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Originally Posted by CrescentMoonie
2. Oddly enough, I have had pretty serious back problems and have chronic pain even after surgery. I was still able to find legitimate medical means to improve my health to the point of running a half and full marathon in the last 18 months. By far the best thing was learning stretching and strengthening techniques from a rehab clinic for sports injuries and carrying those forward over the years.
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It's awesome that you were able to find some relief, as that seems to be the exception rather than the rule, when it comes to surgery. I'm jealous.
My pain is actually caused by my connective tissue being more flexible than my muscles (same syndrome TK has), so stretching and strengthening will generally tend to exacerbate the pain rather than bring any relief. As it relates to the MD/Naturopath discussion, the lowest-common denominator brand of treatment employed by Western medicine is counter-productive when dealing with the more unique syndromes as you have to exhaust all the general treatments/diagnoses before you can address specifics, whereas NDs are happy to treat each person uniquely.
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3. On the levels of quackery, naturopath is the bottom of the barrel for me, just barely above acupuncturists. I have done a couple of visits to chiropractors, but only with clear instructions to them that they're not allowed near my neck since chiropractic strokes are becoming more common.
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For whatever it's worth, you can find physical therapists who have been particularly trained in manipulation and adjustment, if you want to avoid the realms of alternative health entirely. My personal experience with PTs and Chiros has been entirely unique to each practitioner, even regardless of any common modalities/trainings, which can be frustrating unless you just happen to stumble on a good one immediately.
My mom was a chiropractor for whatever that's worth...and while one might think that would pre-dispose me towards alternative health, I didn't have a great relationship with my mom, and it probably resulted in just as many long-standing resentment and resistances to that kind of practice. That said, I did see how long it took for the AMA to get from decrying all chiropractors as the spawn of Satan with absolutely zero value to healthcare, or society in general, during the '70s...to regularly referring patients to their care, and even adopting some of their techniques today...and as such I don't pay much attention to calls of quackery that I think largely emanate from those same political grounds.