Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see a number of patients with back pain in our Yakima practice, and Dr. Covington has been able to help a lot of them find relief through various chiropractic techniques. At the same time, dealing with back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to make a choice between chiropractic care and medical therapy, as many individuals utilize both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well with One Another

In a study published by the journal Spine researchers¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed both acute discomfort and restricted function due to back pain. Some of the study participants received treatment via standard medical therapy, while the rest were given chiropractic adjustments in addition to regular medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which group fared better.

The authors discovered that the patients who got standard medical care combined with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the patients who received medical care alone; 73% 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, incorporating these two forms of care can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic care and medicine can work together, chiropractic offers some distinct advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Care Is Successful

Although it might seem as if each approach 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 from 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 patients undergoing medical treatment.

According to the researchers, the main factors that patients preferred over medical treatment were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't surprising, as chiropractors tend to 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 Non-Invasive Approach

Certainly, the methods associated with chiropractic are very different than those provided with medical therapy, but a large amount of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. Rather than focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care means finding the primary cause of your pain, which often means greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

In addition, while medication is sometimes helpful for managing certain conditions, many health issues respond well to natural forms of treatment like chiropractic care. This means fewer negative responses to drugs and lasting results.

You don't have to deal with back pain or other health problems. Give our Yakima clinic a call today at (509) 895-7535. 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.