Rodney

Chiropractors do help, but they are limited. As somebody said, they do bone, not muscle. But if your spine is out of line and causing muscle spasms, putting the veterbrae back in alignment quickly will speed healing.

That said...

Many chiropractors are limited in their knowledge. I went to chiropractors for many years for chronic pain. None of them asked, "What are you sleeping on?" "What kind of shoes do you wear? Are the sole is good repair?" Things like a good mattress and good shoes can make a world of difference, yet chiropractors never get into that.

Stretching is another issue. When I've had spasms, a few chiropractors will usually tell me to do a couple of rudimentary stretching exercises to speed healing. I only met one who ever told me I should do it on a daily basis, and his stretching exercises were lame. Later, when I started practicing yoga on my own, I saw what a huge difference it made.

So, based largely on discoveries I made on my own or through my own research (yoga, good mattresses and shoes), my back, while still somewhat unstable, almost never gives me problems anymore. And these are things that no chiropractor ever taught me. A physical therapist might, and there's also a breed of doctor called a physiatrist that deals with chronic back pain in a constructive manner. You might be better off with one of these guys or a sports physician or therapist who can teach you how to surf without stressing out your body.

So if your back is bothering you and you're already in spasm, I would go to a chiropractor to get a quick fix. They can do it. But I would not stay for a long treatment program. Because chiropractors don't deal with environmental issues (repetitive stress, shoes, sitting posture, mattresses), they're of limited use for a lot of chronic problems. They may make things better for a while, but if the underlying cause is something that you're doing or not doing, the pain'll always come back.

I do have one chiropractor I see occasionally on the rare time that I think my back might spasm, for a preventative backcrack. But that's maybe once every couple of years.

And last....

Yeah, a lot of chiropractors are '_way eager to sign you up for a long series of treatments. That's how they make their money. The guy I go to, occasionally, is one of the few guys who doesn't take insurance and doesn't overtreat. Even if I was going there regularly, he'd probably only want to see me four or five times for any particular attack. He thinks some chiropractors treat too much because they want the money, and end up doing harm.