Have you been to a chiropractor?

Happy hump day everyone!  I'm sitting at work reminding myself to get out of my chair and walk around every half hour.  Why?  Because my lower back pain has returned!  I knew it was just a matter of time until my sacroiliac (SI) joint flared up.  After the 10 miles on Saturday I was feeling great, until I decided to attempt speed work on Monday evening.  (apparently you're not supposed to do speed work right after a long run...oops.)  I guess the speed which ultimately changes your running form was not good to my back.  That night I knew the pain had come back....stiff lower back and pain shooting down my left leg into my foot.  It sucks.  I've been switching from ice to heat and taking lots of Advil.  I can't feel sorry for myself because as long as I keep running this will be an issue I'll have to deal with.  Apparently SI joint dysfunction also flares up with pregnancy...can't wait to look forward to having this pain for 9 months when that happens!  

Here is a photo of where the SI joint is located.  Most of my pain is located at the bottom of my tailbone, primarily on my left side with the pain radiating down into my left quad with sporadic pain shooting down into my foot.  The SI joint is supposed to provide movement, but apparently the slamming effect that running has on your body causes the joint to get stuck or "locked" which causes the rest of the body to flip out and the surrounding muscles to spasm.  

I've found much relief by seeing a chiropractor whenever I have a flare up.  If you're not familiar, a chiropractor is a trained health professional who uses a variety of non-surgical treatments such as spinal manipulations and mobilization to treat patients with lower back pain, like mine.  I was a little hesitant about visiting one when I started going about 6 months ago, but I've found that it at least released some of the built up tension in my lower back.  There is considerable evidence that spinal manipulation can help relieve some types of neck and back pain, but this type of manipulation can be viewed as dangerous.  Have you used a chiropractor before, and what are your thoughts?  I think most importantly you should trust your chiro. I would never let a chiro realign me if I didn't feel like he knew what he was doing or if other patients didn't have good things to say about him when I was doing my research beforehand.  

Some people think the most disturbing thing about chiropractic care is that it continues to isolate itself from the mainstream of the health care community.  My mom is a registered nurse and we had a conversation about chiropractors this morning.  She was talking to her 2 friends at the beach last week who are also nurses and they all agreed that they would never visit a chiro and they'd prefer a more mainstream method of alleviating back pain, such as physical therapy or an orthopedic doctor.  

So far, my experience has been all positive and I continue to go back.  Every time my spine is realigned it releases endorphins and I start to feel at least a little bit better over time.  I know there are a lot of runners who are also going through the same back pain and I wonder how many prefer a holistic healing approach such as chiropractic care, or prefer more conventional treatments?