in classic /derogatory) tumblr fashion the boop-o-meter isn’t accessible. For screen reader users it just says the numbers, not what they represent. I’ll just say in case anyone here uses a screen reader that the thing on top of your feed is the boop-o-meter, the first number is boops given by you, the second is boops received by you and the third is total boops on the platform
Periodic reminder that you should never trust a chiropractor with your body under any circumstances
Chiropracty is a quack medicine in the extreme. It was invented by a guy in the 19th century who said a ghost taught it to him. It claims it can fix cirrhosis by cracking your spine. Chiropractors are one of the biggest groups keeping anti-vaccine fraud alive. Oh, and they can kill you doing a “routine adjustment”
Like I won’t go so far as to say “Ban chiropractors” because doing so would definitely backfire, but you should literally never ever under any circumstances seek their assistance for any health problem at all.
Since this is getting a few notes I may as well attempt to head off one of the inevitable objections that’ll show up if this gets far enough.
“If Chiropractic* doesn’t work, why does insurance cover it?”
Well, it’s very simple you see, insurance hates paying for things, and chiropractors are cheap as fuck.
Let’s say you injure your back scrubbing a toilet or something. You go to a real doctor, a good doctor who doesn’t blow you off. That doctor may tell you to take some Motrin and call them if it doesn’t get better, but they also might prescribe you a stronger anti-inflammatory, or a muscle relaxer. Your insurance has to pay out for the visit and the medicine.
Let’s say they do that and two weeks later your back still hurts. Your doctor orders an MRI. Your insurance now has to pay for an MRI, which can be a couple thousand dollars, well more than the premium you’ve paid this month, which means they’ve lost money on you.
So you’re lucky and the MRI comes back that you’re okay but you need physical therapy. That’s another couple grand that your insurance has to pay out.
But maybe you weren’t lucky. Maybe the MRI comes back and you have a herniated disc. You’re gonna need surgery and physical therapy, and now you’ve not only cost them more than your premiums bring in in a year, you’ve hit your annual maximum which means they have to pay everything from now on. They aren’t happy.
So let’s start back at the beginning. You injure your back, you instead go to a chiropractor. The chiropractor doesn’t have a decade of medical training, they have a certificate from a for-profit college that says they’re a chiropractor. They charge your insurance for an office visit, crack your back a bit, and send you on your merry way.
You might feel better for a while, because the placebo effect is more powerful than you think. But even if you do feel better, there’s still the chance that you’ve got damage. You may still need physical therapy, you may still have a herniated disc.
But if you keep going back to that chiropractor, they’re never gonna tell you that, and even if they do, it’ll be after 2-3 sessions, so 6-8 weeks at a minimum, during which time you’re putting more wear and tear on that injury, and eventually, you have to go to a real doctor.
But here’s where the magic happens. See, you injured your back in December. Now it’s February. Because your insurance put off sending you to a real doctor for two months, some actuary gets a big fat bonus for “reducing costs” in quarter 4. Meanwhile, your real doctor orders an MRI that shows that the damage is, in fact, much worse than it probably was to begin with. And there’s some evidence of injuries after the fact from the chiropractor. Oh, and by the way, there’s a chance you’re gonna be in pain for the rest of your life even with surgery.
But hey, your insurance managed to post a profit in Q4.
* “Chiropractic” is the “official” term for whatever the hell it is chiropractors do. I don’t respect it enough to use it unless I’m mocking someone who’s defending it.
Alright you guys can have this one back but I swear to god if anyone mentions a fucking podcast on it I’m committing arson.
This goes double if you have any kind of joint hyper mobility or ehlers danlos etc.
Pretty sure @thebibliosphere mentioned getting fucked up by a chiropractor, and I don’t have ehlers danlos but I am hypermobile. I went to a very well trained osteopath (theoretically better than chiropractors and, at least in the UK, more regulated but still use some of the same techniques) for a few years and while I would feel better after each appointment, nothing ever really got better and I now look back at the way he handled my neck (which was way, way less extreme than chiropractic work but again, still on the same kind of track) and cringe.
What did help me was finding a physio who specialised in hypermobility and who actually checked my strength and range of motion to figure out where my stability was the worst and give me stabilising exercises. My bad joints are always going to need work but at least with a decent physio I have a hope of strengthening them and reducing pain and damage rather than getting easy temporary relief and making things worse in the long run.
If nothing else convinces you, the fact that every single chiropractor on youtube listens to clients listing off wildly different issues and then does the exact same few adjustments on them no matter what should be a red flag.
