Back pain: Are NSA & Chiropractors better than seeing an MD?

“Back pain: are NSA and Chiropractors better than seeing an MD?”

That’s a mixed question. But at its most sensible…no. Always see an MD first to get an in depth view of your body’s situation.

Armed with that clinical knowledge – and possibly x-rays and blood work – go visit a chiropractor or an NSA practitioner to see what your options may be.

There are an enormous amount of health care alternatives that may be just as good or better than what an MD is offering. At the very least, there may be alternative options that complement or enhance what an MD is offering.

All back pain relief methods are not created equally

MDs often look down on holistic health care practitioners and that still grinds my gears when the topic arises. But this aspect of meeting with them can be ignored long enough to get a chiro’s opinion after the fact.

This is something I used to bullheadedly fight against back in my simpler-minded days. I’d had such terrible results from working with Western Medicine doctors for so long that I truly despised the lot of them for a time. I really did.

And this attitude of mine was wrong

I came to my senses through study and contemplation, research and experimentation. I have since become aware that the two can, and often do, work quite well together.

I’d assume that you’d find most chiropractors do not wish to wage war with their medical brethren either. I personally feel that, by default, holistic care practitioners are just more open minded than their clinical counterparts. But no fight needs to come from the health care methodology disagreements.

I am one who has argued every item of my health care with my medical doctors when I didn’t agree with them.

But I listened to what they had to say, first

I always had research in my mind or would go get some that would dispute their plan for my health care. And sometimes they agreed or else they just wished me well. Sometimes I did what they said but only when I was deeply satisfied that I’d turned over every alternative health care rock I could find before coming to that decision.

The ironic thing is, I have doctors as friends who disagree with my feelings even though I have proof in results to back up my decisions.

One doctor I was seeing when my back pain was at its most severe told me that within 6 months, Id no longer be able to walk…for the rest of my life…if I didn’t agree to the invasive and heavily medicated route he’d decided was best. (That was over a decade ago. Walking fine this whole time, thank you very much!)

But I do not respect them less for their opinion

They simply feel as strongly about their ways as I do mine. But I don’t have to do what they suggest. And it is a suggestion. Which begins to lead the conversation down the path of not giving over control of your life to an authority figure.

Donny Epstein talks about this a lot. But we’ll get to that one later.

Just be smart. If you’ve developed some sort of back issue or other life affecting health issue, go see your MD and then go see a professional like Dr. Marc, just to get his two cents.

Be informed. Teach yourself. Stand up for yourself. Take charge of your own health care initiatives. You are allowed. (Guess I got a little into that other conversation after all.)