Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see many back pain patients in our Lincoln office, and Dr. Jerrad Swanson DC, FMT, DN1 has been able to help many 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 therapy, as many people use both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well Together

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 soreness and limited function due to back pain. Some of the patients engaged in treatment via standard medical care, while the remainder were given chiropractic adjustments together with standard medical care, as the authors wanted to see which patients fared better.

The authors found that the patients who got standard medical care along with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73% reported positive benefits compared to just 17% 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, 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 advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Care Is Successful

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

According to the experts, the main aspects that patients liked over medical treatment were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't unexpected, as chiropractors typically spend much more time advising their patients as to how they can improve their health on their own, as well as discussing more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Offers a Holistic Approach

Certainly, the strategies associated with chiropractic are very different than those offered with medical care, but a large amount of the distinction is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and well-being. Rather than focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care means searching for the root cause of your pain, which often results in 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 natural forms of treatment such as chiropractic. This means fewer negative side effects from drugs and longer-lasting results.

You don't have to suffer from back pain or other health problems. Give our Lincoln office a call today at (402) 484-5177. 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.