Chiropractor near Belfast?

spaceraiders

Girlzmum wrote: »

I have to say the NHS did absolutely nothing but give me painkillers for my back problems,

It could have been the case that your pain would have been a lot worse without the painkillers.

I was on them for 11 years until I went to see a chiropractor, that man worked wonders and was worth every penny. It may be 'an unproven pseudo science' but it worked and when you are in pain that is what counts.

It could have been the case that your belief chiropractors work relieved your stress and made you think your back was better, your back might have been better by its self etc.

The reason people perform medical experiments on large groups of people is to find out if things really work and to isolate the problems above in your unreliable evidence of your subjective experience.

Girlzmum

I don't doubt that the painkillers helped to ease the pain I was in however beyond the painkillers I received no effective treatment and I was not prepared to spend the rest of my life on tablets - I was in my early 20's by the time I went to the chiropractor and had been in severe pain since I was 11. I strongly doubt that the pain that I had lived with for 11 years had gone away by itself or the problem with my back rectified itself in a couple of months and it was purely coincidence that these couple of months were also when I was attending a chiropractor. I also doubt that my back problems were stress related, I was 11 - they were related to the van that mounted the pavement and landed me in hospital for 4 months.

May I ask what your issue is with someone attempting to relieve their pain when conventional medicine has let them down? Have you got medical training? Do you know what it is like to have to live in pain and be told to just take tablets to treat it?

spaceraiders

Medical treatments should be offered when they have been proven to work. Chiropractors do not this and are not real doctors. I don't see how it is a good thing for people to be encouraged to use treatments that have not been shown to work.

Most of the alternative treatments mentioned above have actually been tested many many times in proper experiments (as opposed to e.g. surveys of who thought something worked like these threads become) and have been proven not to work. We know of many ways the brain can be fooled into thinking something works (look up placebo effect, confirmation bias, regression to the mean) and, as such, experiments like these must be considered above all anecdotal accounts of "it worked for me!".

NHS doctors will consider the best evidence available for how to treat something. Why on earth would they avoid alternative treatments if there was proof they worked? It would save them untold amounts of money.

Think about it. The reason these things are called "alternative" treatments are because they are not used by mainstream medical doctors; that's because they're very sure such treatments do not work. There are too many variables at play for you to determine if something worked soley by looking at your own case or asking other people about their experiences. Sometimes even cancer just clears up by itself. You need proper experiments to determine what works and what doesn't. That is how we've made such great medical advances in the last hundred years and why we've left behind many of these pre-science alternative treatments which do not base their claims on evidence.

Girlzmum

You haven't actually answered a single one of my questions making it very obvious you aren't even reading my replies, you are simply launching into another rant!

spaceraiders

I believe I did answer your questions. I'll be more direct if you prefer.

Girlzmum wrote: »

I don't doubt that the painkillers helped to ease the pain I was in however beyond the painkillers I received no effective treatment and I was not prepared to spend the rest of my life on tablets - I was in my early 20's by the time I went to the chiropractor and had been in severe pain since I was 11. I strongly doubt that the pain that I had lived with for 11 years had gone away by itself or the problem with my back rectified itself in a couple of months and it was purely coincidence that these couple of months were also when I was attending a chiropractor.

Your story is very poor evidence chiropractors work. Like I said, many factors can explain why you think your treatment worked when it might not have really worked; even cancer just disappears sometimes. You cannot tell if medical interventions work just from just your own experience. You need to look at the bigger picture. How many people like you did it work on who tried it? How many did it not work on? Did it work better than just waiting? Did it work better than pills/exercising/massage/surgery?

"It worked for me!" accounts are pretty much useless despite how compelling they are on a personal level.

I also doubt that my back problems were stress related, I was 11 - they were related to the van that mounted the pavement and landed me in hospital for 4 months.

May I ask what your issue is with someone attempting to relieve their pain when conventional medicine has let them down?

