Is Chiropractic Medicine a legitimate form of treatment?

My mom is seeing a Chiropractor for pretty severe back problems. She is on a very fixed income and her medicare is NOT paying for the treatments.

I have heard in the past that Chiropractors are a bunch of salesmen who dont actually do any good. My mom's chiropractor keeps asking her to bring friends and family to his practice which makes me nervous. He even had her make a list of people she thought would be interested. No legitimate physician has ever done this so I am nervous that she is being taken. He told her she should begin to see results in six months which is long enough for her to lose a lot of money!

HAS CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT WORKED FOR YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW?

Study after study has shown that chiropractic is the most effective and cheapest form of treatment for Back pain. Medicare will pay for 80% of the cost of adjustments, sounds like the chiro is not a contracted provider. in my opinion your mother should see results before 6 months. if my patients dont show a change in 30 days i try something different, but thats just me. your mother may need 6 months of care but if there is no change after say 10-12 adjustments somethings not working. Some people just dont respond. I would try to find her a chiro that is a provider for medicare that will help with the cost and give her a second opinion. Some chiros try to get family members in to educate them because 90% of the population have no clue what we do or why we do it. hope this helps and good luck.
I just gotta respond to the other answers: We dont want to prescribe that would cause our malpractice insurance to sky rocket and we beleive that your problem is not a lack of pain medication but a true problem in your spine that should be corrected not covered up, and to the woman whose mom had to go back every month or her back would hurt, thats great, once a month, how many pain pills would she take a month if she went to the MD, one a day for the rest of her life, yeah chiropractic is the commerce. Source(s): I'm a chiropractor

I think it is a crock. Some people say it helps them but I think thats one of those mind things. I think some people just THINK it works. Didn't do diddly for me. My opinon is if you can't perscribe medication your not really a doctor.
well it worked for my mom, but the thing is she had to go regulary, bout three times a month or so because if she stopped then her back started hurting again. So... I think of chiropractic as a commerce, not a treatment.
Some are legit. and some are not so great. If he/she have been in same location for years-he is probably ok. Something you need to take into consideration, they may help some people but not all. You could ask local people of their opinion. I have heard of some being really good. It did not work for me but I don't think it was his fault.
yes. whoever said that- was prolly a med. doctor or something. they (Chiro.) never were viewed as real doctors because they do not use pills and didnt go to school as long. there are news paper articles that showed studies where chiro... helped. they pop the bone into place, so i can see it working. how is it any different from surgery? someone just takes out the bone, but doesnt necessarily fix it. i think its good to do both. Read the first guys: if you can t perscribe ure not a doctor. isnt that b.s and sterotypical? find what works for u.