snake oil and other miracles

My experience of chiropractic treatment started before I can remember. Apparently I was a cranky and difficult child (obviously this story has to be mythical) Friends of my parents recommended I be taken to a chiropractor so I was duly taken and transformed into the wonderful person I am today or at least I became a bit more manageable. I saw chiropractors on and off throughout my childhood but it wasn't a regular thing.
At 23 I was bothered by an annoying odd feeling between my shoulder blades and I returned to what I now regard as my therapeutic home, if I can describe it as such.
In those early years I didn't view chiropractic adjustment as necessary for my children because they were new little people, relatively untouched by the dangers and pollutants of life but by the time the oldest was about four and wetting his bed 4 nights out of 5 I had three other little ones and more than enough to do, my frustration was not good for me, or dare I say it, for him and I asked my chiro to take a look. Liam wet his bed that night and then had 8 dry ones! Over the course of the next few months, as he developed strength he might have an accident if he was very tired or unwell or shortly before his next adjustment put him on course but he was effectively cured from that first day. What a relief that was to all of us.
Before that moment I had known that an adjustment made me feel clearer but suddenly I had tangible proof of chiropractic treatment changing things for the very much better.
Since that time chiropractic treatment has made a difference to myself or my family over and over again.
There are the times I walk in to the clinic feeling tired and walk out feeling brighter, the times a cough or cold is much shorter in duration than I would expect. I have seen chiropractic treatment improve a baby's ability to breastfeed, it straightened my niece's slightly crooked eye.
Then there was the time that I was suffering from menstrual problems that were enough to cause some distress, the doctor referred me for an internal ultrasound and I thought that before submitting to such a test I would have a word with my friendly chiro. The problem just disappeared and I never needed any further treatment.
Just tonight I walked in to see my chiro, M with a very sore ankle. A sore ankle is no big deal but with my recent history of infection and so on I was concerned that it could be a precursor to more problems but after adjustment the pain has dwindled and gone, not only leaving me more comfortable but reassured as well.

I know that chiropractic treatment is hard to explain in the terms we usually use for medical treatments, I know it seems unsubstantiated, I know it is viewed as a treatment for back pain and I know that there are times when it is just not the appropriate treatment but I also know it works.
When you have vague symptoms that don't relate to a specific illness or that seem to just have nuisance value, when the doctors tell you your problem is stress or some other non-specific thing, when you have an illness that medicine can only treat symptomatically or not at all, even when medicine seems to have the answers chiro is worth a try. It's safe and non-invasive.
Anyone and everyone: well, sick, young, & old can benefit.