Is this Gonstead/Subluxation chiropractor trying to scam me?

Chiropractic is straight up quackery. Ask yourself how many serious disciplines try to establish themselves as a religion.

I would believe it but the part about the 28 sessions and $1600 seems like you may have found a scumbag chiro. If you can find a good chiropractor, it's a godsend. Unfortunately many are in it purely for the money. Most magic level fixes I've seen only required 1 to 3 treatments.

"Good chiropractor" is an oxymoron, OP may as well see a "good" witch doctor, the actual evidence-base for what they do working is the same.

Go to a physiatrist.

Chiropractor is a scam. They crack your back and neck like cracking knuckles and it lasts for one day.

Plus they kill the occasional person with the neck snap thing they do.

"Results: Twenty six fatalities were published in the medical literature and many more might have remained unpublished. The alleged pathology usually was a vascular accident involving the dissection of a vertebral artery.

Conclusion: Numerous deaths have occurred after chiropractic manipulations. The risks of this treatment by far outweigh its benefit. "

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pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Deaths after chiropractic: a review of published cases - PubMed

Numerous deaths have occurred after chiropractic manipulations. The risks of this treatment by far outweigh its benefit.

Link:pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20642715/#:~:t...

Yeah, it’s such quakery that virtually all professional sports organizations, including USATF, and athletes employ them.

Only an idiot with zero comprehension of anatomy and physiology thinks there is zero benefit to chiropractic work.

OP, I have a similar problem... mild back pain and severe nerve pain in both hips and extending down the back of both legs and the outside of the calf. I had this problem for about 7 months.

It "seems" like the problem is compression of the nerve in the lumbar region.

I've had limited success talking to a sports doctor, PT, and chiropractor.

I've found some relief doing exercises on Youtube for sciatica pain... the cobra yoga position while pulling the chest forward with the forearms, bending the lower spine by putting my head between my knees while sitting, and rocking my bent legs from side to side from the 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock position while laying on my back.

I think that's the approach you should try. There are probably a hundred variations of different exercises for the types of problems we have. Maybe you can find something that works for you.

I'm seeing a doctor again Tuesday so maybe he can suggest something else.

I don’t think there is zero benefit at all. I know there are good ones out there.

I am just suspicious that this particular one is trying to scam me…”I can fix you in 28 visits over 4-5 months, and if you pay upfront right now it’s $1,500 instead of $1,600”….like wtf?!

Can you point me to the peer-reviewed, high quality trials ideally in the Cochrane Library (the gold standard) that support chiropractic? I know of one study that modestly suggested that it is no worse than physio for some kinds of mild low back pain.

To the "If it was quackery, why do X use it?" This is probably the poorest possible justification for anything. I have heard it asserted many times: "If homeopathy is bogus why does Prince (now king) Charles support it?".

The answer of course is that evidence-based medicine does not work on opinions of the unqualified or the opinions of the qualified, it works on good quality, repeatable evidence, ideally from RCTs

Go to a physical therapist, not a chiropractor! This guy is trying to scam you. Like you say, it sounds like he has a single treatment for everyone's issues - for some it works. For some, their bodies heal on their own during the course of his treatment, and for some its useless. For you, I suspect it will be useless.

I'm a PT. In my state it wasn't illegal to do manipulations... So I did them. Had really good results combining regular routines (stretching/strengthening/mobilizations) along with manipulation.

I believe that it works some of the time just like any other musculoskeletal approach. I would never pay someone up front like that.

Pay by the session. If it helps keep going back. If it isn't helping after a few sessions. Then don't.

But don't dismiss chiropractic (or manual therapy) out of hand because some dork isn't happy with the research articles.

The fact of the matter is that non surgical interventions on musculoskeletal conditions is pretty hit or miss.

And finally, don't worry about dying or getting paralyzed by the chiro. There are way better odds you will die driving to or from you appointment than being killed by a manipulation.

Two of the best sports rehab practitioners that I've seen are chiropractors, and both of them mostly do manual soft-tissue work ("ART" in the chiro world...essentially "deep-tissue massage") that a PT can do too. Sometimes there are adjustments but it's not the main treatment. One of them has joked that some (many?) of his fellow chiropractors think that chiropractic can cure cancer, i.e., they're nuts. Also, a lot of those types of chiropractors are what I call snap-crackle-pop guys/gals who literally see you for 10 mins or less to do their quick adjustments.

So, yes, I think there are good chiropractors out there but, no, you shouldn't see this one. You should be able to tell within a treatment or two or three (at most) whether this chiro is helping. Trying to get you to buy 28 visits up-front is ridiculous snake-oil salesman stuff.

At most I'd try him out for a few visits, but I think you'd be justified in bailing entirely and looking for someone else. Also, chiropractic isn't the be-all-end-all in that a lot of misalignment is caused by various tight muscles/fascia and -- though the adjustments can provide some short-term relief -- you'll need a strength/rolling/stretching routine to try to address the issues longer-term or you'll just keep needing to see the person. If this guy doesn't give you anything to do at home, go elsewhere.

I suppose people either believe in good quality evidence or they believe in anything. A brief read into what happened before evidence-based medicine should convince anyone rational that if we go by what seems right to us, we end up believing in nonsense.