I am 29 and have been recieving on and off Chiropractic treatment for about 10 years or so . The main area that troubles me is my lower back and neck area and also a "click in my right shoulder.
I have never tried a physio and am now thinking maybe?I should have?
I am starting to notice stiffness more often in the area's that trouble me and am just not willing to put it down to "getting old" just yet.
Have any off you ever tried both Chiro and physio and how did they compare?
Im also very interested to hear of any other methods of healing that have worked for you or anyone that you see that is Actually good at what they do.
If anyone could point me in the right direction that would be really great. Looks like it could be a good winter for waves this year and one way or another- Im out there
Bowen Therapy
Fixed my shoulder tendonitis in two sessions when my physio had been unsuccessful over three.
And its the best massage you'll ever have.
I'm 64, and my physio has sorted me out over the years.
I did try a chiro once but was unimpressed.
Not sure you can generalise thou, some are obviously better than others.
chiropractors seem to want you to come back twice a week till their pool is paid off. I went to a good osteopath four times and havent had a problem since.(suspect lower back)
You've got to ask yourself what holds the bones in/out of place?
My colleague had a simple remedial massage two days ago for chronic lower back pain. Best he's felt in 18 months.
Generally chiropractors are not looked upon highly by the regular medical profession.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic
Kearnsy,
I used to be a regular at the the chiro's. A couple of weeks back, I did my lower back/sciatic so bad that the pain in my legs was near unbearable, and I couldn't pick up my 3 y/o. I ended up going to a physio for treatment, which loosened me up a bit, combined with targeted/constant stretching routines I got it sorted out pretty fast...personally, I think prevention is the go, now that my back's all good, I just have to make sure I keep up the stretches...only takes a few minutes, a couple of times a day.
Btw, I also use an 'upside-down' hanging contraption...it's mainly gravity that ruins our bodies, so why not use it to undo the damage? It's also strangely serene when hanging upside down for a few minutes.
Gidday all,
to me, Chiros have given me life and movement, Physios have given me mostly aggravation and pain.
How ever what is the actual problem/aggravation is the question to be solved. 60+now i put up with clicking and G.P. medication. was suffering badly, including depression. Completely unable to move off the couch for a few years, ended up getting in touch with Beyond Blue.
They interviewed me and came to the conclusion that i had not received a proper and correct diagnosis. They arranged this. Result was that i had Cervical spine damage and two shoulders that were completely worn out and required total, total replacement, not footballer replacement, complete replacement, by artificial joint , ball and cup.
After receiving this treatment, i now have limited movement but a completely altered lifestyle, invalid pensioner, but i do have some movement. Not nice.
If i had been smart enough instead of being the big tough male ,"she'll be right" i may have been able to restrict the damage that i suffered/caused.
Work and lifestyle plays a big part, truck driving and machine operation, Football , basketball, table tennis, bike racing and motorbike's will have a payback effect in life as one moves along.
Experiencing problems, at least get xrays so that in times to come you have a baseline for comparison, to monitor deterioration. I have to accept some responsibility for my problems, however many company bosses that operate bad work practices/machines have contributed far greater than I. cheers ...joe
Happy to say, had success with both chiro & physio. Certainly the chiro I saw did have the "see you next week" thing going on.
Physio .. you do need to find a good one .. some are afraid to touch the damage and just want to bandage it up, some want to do a light massage and apply electronic zappers, and some are real "hands on" and beat the heck out of the muscle and have you jumping off the bench in pain.
For fastest recovery, I found the last one, whilst painful when you get it, the muscle recover incredibly rapidly.
One thing I found in common, is that for injuries that 'creep up', rather than an obvious pulled hamstring, is that the cause of the injury usually lies somewhere other than where the pain is. i.e. Lower back pain. Ouch .. ended up being from a mildly sore foot .. which caused a limp, which caused twisting of the pelvis ... which caused the back pain!
Good luck, hope you get a good doc. 
Physio and pilates for me, not the gym pilates, but a proper one on one session of controlled movement. No faith in chiropractors at all, but as others have said, it depends on your problem.
Osteopath - holistic approach, so you get the best of both - they've always sorted my back out.
yeh I Do sit ups and push ups every other day just to keep in shape. I would concider myself to be rather fit which is why Im confused if its a muscular or spinal problem.....
