Posts Tagged ‘back pain’
Back pain ranks among the most common problems that bring people to chiropractors. In fact, one out of every three people who suffer from low back pain seeks chiropractic care, making it the most utilized healthcare practice outside of conventional medicine.
Chiropractic spinal manipulation has now had about three decades of very active research, and hundreds of studies have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals examining its clinical usefulness. Spinal manipulation has been found to be effective in the treatment of low back pain (particularly chronic pain), neck pain, muscle tension headaches, and several other conditions. Performed properly, it can relieve musculoskeletal discomfort with little to no side effects, improve the blood circulation, and relieve stress on the nervous system.
Chiropractic care should be a part of all phases of treatment for back pain. There are three types of care offered at Moyer Total Wellness: acute care, corrective care, and wellness care. Acute care is used to reduce painful joint conditions, much like a person would use an aspirin. Corrective care and wellness care are combined with massage therapy and home exercises to stretch tight muscles and strengthen weak muscles. Because Doctors of Chiropractic aim to restore proper joint structure and function, chiropractic is the best choice for corrective care. Wellness care is any type of care that used to prevent disease. Much like going to a dentist to prevent tooth decay, getting regular spinal checkups is the best way to prevent joint dysfunction. It is recommended that individuals not in pain see their chiropractor once per month. (Research shows that individuals who see their chiropractor every 2.8 – 4.1 weeks are least likely suffer from early onset of arthritis and other joint related disorders.) Dr. Moyer also uses fitness, nutrition, and stress recommendations as part of his wellness care treatment plans.
Several studies have shown that massage therapy lessens workers’ stress and pain, and that employee stress is a growing health hazard.
New research indicates shift work, defined as work performed primarily outside standard working hours, at a young age is associated with elevated long-term cortisol levels and increased body mass inde, according to an Endocrine Society press release. Previous studies have shown that long-term elevated cortisol levels lead to increased abdominal obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular risk.
“Our findings show that cortisol might play an important part in the development of obesity and increased cardiovascular risk for those working in shifts,” said Laura Manenschijn, M.D., of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The
Netherlands and lead author of the study. “Unraveling the role of cortisol in the health problems found in shift workers could result in new approaches to prevent cardiovascular damage in this specific group.”
This is the first study that shows that working in shifts leads to changes in long-term cortisol levels, suggesting that the stress hormone cortisol might be one of the factors contributing to the increased cardiovascular risks of shift workers.
The study will run in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Related articles:
• Workplace Seated Massage Shown to Decrease Pain, Increase Flexibility
Massage therapy and five other types of complementary health care effect “great benefit” for back-pain sufferers, according to recent research.
Back pain is the second-leading reason for ambulatory visits in the U.S. This survey aimed to explore promising CAM therapies.
Overall, 60 percent of the more than 31,000 people surveyed who had at least one CAM therapy in the last 12 months found “remarkable relief” using the top six complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities, the researchers noted. Those modalities included:
• Massage therapy
• Chiropractic
• Yoga/ tai chi/qi gong
• Acupuncture
• Herbal therapies
• Relaxation techniques
Chiropractic care is the most-popular CAM therapy used for back pain, with massage therapy second-most popular, at 22 percent of respondents using it..
Just 24 percent of respondents who received CAM stated that their conventional medical practitioner suggested the use of CAM for back pain. Others turned to CAM treatments because they felt “conventional medicine would not help,” when dealing with severe back pain, the press release noted.
“Perceived Benefit of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for Back Pain” was published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Researchers looked at used data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey to determine relationships “between the perceived helpfulness of various CAM therapies for back pain.”
The research was conduced by:
• The Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, Harvard Medical School Osher Research Center, Boston, Massachusetts
• The Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• The Department of Medicine, Osher Clinical Center for Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
by Randy Moyer, DC
I often get asked by patients how safe chiropractic care really is. I generally answer that with a quick review of the costs of chiropractic malpractic insurance rates as compared with other health care providers.
- Back surgeons generally pay about $100 – $150k in malpractice insurance per year.
- Medical doctors who do not perform surgery generally pay about $20 – $25k per year.
- My malpractice insurance is less than $1000 per year!
