Chiropractor - emg scan results

[chef]

I went to a chiropractor yesterday (gf chefs suggestion) due to a bad back from lugging furniture around the house last weekend and wrongly assuming the pain would go away after a few days.

I've never been to one before and the first step was a general physical exam followed by an EMG scan.

As the doctor scanned each vertebrae, the results colours showed up and by the time he finished the results were mostly red (80%), 10% black and the rest blue.

Not good, from what the doc says. My questions are, and I know I should have asked the doctor this:
- what exactly does an emg scan check?
- getting a bad score (i.e mostly black and red) for the results signifies what?
- how "medical" is a chiropractor in your opinion? by that I mean is a chiropractor like a herbal heeler or a true medical doctor.

There is a follow meeting next week to go through the results but I thought I would ask the crowd on here first.

[suityou01]

My uncle had that, God rest him.

[eek]

What is that football chant


"You'll never walk again"....

[Scruff]

The scam is to extract extrs money from your wallet. I have been going to Chiropractors for 25 years and none have ever suggested a scan or Xray. Manipulate my spine but not my purse...

[SueEllen]

If they are doing a random made up coloured scan they are a charlatan.

They aren't like a medical doctor though there is a professional body they can join.

Good ones recognise their limits.

I know and have known people with arthritic diseases who were told to go back to their GPs and demand referrals because the chiropractor told them their bones and joints had something seriously wrong. They also refused to touch them.

They are recognised by some NHS areas due to the number of people with back problems. I personally have been treated privately by a physio who was also a chiropractor but not for a bad back. Don't know if it made a difference to my treatment.

[MyUserName]

Apparently it can vary but in my experience a good chiropractor is far better than a GP for certain things.

They are probably up there with top level physios, they cannot help with everything but some things they can help more than traditional doctors.

I had tennis and golfer's elbow in the same elbow at the same time without playing tennis or golf and my doctor was talking about injections into the bone etc. I went to a chiropractor who fixed it without me needing to stop training and then reverse engineered the problems that lead to it and fixed them too. He then got me to show him things I was doing in training and worked out what I had done which caused the injury and showed me how to adapt my technique to avoid doing it again.

I have been going to him for years, he is awesome!

[chef]

the scan they did was this

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles.[1] EMG is performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated by muscle cells[2] when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. The signals can be analyzed to detect medical abnormalities, activation level, or recruitment order or to analyze the biomechanics of human or animal movement.

and the scan results looked at lot like this

[chef]

The scam is to extract extrs money from your wallet. I have been going to Chiropractors for 25 years and none have ever suggested a scan or Xray. Manipulate my spine but not my purse...

the Chiropractor consultation was actaully free as I have been having massages from the same place for a while, any future chiropractor appointments are 25 pounds for 45 minutes "treatment"

[MyUserName]

I have been going to a chiro regularly for several years and have never had that sort of thing done. That does not mean it is not valid, just that I cannot offer an opinion on it.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Have you considered visiting a real doctor? Seriously, if you've got back problems, GP first, hospital referral if necessary, followed by physio/surgery/whatever is necessary.

There's not a lot of science in chiropractic.

Edit to say: obviously I'm no doctor but from the sounds of things you've probably just strained a muscle in your back and even relatively minor back injuries like this can take weeks to heal. I wouldn't read much into it being sore after a few days. If you're really worried, seriously, go and see a GP. You'll be examined and probably be told to apply heat/ice and take anti-inflammatories and come back if its still sore after a month.