We see quite a few patients with back pain in our Redondo Beach office, and Dr. Kaden has been able to provide a lot of them find relief through various chiropractic techniques. At the same time, recovering from back pain doesn’t necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical treatment, as many people utilize both types of care with great success.
Research Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with One Another
In a study published by the academic journal Spine experts1 looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed both acute soreness and restricted function due to back-related issues. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical care, while the remainder received chiropractic care together with regular medical care, as the authors wanted to determine which patients fared better.
Researchers found that the patients who received standard medical care combined with chiropractic scored “significantly better” than the group that got medical care alone; 73 percent reported positive benefits in comparison 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 treatment can greatly benefit you–the patient–offering benefits when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic and medicine can work together, chiropractic offers some unique advantages over medical therapy.
Where Chiropractic Pulls Ahead
Although it may seem as if each approach plays a 50-50 role, there is one significant benefit 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 those undergoing medical treatment.
According to the researchers, the main factors that patients favored 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 Care Offers a Holistic Approach
Certainly, the methods associated with chiropractic are very different than those available with medical therapy, but a large amount of the distinction is the fact that chiropractic is a natural 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 results in 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 care. This means fewer negative side effects from prescriptions and lasting recovery.
You don’t have to deal with back pain or other health issues. Give our Redondo Beach office a call today at (310) 251-0862. We’ll do our best to help you get and remain free from back pain.
References
- 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.
- 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.