Chiropractic and Medical Care: An Effective Combination

We see many patients with back pain in our Denton, TX office, and Dr. Steve Eustice has been able to help many of them find relief with chiropractic. 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 outcomes.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well Together

In a report published by the medical journal Spine investigators¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed both acute soreness and restricted function due to back symptoms. Some of the test subjects received treatment via standard medical care, while the rest were given chiropractic care along with regular medical care, as researchers wanted to see which patients fared better.

Researchers discovered that the patients who got standard medical care combined with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the group that 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.

Accordingly, integrating these two forms of care can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic and medical approaches can work together, chiropractic offers some unique advantages over medical therapy.

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 care 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 found that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than patients undergoing medical treatment.

According to the researchers, the main aspects that patients liked over medical care 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 explaining more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Care Offers a Holistic Approach

Without a doubt, the techniques associated with chiropractic are very different than those provided with medical treatment, but a great deal of the distinction is the fact that chiropractic is a natural approach to health and wellness. In contrast to focusing on simply 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.

Additionally, while medication is sometimes helpful for treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach such as chiropractic care. This means fewer negative side effects from prescriptions and more permanent results.

You don't have to suffer from back pain or other health problems. Give our Denton, TX clinic a call today at (940) 591-9097. 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.