Chiropractic Care for Your Chronic Low Back Pain

Two recent studies published by the medical profession show the benefit on chiropractic care for long term back health. Both studies talk about the value of what is called maintenance care provided by chiropractors.

MAINTENANCE AND PREVENTION

Often when patients come into my practice, they are in pain.  Chiropractic care can certainly help you get rid of pain, but often times by the time you experience pain, the condition is much harder to treat.  The idea is to PREVENT pain from happening.  Chiropractors, including myself, are trained to detect changes in posture, muscle tone and conditioning, foot mechanics, and joint mobility.  When subtle changes are detected early, measures can be put in place that will help to prevent problems from happening in the future.  This contributes to your overall health and enables you to continue to do the things you do, while minimizing the chances for injury.



CHIROPRACTOR AS A “SPINAL DENTIST”

Think about it this way.  You don’t only go to the dentist when you have a tooth ache.  You go to the dentist regularly for check-ups to help prevent tooth, mouth, and gum diseases.  Here, the dentist can catch things early, before they are progressed to the point of pain. In between visits, dentists tell you to brush and floss at home in order to prevent diseases from happening.

Treat your spine the same way.  Regular chiropractic visits (and here, I’m talking about 1x/month) can help make sure that the muscles of your spine are nice and relaxed, the joints are moving well and the way they should, and your posture is great.  We show you exercises at home (analogous to brushing and flossing), to help stretch and strengthen the muscles and ligaments of your spine to stabilize it and prevent injuries from occurring.  Whereas visits to dentists are usually quite painful, a visit to a chiropractor will have you feeling relaxed and great!

 

RECENT STUDIES

The first paper comes from the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation department in the faculty of medicine at the University of Mansoura and was published in the journal ‘Spine’. Their findings across 60 patients with non-specific chronic low back pain showed the greatest improvement when they were adjusted regularly (12 times) in the first month and then following a maintenance schedule (2 times per month) for the following 9 months. This was compared with a group that was also adjusted 12 times in the first month but received no treatment during the following 9 months. In both cases low back pain was significantly reduced after 1 month. After the full 10 months the group that continued maintenance care had maintained their improvements while the group that did not receive treatment return to their original level of back pain.

The second study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine compared chiropractic maintenance care will other health professionals. After reading the first paper, the obviously question was ‘does it have to be a chiropractic treatment, could I see a physiotherapist or my family doctor instead for maintenance care?’

They used a ‘Hazard Ratio’ to quantify the likelihood of low back pain recurring. this study found that of 896 injured workers that experienced non-specific low back pain those who saw a chiropractor (hazard ratio=1.2) for maintenance care had lower rates of recurrence than those who saw their family doctor (hazard ratio=1.6) or physiotherapist (hazard ratio=2.0).

GET YOUR SPINAL CHECK UP TODAY

 

We’re talking about long term low back pain. Greater than 6 months. Research evidence suggests chiropractic adjustments are an effective option, among others, to help you get better. However, regardless of how you get better regular chiropractic maintenance care is an effective choice to maintain a healthy back.

REFERENCES

1. Cifuentes M, Willetts J, Wasiak R. Health maintenance care in work-related low back pain and its association with disability recurrence. J Occup Environ Med. 2011 Apr;53(4):396-404.

2. Senna MK, Machaly SA.Does maintained Spinal manipulation therapy for chronic non-specific low back pain result in better long term outcome? Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2011 Jan 17. [Epub ahead of print]