You can read the abstract of the research paper by clicking the link above, but I will summarize the findings for you. Acute low back patients where divided into two groups. The first received "usual" medical care which consisted of a variety of treatments including medications, massage therapy, and physiotherapy. The second group received chiropractic care for a period of 4 weeks. The participants were evaluated for both pain and function in their lower backs at 8, 16, and 24 weeks after starting care. Significantly, after 16 weeks 78% of the people in the medical care group were still taking narcotic analgesic medications. They also had much poorer scores on the function of the low back. That is the ability to perform normal daily activities. At the 24 week mark, both groups had improved pain scores but the medical group showed no improvement whatsoever in back function. The chiropractic group had significant function improvement. Please note that chiropractic care was discontinued after 4 weeks while medical care was carried on throughout the study.
The authors of this study also specifically noted that "spinal manipulative therapy" (I prefer the term adjustment; see my 23/04/2011 post) is only effective when performed by chiropractors. It is not effective when given by osteopaths, physicians, physiotherapists or other practitioners.
The data in this study shows that chiropractic care is astoundingly superior to medical care in improving the ability of people with acute low back pain to return to normal activities. Although not specifically mentioned in the study, we can extrapolate that by delaying chiropractic care people under medical care will have a much more difficult time to returning to normal function. They will suffer unnecessarily and the direct and indirect costs will be much higher. The wise thing for people with low back pain is to consult a chiropractor first not last.
2 comments:
Chiropractic treatment is quite beneficial where individuals have been recovering from trauma. Such patient’s exhibit faster rates of recovery and are known to show movement much earlier than patients who just undergo the normal course of treatment given in mainstream hospitals.
Janine Zargar
Trigger Points are tight bands of muscles that may be felt as a knot. Trigger points can restrict movement and cause muscle weakness and may cause referred and or radiating pain.
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