I have seen studies that shown benefits for low back pain. But it seems that it is only marginally better than conventional medicine. So could it be a placebo effect? Also, is the diagnosis of a short leg substantial or of clinical value? Good question, but needs a little bit of refining.
Is chiro treatment placebo? Treatment for what? Back pain or something visceral, ie. diabetes, cancer, heart disease?
The fact is that chiropractic does work for some things, ie. back pain, neck pain, etc. There is not alot of evidence that it works other conditions. I can refer you to a very recent study that recommends chiropractic for acute back pain over other treatments.
CLINICAL GUIDELINES
Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Pain: A Joint Clinical Practice Guideline from the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society
Roger Chou, MD; Amir Qaseem, MD, PhD, MHA; Vincenza Snow, MD; Donald Casey, MD, MPH, MBA; J. Thomas Cross, Jr, MD, MPH; Paul Shekelle, MD, PhD; Douglas K. Owens, MD, MS, for the Clinical Efficacy Assessment Subcommittee of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Physicians/American Pain Society Low Back Pain Guidelines Panel*
2 October 2007 | Volume 147 Issue 7 | Pages 478-491
Recommendation #7: ...clinicians should consider the addition of nonpharmacologic therapy with proven benefits鈥攆or acute low back pain, spinal manipulation;
Spinal manipulation was also recommended for chronic back pain as well. Spinal manipulation is largely done by chiropractors (>90%) and has been shown to be safer than over the counter medication.
This study was done by MD's, not DC's (chiropractors) so it is a rather unbiased look at what Dr's should do for back pain based on the research.
It is not a study on subluxation however. That is a topic that is very broad and the simple answer to your question about the theory of subluxation is yes and no. There are certainly plenty of very plausible theories and studies as to how the function and global position of the spine affect the nervous system and how the increased sympathetic activity affects the end organs. This type of research is being done and is very promising I believe. Check out the work of Harrison at idealspine.com. He is a DC, PhD, etc. etc. I think he has degrees in math and engineering as well. He is a published author, he has been published in Spine a few times. Spine is the most prestigious peer reviewed journal in this area.
Anyway, Harrison does alot of interesting things and shows that there is an Ideal spinal model (published in Spine) and that when the spine is at variance with the normal (just like there are norms for BP, Temp, etc.) there are ill effects on the body such as accelerated arthritis or DDD, pain, and possible even visceral effects (via the effect on the Symp NS).
Good luck in your search for the answers, the more you learn the more you dont know and the more you need to find out.
Why do you ask btw?
ps. Short leg length is very real, despite what your local naysayer may tell you. Lay on a bed and have someone else check for you, check them. Its pretty apprent and you dont have to be scientific to see it. An Xray can also help.
If you have a short leg (I do) you may either have a functional problem of the SI joint, an anatomical short leg, either the tibia or the femur may be shorter than the other leg, or some other problem like excessive pronation of the foot. Short legs exist just like short arms, deviated septums, bad teeth, unequal foot or hand size, or unequal breast size.
The question is whether or not it is of clincical value. That is a difficult thing to say. If your house was not level would that be important to you? If your tires are out of alignment is that important to you? It all depends by how much and what is causing it. It is a hard thing to say over the internet. You can buy a really cheap heel lift and try it out see if it helps. I have a short leg and it doesnt bother me at all. I may not be sensitive to the effects, who knows.
Remember: only beautiful people dont have short legs! Maybe you dont have a short leg, you might just have one long leg. subluxation is a very outdated term for chiropractors, but it can mean mis alignment of the spine in any area.
I do know there is a spam web site by Steven Barret, who is a de-licensed psychiatrist creating web sites that knock anything natural without drugs with a full on damning article on subluxation being the primary theory that chirpractos work on... Which is simply not the case, but unfortunately, it is one of the first thing people see on the net.
He created about 30 sites specific to any non medical remedy out there with mis information.
Here is a court case to expose who this man really is, because chiropractors reputation can be damaged by the picture he paints of them .http://www.canlyme.com/quackwatch.html
Modern day medical clinics include chiropractors on site these days. They really know their stuff for safer ways of creating greater scope of mobility for injury and injury prevention. In fact, every professional NFL Football player has their own recommended chiropractor. Its mandatory.
The answerer above me about having a shorter leg couldn't have been more thorough. |
