Chiropractic Therapy and Medical Care: An Effective Combination

Depew Chiropractic: Effective for Back Pain

We see many people with back pain in our Depew practice, and Dr. Palmer has been able to help a lot of them get relief with chiropractic. 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 utilize both types of care with great results.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with Each Other

In a study published by the journal Spine investigators¹ 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 pain. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical care, while the rest received chiropractic adjustments along with standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors found that the group that got standard medical care along with chiropractic care scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73 percent 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.

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

Where Chiropractic Care Pulls Ahead

Although it might seem as if each method 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 piece of research from 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 those undergoing medical care.

According to the experts, the main factors that patients favored 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 outlining more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Care Offers a Non-Invasive Approach to Wellness

Without a doubt, the techniques associated with chiropractic are very different than those offered with medical therapy, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and wellness. In contrast to focusing on only relieving the symptoms, chiropractic means finding the root cause of your pain, which often means greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

Furthermore, while medication is sometimes helpful for treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to natural forms of treatment such as chiropractic. This means fewer negative responses to medications and longer-lasting results.

You don't have to deal with back pain or other health issues. Give our Depew clinic a call today at (716) 668-2225. We'll do everything we can 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.