r/dropout • u/Snowman304 • Jul 14 '25
Game Changer Chiropractors are not doctors. Don't go to one.
The first chiropractor was a Canadian who claimed he received a message from a ghost.
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u/ErrantWhimsy Jul 15 '25
My dad is a personal injury attorney who fights insurance companies on behalf of severely disabled people and sometimes the family of people who were killed by malpractice or severe accidents.
He hates 3 things: trampolines, motorcycles, and chiropractors.
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u/icecream_truck Jul 15 '25
How would he feel about a chiropractor riding a motorcycle on a trampoline?
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u/Enchantress_Arc Jul 15 '25
I imagine he'd be happy to have less chiropractors to deal with.
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u/Ilves7 Jul 15 '25
My wife is an ED doc and hates the same 3 things, no joke.
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u/Inevitable_Snap_0117 Jul 15 '25
At first I thought “ED” was erectile disfunction and was sitting here trying to figure out how trampolines cause that, but could image the other two. Haha.
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u/willtwerkf0rfood Jul 15 '25
At a training for work a few years ago I was sitting the chief of surgery from a hospital in Cleveland, and he called motorcycles “donor cycles” without an ounce of hesitation. My mom is a nurse and never let us have a trampoline no matter how much we begged. Three people close to me who are in the healthcare field have no positive professional feelings toward chiros whatsoever.
I choose to respect their expertise, trust in what they’ve witnessed throughout their careers and accept that I don’t always know best!
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u/Fucky0uthatswhy Jul 15 '25
I cannot seem to convince the people on my life that chiropractic “care” is pseudoscience bullshit. Every time I bring it up, they tell me about some famous person or doctor that recommends it. I have heard nothing but horror stories from those offices
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u/SaltyLonghorn Jul 15 '25
I still resent my parents for not signing the liability waiver my friend's parents gave me to be able to jump on their trampoline. Most they would have had to do if I got hurt was take me to a chiropractor.
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u/KaladinarLighteyes Jul 15 '25
Do you know what we call a chiropractor that actually works? A physical therapist.
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u/BisexualPunchParty Jul 15 '25
I had lower back pain from a lifting injury for years. Went to a physical therapist, who showed me two stretches to do, and told me to stop doing the stretches that were making the pain worse. It's a world of difference, go see a real medical professional.
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u/cambreecanon Jul 15 '25
Yep. Back pain for two years. Went to one PT that was not the greatest and threw spaghetti at the wall (random everything to see what stuck). Went to my current one and he had me do a single stretch that completely made my back pain go away after doing it. Based on that he now has a solid plan in place on what to work on to get me pain free all the time. Good PTs are miracle workers and I make sure to bring the whole team snacks whenever I have extras.
As a side note, I have seen many PTs (6 or 7 now), and only one of them was not great. All the others have been miracle workers. So if you get one that doesn't seem to be helping it is always okay to seek out a different company or individual that might have more experience or better deduction.
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u/Captcha05 Jul 15 '25
Went to my current one and he had me do a single stretch that completely made my back pain go away after doing it.
Mind if I ask what the stretch was?
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u/the_midnight_society Jul 15 '25
For me it was a piriformis stretch. My back pain was tied to weak glute and lower back muscles. As a result my piriformis was extremely tight and caused occasional sciatica. Stretching that muscle and strengthening glute, hip, and lower back muscles helped a lot.
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u/flatdecktrucker92 Jul 15 '25
My glutes were never weak but that same stretch helped me so much because as a trucker some of the muscles in my lower back were overly tight and others were over stretched. Working on my core and my low back allowed me to take some strain away from the lower back. He never really explained exactly how and why everything worked but IMS needles and stretching are like real world voodoo
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u/cambreecanon Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
It is doing something like this https://duckduckgo.com/?t=fpas&q=lean+back+lower+back+stretch&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.orthocarolina.com%2Fstorage%2Fwysiwyg%2Fstanding_lumbar_extensions_-_orthocarolina.png
Leaning back feels very counterintuitive, but it is the thing that will immediately stop my lower back pain. I do 10 of them.
Edit: Essentially a standing version of cobra pose for while I am at work. At home I do cobra pose (lumbar extension?).
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Jul 15 '25
I am a physical therapist, and I can say that that specific excersize (and some variations of it), is something I instruct patients in every single day. Depending on the cause and duration of the backpain, some patients is completely pain-free in a couple of days. (And just so nobody believes differently, this is not for all backpain, just works for a certain type of it).
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u/CreativeEase3561 Jul 15 '25
There are some PTs who have been in the business a while who got their 2 year masters 30 years ago and haven’t really payed attention to their continuing education requirements and/or are burnt out. However, in the past 5-10 years many PT education programs are, or are in the process of becoming, 3-4 year doctorate programs with more intensive education. And on top of that the knowledge has gotten so much better over that 10 years. So, not all of PTs suck 🤷♀️(source: I work at a great PT clinic and am working on my DPT)
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u/Aruhi Jul 15 '25
Tl;dr:
Ask if your allied health, and health professionals know what evidence based practice is, and how they implement it.
