Dear Foxy,

You have lumped three disparate disciplines together. Physiotherapists have a knowledge of the musculature and skeletal structure of the human body and can work either alone or together with physicians to treat certain medical problems. There is no mumbojumbo involved.

Chiropractors and osteopaths are essentially crank specialties. Chiropractors maintain that manipulation of the spinal column solves a host of problems which may not involve the spinal column at all. Osteopathy maintains that vanishingly small ingredients can have a salubrious effect.

Physiotherapy is a discipline resulting from evidence based medicine. Chiropractic and osteopathy are not such disciplines.

Dear David,

Thank You for your explanation.

I can see that I shall have to do a bit more
research into the differences between these
three disciplines.

My understanding was that
physiotherapy treats people with muscular and
tissue ailments and related ailments.
Chiros deal with skeletal - predominantly spinal
conditions. (That's where the term "bone-crunching"
came from - but not any more today - where gentler
methods of re-aligning the structure to relieve
pressure on the nerve-system are used).

My husband was diagnosed 22 years ago with a
deteriorated spinal condition. His spine was twenty
years older than he was - according to x-ray analysis.
He suffered great pain and was not able to
straighten upright after a days work at the drafting
table (he's an architect). He too did not believe in
chiropractors, tried physiotherapy without success
and at the insistance of a close friend went to listen
to an American chiropractic expert - of a new system of
treatment - and decided to try it - for a few introductory
sessions. He had nothing to lose.

And surprise, surprise, he noticed after several visits
that the pain was not as prolific and in later years
to this day - he hasn't been "cured" but now his spine
feels more like it should be for his age - merely because
it is re-aligned a few times a year to prevent the nerves
being pinched.

As a former sceptic - my husband now highly recommends this
procedure to others - simply to try before making a
decision. In short, the procedure is a gentle "tapping"
of the spine with a spring-loaded activator into place.
There is no discomfort during the process.

Sometimes, some of us often pre-judge certain things
and our views can change with experience.

David f: Chiropractors and osteopaths are essentially crank specialties.

I agree with you on Osteopaths, but not Chiropractors. Chiropractic manipulation is no good if it's not preceded & followed up with Physio.

I suffered with Migraine for years. I came of a horse when I was 11 & dislocated my Atlas. It wasn't until I found a Chiropractor that would move it that the Migraine's went away for good. My father suffered with head aches for years & wore glasses. It wasn't until he mentioned that he had come off a horse & landed on his head that he Chiropractor manipulated his neck & within a few weeks he had to throw away his glasses. He never had to wear them again. I have a vertebra that keeps going out in my upper back & I get indigestion. Luckily I can put it back in myself & the indigestion goes away. No need for Magnesium Hydroxide (Milk of Magnesia). The nerve from that vertebra goes to the Stomach.

Did I mention that the pills the Nutritionist wanted to sell me at a ridiculously high price were mostly Sodium Bicarbonate. (BiCarb)

David f: Chiropractors maintain that manipulation of the spinal column solves a host of problems which may not involve the spinal column at all.

I agree. Some Chiropractors have got themselves into a lot of hot water for these claims & when I get one that tells me about what they can cure & tell them Bull$hit. Especially when they claim they can cure infertility. That one gets them into trouble just like some Doctors.

David f: Osteopathy maintains that vanishingly small ingredients can have a salubrious effect.

Yes, more Jiggery boo crap.

Chiropractor have to have an extremely good knowledge of the Bone, Nerve & Muscular structure of the body. The same as Physiotherapists.

It stands to reason in my mind what you say about chiropractic interventions *Foxy* as we must remember that whilst unseen, the force of gravity is a powerful one and is constantly exerting pressure upon us.

If for some reason say our musculature is pulling unevenly, or our posture is bad, this can in turn lead to pulling parts of our skeleton out of alignment too.

It could also be say that because of congenital malformation of the bones, or a degenerative condition, that an individual is naturally out of alignment and thus, chiro to re-align and say take the pressure off the spinal column in certain instances can be highly beneficial.

So, I think it is a bit unfair to label it as a crank/quacks' discipline dear *DavidF*

That's not to say that some practitioners may not be applying it as a general curative for unrelated ailments. Unfortunately, the nature of the current economic model can distort best practice to the extremes of malpractice.

Dreamon: and re:salt, well there are certainly some conditions which require the reduction and or elimination of salt from the diet, such as certain heart conditions.

Of course there is. Most of the information about how bad salt is for you comes out of Europe or North America. These are mostly Cold Climates & most people live & work in High Rise Air Conditioned Buildings. They don't sweat that much. We live in Australia. A Hot Dry Continent. Most people work outside. We need salt. We sweat a lot.

Eg; At Lavarack Barracks in Townsville the Army banned Salt from the Mess Tables. First two week Exercise they went on lasted three day with most of the men dropping like flies with Heat Stroke. Not Heat Exhaustion. Salt went back on the table & Salt Tablets were issued every day.

Then there's Sugar. My Favourite. In the &0's Sugar fell out of favour. Why? I hear you ask. Well apparently Cane Sugar was making inroads into the Sugar Beet market. Domestic consumption of Cane Sugar only accounts for about 25% of the World market. about 80% of Cane sugar goes into making Plastic & other things. Anyway, The European & North American Beet Sugar Marketers didn't like that so they cook up a story that Cane sugar wasn't any good for you because it was bleached white. When White Sugar was 50c a Kilo Brown & Raw Sugar was 20c a kilo. To counter that the Cane Sugar Board admitted that they took all the goodness out if the sugar to make it white but Brown & Raw sugar still had all the goodness still in it. Whereupon they raised the price of Brown & Raw sugar to 50c a kilo & made a killing. I grew up beside Kalamia Mill. Home of the very first Macadamia Nut Plantation.

Foxy: As a former sceptic - my husband now highly recommends this
procedure to others - simply to try before making a decision.

My wife had the same experience. She did her back while Vacuuming & shifting furniture. I was away for a couple of weeks with the Army when I came home she was living in the lounge room floor & couldn't get up. I called an Ambulance & took her to a Chiropractor I knew. Did he get up me for bringing an Ambulance to the practice. However she walked out after an hour. All the Doctor did was his, "Take two aspirin for the pain & see me in the morning." routine. Useless.