Part one of a two-part series on alternative medicine

Some people swear by it; others are a bit more dubious. But doctors and many chiropractic patients say their style of medicine is an effective method of treating and preventing many of humankind’s ailments.

Fifteen to 30 percent of the population suffers from back pain each year, according to a study commissioned by the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

Julie Kruse, freshman in pre-veterinary medicine and animal science, said she has had lower back problems for the past three years.

“It’s a misalignment of the spine,” Kruse said. “Low vertebrae get out of place, and it hurts a lot.”

Kruse said she dealt with back pain for six months before a family friend recommended she make an appointment with a chiropractor. After three visits, her back had improved, she said.

Kruse said before trying chiropractic, she sought relief from some more traditional home remedies, but the pain persisted.

“I tried taking Tylenol and tried ignoring it, hoping it would go away, and I tried heating pads,” Kruse said.

Visiting a chiropractor for her back pain “helps a lot,” Kruse said.

But ask any chiropractor and he or she will tell you that chiropractic treats much more than just back pain.

“Adjusting the spine and nervous system can improve general health by improving nerve flow to different organs,” said Rick Elbert, a chiropractor in Ames.

“The premise of chiropractic is not that it cures anything, but that it allows the body to help itself,” Ames chiropractor John Moore said. “If the body can function at its optimum level, it should be able to [cure itself].”

If nerve interference is the problem, it can cause any number of problems, Moore said, including diarrhea, indigestion, constipation and problems with sinuses and joints.

“I had a woman who was in a car accident … and after that she was wearing glasses,” Moore said. “I adjusted her, and the second time she came in she said, ‘You’ll think this is crazy, but I don’t need my glasses anymore.’

“I’m not an optometrist,” he added, “but if you can affect the nerves and where they go to, you can affect a lot of things.”

Jill Pierce, sophomore in pre-business, said she visits a chiropractor regularly.

“Chiropractic care treats all sorts of problems; I basically just go for optimum health,” she said.

Pierce said she was experiencing headaches, and her parents suggested she try going a chiropractor.

Although she originally sought treatment for headaches, Pierce said her chiropractor diagnosed some other problems, including a mild case of scoliosis.

She said she had adjustments frequently at the beginning of her care, then scheduled follow-up visits three or four times a month and now goes in for a treatment when she visits home.

“It’s pretty important for me to get back there,” she said. “It helped me with lots of things that you wouldn’t expect.”

Pierce said because each vertebrae controls a different part of the body, sometimes her chiropractor will be able to identify symptoms by using a tool on her spine that determines which vertebrae are misaligned.

“He’ll [run] the scope down my back and say, ‘Have you been experiencing indigestion?’ It’s just weird how he knows that,” Pierce said.

Kruse said her chiropractor treats her by “massaging the muscles and then actually physically pushing the vertebrae back into alignment.”

She said she would like to be able to schedule weekly or monthly appointments to keep her back in good shape. However, since Kruse’s chiropractor is located in her hometown of Rapid City, Ill., it would be nearly impossible.

“Whenever my back tells me it’s out of place, I go back,” Kruse said.

Moore said there are over 100 different adjusting techniques in chiropractic, and it’s important that patients find a doctor and a method of treatment that works for them.

“Maybe one technique you don’t like, but there might be another chiropractor that does something else that suits you better,” Moore said. “I probably do six to a dozen different techniques, and when I work with somebody I might find that one particular thing doesn’t work as well for them, and I’ll use something else.”

Moore said an initial exam is the one necessary aspect of any treatment.

“If I went to a chiropractor, and he didn’t perform an examination on me and then wanted to go ahead and work on me, I’d be concerned,” Moore cautioned.

Elbert recommended that people interested in seeking chiropractic care choose a chiropractor by “word-of-mouth.”

Everyone who visits his office, Elbert said, first undergoes a detailed case history and a thorough chiropractic examination, which includes checking the spine and nervous system, performing a posture analysis and taking weight balance and two full spinal X-rays. Elbert said he then reports and explains the findings to the patient before proceeding with the appropriate spinal adjustments.

“Some things [the chiropractor did] were a little sore and kind of a shock, but there was never any pain caused by it for a long time,” Kruse said.

Elbert said the potential for danger in chiropractic treatment is “relatively slim.”

“The best example of that,” he said, “is my malpractice insurance is cheaper than my car insurance.”

Moore echoed Elbert’s sentiments. “Chiropractic has one of the lowest malpractice insurance rates,” he said. “That just reflects what we do is very safe; the complications are rare.”

Part of that may be due to the demanding education requirements for today’s chiropractors.

Elbert said before getting into chiropractic school, prospective students have to complete at least two years of studies at a college or university; they then need to take at least four years of chiropractic college studying anatomy, physiology, neurology, X-ray and other specialized subjects.

Elbert said before graduating, students have to pass a series of four national board examinations, as well a state chiropractic board examination.

And he said it doesn’t stop there. “We do 60 hours of continuing education every two years to keep our education up,” he said.

However, Elbert said despite the extensive training and chiropractic’s success rate, health insurance agencies are sometimes reluctant to pay for chiropractic care. He said most of his patients receive little or limited coverage from their insurance companies.

“I’ve been asked to be a provider for different insurance companies. I’ve respectfully declined,” Elbert said. “We’ve found that being a provider restricts the quality of care you can give a patient, and I want to give patients the best care I can.”

Elbert said insurance companies will often limit the number of times patients can see a chiropractor, will require them to get treatment from another discipline or will offer “cost disincentives” by paying for the patient to see a medical doctor instead of a chiropractor.

Moore said patients are limited to what they want to do.

“If they want the care and it will take 10 treatments and the insurance will pay for five, they decide if they are willing to pay for the other five,” he said.

“It really depends on the policy you choose,” said Joshua Meadows, a marketing representative with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

He said five out of the 10 individual policy options Blue Cross/Blue Shield offers do cover chiropractic care. For employer policies, Meadows said, it is up to the employer what they want to cover.

“If they want to cover chiropractic we will most certainly do that for them,” he said.

Meadows said it had been at least five years since Blue Cross/Blue Shield has offered to pay for patients’ treatment if they see a medical doctor rather than a doctor of chiropractic.

“In the last two to three years we’ve seen a lot of insurance companies that have started accepting chiropractic as a more accepted form of medicine,” Meadows said.

Moore said a lot of people are seeking alternative medicine, but he added that it is important for chiropractic and general medicine to maintain a good working relationship.

“I’m not dumb enough or arrogant enough to think I can handle everything and can be all things for all people,” Moore said. “And when I can’t, it’s nice to know I can send them someplace else that might help them.”