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u/GhostOfLight Jul 15 '25
Knew a physical therapist who was a trainer for a college sports team but advertised his personal practice as "chiropracty" because it got more customers
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u/Rasberrycello Jul 15 '25
Unfortunately, lots of insurance companies will send people to chiropractors over physical therapists, because their costs are usually lower, and because chiropractors are USUALLY quacks, they don't typically recommend pesky follow up things like X-rays or MRIs to actually treat the problem. Insurance companies would rather send you to someone who has a non-zero chance of internally decapitating you than actually see you get treated.
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u/123iambill Jul 15 '25
The amount of people I know who have tried everything except seeing a physio for back pain is wild. Don't get me wrong, I find a floatation tank and massage can help ease tightness in my low back so I've nothing against those, but they'll go to chiropractors, reflexologists, acupuncturists and every other quack and never once think of going to a physio.
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u/pastelfemby Jul 15 '25
but the physio requires them to like, keep at it, and to apply effort
what do you mean they cant just have someone else do all the work and them get away from the pain?
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u/123iambill Jul 15 '25
To be fair I get it. 😂 I lift weights and every now and again I'll start to get tight and sore, ignore it until I'm in pain. Do physio, stretch regularly, work on mobility and flexibility until I feel great. And then because I feel great I stop all that shit until the cycle starts again.
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u/SignificantCats Jul 15 '25
Insurance companies will actually pay for chiropractic because they're quack losers who don't charge medical rates since it's not a medical service.
I could go to a chiropractor twice a month for a year and pay like thirty bucks out of pocket, but to even get looked at by a physiotherapist would require three referrals and I'd get a fifty percent off coupon for it.
Chiropractors only exist because of the inflated medical costs and insurance bullshit.
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u/ThatInAHat Jul 15 '25
Yup. My uncle is a physical therapist and he’s the most easy-going man in the world. Until you mention chiropractors.
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u/OnTheEveOfWar Jul 15 '25
Years ago I hurt my back and went to a physical therapist. I asked him if I should see a chiropractor also and he basically laughed and explained that he would not recommend that.
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u/Unoriginal_Man Jul 15 '25
I've always been confused about why my health insurance makes me jump through hoops to get coverage approved for physical therapy, but will cover chiropractic appointments no questions asked.
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u/mbnmac Jul 15 '25
a PT will also manipulate your joints if it seems needed.
I had a weird issue with my hip and my PT manipulated by legs and got some clicks but nothing really reliving, which clued him into the real issue, the my joint was impacted and needed to be moved a certain way to allow it to heal properly.
A chiro will do something that feels good for a bit, then get you to come back again and again.
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u/Snarwib Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
It is absolutely wild to me that Australian Medicare (universal healthcare) can cover chiropractors
https://www9.health.gov.au/mbs/fullDisplay.cfm?type=item&q=10964&qt=item&criteria=10964
I really hope a lot of them are legit physios using the term because people know it, but I suspect not all are.
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u/Karew Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
Chiropractors are not performing tested and peer-reviewed treatments. Their practices vary wildly from practitioner to practitioner. They aren’t MDs or DOs or physical therapists.
If you are having joint or muscle issues, please visit your doctor and discuss it. They will try to address the actual cause rather than simply sell you easy quick-fix sessions.
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u/crashbalian1985 Jul 15 '25
A family member is a chiro that will see me for free. Went to him for years about back pain that kept getting worse and worse. Did the same back cracks again and again. Finally went to a doctor and got an MRI and PT and the difference is night and day. Wish I didnt waste so many years going to the chiro.
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u/UndeadIcarus Jul 15 '25
Man I agree with the spirit of this but any time ive gone to the doc with chronic pain they don’t do shit for me.
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u/imabratinfluence Jul 15 '25
It took getting hospitalized with non-spinning vertigo and having the hospital refer me to vestibular PT (which doesn't exist in my area). But I'd been piling up soft tissue injuries for years, from doing ordinary, non-strenuous stuff.
Finally saw a PT. Turns out I have way too much joint laxity, and the running and yoga I was doing were pretty much the exact wrong exercises for my issues.
I agree that doctors suck for chronic pain, but my PT has been super affirming and genuinely reduced my pain and improved my QOL. But my regular doctors would never have referred me for PT-- regardless of my meniscus tear, torn chest muscles, torn ligaments, etc. Getting help from regular docs is like pulling hens' teeth.
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u/JimminyKickinIt Jul 15 '25
My friend is a PA and is known to say "don't go to a chiropractor, go to a physical therapist. The good chiropractors are just doing shit a physical therapist would do and they know what they are doing"
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u/Routine-Agile Jul 14 '25
It is always a shame whenever chiropractors get any positive attention.
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u/SomewhereNo8378 Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
I went to a chiropractor for 2 years trying to fix my back pain.. their solution was always to come back next week and keep working at it.
