Back Pain Recovery with Chiropractic Therapy

We see many back pain patients in our Jacksonville office, and Chanatry Chiropractic has been able to help many of them find relief with chiropractic. However, dealing with back problems doesn't necessarily mean having to make a choice between chiropractic care and medical treatment, as many people use both types of care with great outcomes.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well Together

In a study published by the academic journal Spine experts¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed both acute discomfort and restricted function due to back symptoms. Some of the test subjects received treatment via standard medical care, while the rest received chiropractic care in addition to standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

Researchers discovered that the group that received standard medical care combined with chiropractic care scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73% reported positive benefits in comparison to just 17 percent of the medical treatment only group who indicated the same amount of improvement. This was true regarding both pain and level of function at two and four weeks.

Accordingly, integrating these two forms of treatment can greatly benefit you, the patient, offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic and medical approaches can work together, chiropractic offers some distinct strengths over medical therapy.

Where Chiropractic Care Is Successful

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

According to the researchers, the main aspects that patients preferred over medical treatment were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't unexpected, 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 outlining more carefully what to expect from chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Offers a Holistic Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the techniques associated with chiropractic are very different than those offered with medical treatment, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and wellness. Rather than focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic involves searching for the primary cause of your pain, which often means 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. This means fewer negative responses to medications and lasting results.

You don't have to suffer from back pain or other health issues. Give our Jacksonville clinic a call today at (904) 743-6700. We'll do our best to help you get and continue to be 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.