Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see a number of back pain patients in our Shawnee practice, and Dr. Isom has been able to help a lot of them get relief with chiropractic care. 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 people use both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with Each Other

In a report published by the academic journal Spine researchers¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who reported both acute pain and restricted function due to back symptoms. Some of the study participants received treatment via standard medical therapy, while the remainder were given chiropractic adjustments together with standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors observed that the group that got standard medical care along with chiropractic care scored "significantly better" than the patients who received 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.

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

Where Chiropractic Care Pulls Ahead

Although it may seem as if each approach plays a 50/50 role, there is one major advantage that chiropractic care has over medical treatment and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, a piece of research done at 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 care.

According to the experts, the main aspects that patients liked over medical treatment 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 better their health on their own, as well as explaining more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Is a Natural Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the techniques associated with chiropractic are very different than those offered with medical therapy, but a great deal of the distinction is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and well-being. Instead of focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care involves finding the primary cause of your pain, which often translates to greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

Additionally, while medication is sometimes helpful for treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach such as chiropractic. This means fewer negative responses to prescriptions and more permanent results.

You don't have to endure back pain or other health issues. Give our Shawnee office a call today at (913) 735-9565. 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.