Effective Back Pain Treatment

Decatur back pain treatmentWe see many people with back pain in our Decatur office, and Dr. Harrison has been able to help a lot of them find relief through various chiropractic techniques. However, dealing with back problems doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical care, as many people use both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well Together

In a study published by the academic journal Spine researchers1 looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who were suffering from both acute pain and limited function due to back symptoms. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical therapy, while the remainder were given chiropractic care along with regular medical care, as the authors wanted to determine which patients fared better.

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

Thus, incorporating these two forms of care can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic care and medical approaches can work together, chiropractic offers some unique advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Care Pulls Ahead

Although it may seem as if each method plays a 50-50 role, there is one significant benefit that chiropractic care has over medical care and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, one bit of research from UCLA2 that was printed in the American Journal of Public Health reports that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than those undergoing medical treatment.

According to the experts, 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 consulting with their patients as to how they can better their health on their own, as well as discussing more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Care Offers a Holistic Approach

Without a doubt, the strategies associated with chiropractic are quite different than those available with medical treatment, but a large amount of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and well-being. In contrast to focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic means 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 treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach like chiropractic. This means fewer negative side effects from prescriptions and more permanent recovery.

You don't have to deal with back pain or other health problems. Give our Decatur clinic a call today at (404) 325-2856. We'll do our best to help you get and remain 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.
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