Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see many patients with back pain in our Rochester Hills, MI practice, and Dr. Dalton has been able to help many of them find relief with chiropractic. However, dealing with back problems 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 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 were suffering from both acute pain and limited function due to back pain. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical therapy, while the remainder were given chiropractic care together with standard medical care, as researchers wanted to see which patients fared better.

Researchers observed that the group that received standard medical care in combination with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73 percent reported positive benefits compared to just 17% of the medical treatment only group who indicated the same amount of improvement. This was true regarding both pain and level of function at two and four weeks.

Thus, integrating 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 unique advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Care Is Successful

Although it might seem as if each method plays a 50/50 role, there is one major advantage that chiropractic has over medical treatment and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, one bit of research conducted 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 patients undergoing medical care.

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

Chiropractic Care Is a Natural Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the strategies associated with chiropractic are very different than those provided with medical treatment, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and wellness. Rather than focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic involves finding the root cause of your pain, which often means 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 care. This means fewer negative side effects from prescriptions and longer-lasting recovery.

You don't have to endure back pain or other health issues. Give our Rochester Hills, MI office a call today at (248) 977-7039. 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.