Question: Hi there,
I've recently had some recurring neck and shoulder pain issues and started seeing a chiropractor. He worked on my back/neck (including cracking) and so far I notice an improvement. He said he'd like to see me for ~6 months.
I was concerned about the chance of a stroke being caused by neck manipulation. I discussed this with my chiropractor, who insisted this was an incredibly rare event when done properly and nothing to be concerned about.
There are some scary anecdotes about chiropractic stroke on the web. However, studies seem to go both ways. A few seem to have found an association between neck manipulation and stroke risk, but some other large studies seemed to find no significant association for visiting a chiropractor over a regular physician for neck/headache pain (indicating there may be an underlying condition that causes the stroke and the manipulation itself may just be a trigger).
In your opinion, is seeing a chiropractor for a limited time period a fairly safe procedure?

Thank you!

Hi there,

I am going to speak to my personal physician before my next appointment, and I appreciate your insights.

One clarification - you said risky "if not done properly"; assuming the chiropractor is properly trained and DOES do it properly, is this still risky, or do you consider it safe?

Thanks!