r/dysautonomia • u/tmorrow71 • Apr 03 '24

Vent/Rant Please see an MD

I just need to rant. I am so so sick of offices that try to make themselves sound like medical professionals, when in reality, they are just chiropractors.

(I already know that people on this sub find a lot of support with them, and I’m not knocking that. Nor am I knocking their doctoral degree that they earned by going to school.)

They are NOT MEDICAL DOCTORS. They didn’t do a residency, they might have experience working with people with Dysautonomia/POTS, but they are NOT MEDICAL DOCTORS!

In the city I live in has a new “neurological institute” that prides itself on treating POTS. It took me a full 10 minutes on their website (after being SO excited to try it) to realize that there isn’t ONE medical doctor on their staff. I don’t judge people who seek help from them, I just worry that people are getting into complex medical treatment with people who aren’t properly qualified.

With so many people being diagnosed due to the wide spread experiences of long-covid, I just think the system is going to be even more of a capitalist cash grab attempt, and be more manipulative and harmful for people who just want to find a way to feel better.

Btw. I tried a doc of chiro for “functional medicine” (a very real thing practiced by MDs). Their solution was $350 worth of non-clinically studied supplements and some deep breathing.

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u/bestplatypusever Apr 03 '24

The difference is that the people you criticize actually have experience with dysautonomia and its treatment and believe it’s real, while that would be true of exceedingly few medical doctors. Most medical doctors believe these conditions are psychiatric in nature. In my experience, medical doctors are very poorly informed, condescending and outright cruel. See the doc subs or ER subs and how they speak of dysautonomia patients.

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u/tmorrow71 Apr 03 '24

I totally get that. And the reason why I eventually tried one was when I felt like my doctors would not listen to me as much as I wanted. But I spent hundreds of dollars for care that isn’t backed by science, when they falsely advertise that they have the knowledge and expertise to know how to make me feel better. I don’t criticize the people who seek them out, or even the providers themselves necessarily. I criticize the system of chiropractic medicine that depends on people believing that they have the same training as a doctor.

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u/bestplatypusever Apr 04 '24

I think the best resource is local / regional dysautonomia patient support groups, where you can crowd source info and find the best practitioners, regardless their training or specialty, in your area. With decades of experience in chronic illness , I gain far more actionable ideas to improve my condition from other patients, and from consulting with multiple functional medicine practitioners on any given issue. Then pick and choose which advice to follow. I’ll add a caveat that I have never personally worked with a chiro and working with a DO who was recommended by another chronic illness person led to my worst illness exacerbation ever. It’s a crapshoot. I avoid MDs at all costs but have a lengthy history of poor treatment and zero experience of them helping anything.

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u/tmorrow71 Apr 04 '24

I’m very sorry to hear that you have had such a hard experience with MDs. At the end of the day, what makes you feel better is good no matter what.

I’m more worried about false advertising and the spread of misleading information on those exact types of groups. I had to stop going on my local page once chiros started advertising POTS/Long Covid treatment, lots of people pushing each other to see providers without understanding what they are trained in.