Chiropractic Therapy and Medical Care: An Effective Combination

We see many patients with back pain in our Saint Paul practice, and Dr. Slater has been able to help a lot of them obtain relief with chiropractic care. However, recovering from back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical therapy, as many individuals use both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well with One Another

In a study published by the academic 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 limited function due to back pain. Some of the test subjects received treatment via standard medical therapy, while the rest received chiropractic therapy in addition to standard medical care, as researchers wanted to see which group fared better.

The authors discovered that the group that received standard medical care in combination with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the patients who got medical care alone; 73 percent 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.

Thus, integrating these two forms of care can greatly benefit you, the patient, offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic care and medical approaches can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some distinct advantages over medical therapy.

Where Chiropractic Care Pulls Ahead

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

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

Chiropractic Care Offers a Holistic Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the techniques associated with chiropractic are quite 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 wellness. In contrast to focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic 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 treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach like chiropractic. This means fewer negative responses to prescriptions and lasting recovery.

You don't have to struggle with back pain or other health issues. Give our Saint Paul clinic a call today at (651) 699-3366. 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.