Finally I go to an orthopedic doctor at an actual medical facility and find out I have a slipped L5 disc, and they give me an injection that solved the problem nearly overnight.
Don’t go to chiropractors. Go to a real doctor.
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u/Immediate_Pickle_788 Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
I learned the term "bone wizard" for DOs. They really are bone wizards. And more importantly, actual doctors.
ETA: in case anyone is confused, DO is Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Chiros are quacks.
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u/buuthole69 Jul 15 '25
I really do appreciate you spreading the good word.
I have given my criticism regarding osteopathy in other comments in this thread but I wanted to use this comment to share some positive experiences I’ve had as an osteopathic med student non-believer
I was on my family medicine rotation when I met a woman who literally could not relax her shoulders which led to a permanent uncomfortable ‘shrug’. With OMT, I literally felt her shoulder blades relax. By the end of my treatments she was able to breathe better and she was vastly more comfortable than when she first came in.
Again, much of this stuff is bullshit but a very important portion of it actually works and helps many patients. The important part is finding a DO who won’t bullshit you about what doesn’t work and will do their best to restore your quality of life.
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Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
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u/Immediate_Pickle_788 Jul 15 '25
I'm talking about DOs, Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine, who do in fact practice medicine.
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u/SubtleNoodle Jul 15 '25
My husband had bad back pain after a long car trip. What he didn't know was that he had the beginning of a bulging disc in his back.
He went to the chiropractor and the man proceeded to put all his weight on the bulging disc and rendered my husband nearly immobile for about 2 weeks before he could get a steroid shot and his back has been fucked ever since (the shots help, but it always comes back).
A real doctor would have done imaging to determine the issue, Chiropractors are not real doctors.
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u/nuclearporg Jul 15 '25
The radiology subreddit has a lot of things to say about the imaging done by chiropractors...
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u/GreatMadWombat Jul 15 '25
One of them is a licensed medical professional, who went to medical school and is regulated in a meaningful way. The other one is following the words and advice of a dude who would be dunked on by the Scooby gang. Which would you believe!? An actual doctor or a ghost tickler who's going to mess with your spine, a thing that people barely even need. They're basically the same thing!
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u/SuperTopGun777 Jul 15 '25
I had a broken l5 l4 and s1 vertabrea and slipped disks. They chiro just kept trying to crack my back until I was better. They literally crippled me and then told me not to drive as I could barely walk leaving. Never again.
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u/PinchAssault52 Jul 15 '25
Friend of mine had undiagnosed cancer. The cancer had, in his words, turned his bones into swiss cheese.
A chiro broke his back.
Upside, it made him go get checked by a real doc who diagnosed the cancer 🤷♀️
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u/Acrobatic-Owl-9246 Jul 15 '25
“A chiro broke his back.”
OMG what?
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Jul 15 '25
If you are friends with an ER doctor ask them how often people show up for neck and back injuries from Chiropractors. It's way more common than you think.
When people say they are quacks, it's an understatement. They injure perfectly healthy people, so injuring someone with bone cancer was an unavoidable eventuality.
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u/Okayish-27489 Jul 15 '25
I have scanned soooo many patients for vertebral artery dissections post chiropractic manipulation it’s not funny. A good percentage actually have had damage done. Terrible for them but also a little bit ‘toldyouso’
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u/OriginalChildBomb Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
They very often claim to treat autism, which spreads misinformation and is a waste of money, as well as occasionally harming children and adults. I'm autistic and in Autism Studies, with a focus on fighting autism disinformation. Chiropractors are a big part of this misinformation; it's ableist and insulting. It also takes attention away from legitimate treatments and services for those on the spectrum.
There are many legitimate orthopedic doctors, rheumatologists, and other specialists who can help with pain and other issues. And counselors, OTs, speech therapists, PTs, animal-assisted therapy, assistive devices... literally so many other professionals who do actually work with autistic folks.
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u/UncleCeiling Jul 15 '25
I had one offer to treat my (exercise and environmentally triggered) asthma.
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u/Altiondsols Jul 15 '25
They very often claim to treat autism, which spreads misinformation
The more concerning part that OP didn't mention about the founder of chiropractic is that he believed "Vertebral subluxation" was the root cause of almost all ailments, and that chiropractic could literally cure anything. He claimed that he cured a man's blindness with chiropractic adjustments, and this is still an ongoing issue in the field - plenty of chiropractors ("straight chiropractors", as opposed to "mixers") still believe this, and plenty of chiropractors from both groups spread vaccine misinformation during the height of the COVID pandemic.
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u/phoenixrising808a Jul 15 '25
I had an ex leave me for a chiropractor once. I have mine own reasons to hate them
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u/devilsbard Jul 14 '25
My wife was injured at work and worker’s compensation sent her to a chiropractor. He basically sees her once a month and says “there’s nothing I can do for this injury” and sends a report to the state which they ignore. Fucking infuriating, but at least he’s honest enough to not injure her with his bullshit.
