see how anyone could learn his techniques other than by perfecting them through artistic practice. Doctor Teas had me lie down on my back with my shoes off. In less than 10 seconds, he diagnosed my problem. "You're spine is misaligned" he said. I hadn't thought to check before, but he showed me how one of my legs had become longer than the other. He explained this happened because my spine had shifted slightly to one side, causing the other connecting bones and muscle tendons to shift with it.

Next, the doctor had me turn over and lie on my stomach. He then placed his fingers on the bottom of my spine and explained to me that my sacrum had shifted to one side. "Jesse, have you picked up something and twisted while you were picking it up?" he asked. I was amazed because I had not told him anything about when I started having this pain or what had caused it. I told him yes. He had me turn onto my left side and performed an adjustment. Then he had me turn onto my right side and performed the same adjustment. If I had been standing up I would probably have fallen to the floor due to the ecstasy I was feeling. To finish up the adjustment, he had me lie on my back again to perform a few more adjustments.

After feeling around the tops of my shoulders and base of my neck, Doctor Teas said "Jesse, you didn't tell me about the pain in your right forearm". Honestly, I had no idea I had pain in my forearm. The pain in my back had been so excruciating that I had not registered other minor pains. He placed his finger on a spot on my forearm and I noticed that I did, indeed, have pain there. He twisted my neck to the left and then to the right, and each time it sounded like a small roll of firecrackers igniting. Suddenly the pain was gone from my forearm.

I left the clinic that day in a euphoric state of mind. The pain I had been burdened with for over a year was absent. I had actually forgotten what it was like to not hurt constantly. For a mere $35 I had become a new man.

Due to the length of time that my spine was misaligned, I had to have treatments on a weekly basis until the muscles had tightened enough to hold my sacrum in place without shifting - and yes it did shift back out of alignment each week for about 3 weeks. After weekly treatments for a month, I began making an appointment once a month. I am now only going to the chiropractor every 3 months unless I have a suspicious pain that concerns me. Now, I never go to a regular doctor for back or muscular pain.

To further support my argument that chiropractors are a better option than a family doctor for back pain, consider the following facts:

• Their main focus is neuromuscular disorder.
• Unlike family doctors, who have to address hundreds of possible treatments, chiropractors treat one specific area of the body - the spine.
• Experienced chiropractors have been in practice long enough to be able to determine the cause of pain by feeling the alignment of your spine
• Family doctors do not receive the in depth neuromuscular treatment education that chiropractors receive.
• A chiropractic visit is often a cheaper alternative to a family doctor visit and almost always a shorter wait.
• Even if a they cannot treat the cause of your pain, they can often consult with your family doctor on possible methods of treatment.

I've read different articles on the internet that state chiropractors don't work and aren't helpful. Most of the time, these articles are written by people who didn't need an adjustment and were not able to fly through the air after being treated. To those people I say, it took 2 visits to a family doctor and 2 misdiagnoses before a chiropractor successfully treated my back pain in less than 10 minutes.

My advice is to find a chiropractor that has been in practice for at least a few years. $75 is about as much as I have ever seen a single visit cost, but most average $40.