Chiropractic Care Effective for Back Pain

Asheville Chiropractic: Effective for Back Pain

We see a number of patients with back pain in our Asheville practice, and Dr. Myers has been able to help a lot of them get relief with chiropractic. At the same time, dealing with back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical treatment, as many individuals use both types of care with great results.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with Each Other

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 reported both acute soreness and limited function due to back pain. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical therapy, while the rest were given chiropractic treatment as well as standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors discovered that the patients who got standard medical care in combination with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the patients who received 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 two and four weeks.

Accordingly, combining 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 unique strengths over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Care Is Successful

Although it may seem as if each method 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 conducted at UCLA² that was published in the American Journal of Public Health reports that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than patients undergoing medical care.

According to the experts, the main aspects that patients liked over medical care 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 explaining more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Care Offers a Non-Invasive Approach to Wellness

Without a doubt, the strategies associated with chiropractic are very different than those available with medical therapy, but a large amount of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. In contrast to focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic means tracking down the primary cause of your pain, which often means greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

In addition, while medication is sometimes helpful for managing certain conditions, many health issues respond well to natural forms of treatment such as chiropractic. This means fewer negative side effects from drugs and more permanent results.

You don't have to struggle with back pain or other health issues. Give our Asheville clinic a call today at (828) 676-0963. 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.