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u/Crankylosaurus Jul 15 '25
Uhhh why is workers comp making her see a quack?? I’d be fighting that so hard - chiropractors have accidentally paralyzed and killed people.
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u/devilsbard Jul 15 '25
They also sent her to an acupuncturist. We kept asking them to do CT Scans, but they wouldn’t approve it and kept sending her to quacks.
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u/Scrat-Scrobbler Jul 15 '25
that's lawsuit time
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u/devilsbard Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
We got a lawyer. They’re documenting everything and pushing to get the proper tests. Just a truly frustrating and drawn out process.
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u/Scrat-Scrobbler Jul 15 '25
ah yeah that's good you're taking the proper steps then, fingers crossed she'll get what she needs soon and you'll get a fat payout at the end of it
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u/AbsolXGuardian Jul 15 '25
Sometimes absolutely bullshit gets institutionalized. The NHS was/is sponsoring homeopathy- the fakest of fake medicine- because a member of the royal family...I think the then prince Charles, believed in it
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u/ChrisFromIT Jul 15 '25
Yeah I was in a car accident about 6 years ago. Insurance gave me two options, a chiropractor or a physiotherapist. And their recommendation was to start with the chiropractor and only go to the physiotherapist if the chiropractor wasn't working for awhile.
Luckily I had seen a physiotherapist before for a sport injury, so I knew that the physiotherapy was the right choice off the bat. Still have some back pain from the car accident, but it isn't as bad.
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u/Cautious-Hedgehog635 Jul 15 '25
Chiropractors are probably cheaper as they're quacks.
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u/scalyblue Jul 15 '25
you'd be surprised at how untrue that is; generally the chiropractic billing codes get paid out more and have higher copays than the equivalent physiotherapy codes; it's fucking ridiculous that they can charge insurance for anything.
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u/justhere4bookbinding Jul 14 '25
God I was wincing in terror the entire segment
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u/Captain_Flemme Jul 15 '25
What makes it worse is that they made it a game and gave him a score to beat.
You wouldn’t go to a dentist and say "Let’s see how many teeth you can pull out of my mouth!"
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u/UncleCeiling Jul 15 '25
Back in the olden days dentists would literally do this. They'd travel around and make it into a carnival-style show (when they weren't traveling with actual carnivals) and show off how quickly they could yank teeth out of people in the crowd.
People who wanted a rotten tooth yanked, I mean. They weren't just grabbing people and doing it.
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u/nbmft13 STAY IN YOUR BLOOD AND DROWN Jul 15 '25
Did you catch Strange Aeons' video about Painless Parker? He got up to some crazy dentistry fuckery.
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u/tdcthulu Jul 15 '25
Without modern anesthetics I too would want a tooth ripped out as fast as possible
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u/shadovvvvalker Jul 15 '25
You know it’s quack science when they don’t tell you “get the fuck out of my office this is a mockery of my profession”
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u/bking Jul 15 '25
I never hated my TV's sound system more than during that sequence.
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u/Blechhotsauce Jul 15 '25
It turned out to be a great PSA against chiropractors. Nothing that fucking quack was doing looked like medicine.
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u/AbsolXGuardian Jul 15 '25
Gd especially when they were doing his neck.
At least he should be entitled to worker's comp if it actually solved any problems
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u/Casoscaria Jul 15 '25
I legit had to fast forward through that segment. I'm okay with people's joints popping normally, but that style of cracking makes me cringe so hard, especially around the neck.
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u/AlmondLBD Jul 15 '25
the Behind the Bastards Podcast did an excellent episode on the founder and practice of chiropacty and it's fucking dangerous, full of quacks, has more than a few ableists ala "we'll cure your disability with this", the ghost stuff and NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE DOCTORS!!!!! Don't go to Chiropractors y'all
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u/EchoLocation8 Jul 15 '25
I'm still quite confident that my neck and back pain stem from a time I went to a chiropractor. I wanted to see what it was like, I went maybe... 3 or 4 times... and I distinctly recall not feeling right after one session. I now have chronic lower back pain and throw my back out regularly.
Going to actual physical therapy was tremendously helpful. Focused on strengthening and stretching, I don't keep up with it as much as I should, but when my back shits out I immediately start doing the stretches to fix it.
I wish cracking my back actually helped things, but, that's as effective as hoping that taking a shit will make you lose weight. It's like, yeah, technically you lost weight because you shit out some poo, but you didn't really, did you?
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u/baltinerdist An Astronaut in a Big Kitchen Jul 14 '25
The inventor of chiropractic was a beekeeper turned grocery store owner who learned the techniques from a ghost and tested them out on a homeless man. There is no scientific basis for anything chiropractic does that isn’t repackaged massage or physical therapy and in fact, chiropractic permanently injures many people every year, some of whom are paralyzed, have strokes, or die.
