"question for the chiros on the board: do you really believe in subluxations "
First I wish they would drop the word “subluxation” for something more modern. The word had completely different meaning to chiropractors than to MD’s which is part of the historical misunderstanding. As for the “subluxation theory of disease” that was promoted in the early 1900’s by D.D. and B.J. Palmer(chiropractic founders), and even still today by the minority lunatic fringe philosophy based “strait” chiropractors, IMO it’s pure nonsense. When chiropractors give an adjustment they are not putting a bone back into place because bones don’t slip out of place. What an adjustment does is attempt to restore an abherrant spinal joint to it’s normal range of motion. There are some neurophysiological effects with this and is why the chiropractic adjustment has been so clinically effective in dealing with musculoskeletal pain syndromes. There has been some legitimate research that indicates that it may be possible that an adjustment may have some effect on certain autonomic nervous functions, thus effecting certain viceral organ function, but this research is still largely inconclusive and until when/if more research is done, then I’m not going to tell patients that chiropractors can cure conditions outside of the musculoskeletal area. I want the scientific data or clinical studies to show this first.
A chiropractor is not a substitute for an MD any more than the dentist or optometrist is. They all just work fairly effectively within a more limited scope of practice than your MD works in. I have always told my patients come to see me for musculoskeletal problems and for anything else see your MD. I also tell them that if I find anything in their initial examination that I’m not sure out I’ll either send them over to see their family physician or to an appropriate specialist.
I’ve been a chiropractor for 22 yrs and in this time have been painfully aware of some of the kooks that I’ve had to call “colleague”. You see these guys standing in shopping malls hawking “free spinal exams”, etc. or great big yellow page ads listing all kinds of conditions outside of the musculoskeletal area that they claim to cure. Sort of like the the old time travelling medicine show. It’s an embarrassment to those of us chiros who practice with a more scientific bent. Still, chiropractic has a lot to offer and is largely an under utiized health resource for many people.
To answer your other question, there is cross over between PT’s/physiatry. I use a lot of modalities in the office such as massage, traction, low volt, ultrasound, laser accupuncture, etc. that you may find in a PT office. Our training is more extensive in areas such as diagnosis and x-ray(although I now use the local hospital and radiologists for this). The BIG difference IMO, is that chiropractors have greatly surpassed PT’s or DO’s in their development of spinal manipulation techniques. I know a few PT’s who do “adjustments” but their training is a few weekend courses. Our training is much more extensive in this area and is the backbone (excuse the pun) of chiropractic therapy.
I could rant on all day about this, but I’ve got another patient so have to get back to work.