Yes kearnsy, very active and adventurous. I was made/forced by social security to undergo a manipulative Physio evaluation. To me that did more damage than whatever i was suffering, before diagnosis. Other Physios had been seen and they all said that gentle exercise would be the cure, HA HA, I have always wondered why most Physio [males] were muscle bound. Some Physio women are a bit different in their approach.
Knowing what i went thru [stupidly]our children [now 21+20] were trotted along as a family to regular chiropractic realignment a couple of times a year or special sessions after a sports injury episode [hockey, football, cricket, swimming and whatever scouts do]. I myself would struggle into the chiros near in the featol position and after my work over, come out standing up straight and fully workable. Now because i couldnt afford the revisits [upkeep] after about 3 mths i would be once again a ball.
However at school events, presentations, dances, gatherings that one is obliged to attend i was surprised to note the percentage of children who already in life are stooped and bent, big troubles in later life. Grateful to say that my kids were people who had good body carriage, something that will help them along the track.
I am a chiropractic advocate based on my life's leanings as it happened to me. I am sure that the correct diagnosis is most important. My daughter is training to be a chiropractor [7 years training] She tells me there are two types, the bone crunchers [manipulators] of which she is one and the mumbo-jumbos which, one of, i once had the misfortune to visit, that was weird. Do your research carefully...cheers joe
I go to a bloke called Martin.
He's great!!! Fixes anything...... not really conventional though??
about 60 something old balding/grey,
fee is $50 and something for the house.
He smokes all day and listens to cold chisel and great 70's rock while he sorts out your muscles.
By sorting out.... Well he swears at your back and your ankles and arms and calls them sluts and threatens to hurt them if they don't back off.
he glides his elbows and palms up and down your back and legs finding problems from years and years ago that you didn't tell him about, then he'll twist your right shoulder to fix the left ankle which is giving your lower back trouble.
It's simple - Most Chiro practices provide a "quick fix". They can remove the pain by realigning joints and ease pressure on the nerves.
That fixes the initial symptom (pain), but not the ultimate problem (incorrect muscle tension).
A Physio will manipulate the joints back into their appropriate position though muscle strengthening exercises. It's not a "quick fix", and you'll need to put in a lot more effort doing the exercises provided, but the problems source will be treated.
In short... A Chiro will help, but you need to exercise the correct muscles that hold the joints in place to have any chance of a full recovery - that's where the Physio comes in!
Hope this helps
I have been having lower back problems for few years.
Went to chiro couple of years ago, it helped a little for a while, they also gave me some mumbo jumbo diagnosis, which of course the wonderful art of chiropracy was supposed to fix.
Of course I was never given the impression it was going to happen overnight and they also made it quite clear it would take commitment (and $$$ 
) to keep comming back at least once a week.
To be fair they also recommended regular gentle excercise (ie swimming, walking, stretching). I started to feel better, but I think it was more the excercise than 5 - 10 minutes of back cracking $40 bucks a session.
So I stopped going. After few months the symptoms came back and my GP referred me to a specialist.
They did a CT scan and found I had two bulged discs by about 3 and 5 mm, which were pressing on the nerves.
Chiro never picked it up (or even suggested this could be the case). Luckily the specialist was not a surgeon and recommended Physio & Pilates.
That really helped, the biggest challenge is to keep the excercises going.
Bottom line: go to see a specialist if you have a back problem. Common sense tells me that pain is body's way of telling us there is something wrong.
Neither physio's or chiro's are specialists. Best thing I did was to go back to my GP and start from there.
Now I know I was very stupid to self-diagnose and gone to chiro because somebody told me to try one.
It's your body, when your car needs service you take it to a repair shop, when your dog is sick you take to the vet.
Why woud you take a different approach with your body is beyond me.
Use common sense, if in doubt get a 2nd or 3rd opinion.
PS: the Physio did not ban me from windsurfing, he said he knew I wouldn't stop going anyhoo
The sure tip that you have a Chiro of repute is that they will not touch you until up to the minute Xrays are taken of your spine and bones. If they do not do this, the results can be less than perfect. I have suffered this by a good meaning vet with limited ability but strong community acceptance. I had frozen shoulders [couldn't get either hand above shoulder height]. He said "i;ll free that up for you" and he did, what he also did was splinter small bits of calcified bone/cartilage in and around the joint that did more damage. So beware, i wasn't, and it became an experience that i didn't need
I love my chiro!
when he left town I wasnt initially impressed by his rplacement, but she straightened me up and suggested some new exercizes to go with the new problems.
Now I love her