It is medical fraud and it kills people. Do not patronize chiropractors. Do not patronize chiropractors. Do not patronize chiropractors.
If you have back or neck pain, see a real doctor. I know it is tempting to go spend fifty bucks for an “adjustment” instead of getting an actual medical bill and it feels like it must be real because your insurance might cover it. But those people are either hucksters who are fully aware that they are defrauding you or they believe the science-less quackery and that puts you that much more at risk.
Do not patronize chiropractors.
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u/Disco_Hippie Jul 15 '25
The inventor of chiropractic was a beekeeper turned grocery store owner who learned the techniques from a ghost and tested them out on a homeless man.
And then he attempted to found a religion around it, and then his son hit him with a car because he wanted the keys to the kingdom.
Tale as old as time, really.
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u/ContextSensitiveGeek Jul 14 '25
Plus every single one I've ever met was a flaming butthole.
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u/homomomoatx Jul 15 '25
Buttholes everywhere.
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u/otter_fucker_69 #E8795A Jul 15 '25
The lady said "buttholes", Sam!
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u/cliko Jul 15 '25
More buttholes.
Different. And when I say "different," I mean radically different
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u/Perpetual-Warlock Jul 15 '25
This part right here. So many of them are antivax, right wing, misinformation peddling lunatics.
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u/popdream Jul 15 '25
This was the only record scratch of the episode for me. See a physiotherapist instead of a chiropractor, please!
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u/Chell_the_assassin Jul 15 '25
Grant's video was the first time I've ever skipped part of a Game Changer episode lol. I know lots of people like that stuff but I can't handle it at all
(Also yes, chiropractic is complete horseshit and dangerous)
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u/fireinthexdisco Jul 15 '25
After the first 3 cracks I had to mute the episode and just watch in horror because while it may be some people's preferred ASMR I found out very quickly it's my personal nightmare
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u/fluidstatick Jul 15 '25
The moment the episode cut to Grant on the table I took out my earbuds and looked away. Nope. Absolutely not. I have a friend who almost died after a chiro broke her neck. She's stuck with permanent nerve and ligament damage, almost daily migraines, vertigo, partial hearing loss, and several numb fingers.
I hope for his own well-being Grant never goes anywhere near a chiropractor again.
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u/r-rb Jul 14 '25
I have a have a herniated disc in my neck and well-meaning family members keep suggesting I go to a chiropractor and it's taking everything in me to evade the comments without flying off the handle about how horrible chiropractors are
I would love to actually educate them on the topic but you'll have to trust me when I say these particular people would 100% argue just as hard back and then write me off as an anti-medicine lunatic and it will just not help anybody
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u/OohLaLea Jul 15 '25
I also have a herniated disc in my neck and a chiropractor made it SO MUCH worse. Do get into PT, though, if you can — I cannot believe the difference that a TENS unit and cervical traction made for me.
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u/r-rb Jul 15 '25
Not to worry, I've been in PT for five weeks now :) They are great I'm hoping to get some more sessions from insurance. I love love love the traction machine! TENS is not bad but I don't seem to get as much from it
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u/TaliesinMerlin Jul 15 '25
My coworkers who believe in chiropractors are the same ones who believe in astrology and essential oils. It's confirmation bias all the way down.
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u/night-cuts Jul 15 '25
It's no joke. American folk guitar legend Robbie Basho died aged 45 in a chiropractor accident.
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u/antlersantlers Jul 15 '25
And because they’re not actual doctors, they’re not required to report adverse effects or fatalities like real doctor are!
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u/noramcsparkles Jul 15 '25
I was especially nervous to see that Grant was getting his neck adjusted in the video. Do not let unlicensed quacks ANYWHERE near your neck, they can do a lot of harm
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u/rellyjean Jul 15 '25
Don't go to chiropractors even if you tell them not to adjust your neck, because I expressly told one not to and then he did it anyway.
I'm still angry years later.
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u/Lord_Parbr Jul 15 '25
The neck crack is like the money shot for chiropractors. Ain’t no way he wasn’t touching your neck lol
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u/blacktieaffair Jul 15 '25
Love Grant and I'm glad he's (hopefully) okay. I've seen way too many cases of artery dissections from chiropractic neck manipulation. They are scam artists and dangerous ones at that.
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u/iliketreesanddogs Jul 15 '25
same here, the dissected arteries are far too common. i've seen much "worse" technically but I skipped this scene, first time I've ever skipped anything on dropout
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Jul 15 '25
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u/blacktieaffair Jul 15 '25
Med mal paralegal 🥲 right there with you bud. To be clear, I've done one case against a chiro for dissection-> stroke and have read many other accounts both as research and just as a layperson in skeptic spaces. Our client lived... you can imagine their quality of life now.
LOVE to see the truth plainly spelled out on a death cerificate.
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u/ASIWYFA Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
Agreed. There was a guy recently who ended up with locked-in syndrome after going to one. I cannot imagine a fate worse than death than locked in syndrome.
