Chiropractic Therapy & Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see a number of patients with back pain in our Buffalo office, and Buffalo Family Chiropractic Wellness, P. C. has been able to help a lot of them find relief with chiropractic. However, recovering from 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 results.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well Together

In a study published by the medical 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 were given chiropractic therapy together with regular medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors found 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 percent of the medical care only group who indicated the same amount of improvement. This was true regarding both pain and level of function at two and four weeks.

Therefore, incorporating 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 alongside each other, chiropractic offers some distinct advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Care Is Effective

Although it might 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, one bit of research conducted at UCLA² that was printed in the American Journal of Public Health reports that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than people undergoing medical treatment.

According to the experts, the main factors that patients preferred over medical care were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't surprising, as chiropractors tend to spend much more time consulting with their patients as to how they can improve their health on their own, as well as explaining more carefully what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Offers a Non-Invasive Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the methods 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 care involves searching for the primary 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 a natural approach like chiropractic care. This means fewer negative side effects from medications and more permanent recovery.

You don't have to struggle with back pain or other health problems. Give our Buffalo clinic a call today at (716) 854-1563. 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.