Back Pain Recovery with Chiropractic Care

We see several back pain patients in our Tumwater practice, and Dr. Harrell has been able to help many of them get relief through various chiropractic techniques. At the same time, recovering from back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to make a choice between chiropractic care and medical care, as many individuals utilize both types of care with great outcomes.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well Together

In a report published by the journal Spine researchers¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed both acute soreness and limited function due to back symptoms. Some of the patients engaged in treatment via standard medical care, while the rest received chiropractic treatment together with regular medical care, as the authors wanted to see which group fared better.

The authors discovered that the patients who received standard medical care in combination with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the patients who got medical care alone; 73 percent reported positive benefits compared to just 17% of the medical treatment only group who indicated the same amount of improvement. This was true regarding both pain and level of function at the two-and four-week marks.

Thus, combining these two forms of treatment can greatly benefit you, the patient, offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic care and medicine can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some unique strengths over medical therapy.

Where Chiropractic Care Succeeds

Although it may seem as if each approach plays a 50/50 role, there is one significant advantage that chiropractic has over medical care and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, a study conducted at UCLA² that was printed in the American Journal of Public Health found that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than patients undergoing medical treatment.

According to the researchers, the main aspects that patients preferred over medical care were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't surprising, as chiropractors tend to spend much more time advising their patients as to how they can improve their health on their own, as well as discussing more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Offers a Natural Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the strategies associated with chiropractic are quite different than those offered with medical therapy, but a large amount of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. Instead of focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care means searching for the root cause of your pain, which often translates to greater improvement as you are addressing the problem at its source.

Furthermore, while medication is sometimes helpful for managing certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach like chiropractic care. This means fewer negative responses to medications and longer-lasting results.

You don't have to struggle with back pain or other health issues. Give our Tumwater clinic a call today at (360) 489-0635. We'll do our best to help you get and stay free from back pain.

References

1. Goertz CM, Long CR, Hondras MA, Petri R, Delgado R, Lawrence DJ, Owens EF, Meeker WC. Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: results of a pragmatic randomized comparative effectiveness study. Spine 2013;38(8):627-634.
2. Hertzman-Miller RP1, Morgenstern H, Hurwitz EL, Yu F, Adams AH, Harber P, Kominski GF. Comparing the satisfaction of low back pain patients randomized to receive medical or chiropractic care: results from the UCLA low-back pain study. American Journal of Public Health 2002;92(10):1628-1633.