Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see quite a few people with back pain in our Pinole office, and Dr. Jung has been able to help a lot of them find relief with chiropractic care. At the same time, dealing with back problems doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical care, as many individuals utilize both types of care with great success.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with One Another

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 soreness and limited function due to back pain. Some of the study participants received treatment via standard medical care, while the remainder received chiropractic adjustments as well as regular medical care, as the authors wanted to determine which group fared better.

The authors discovered that the patients who received standard medical care in combination with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the patients who got medical care alone; 73 percent reported positive benefits in comparison to just 17% 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.

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 medical approaches can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some unique advantages over medical therapy.

Where Chiropractic Care Wins

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

According to the researchers, the main factors that patients preferred 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 thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Care Is a Natural Approach to Wellness

Without a doubt, the techniques associated with chiropractic are very different than those offered with medical therapy, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and wellness. Instead of focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care involves finding the root 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 natural forms of treatment like chiropractic. This means fewer negative side effects from drugs and more permanent results.

You don't have to deal with back pain or other health problems. Give our Pinole office a call today at (510) 243-7500. We'll do everything we can 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.