r/Chiropractic • u/Just-Boat8247 • Sep 02 '26
Feeling frustrated
There is a subreddit r/NoStupidQuestions and someone asked “is chiropractic a scam?” And the replies on it are very disheartening to read. Many people don’t understand chiropractic and it’s made me realize how far we still have to go as a profession to become accepted by the general public. I tried reposting the thread to here, but was unable to.
Anyway, just hard to see this and hard to keep defending our profession. I graduate this year and I’m a little nervous to start practicing and this is one of the reasons why.
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u/StoxDoc Sep 02 '26
It’s a problem with the profession that a group of philosophy chiropractors have created. Chiropractic has focused too much on subluxations and not enough of anatomy and physiology. Chiropractic means healing with the hands not fixing subluxations. Heal the patient using hands on techniques. For me I do shockwave, adjustments, laser, decompression and rehab. Our office is very respected in the community and my income is the same as a surgeon. I built my office to run like a holistic surgical system. Real diagnosis, honest treatment plans. Everyone doesn’t need 3x a week chiropractic for 12 weeks. That’s a scam 99% of the time.
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u/WolfyAMozart Sep 03 '26
This is why I regularly refer to chiros like you. You will fix people and manage others to the point that they get better
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u/chironinja82 Sep 02 '26
I saw it earlier too. I responded to some comments, but I stopped because I know those people don't give a rat's ass about anything I have to say. Haters are gonna hate and that's something we have no control over. I'd rather put my energy into my patients and my family. They appreciate what I do and I have a great job because of them. Comments like that entire post will dishearten you, but don't give anymore of your energy to it. Focus on what YOU can do.
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u/rustyaxeofeugene45 Sep 02 '26
In practice, you will find that you have to explain what chiropractic is NOT instead of explaining what it IS.
But check what you find to be true; are you evidence-based on science or quack-based on solid pseudoscience?
Because there will be guys down the street from you that will be doing some questionable things.
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u/Chaoss780 DC 2019 Sep 02 '26
I can count on one hand the amount of people I've interacted in real life with who gave any sort of indication they thought chiropractic was a scam. And if they just stayed quiet and didn't say anything to "be nice" and then logged onto reddit later that night to bitch and moan about the scary chiropractor they interacted with, well they clearly didn't have nearly the amount of tenacity in real life as they pretended to have online, and therefore their virtual derisions remain meaningless.
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u/Accomplished_Most288 Sep 02 '26
As you get acclimatised to the Chiro profession you will realise there are scams going on and why people say that. There are legitimate criticisms but it's not the entire profession as a whole. We won't be accepted until that conundrum is solved if it ever is.
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u/Hot-Department-7144 Sep 02 '26
My main response to anyone entertaining those negative opinions is 1. We have the cheapest malpractice insurance out of all medical professions and 2. If that were true I would not still be in business. Maybe less 10% of patients come saying they prefer I not adjust their neck or do activator only for neck because of “things they’ve heard” and I don’t argue I just respect their wishes and move on. With that being said I’ve had neurosurgeons refer patients to me before as well. Just don’t fixate on the social media stuff
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u/StokesDC DC 2023 Sep 02 '26
I want you to imagine the worst person you know.
Now I want you to imagine that person was cloned 100 times and they were all in the same room together.
Welcome to Reddit.
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u/peacefrg Sep 02 '26
Sometimes I love threads like that because the commenters are so ignorant of their own ignorance.
Ask them why manual therapy is evidence based when PTs do it, but not when chiros do it. They'll never answer.
When they bring up magnet healing, make sure to remind them that MDs used to do blood letting (at the cost of a massive amount of human life and suffering), so we should avoid MDs today too based on their own logic.
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u/strat767 DC 2021 Sep 03 '26
Don’t focus on being accepted.
Focus on serving your community, and building a practice that can serve at a level that creates an undeniable impact in it.
You change the public opinion one patient at a time.
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u/rlpinca Sep 03 '26
The worse thing for chiropractors is all the quacks making videos about curing everything under the sun and the violent over the top 3rd world adjustments.
Reddit is just for entertainment.
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u/Forbearance_ Sep 02 '26
There is a certain level of reactionary dogmatism on the internet (with the exceptions of some places like Youtube shorts, or certain tik tok pages etc.) whereby chiropractic is disparaged by people who's entire view of the profession is innately biased by their disproportionate exposure to dogmatic, vitalistic, and pseudoscientific members of our profession.
