By no means with my neighbour's dog story am I trying to say acupuncture should be recognized as the be all end all, or that it has a very broad range of applications. Just that in that particular case it seemed to have a nearly undeniable instant effect, and worked for whatever particulars were happening with that pooch.
I’m not into homeopathy for the most part, and alternative medicine I largely give a pass, although I’m fortunately not a guy that has needed much medical attention or experienced chronic pain. I will say that my wife was going to a chiropractor for chronic issues including brutal neck pain and vertigo that medical drs and specialists weren’t giving the time of day…. The chiropractor after a couple sessions told her that there was something more serious than was diagnosed happening and to push for actual scans. That he felt like something was terribly wrong. Him saying that probably saved her life as a tumour on her brain stem would have probably ofed her in another couple months unless we had the confidence to be the squeaky wheel and actually get her an MRI. She was in surgery 10 days later.
On the other hand, compare that to the masseuse who saw my wife a few days before that who confidently said she could heal all of her woes with repeated craniosacral therapy sessions, and that a medical dr was no longer necessary. Brah. Good luck shrinking an orange sized tumour by waving ur hands.
I’ve got to thank you guys for discussing this because it’s making me read up on everything, and that is always a plus.
I’ve personally found relief in the bone crackers on occasion and massage therapy is just undeniably great at times.
thanks for sharing this. i fully agree with your stance on the acupuncture and the dogs-- sometimes it works! but it aint the end-all be-all by any stretch.
Homeopathy, I believe, has way less evidence in support of it, although I haven't read up on it as much either. I wouldn't be surprised if it was total quackery, but unlike
some people I don't like to talk out of my ass about things I don't actually know.
Chiropractic I think is somewhere in the middle. If I understand correctly, theres a
bit of evidence that it can do good things but also some evidence that in the wrong hands it can do serious damage. I've had some chiro work that felt good and seemed to help but it was part of a broader PT plan so I really can't say with any certainty how it affected me personally, and I haven't read the research literature at all.
The story about your wife is crazy! It really shows the difference between an 'alternative' practitioner with a realistic evidence-based approach vs someone who's a fucking nutjob. It's a shame that the quacks are out there overselling their services because they give the whole field a bad name.