Chiropractic and Medical Care: An Effective Combination

We see quite a few people with back pain in our Minneapolis office, and Dr. Erin Anderson has helped a lot of them find relief with chiropractic. However, dealing with back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to make a choice between chiropractic care and medical care, as many individuals use both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with One Another

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 claimed both acute discomfort and restricted function due to back symptoms. Some of the test subjects received treatment via standard medical therapy, while the remainder were given chiropractic adjustments along with standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors determined that the patients who got standard medical care in combination with chiropractic care scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73% reported positive benefits compared to just 17 percent 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, integrating these two forms of treatment can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering benefits when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic and medicine can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some unique advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Wins

Although it might 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 study conducted at 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 care were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't unexpected, as chiropractors frequently spend much more time advising their patients as to how they can better their health on their own, as well as outlining more carefully what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Offers a Non-Invasive Approach

Certainly, the techniques associated with chiropractic are quite different than those offered with medical care, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. Instead of focusing on only relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care 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 managing certain conditions, many health issues respond well to natural forms of treatment like chiropractic. This means fewer negative responses to prescriptions and longer-lasting results.

You don't have to endure back pain or other health issues. Give our Minneapolis office a call today at (612) 354-2231. 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.