Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see many back pain patients in our Alpharetta office, and Dr. Berklich has been able to help many of them get relief with chiropractic care. However, recovering from back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to make a choice between chiropractic care and medical care, 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 were suffering from both acute soreness and restricted function due to back symptoms. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical care, while the remainder were given chiropractic care in addition to standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors discovered that the group that received standard medical care in combination with chiropractic care scored "significantly better" than the patients who got medical care alone; 73 percent 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 treatment can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering benefits when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic and medical approaches can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some distinct 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 significant benefit that chiropractic care has over medical care and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, a piece of research from 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 those undergoing medical care.

According to the experts, the main factors that patients liked over medical treatment were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't surprising, as chiropractors frequently spend much more time advising their patients as to how they can better their health on their own, as well as discussing more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Care Offers a Holistic Approach

Without a doubt, the techniques associated with chiropractic are quite different than those available with medical treatment, but a large amount of the distinction is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. In contrast to focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care involves finding the root cause of your pain, which often means greater improvement as you are addressing 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 such as chiropractic. This means fewer negative side effects from medications and more permanent recovery.

You don't have to endure back pain or other health issues. Give our Alpharetta clinic a call today at (770) 475-2225. 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.