What happened?
I recently had a patient tell me that after a routine visit to her medical doctor she was given a script for seven medications, two of which were 'pain killers'. Misnomer of the century IMO. To top things off she was advised that she should stop seeing her chiropractor as "they do more harm than good". *sigh*
She is currently looking for a new medical doctor.
My thoughts.
I have a lot of thoughts about this but I will try and be brief.
Medical doctors do two things. First, they diagnose diseases. Second, they prescribe treatment (usually in the form of meds and/or surgery but not always). Lets not be surprised by this. When you go to your medical doctor with a complaint it is their job to offer some form of treatment and if all they have is a script pad, guess what you are getting. It is what they do and what we have come to expect. There are a few breaking the mold and addressing disease in more sustainable, non-pharmacological ways which is amazing. I hope this trend continues.
Chiropractors are NOT doing harm. Well, at least not on any statistically significant scale. Sure there are side-effects and an occasional injury, but significant adverse reactions to chiropractic care, in general are very rare. On the other hand, medical malpractice claims amounted to over 3 billion dollars paid out in 2017 alone. That's staggering. OK, I am clearly not comparing apples to apples here but you get the point.
Find a MD that is not 'against' treatment options that are not exclusively his own for no good reason. Now, this goes both ways. Non-medical providers need to appreciate the benefits of modern medicine and when to refer to medical counterparts. I said 'modern medicine' right, but what I mean is that we should choose providers that are up to date on current research and published guidelines and we will find that such medical and non-medical providers work very well together and have no qualms whatsoever.
Final point here. Question your providers. If they cannot support their recommendations with at the very least 'low quality evidence' then why would you listen to them? If something doesn't sound right or a provider only gives you absolutes, find a new one. There are so many excellent chiropractors and medical doctors out there that I cannot see any reason to deal with an old bias that is truly measured in funerals.
~ Erik L. Malone, D.C.