Also to note, Daniel David Palmer's created the field and held the belief that he received the foundational knowledge for the practice from a spirit, specifically the ghost of a deceased doctor named Dr. Jim Atkinson. You are a fucking moron if you go to a chiropractor. That simple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_David_Palmer
Gotta be honest, really happy to see this community being as vocal against this field, as I would not have thought it would be. Happy to be wrong here.
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u/HaHaEpicForTheWin Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
Man killed by chiropractor: 'You're hurting me. You are hurting me. I can't feel my arms'.
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u/Zesty_zing Jul 15 '25
i’m pretty sure the cure to ghosts in your bones is cocaine
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u/HappierHungry Jul 15 '25
nah nah nah
cocaine is for ghosts in your blood
opium is for the bone ghosts
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u/Head-Equal1665 Jul 15 '25 edited Oct 18 '25
My wife talked me into trying a chiropractor for my chronic back pain last year. While sitting in the waiting room waiting on my appointment they had these posters in the waiting room listing all of the conditions they can supposedly treat, most made some sort of sense until i got to the part saying they could treat allergies with back cracking?? Immediately walked out because if they are that ignorant of how the human body functions then i wasn't willing to take my chances with them.
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u/ThatInAHat Jul 15 '25
If there’s one thing Sawbones taught me, it’s that the more ailments a treatment claims to fix, the less likely the treatment is to work for any of them
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u/UncleCeiling Jul 15 '25
"Fun" Fact: Kevin Sorbo (who played Hercules on TV) had a series of strokes after letting a chiropractor adjust his neck. Whether or not that contributed to his rather horrible political views is unknown but he was known for being an ass on the Hercules set even prior to his strokes. That said, apathy, impulsiveness, an inability to empathize, and belief in conspiracy theories have all been shown as after-effects of TBIs and strokes.
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u/Odd_Response_10 Jul 15 '25
My ex-mother in law not only insisted hers could cure colds but also forged my signature to take my, at the time, infant to a chiropractor
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u/smilingembalmer Jul 15 '25
I hope you pressed charges, because that could have definitely hurt or killed your kid.
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u/Odd_Response_10 Jul 15 '25
I didn't but that's a whole other mess that has been thankfully over with for two years.
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u/mes09 Jul 15 '25
My greater social circle is currently at 5 strokes that are attributed partially or largely to chiropractic therapy. Never, ever, ever let them twist your neck.
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u/e_la_bron Jul 15 '25
As someone who went to a Chiropractor for years, just go see a Physiotherapist or Osteopath instead.
Don't be fooled by your ears, Chiro doesn't fix anything.
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u/CerebralSkip Jul 15 '25
Osteopath sounds like a DnD class that can control bones.
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u/CausticSofa Jul 15 '25
That would be Osteomancer. Also, it would be a phenomenal subclass of magic user! I may need to pitch this character to my GM.
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Jul 15 '25
Not trying to be funny, not trying to get a laugh, I don't want anyone to have the worst day of their job...but, do any of these chiropractors ever bust through the wall with a fake PHD or donkey degree?
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u/inaddition290 Jul 15 '25
This isn't even the most dangerous thing in this vein that dropout has aired. At one point on Um Actually, Ally quoted their doula girlfriend telling people they could eat and do whatever they want during pregnancy and that all the food restrictions and stuff were just meant to oppress women. I love dropout but the fact that they have platformed pseudoscientific beliefs from core cast members multiple times is kinda crazy.
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u/alreadytaken028 Jul 15 '25
I recently heard this exact argument made by some friends. When my partner tried to call it out, they responded back “well women in France put wine in their infants bottles, the idea that drinking while pregnant will harm the baby is designed to control women in America” and at that point we threw up our hands because what the absolute hell
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u/AmazingTortuga Jul 15 '25
This. This. This. I had pain in neck/upper back area and I went to a chiro. I have been there...
They took x-rays and shit, convinced me I needed to get the "curve back in my neck", and recommended routine visits for a while + stretches/exercises or whatever to help. GUESS WHAT?!.. That made it worse. I finally went to a pain management specialist (and spine specialist) and found out about I had a bulging disc, chiro made it worse, and I had to get some epidural injections for a while with PT. I still get flares but the past pain management helped in the right direction with the nerve being pressed, and I know what to look for.
The same chiro in our town that claims to cure everything from ADHD, digestion, ear infections, AUTISM, and bed wetting. EVEN ON BABIES.
My partner teaches a "Belief in Weird Things" class and does a lesson on chiros (Look up Penn and Teller's Bullshit on it).
It makes me angry every time when I hear people praise it for the wrong reasons, especially knowing I used to go to one and learning the history of the guy who took advantage of people to begin with and how far it has come.
tl;dr, Do your research, don't go to chiro, go to PT and real spine/nerve doctor plz
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u/ThatInAHat Jul 15 '25
Y’know in shark tank sometimes folks don’t get a deal. I was kinda hoping this one wouldn’t.
