Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
I'm curious, since you mentioned back pain...is there evidence chiropracty(?) is better than physiotherapy for outcomes in back pain issues?
From my limited knowledge, it seems chiropractors are happy to have you keep coming back for adjustments, whereas physio is more about giving you the tools to fix it yourself, and only going for a few months. I could be way off on that, I've only been to physio a couple times but it helped greatly. So I'm curious on how the 2 compare in addressing back pain.
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This is one random study I've pulled out, I think its indicative of consensus.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447299/
To summarize, heat packs appeared to be more effective chiropractic, although not in a statistically meaningful way, and over the length of the study regression to the mean is a more likely explanation than any intervention benefit.
I would say the founding premise of chiropractic is a lie, a misalignment in the spine is a debilitating illness that requires serious medical intervention. Not a 15 minute monthly visits. This founding lie makes it hard for them to completely turn their back on pseudoscience because to turn away from that would lead them down the path of becoming low impact physiotherapists.
physiotherapists are also largely relying on regression to the the mean for treatment. But they are making patients put in work and exercise to ensure there is limited loss of function towards the end of healing. Which is why pysio visits are 5 to 10 x longer than chyro visits, and often involve muscle training of some sort.