I was, yeah. I did chiropractic care for years because it’s what my previous MD recommended and it was covered by my insurance. And it worked great for me, because, as it turned out, I had actual misalignments from my joints being out of the sockets from undiagnosed Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. They were literally popping my joints back into place and relieving a significant amount of my pain in the process.
It turns out the whole “your spine is out of alignment” thing is very convincing when your spine is literally out of alignment due to a subluxated tailbone, hip, shoulder, etc etc.
And then, again on a recommendation from an MD doctor for my chronic migraines, I got my neck adjusted, very gently I might add, and I ended up having to get an emergency MRI for a possible brain bleed because something in my neck tore.
Thankfully it wasn’t a brain bleed and I wasn’t about to die.
Unfortunately, they’d torn every inch of soft tissue on the right side of my neck from my upper trap muscles all the way around the right side of my skull. I could barely hold my head up for weeks. Everything was agony.
Its been several years and I’m still dealing with the damage.
The spinal specialist I saw during recovery was very adamant about never letting anyone touch your neck like that, no matter how gentle they are. He told me the majority of his patients used to come from motoring accidents, and now a good solid chunk of them were from people being irreparably harmed by chiropractors. From torn ligaments to strokes, he’d seen it all. All because chiro is cheaper than physical therapy.
When I was finally diagnosed with EDS and started getting proper help, the horror that went through every EDS-aware physical therapist when I told them the chiropractor story was palpable. One straight up told me I should be paralyzed.
And then we started working on stabilizing my joints and muscles so that they don’t dislocate/subluxate as much because while the chiro might have been putting my joints back in without knowing it, they weren’t actually doing anything to address the root cause or stabilize the area.
It was just a weekly stop-gap measure that was inadvertently helping my immediate pain but ultimately lengthening my long term recovery.
I SHOULD have been recommend physical therapy from the start, even before we knew I had EDS, but because chiropractic care is cheaper, that’s what my insurance agreed to cover.
And now my head sits at a slight angle from scar tissue at the base of my skull and sometimes my fingers feel a little numb.
Don’t let people adjust your neck. You might fucking die.
My partner was considering going to a chiropractor until I told him about internal decapitation and that immediately and forever dissuaded him from the idea. (Internal decapitation is when your skull is disconnected from your spine, leaving only muscles and skin to keep your head connected to your body.)
If you set a boundary and someone else is disappointed or angry or upset, that reaction does not mean you’re not allowed to set boundaries or that it was wrong of you to do that.
If you ask someone for something and they say no, that does not mean you shouldn’t ask for things or that it was wrong of you to ask. Saying no to something, even if you really want it, is not (by itself) an attack on you, either.
There will be times in every good relationship where one person says no to what the other person wants. And there will be times when that answer feels bad to the other person.
That can be uncomfortable, but it’s healthy and good to be able to say no to each other. It’s healthy and good to ask each other for things and give the other person the chance to say yes or no. It’s healthy and good for each of you to be able to hear “no” and accept it even when it’s disappointing.
It’s healthy and good to own your emotional reaction and make sure you both agree that being upset is a normal and manageable feeling, not a crisis that requires someone to give up their boundaries.
everyone says ‘prioritize your health’ 'look after yourself’ until they realize that making your wellbeing your first priority means making everything else a lower priority. and yeah, that’s sometimes ok if it’s temporary, but if those health issues are chronic? oh boy do they not like it when you actually take their advice. sometimes prioritizing your health means neglecting your work, your household chores, your social life. 'looking after yourself’ means not putting your energy into looking after everyone else first. and the same people who tell you to prioritize your health will get upset with you when they realize it means you’re no longer priorizing them.
if you have disabled or chronically ill people in your life and you extend them sympathy and tell them to look after themselves when they’re feeling sick, but then you get upset at then because they keep canceling plans. please. reevaluate.
Abusive Expectations - Makes impossible demands, requires constant attention, and constantly criticizes.
Aggressing - Name calling, accusing, blames, threatens or gives orders, and often disguised as a judgmental “I know best” or “helping” attitude.
Constant Chaos - Deliberately starts arguments with you or others. May treat you well in front of others, but changes when you’re alone.
Rejecting - Refusing to acknowledge a person’s value, worth or presence. Communicating that he or she is useless or inferior or devaluing his or her thoughts and feelings.
Denying - Denies personal needs (especially when need is greatest) with the intent of causing hurt or as punishment. Uses silent treatment as punishment. Denies certain events happened or things that were said. Denies your perceptions, memory and sanity by disallowing any viewpoints other than their own which causes self-doubt, confusion, and loss of self-esteem.
