I'm just full of questions lately... I'm wondering if anyone sees or has seen a chiropractor. I hurt my back a couple weeks ago and after trying a number of things I'm getting desparate. Do chiropractic treatments work? How do you tell a good chiropractor from a bad one? What's a reasonable treatment plan like (how often do you go, for how long of a time period)?

My husband goes to a reputable chiropractor that we knew personally. Several friends recommended him when Ross hurt his back shovleing snow years ago. At that time because he was in the middle of a flare up, he went a few times.

Any time he feels the pain returning he goes in for an adjustment and that does it. Occasionally he's had to go more than once, but for the most part it's a one shot deal.

I think the best way to find one is by asking family and friends.

Hope this helps. I'd say get to one asap.

Chiropractors are awesome! I discovered them during my second pregnancy.

I was recently on a trip to Chicago and Arizona and hurt my shoulder in Chicago a few days before going to AZ. I couldn't find a chiropractor that anyone could recommend (I odn't like to go to ones that aren't recommended). After a week of agonzing pain (and pain relievers and anti inflammatories from an osteopath in AZ) I got home and went to my chiro and voila!

It usually should only take one treatment unless you're really messed up, or unless you mess up again. The biggest way to mess up your back is livting and twisting at the same time.

I wouldn't be able to walk or use my right arm or exist without head pain IF I did not go regularly to my chiropractor.

I had an injury as a toddler, dragged down stairs by a dog who didn't realized humans can't run down the steps. I was holding tight to the leash! Nothing showed as an injury then.

45 years and 11 miscarriages later, a chiropractor discovered I had broken my neck and severely dislocated the 5th lumbar, which controls how the gonads develop.

Two car wrecks... well, you get the picture.

After your pain leaves, chiropractic treatment becomes preventive. The Dr. can teach you how your lifestyle/habits are damaging your body in subtle subluxations that need to be corrected before they produce trouble.

Every chiropractor, in my opinion, should give you a non-invasive, no pain muscle test and take xrays of the bones in your pain area BEFORE treating you. Dr. will explain how your body's skeleton is assembled and how life unassembles it. Dr's job is to put it back into place as closely as possible. It won't want to stay there, so you may have to go back several times at first until the body learns what's right.

I go once a month unless I'm having trouble in some area. It's much cheaper than medical visits and medication--and healthier for the body. Many D.C.s can advise about nutrition, acupressure, acupuncture, and can refer you to other practicioners for holistic dentistry, naturopathy, etc. (Not all D.C.s are created equal. You will like some and not like others, just like any people.)

Adjustments to your spine and other bones are non-invasive and may be done manually, my preference, or by a small "clicker", my term. Both are accurate manipulations. Some offices offer forms of physical therapy or massage also. (Not mine, alas. I have a masuesse (massage person) who help toxins move out of the muscles.

Sorry for the long read, but I just love chiropractic.

Good gosh running around with broken neck. Excuse my stupidity here but aren't "gonads" balls? Why would their development concern you? Please enlighten me here!

LOL chatty!

Chatty, I thought the same, but when you look it up in the dictionary it also refers to ovaries!

Paja mentions maasage therapy. The older I get, the more appealing it sounds.

Chatty, some ladies have 'em some don't I'm chuckling. Glad I could expand your thinking.

The lumbar dislocation affected the way my reproductive organs developed, which caused miscarriages.

The broken neck was not broken all the way across the spinal column. One of the vertebrae was broken along the front and a chunk was loose. Over time, the body reabsorbed the chunk. The now deformed vertebrae showed in the xray. It wasn't painful, but caused me to hold my head at a difficult angle and mom thought it was poor posture.

I had my 3rd chiropractic treatment today and I'm feeling a bit leery. Today the chiropracter presented a treatment plan, consisting of 24 chiro treatment (my insurance only allows 15 visits), some physical therapy stuff, etc., coming to a grand total of $2108. I have a $350 deductable after which insurance picks up 70%.

The treatments do help but my husband puts chiropractors in the same category as witch doctors so the cost is kind of hard to justify.

Why is it so hard to get medical insurance to help with pain (besides loading you down with a bunch of pills)? Maybe if I just take up yoga or something...