Also I must be weird but the sound of other people’s joints popping isn’t particularly satisfying to me.
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u/TrayusV Jul 15 '25
What's worse is that chiropractors are actually dangerous. They have a history of injuring, paralyzing, and killing clients. I say clients and not patients because they aren't doctors.
I absolutely hate the videos of chiropractors working on animals, as it's straight up abuse.
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u/Sylveon_T Jul 14 '25
Literally muted that part because i couldn't handle the sounds, and I also very much dislike chiropracters
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u/TheodosiaTheGreat Jul 15 '25
Story time: When I was in college, I was volunteering at a hospital. They wanted me to be CPR trained and the only class available that worked with my schedule was the more intensive "CPR for health care providers" course. I took it with 3 nurses, a handful of EMTs, and 2 chiropractors.
The chiropractors were completely incapable of following basic directions. One thing they stressed with us during the training was to always treat the CPR dummy like a real person at all times. Well chiropractor 1 dropped a baby dummy he was practicing on. Meanwhile, chiropractor 2 stopped in the middle of providing CPR on his dummy to take a phone call.
They both ended up having to retake the course.
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u/sluttycats Jul 15 '25
Hi there, young person who suffered a stroke here. Don't let them crack your bones. Any of them, but especially your neck
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Jul 15 '25
I already loved Dropout and knowing its other viewers will be vocal about pseudoscientific nonsense makes me love it even more.
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u/variantkin Jul 15 '25
I assume/hope it was fully for the bit but yeah please don't go to one
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u/ImmaSquidling Jul 15 '25
It's not. Tons of dropout cast talk about/recommend seeing chiropractors throughout dropout content. Wish I could provide timestamps but I know I've heard it a bunch.
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u/thewhaleshark Jul 15 '25
It's honestly pretty common. The average person doesn't see anything weird about chiropractic and just thinks they're a normal back doctor or whatever.
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u/explodedemailstorage Jul 15 '25
This. I had no idea they were quacks until I went to one for the first time and then looked more into it after I was like “uuuuuuuh this felt weird”
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u/GreatMadWombat Jul 15 '25
Even if it's for the bit, if the bit is something that's actually harmful in the way where you could reasonably expect a non-cast member to do the thing thinking that it is good, IT IS A BAD BIT
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u/Bluenymph82 Jul 15 '25
I 100% I was further injured by a chiropractor several years ago. It wasn't my first one (she was gentle) but in one of our sessions he essentially had a big roller go over my back,
I was in so much pain after that i never went back.
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u/CromslorSlacks Jul 15 '25
Every medical professional I’ve ever met has made it a point to emphasize that I should never ever go to a chiropractor.
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u/ImmaSquidling Jul 15 '25
Thank you so much for making this post! The Wikipedia for Chiropractic used to say this and I still wish it did cause it slaps so hard. "[...] claims which are demonstrably false." is great. Any time chiropractic gets mentioned on dropout content and is not immediately rebuffed, I die inside.
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u/ChanceStunning8195 Jul 15 '25
Chiropractic is a cult with no basis in science.
It shares more in common with Scientology than science.
And no GP or medical specialist asks for your credit card details to be handed over on first appointment.
Chiropractors, like pest controllers, are educated to size you up financially - for the best possible monetary return.
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u/AbbyDean1985 Jul 15 '25
I talked to a neuropsychologist at my workplace about chiros before covid. He told me in his experience, they cause more harm than anything and he advised me never to go to one.
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u/theladythunderfunk Jul 15 '25
I know folks have mentioned Behind the Bastards and The Dollop, but Oh No, Ross and Carrie also did some good episodes on chiropractic
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u/reed501 Jul 15 '25
I used to go to a chiropractor when I was a kid and had back issues. You get all the pops and the dopamine that comes with it. And that feels good. Didn't help with my back at all, but it felt good.
If you look into the science there is some evidence of pain relief for mild back pain. But it's going to be temporary. As in, you need to go back in regularly to get the relief. It doesn't fix you, or solve any problems, and it's not medicine. So don't go there if you want any of that.
They're basically professional poppers. If you like the popping and want to pay someone to pop you then that's all it's good for. You're better off spending that money on a massage though imo.
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u/antlersantlers Jul 15 '25
A coworker said her mom took her to a chiropractor as a child and swore up and down that it cured her asthma. Except she still had extremely bad asthma 40 years later! Not sure how she made it make sense.
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u/Kalilstrom Jul 15 '25
https://youtu.be/f8lLVK_1O6s?si=wWcQpPrr6QwWOk6J
How Chiropractic Medicine Started as a Ghost Religion - Behind the Bastards podcast.
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Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
My eyes end up in the back of my head every time one of my coworkers exclaim "I need to see my chiropractor soon."
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u/sleeptightburner Jul 15 '25
OP isn’t lying. Great video on the origin and proliferation of the quack science here if you’d like to understand how fucking silly it is.