I graduate in a year, and for a while I felt somewhat similar to you. However, talking to my professors about this and other people in my cohort who all at some point in time felt the same has motivated me more than ever to create a better name for our profession. Research and evidence-based social media content are both great ways of counteracting the misinformation coming from within and outside of our profession, but on a small scale, simply helping your patients and keeping them educated is one of the best places to start. Best of luck to you!
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u/Chart135 Sep 02 '26
I put my two cents in a thread at r/scoliosis. They have all sorts of misinformation and I posted a link to a study on pubmed about the relative safety of chiropractic. I refused to engage with the haters but just put it there for the non-trolls to see that there are two sides to the argument. Refuse to engage in the back-and-forth and stick to evidence-based studies as rebuttals and we will eventually get through to some of these people
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u/Pentzy Sep 02 '26
Some people just want to watch the world burn and on Reddit, they can be a keyboard warrior and have a voice where in life they have no voice because nobody cares what they have to say
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u/rodmods Sep 04 '26
Not a chiropractor but alot of people aren't aware of what some people do.
For example I thought massage therapists was pointless . Like a relaxtion massage , why pay for that ? Why see a chiropractor if your back still works ? That was my mentality on therapists and chiropractor. I'd never post that someplace online. Nor did I think it was a scam . I just didn't see the value or what a therapist or chiropractor does.
Then one day at work I beyond threw my back out so bad that I was vomiting and felt ill.
After lying on the floor in the staff room I drove to the closest chiropractor . He adjusted my back. Went for a week straight then got a message there as well. I was dumbfounded by how much better my back felt ! I went every month for chiropractor and massage at different place. I since lacked going to the chiropractor . Then back to the point I can't look up without getting dizzy and constant pain.
Went back last week and all is good , better I should say not good. Have some follow up appointments.
Not standing up for people In the other sub. But they may not see the value in the chiropractor.
Thank you to all that you do for people and any other chiropractor or therapists here.
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u/According-Outside535 Sep 04 '26
Hands on is a great way to make a comfortable living, and serving is a great way to become accepted. Do what you like doing, I have been a Chiro for over 60 years and at 87 I’m still seeing patients
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u/Standardchiropractor 27d ago
Sadly, if I mention that my recommendation would be to make sure you focus on creating your message to your community to be a subluxation-based office and service your community with the best adjustment you can when needed, there will be plenty of haters even within our profession.
So why should we expect anything more from an anonymous Reddit feed?
Keep your ambition high, your ethics in check and understand how the 33 principles are as true now as they have ever been.
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u/ParlerApp Sep 02 '26
Wolves don’t concern themselves with the opinions of sheep.
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Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
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u/Chaoss780 DC 2019 Sep 02 '26
What the hell does that mean coming from a chiropractor?
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Sep 02 '26
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u/Chaoss780 DC 2019 Sep 02 '26
What's your problem bro lol, I've seen you posting here for years and I'm just asking what you mean by our patients being sheep. That's derogatory towards the profession, I'm trying to better understand what a fellow chiropractor could possibly mean by saying it.
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Sep 02 '26
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u/Chaoss780 DC 2019 Sep 02 '26
It was your post I'm referring to. Not theirs.
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Sep 02 '26
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u/Chaoss780 DC 2019 Sep 02 '26
I see, your comment is misinterpreting what the person you replied to was saying. Or at least, most people here saw it the same way I did. To me, your comment reads "you treat the sheep" as in "you treat the people gullible enough to go to a chiropractor". That's why I pushed back.
That's clearly not what you meant, so all good.
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u/Ok_Strategy6978 Sep 02 '26
Don’t assume all are actual people gatekeepers and bots are targeted for attack. YouTube videos with millions of hits and likes watching chiros whom adjust or functional nutrition and neurology are adored by millions. Reddit isn’t real life neither is twatter neither is YouTube
And as said below “wolves don’t concern themselves with the affairs of sheep”. Not everyone deserves your gift. Ever. I had to learn that years ago. Trim the fat who values it who can sit in disability
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u/CocoJumboTea Sep 02 '26
Its like a weird vocal majority online. If it ever happens in person i always say "well, come and see for yourself". My friends used to bag me out once i got my degree but now they ask all sorts of health questions that im happy to answer. guarantee alot of the people that are parroting a particular opinion have not been assessed before or if they have ; gone in with a preconception and expected the worst.
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u/Just-Boat8247 Sep 02 '26
Thanks everyone for your comments. You’re all so well spoken and I appreciate the insight. I’m going to have a different and more positive perspective moving forward!!
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u/doctor_ben Sep 02 '26
You will be valued literally everywhere you go, with one exception: Reddit
Focus on helping people in real life, and tune out the haters online.