Picking a Good Chiropractor

Be careful with chiropractors.

You might try increasing your detoxing first and see if it helps with stiffness. Sometimes, activated charcoal can help with my stiff neck if it is from die off. If you try it, take it at least a couple afters after you finish your other meds (not with food either). I usually take mine late at night far away from everything else.

Also, do you take magnesium? It might help with stiffness from walking. I have gotten hyper-reflexia from low magnesium, which makes my legs feel stiff.

Hope you feel better soon.

Conventional chiros crack and re-align joints, which wont do much for stiffness. It can help with joint pain if the joint was pulled out of alignment from imbalanced muscles.

That said many chiros today have additional techniques that involve soft tissue work like Active Release Technique.

You really need to figure out if you have stiff muscles, tendonitis, or joint problems.

Stay away from chiros that try in sell you into a "program" with many visits for thousands of dollars. Only pay as you go.

The NAUCC technique sounds interesting for spine issues- I have never tried it due to the $400 initial investment from the place near me.

Rolling on a LaCross ball followed by a big foam fitness roller can do wonders for some people - try it.

First a disclaimer this is not medical advice!!!!!

Hmmm how to choose a good one? There is no way of telling what chiropractor is going to work for you, they are all different as is every patient. Their techniques vary and so does the response of their patient so it really comes down to finding one that works for you. Don't just go to one and say you tried chiropractic, it doesn't work that way. You need to try different ones.
However I would avoid all of the ones that want to sell you on a big plan and are interested in only making money. Ask lots of questions, why do you want x-rays, what do you expect to accomplish, do you ever get improvements on follow x-ray? It doesn't make sense to do a big corrective plan unless he/she can show an actual improvement.

How old are you? Age is a big factor for how careful you need to be. The younger you are the more likely you will respond to a traditional chiropractor in a positive way but the older you get the more you need to find one you trust and one that knows the condition of your health.

most importantly what type of stiffness and walking problems are you having and what have you done? Have you tried physical therapy , massage, exercises, yoga, acupuncture?

What is chiropractic truly good for? There is a lot of confusion and controversy in the chiropractic community about just what a chiropractor can do, just like there is in medicine concerning Lyme.

I have spent the last 15 years in this and have listened to every argument there is, this is the most sound and ethical explanation I can give.

- Studies have shown that for mechanical back pain, neck pain and some headache chiropractic works far better than placebo and also many other traditional treatments. The shady area is with treating visceral disorders. There are lots of small pilot studies that show promise but nothing that really stands up to scrutiny.
-Joint mobilization, contrary to popular belief most of the time chiropractors do not realign the spine. Sometimes they do but the majority of the time the adjustment is a mobilization that has a directional component so it is confused with a "realignment".
If done properly it can have many positive benefits, like releasing endorphins and helping the cartilage and joint imbibe (replenish nutrients and helping detox). I have seen many many times where joint mobilization was the only thing that could help a person. It comes down to what is causing your pain. If it is a restricted joint and there isn't a lot of degeneration you have a very good chance of chiropractic helping you. The more degeneration the more likely it can irritate the joint (sometimes it feels worse before it gets better) but even then some people with severe joint degeneration respond very well. Also remember even with all of the orthopedic tests, x-rays, MRI's etc nobody really ever knows with 100% certainty what is causing your pain, but studies have shown that most chronic low back pain is from the disc, why chiropractors are know for treating low back pain.
Theory
- adjustments increase mobility, this increases mechano receptor input to the spine. Mechano receptor input down regulates the sensation of pain and the sympathetic nervous system, thus improving health. Imagine you have joint in your back that is not moving and causing increased sympathetic tone for that vertebral segment and the nerves that come from it. Causing it and the organs it controls to be out of harmony with the rest of the body. This is currently the most accurate theoretical explanation for why chiropractic may help with visceral disorders, but know body really knows. From time to time we see unexplainable responses that would imply more is going on.
I personal believe that this is also how other healing arts like massage and acupuncture work, but they are dealing with other bodily structures. Also it would stand to reason that exercise and maybe even anti inflammatories can achieve a similar result. As I said above it all really depends on what structure is causing the pain. Greg

Dr. H says that Babesia can make Lyme much, much worse. My dr thinks Babs is responsible for my stiff neck and weak spots. It is a medical conclusion. It could be your Babesia making your Lyme much worse.

Stenosis is serious in its own right, and can create all kinds of problems. Do you have MRI's showing if there is cord or nerve abutment? It is probably both the stenosis and lyme that is causing the pain, lyme likes the weak points. also I hate to say it but the reality is that things like DDD and stenosis usually get worse with age so some times it just takes a while before it really start to hurt.
If you haven't yet I would try a PT that will work with you in doing functional test to determine which exercises minimize the compression and go from there. If that doesn't help you could try chiropractic but I wont lie to you there is no way of knowing how it will go with the stenosis. Some people do really well others not so great.