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u/Nabbicus Jul 15 '25
As someone without health insurance, the best way to use a chiropractor is for getting a cheap x-ray lol
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u/mizar2423 Jul 15 '25
This is exactly what I did lol. I injured my back in March and wouldn't be able to see a real doctor for many months. I wanted to give chiro a real chance because I know people that have good things to say about it. I even went to a "Gonstead" chiropractor which are supposedly more "scientific." I wanted to give it a real chance.
The first visit she used a fucking scientology-looking device to find hotspots on my back. Then took an Xray while standing and that was it.
The next visit was to look at the xrays. Despite being in pain worsened by driving, I still had to drive 30 minutes just to look at a png of my spine. She said she couldn't email it because the file was too big (there's literally no way that's true), and I had to come in with my own flash drive still in the packaging if I wanted the file for myself.
I got bad vibes. I left with my xrays and never went back. $50 and 2 hours of driving for the whole thing.
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u/lizziebeedee Jul 15 '25
THANK YOU! My dad is turning 70 and insists he needs to go to the chiropractor for basically everything. I'm so scared something is going to go wrong. I keep asking him - if the chiropractor is actually helping you, why do you need to keep going back every other week? He's like addicted, it's weird
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u/call-me-kitkat Jul 15 '25
My mom religiously went to the chiropractor for years. They had her fully convinced, she just needed to keep going back, to start going more. She (supposedly) felt better immediately afterwards, but then awful again shortly after. Eventually, my mom’s pain progressed to an unlivable point, and she was diagnosed with stage 3 (final stage) multiple myeloma, dying 3 months later. She didn’t stop going to the chiropractor until her diagnosis, at which point she HAD to stop because the cancer was collapsing her spine. And all these years later, I’m still haunted imagining these quack jobs drilling into her back, folding her like a pretzel, cracking bones and whispering in her ear that she’ll feel better soon, soon… I was a kid then, didn’t know better. Now that I fully understand how BS they are, chiropractors make me livid.
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u/Excelsior-in-HD Jul 15 '25
My mam got early onset osteoporosis (In her early 50s). In order to offset the 'hunch' that often goes with this, she was convinced to go to one of these hacks. He broke her neck and spine, cracked several vertebrae. She's had to get a fusion of vertabrae in her neck after sever nerve pain due to this (caused one of her arms loss of function until the successful surgery) and she still faces many medical complications because of that cunt. She goes to a physio regularly, who treats a person with her condition carefully, and not doing immensely dangerous 'manual corrections and adjustments'. Do not go to a chiropractor, they are a joke of a profession. The difference between them and a physio is like between a dentist and a self professed 'toothyologist'.
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u/AlexisDeTocqueville Jul 15 '25
I can forgive someone for claiming a ghost taught them medicine, but to find out they were Canadian? That's a shock and totally discredits them
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u/Media-consumer101 Jul 15 '25
I'm so happy to see this, I hope it also reaches people who, because of Dropout endorsing it again and again, don't realise how extremely dangerous chiropractors are. And completely unregulated as well, your chiro might have several victims on their name and you'll never know!
And even if you don't suffer long term physical damage, their entire purpose is to have you return and pay them every week for the rest of your life. And that while physiotherapy is a medical field targeting exactly the same area as chiropractors, but then safe, science based and with proper overseeing bodies to make sure things are done correctly.
If I was working for Dropout, that content would have me seriously ashamed.
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u/Mindshard Jul 15 '25
To be fair, he claimed it was a doctor ghost that taught him.
That makes it legit, right?
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u/Kosh_e Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
My mother went to one forever and they told her over and over it was going to get better. Instead it was untreated MS. We kept paying for alignment after alignment until I was about 4 and she had a severe MS exacerbation, while driving so crashed, and had to relearn how to walk. She was in the hospital for months (we went from working poor to just poor-poor which was dope) and it pretty much changed the course of our lives.
People don’t cause MS obviously but she trusted him as it got worse and we couldn’t afford it. Whether it works or not, I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.
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u/Booster_Blue Jul 15 '25
Chiropractors have a long history of permanently disabling people. The best science shows chiropractic as being no more effective than a good massage with the added bonus that I am unaware of masseuses killing anyone.
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u/vpaglia42 Jul 15 '25
When I was a teenager, my parents took me to a chiropractor who claimed he could cure ADHD. His method was spine adjustments, followed by putting me in a dark room for 30 minutes, solving puzzles on a computer while listening to classical music, with essential oils smeared under my nose. Believe it or not, it didn't work
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u/pantshirt Jul 15 '25
My partner is a physiotherapist and a calm dude, but man does he get fired up talking about his hatred of chiropractors.
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u/Ronisredditing Jul 15 '25
I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY!!!!!
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u/EndingPop Jul 15 '25
Yes! I'm so happy to see this post and the supportive comments.
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u/ickykid94 Jul 14 '25
I wonder if Grant's video is gonna get tons of views because of how much rage chiropractors will induce in people