My father at 42 as well, after a number of years of being a cardiac
cripple. Given he was getting into TV production in Hollywood at the
time, that's nasty place and profession where you can't exert even for
pleasant reasons.

IIRC, I was 39 when I had my first attack of angina (I'm 56 now). It
presented rather atypically -- I don't think I was in denial for the 2
hours it took to recognize.  We had gone out to dinner with an Indian
speaking friend who was able to tell the staff, in Hindi, "no, these are
crazy Americans. Make the food Indian hot."  At first, I thought it
might be indigestion, but I couldn't imagine I had been bested by mere
peppers.

Then, it felt more like a shoulder injury.  One of the confusing things
is the pain started in my back, not in my chest. I tried hot packs on my
shoulder, and realized that I was sweating a lot -- even if I took the
pack off. The pain increased, and then I remember (in the bathtub) going
through a mental checklist -- increased sweating, pain now in the
shoulder radiating down the arm and across the chest -- OH S**T.

I got out of the tub, pulled on minimal clothing, then called 911. As I
did so, the pain got BAD. I was lying on the floor next to the phone,
and answered thinking it might be 911. It was my ex-wife, who had driven
our friend home. Gasping out the minimum necessary information: "Chest
pain. Called ambulance," I hung up, hearing sirens getting closer. There
was a fire truck there within, IIRC, 3 minutes, and the full paramedics
within 7.

Unfortunately, I was unable to talk them into taking me to a hospital a
mile away, where my primary physician, a cardiologist, had privileges.
Actually, I couldn't talk much about anything. Unfortunately, they
insisted on taking me to the hospital a block away, which, mercifully,
has closed.

I never spoke to the chiropractor, but the impression he gave is that he
didn't need no steenking badges...I mean, training in general medicine.

A NIH consensus confererence indicated that chiropractors have the best
results in dealing with acute back pain. There's definitely a role for
manipulation, although there are a number of questions about whether the
specific chiropractic theory of subluxations is actually at the root of
what success they have. Some years ago, I attended an interdisciplinary
conference on back pain, and a professor from a chiropractic college
suggested they may be doing the right thing for the wrong reasons -- he
thought that some of the manipulations caused useful neurotransmitter
release, and it was the manipulation itself, not the "adjustment", that
made the difference.

I've worked with several osteopathic physicians, and watched one of
them, who is among the smartest physicians I know, turn to a fellow
dinner guest who was complaining of a back pain from work, and asked a
few questions about how she sat in front of her computer. He had her put
her arms in certain odd specified positions, felt around slightly on her
back, nodded, and pushed hard with his thumb at a specific point.

There was an audible CLICK, and the expression on her face, if I had
seen it in other circumstances, could well have been caused by orgasm.  
In this case, it was because her pain was GONE.

As I have said, the NIH Consensus Conference agreed chiropractic is
quite useful for acute lower back pain, once other organic disease is
ruled out. Chiropractic is also a legitimate part of multidisciplinary
pain management, and is worth trying for a variety of musculoskeletal
problems.  

In what I hope is a growing trend, I know of some practitioners who are
certified both as chiropractors and physical therapists. They think of
them as complementary skill set, with chiropractic especially good for
flexibility, where physical therapy techniques concentrate more on
strength.

Again, it has a definite role in musculoskeletal problems. There really
is not any body of controlled experimentation that establishes a role
for chiropractic in more organic illnesses, such as asthma.  Some data
suggests there may be improvement due to the release of certain
neurotransmitters and immunomodulators, but these also can be released
in other ways.

Massage therapy, for example, again can be useful. Some chiropractors
use it extensively, along with physical therapies such as heat and
electrical stimulation.  It's the ones that believe adjustments do
everything that worry me.

Accurate diagnosis is the key before undertaking any treatment, be it
allopathic, chiropractic, or osteopathic. When my health coverage
improves and I can have a primary physician again, while I can think of
one good internist I have seen, I might very well select an osteopathic
physician -- they have the same curriculum of the allopathic MDs, with
the addition of manipulation techniques.

<snip>

Back when I was dancing (lo, these many years ago... ), this was an
exercise that my instructor had us do by pairing off on the floor-  one
dancer holding the ankles of another.  We'd do 10 repeats, switch and
then do 10 more (this was an advanced class, so we were all in good
shape to begin with).  The second set was done holding the position for
a 3 count.  Really good for the lower back.  I used to do them at home
by wedging my feet under the couch on the living room floor.

Katrina