Degrading - Any behavior that diminishes the identity, worth or dignity of the person such as: name-calling, mocking, teasing, insulting, ridiculing,
Emotional Blackmail - Uses guilt, compassion, or fear to get what he or she wants.
Terrorizing - Inducing intense fear or terror in a person, by threats or coercion.
Invalidation - Attempts to distort your perception of the world by refusing to acknowledge your personal reality. Says that your emotions and perceptions aren’t real and shouldn’t be trusted.
Isolating - Reducing or restricting freedom and normal contact with others.
Corrupting - Convincing a person to accept and engage in illegal activities.
Exploiting - Using a person for advantage or profit.
Minimizing - A less extreme form of denial that trivializes something you’ve expressed as unimportant or inconsequential.
Unpredictable Responses - Gets angry and upset in a situation that would normally not warrant a response. You walk around on eggshells to avoid any unnecessary drama over innocent comments you make. Drastic mood swings and outbursts.
Gaslighting -A form of psychological abuse involving the manipulation of situations or events that cause a person to be confused or to doubt his perceptions and memories. Gaslighting causes victims to constantly second-guess themselves and wonder if they’re losing their minds.
The Food and Drug Administration made history today when it approved Opill, a progestin-only birth control pill, for over-the-counter use. When Opill becomes available in pharmacies in early 2024, it will be the first nonprescription daily birth control pill in the United States.
Opill’s OTC approval is a major victory for advocates and researchers who have pushed for this change for decades. It also catches the United States up to most of the rest of the world, where contraceptive pills have long been more accessible. Experts agree: It’s about time.
There’s no question that the FDA’s approval of the first birth control pill 63 years ago changed the course of many of our lives. But for too many people—especially low-income people, people of color, and young people—a full range of contraceptive options remains out of reach.
The FDA’s approval of OTC Opill is an important step forward in access, at a time when the conservative movement is ratcheting up its attacks on birth control.
This morning, the FDA made history by approving the first over-the-counter birth control pill called Opill. It will become available in pharmacies beginning in early 2024.
Photo of an article headline thats says “Olympic champion Caster Semenya wins appeal against testosterone rules at human rights court”. Article photo is of Semenya, a tall, toned, Black woman, running in an athletic uniform.
So on my posts about racism or transmisogyny, I often see
tags that basically say “I don’t understand this but I’m going to reblog it
anyway.” If you see a “social justice” type post that you want to reblog but
don’t understand?
Don’t.
I know this goes against everything you’re used to hearing
on this website, but listen. Reblogging posts you don’t understand is basically
the equivalent of blindly repeating whatever you’re told. Even if you’re right,
if you don’t understand why you’re right, you could be spouting utter bullshit
and you wouldn’t even know it.
When I see “I don’t know what this means but I’m gonna
reblog it anyway” it sends a lot of messages. It says that you care more about seeming right than being right. It says that you want good ally credit without any of
the work of being a good ally. It says you’re on my side because I can make a
post sound good, not because you actually agree with me on anything beyond the
surface level.
So instead of just reblogging that post, save it for later.
Like it, draft it, bookmark it, whatever. Go to the op’s blog and skim through
a couple of pages, see if you can find some context. If the post is old, you
could try asking for context in a non-condescending way. “Is
this post referring to something specific?” is a lot better than, say, “Does
this even happen? I’ve never heard of this.”
If that doesn’t help, do some more research. Google, search
tumblr tags for recent posts on a subject, ask people who have EXPLICITLY
stated they are willing to educate. Maybe in the process you’ll find more posts
with a similar message to the original, but in easier to understand language.
Maybe someone else already added a reply that adds useful information onto the
op.
And maybe all of that takes a long time. Maybe, by the time
you finally understand what the post was talking about, it’s months old and no
longer relevant. Maybe you don’t even want to reblog it anymore. Who cares,
fuck that post. You learned and grew as a person. That’s more important than
looking good on a blog.
I think the bicycle helmet discourse really just reinforces the idea that people believe that accidents only happen to the stupid and careless, and that people who get hurt somehow deserve it. And since nobody wants to believe themselves to be stupid, or thinks they could be careless or distracted, it’s not necessary to take precautions.
And then they take safety advice as an insult because telling someone to be safe is seen as an accusation of being stupid and irresponsible, and not just a value neutral acknowledgement of statistical inevitably. We see it with masks, and seatbelts, and now bicycle helmets because everyone wants to believe they’re too clever to get hurt, and too lucky to get hurt badly, until suddenly you’re not and you have to resign, in shame, to being one of the people you previously saw as annoying nags, assuming you’re even still alive.
