Chiropractic Care for Back Pain

Research Straightens Out Misconceptions

Adjusting the View of Chiropractic Care

Anyone who has lived with lower back pain knows how debilitating it can be – impacting the most routine daily activities, from sitting pain-free to tying a shoelace. Traditional medical care has ranged from rest and medication to surgery.
But now chiropractic care – long maligned by mainstream health care practitioners as a kind of pseudo medical science – is gaining some serious credibility as a more effective and less costly alternative treatment for back pain, thanks to a host of studies published in the highly respected Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT).

Key JMPT Findings

• Reported this summer in a fascinating Washington Post article, Mainstream Makes Adjustments, a study published in the June 2007 issue revealed that "patients who turned first to chiropractors and other alternative-medicine professionals for care were hospitalized and had surgery 60 percent less often and spent 85 percent less on pharmaceuticals than those with medical doctors as primary care providers."
• A study published in October 2005 revealed that the cost of chiropractic care is identical or superior to traditional medical care for treating chronic low-back pain, with chiropractic care being more effective.
• A January 2005 study showed that patients with chronic spinal pain syndromes did markedly better than patients who received either medication or acupuncture.

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