Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see many back pain patients in our Port Coquitlam office, and Northside Chiropractic has helped a lot of them get relief with chiropractic. At the same time, recovering from back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical care, as many individuals utilize both types of care with great outcomes.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well with One Another

In a report 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 restricted function due to back pain. Some of the test subjects engaged in treatment via standard medical therapy, while the rest received chiropractic adjustments as well as regular medical care, as the authors wanted to determine which group fared better.

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

Where Chiropractic Wins

Although it may seem as if each method plays a 50-50 role, there is one major benefit that chiropractic has over medical treatment and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, a piece of research done 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 treatment.

According to the experts, the main factors that patients preferred over medical treatment were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't unexpected, 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 carefully what to expect from chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Care 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 difference is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and wellness. Instead of focusing on only relieving the symptoms, chiropractic means finding the primary cause of your pain, which often translates to greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

Additionally, while medication is sometimes helpful for managing certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach like chiropractic. This means fewer negative responses to medications and lasting recovery.

You don't have to deal with back pain or other health issues. Give our Port Coquitlam office a call today at (604) 941-4596. We'll do everything we can to help you get and continue to be 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.