I can recommend an osteopath on Upper St? He does muscular stuff as well as bones, and has treated footballers...
I think I've recommended him on here before somewhere.
http://www.stroudgreen.org/discussion/847/

Well my lovely osteopath was certainly not a waste of cash. And it's not like I'm advocating he rub his injury with crystals.

I don't think you can judge an alternative medicine, or indeed any medicine, based on your own subjective experience.
If you look at the British Society of Osteopathy's website there is ample evidence that they're dimwits:
http://www.british-institute-of-osteopathy.org/traditional/Default.aspx#8%238
For instance they say
"There are no 'diseases' or 'cures' only obstructions to natural processes"
I'd say successfully cutting out all of someone's cancer is a cure.
"One very good example of this is the 1917 flu pandemic. The mortality rate at osteopathic hospitals in America using articulation to keep fluids moving and non-suppressive fever management to allow the cleaning crisis was ¼%!"
They think they can treat people with Flu by manipulating joints!
"Why randomised controlled trials (RCTs) don't work"
If to justify your practice you need to come up with daft criticisms of RCT's to explain why the RCTs suggest your practice is balls you really have lost the argument.
"The subject of vaccination is only controversial if you decide to believe the orthodox view because there is no scientific evidence that the practice has done anything to prevent, improve or eradicate any disease."
What about the eradication of small pox?!? Do they really expect us to believe that no vaccines work and it's all some big con by orthodox medicine?
"Germs are made by your body in an effort to clear up a messy environment. Once this has been achieved they will automatically disappear again. Proven several times in the last 150 years alone, and still not accepted in our world"
And we're expected to believe that our bodies make bacteria!!! ffs.
Do you really want to see someone why believes in that?

Another of my physios died on the morning of my second appointment.

apparently there are no chartered physios in N4.

see: http://www.csp.org.uk/director/physiotherapyexplained/physio2u.cfm

3 in N8 though.

But did you ask your GP to refer you for physio? Why pay if you can get it for free?

I have to recommend a physio I have used in N8, the man is a magician.

http://www.crouchendphysio.com

There some more tips in a thread entitled bad back

@colette
" but I certainly can judge a type of medicine based on my own subjective experience. If it worked for me, then I consider it successful, end of"

hmmm, but how can you possibly say that the benefits you felt were as a result of the osteopathy, rather than due to the placebo effect or coincidence?

But that could have been a coincidence (eg. the worse period coincided with not going to the osteopath). Or it could be because of the placebo effect altering your subjective opinion on the pain. I can't see how you can prove causation with a personal anecdote.

all this debate proves is that alternative/complimentary medicine needs proper, unbiased research done... it's usually passed over in scientific circles for being outside accepted areas of research, and when studies are done they're generally done contemptuously by smug-faced professional sceptics like richard fucking wiseman who eschew scientific rigour for axe-grinding and soapboxing.

from a fortean/phenomenological point of view, personal anecdote is very important. accumulated corroborative testimony is (almost) all alternative therapies have to go on. indeed almost any topic of debate outside mainstream science - ufology, esp/psychic phenomena, cryptozoology etc - survive on anecdote and personal testimony above anything else.

/rant

@ puzzlebob. It's not that I don't have anything intelligent to say on the matter, I just don't think that this is what this website is here for. I gave a recommendation - Ben was free to follow it up or ignore it, as he wished. I didn't expect this torrent of pointless criticism.

@ puzzlebobble - hence the need for proper, unbiased research. just because something isn't (yet) understood, doesn't mean it's a pack of lies...

hehe, fair point. but blinkered sceptics rub me the wrong way (like any dogmatic believers)

pb - see your own reply to colette. no alternative therapies have undergone the same testing as conventional ones (other than biased, pro-sceptic "debunkings"), but reported success rates are often close to those of "proven" treatments. the difference is often that one treatment is sanctioned by the scientific community, the other is officially considered hoodoo and therefore isn't given the respect of a bit of fair research. and of course accepted medical practise could never be at fault… like prescribing antibiotics for all minor ailments and thereby producing superbugs.

and there is a lot to be said for the placebo effect. mere belief in the process of treatment has been proven (yes, by actual scientific method) to be effective. the healing process from any ailment is made up of three parts - the self-healing processes in the individual, the specific effects of any treatment provided, and the non-specific effect of the process of treatment and the presence of a therapist.

by the way, are you american? or do you spell sceptic with a k because your spell-checker tells you to? (this isn't meant as an insult, i have nothing at all against being from america, it's just that i noticed that sceptic is underlined on my screen but skeptic isn't)

"I have no objection to the placebo effect but if that's all you are offering then they should be told that."

Surely it only works if you don't tell them.

For the record, neither unaesthetic nor I use alternative therapies. I made him go to yoga twice. He was not a happy bunny.

Sorry for my silence - I've been away on holiday for ten days. My back is much better (thanks), though I still have some related pain in my lower leg. So I am going to go through this discussion thread, take down some of the recommendations (mainstream medical rather than alternative) and fix something up. Thank you for all the advice. Much appreciated.