Research Finds Chiropractic & Medical Care Combined Is Better For Low Back Pain Than Medical Care Alone.

Has your doctor prescribed medications for your lower back pain?
Are you feeling better with the interventions prescribed by your medical doctor but have not made a full recovery?

There is good news for you. Research that was recently published in the prestigious journal Spine [1] has found that when chiropractic interventions were added to standard medical care patients recovered faster and overall improved more.

In this study, medical care involved medications such as painkillers, anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants. Medications can definitely be helpful in the acute stages of an injury when the pain levels are high and the muscles are very tense. It is important that you are able to wean off the medications eventually and do not become dependent on these drugs as they can be hard on your stomach and taxing on your liver if you are taking them for long periods of time. However, the medications can be critical in the early stages of an injury to help you get a restful night of sleep or to get you through a tough day at work. The effect of medication can be temporary in nature and interventions to help your spine move better and improve the strength around the supporting structures may also be necessary.

That’s where chiropractic care fits into the equation. Chiropractic interventions in the aforementioned study involved two treatments per week with a chiropractic doctor for a period of four weeks. All of the patients received chiropractic manipulation as the main treatment along with other individualized treatments that the chiropractic doctor thought would benefit the patient.

A total of 91 people were randomly allocated into either the combined chiropractic and medical care group or the medical care only group.

The results were incredible. 73% of people in the combined chiropractic care and medical care group were much better or moderately better at 2 and 4 weeks while only 17% of the medical care group were much better or moderately better within that same duration.

Furthermore the satisfaction of the group getting chiropractic care and medical care was twice as high as the group getting just standard medical care.

Conclusion
Chiropractic care in addition to standard medical care is more helpful than standard medical care alone. If you have lower back pain, you should consider adding chiropractic care to your rehabilitation program to improve your satisfaction with the outcomes and to increase your probability of a faster recovery. Contact Rebalance Sports Medicine for your chiropractic needs and to book your initial consultation today!

References:

1. Goertz C, Long CR, Hondras MA et al. Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: the results of a pragmatic randomized comparative effectiveness study. Spine 2013; 38(8): 627-34