People can do what they want, but I think it's bad to encourage others to offer treatments without proving the treatments work first. When we spend money, we expect to get the thing that was advertised in return. We should be encouraging people to spend money creating treatments that do work and not encouraging people to just to make things up (e.g. the money wasted on acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractors etc. could be used for discovering real treatments). Some treatments can also be harmful. For instance, chiropractic manipulations have been linked to increased stroke risk.

Have you got medical training?

I have scientific training and know about evaluating evidence. I don't see how your question is relevant though. Look at the results of large scale experiments; don't only rely on your own experience or what I say when large medical experiments trump these things. Our brains are brilliant at fooling us.

Do you know what it is like to have to live in pain and be told to just take tablets to treat it?

Nope. I don't see why that is relevant though. At least the pills you were offered will have been proven to work. I understand people get desperate and try things. A better use of their time would be to sign up to participate in medical trials where their treatment success/failure would be recorded and used as real evidence though.

Nomad25

IMHO you'd be better off seeing a good physio [NHS referred or private], they are trained and qualified at finding and solving back pain.

thetope

in response to the OP, i have had successful results at the Ulster Spine Centre, on the Outer Ring between Cregagh Road and Castlereagh Road. They are not a conventional chiropractic practice in the sense that they also do physio, traction and resistance exercises in house along with the traditional chiropractic spinal manipulation. they also have an x ray machine which will help show whether you really do have a spinal misalignment and would benefit from chiropractic or whether your problem is muscular.

I had a 14 degree lateral curvature of the spine (scoliosis) and within 3 months of treatment had it reduced to 6 degrees, which was clearly visible on x ray in support of my greatly increased mobility and pain relief. So the results were tangible and certainly not a placebo. if you are interested, jenny-wren, they are at http://www.ulsterspinecentre.co.uk/

it's not cheap though, but i received 50% cash back for my treatment by joining a cashback plan (Healthsure) after carefully researching it on here (no minumum term, sufficient maximum claims to get my treatment done and no waiting period before i could claim).

mini-me66

Was very interested by this post. I am in the medical profession (i wont say what!!). I saw a chiro once who told me my spine/pelvis etc was all out of alignment, causing my chest/back pain i was getting. Without going inton detail i resolved the problem myself by changing the position of my chair in the car.

The 'cracking' sound you get from a manipulation is a release of gas within the joint and the effects are short term. There is a big placebo affect and has stated by someone, the NHS will not refer people as there is minimal evidence to support it. Osteopathy is better as they consider other factors and i believe have access to xrays etc.

My advice would be to see a physio who can try to clarify the cause of the prob and prob give you strengthening exes to prevent further problems. The chiro can treat the symptoms but prob not the cause. People who specialise in Chronic behavioural therapy may also help a good amount!! Hope some of that helps

spaceraiders

thetope wrote: »

I had a 14 degree lateral curvature of the spine (scoliosis) and within 3 months of treatment had it reduced to 6 degrees, which was clearly visible on x ray in support of my greatly increased mobility and pain relief. So the results were tangible and certainly not a placebo.

You're making a medical claim. Again, you cannot make accurate judgements like these because you were not part of a controlled study. Why would the NHS not use chiro if it actually worked?

Bare in mind that if chiro doesn't work, you are subjecting yourself to needless x-rays which isn't good for your health.

Girlzmum

All I said was it worked for me - the OP asked for recommendations and I gave mine. I didn't claim to make scientific claims, I haven't conducted a large scale experiment but I do have an open mind when it comes to the body and how to treat illnesses.
I could tell if the medical treatment worked for me, I was still in serious pain, I still required medication, the treatment didn't work for me. I asked if you had medical training because if you did you would know that what works for one person may not work for another, it may work but to varying degrees of success, however, that does not mean it should be discounted as a possible treatment. I tried physiotherapy and many other treatments and found they did not help me.
It may well be a placebo, it was not in my case, but if it works, which it did for me, then I'd rather spend my money on that than to wreck my liver taking endless amounts of paracetamol and codiene. I know they have been proven to work but they have also been proven to be highly addictive and damaging with long term use.