It depends on the country. Everywhere but the US, I believe, osteopaths are witch doctors on the same level as chiropractors. In the US, they were originally like that, but their professional organization basically pushed it into being a real medical degree.
Now they go to the same length schooling as MD’s, and take the same exams as far as I know.
The core of the whole discipline, osteopathy, is a pseudoscience, though. While they are usually competent doctors they still have that core of pseudoscience. They like to market themselves as more “holistic”, but that’s usually a good dogwhistle term to let you know information not supported by science is going to follow. They bring up that they are the same as MDs, but with additional training in osteopathy, but that can’t be true because the schooling is the same length, so to fit in the pseudoscience, they get less science.
The real reason why we have DO’s is that we don’t have capacity in our country to educate enough MDs, so we have this weird parallel system.
I was not familiar with this term and had to look it up. From my brief search, it also seems like snake oil, and I don’t know why someone would not go to a real physical therapist instead.
I absolutely had a PT after a car accident that used spinal manipulation and it seemed to help. She also had me using elastic bands for stretching and hydrotherapy, so there’s that
Osteopaths (who have a Doctorate of Osteopathy and are often referred to as DOs) go to medical school and receive training that’s almost exactly the same as an MD.
the difference (so i’m told) is that DOs are trained to take a more holistic, full-body approach to diagnostics and treatment rather than only focusing on one set of symptoms/treatment. They also do their residencies and internships alongside MDs.
Yes, I’ve heard some people say that they trust DOs more because they’re more deliberately trained to look at a larger picture of a person’s health. I don’t have my own opinion since I’ve never met with a DO.
DO are real doctors. Rarer than MDs because there are less schools but totally real docs. My Mom with 30 years nursing experience says their training is basically identical, but DOs are generally nicer.
A chiropractor 💯 fixed my throwing arm that I had been dealing with for over 10 years. Made me an absolute believer. That said, I’ve been to two different chiropractors and they were wildly different in everything they did. Dr Lopeig in Great Falls, Virginia is an absolute wizard.
I’ve told this story before, but newborn chiropractors are a thing, and many new parents will take their BABIES to get their neck and back snapped around. It’s frankly fucking disgusting.
Holland and Barrett sell supplements. Some people do need to take a vitamin d tablet a day. I do but I’ve got a prescription for a vitamin d and calcium tablet because I’ve been low for years.
Be careful with vitamin D though. That is one of the very very few vitamins that you can actually take too much of because it’s fat soluble, not water soluble, so excessive vitamin D will build up in your fat cells rather than just getting peed out. It’s called vitamin D toxicity (VDT) and it can have some unpleasant neurological effects among other things.
So it’s probably a good idea to get your levels checked anyways just to make sure you’re taking the right amount if you need it.
Problem is, people go to chiropractor when they don’t have access to real doctor, problem either the money or/and most doctors in your city/state can’t/refuse do anything about your problem, desperation is one hell of a stimulus
The thing is, placebos can actually be pretty effective. Hell, they’re effective even if you know they’re a placebo. And the more elaborate and similar to what you think would be involved in curing you, the more effective. So people going to chiropractors might actually be getting real results even if the things they’re doing are junk.
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As a medical device engineer working in spine - absolutely chiropractors.
What about osteopaths?
It depends on the country. Everywhere but the US, I believe, osteopaths are witch doctors on the same level as chiropractors. In the US, they were originally like that, but their professional organization basically pushed it into being a real medical degree.
Now they go to the same length schooling as MD’s, and take the same exams as far as I know.
The core of the whole discipline, osteopathy, is a pseudoscience, though. While they are usually competent doctors they still have that core of pseudoscience. They like to market themselves as more “holistic”, but that’s usually a good dogwhistle term to let you know information not supported by science is going to follow. They bring up that they are the same as MDs, but with additional training in osteopathy, but that can’t be true because the schooling is the same length, so to fit in the pseudoscience, they get less science.
The real reason why we have DO’s is that we don’t have capacity in our country to educate enough MDs, so we have this weird parallel system.
I was not familiar with this term and had to look it up. From my brief search, it also seems like snake oil, and I don’t know why someone would not go to a real physical therapist instead.
Not saying anything about the source, but https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/osteopathic-medicine
I absolutely had a PT after a car accident that used spinal manipulation and it seemed to help. She also had me using elastic bands for stretching and hydrotherapy, so there’s that
Osteopaths (who have a Doctorate of Osteopathy and are often referred to as DOs) go to medical school and receive training that’s almost exactly the same as an MD.
the difference (so i’m told) is that DOs are trained to take a more holistic, full-body approach to diagnostics and treatment rather than only focusing on one set of symptoms/treatment. They also do their residencies and internships alongside MDs.
Yes, I’ve heard some people say that they trust DOs more because they’re more deliberately trained to look at a larger picture of a person’s health. I don’t have my own opinion since I’ve never met with a DO.
DO are real doctors. Rarer than MDs because there are less schools but totally real docs. My Mom with 30 years nursing experience says their training is basically identical, but DOs are generally nicer.
A chiropractor 💯 fixed my throwing arm that I had been dealing with for over 10 years. Made me an absolute believer. That said, I’ve been to two different chiropractors and they were wildly different in everything they did. Dr Lopeig in Great Falls, Virginia is an absolute wizard.
I sometimes come across influencers pushing chrio “treatments” on pets or newborns, saying it makes them “breathe better” or be “more energetic”
It’s infuriating
its a bit more than infuriating, thats straight up dangerous.
I’ve told this story before, but newborn chiropractors are a thing, and many new parents will take their BABIES to get their neck and back snapped around. It’s frankly fucking disgusting.
I used to see a lot of threads on reddit about people who got injuries from cheap chiropractors.
Holland and Barrett sell supplements. Some people do need to take a vitamin d tablet a day. I do but I’ve got a prescription for a vitamin d and calcium tablet because I’ve been low for years.
I work 3rd shift, so I take Vitamin D because the sun is my nemesis.
Be careful with vitamin D though. That is one of the very very few vitamins that you can actually take too much of because it’s fat soluble, not water soluble, so excessive vitamin D will build up in your fat cells rather than just getting peed out. It’s called vitamin D toxicity (VDT) and it can have some unpleasant neurological effects among other things.
So it’s probably a good idea to get your levels checked anyways just to make sure you’re taking the right amount if you need it.
Funny, every primary care provider in my country recommends you take Vitamin D, usually pretty huge amounts
Could be because we get barely any sunshine between like October and February. I’m talking 6 hour days, and even those mostly cloudy.
Problem is, people go to chiropractor when they don’t have access to real doctor, problem either the money or/and most doctors in your city/state can’t/refuse do anything about your problem, desperation is one hell of a stimulus
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The thing is, placebos can actually be pretty effective. Hell, they’re effective even if you know they’re a placebo. And the more elaborate and similar to what you think would be involved in curing you, the more effective. So people going to chiropractors might actually be getting real results even if the things they’re doing are junk.