Why? Because chiropractors do not have malpractice claims! There is very little risk in receiving chiropractic care. In fact, a recent study published that a single aspirin is 300 times more likely to have serious side-effects than chiropractic care.
I really like the summary of chiropractic safety by the following researcher…who is also a medical doctor.
A. The Safety of Cervical Adjusting
No one pays closer attention to injury statistics than Malpractice Insurance carriers.
Scott Haldeman, MD, reviewed malpractice claims records for a 10-year period between 1988 and 1997. In reviewing the outcomes following the application of 134.5 million cervical manipulations (commonly referred to as the chiropractic adjustment), the records indicated that there were 23 reported cases of stroke or vertebral artery dissection (VAD). [10] Of this group, 10 of the patients had the complicating factors of high blood pressure, use of oral contraceptives, or a history of smoking, all of which are associated with vascular disease. The actual incidence of stroke or VAD following cervical manipulation was found to be one per 5.85 million cervical adjustments. That means that the average chiropractor could work for 1430 years (or practice 48 full chiropractic careers!) before they might be involved with this type of litigation.
B. Non Steriodal Anti-Inflammatories (NSAIDs)
One group of patients who rely on NSAIDs for pain relief are those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. In 1998, Dr. Singh of the Stanford University of Medicine reviewed the records of 11,000 arthritis patients at 8 participating institutions. He extrapolated that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications (internal bleeding) and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone. The figures for all NSAID users would be overwhelming, yet the scope of this problem is generally under-reported. [16]
Another article titled “36 Percent of Acute Liver Failures Are Linked to Acetaminophen” suggests that other organ systems are also compromised by the use of over-the-counter pain medications. [17]
Lauretti’s review of the literature found that The best evidence indicates that cervical manipulation for neck pain is much safer than the use of NSAIDs, by as much as a factor of several hundred times.
First, let’s review some history. In 1974, the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held hearings on unnecessary surgery. Their findings from the First Surgical Second Opinion Program found that 17.6% of recommendations for surgery were not confirmed. The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations extrapolated these figures to estimate that, on a nationwide basis, there were 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries performed annually resulting in 11,900 deaths at an annual cost of $3.9 billion. [18]
With the total number of lower back surgeries having been estimated in 1995 to exceed 250,000 in the U.S. at a hospital cost of $11,000 per patient. [19] This would mean that the total number of unnecessary back surgeries each year in the U.S. could approach 44,000, costing as much as $484 million. [20]
So, the biggest risk of spinal surgery is that it may not be necessary!
Info referenced at http://www.chiro.org/LINKS/Safety.shtml
Every year 38 million Americans try alternative therapies such as acupuncture and chiropractic treatments. How helpful are those and other alternative treatments?
Consumer Reports’ survey of its readers found that hands-on treatments such as chiropractic and deep-tissue massage helped relieve back pain, neck pain, and osteoarthritis. And in the case of back pain, chiropractic care outperformed prescription medicine.
Sixty-five percent of those surveyed using chiropractic treatments for back pain said they helped a lot. Only 53 percent using prescription medications found them as helpful.
Half of those who used deep-tissue massage or yoga found they helped a lot for osteoarthritis. The survey results indicated that both were almost on par with prescription medication.
But in the Consumer Reports National Research Center survey, alternative treatments were not found to be as helpful with many other medical conditions.
Take depression. Yoga or meditation helped about 35 percent. By contrast, 70 percent of those using prescription medication found it to be very helpful.
As for colds, flu, and allergies? Prescription medications were deemed much more helpful than nutritional supplements such as Vitamin C.
So alternative treatment in some cases may help, but Consumer Reports advises checking with your doctor first.
Consumer Reports says don’t forget to check your insurance. Certain types of alternative treatments might be covered. Consumer Reports can help you find alternative medicine practitioners.
Testimonial from Cari Levy, MD – Colorado Board Certified Internist
“I first tried chiropractic because I felt something was out of place in my neck. After receiving regular chiropractic care, I soon realized that my migraine medication began piling up in my medicine cabinet. I used to suffer from debilitating migraine headaches, several times per month. Now, simply visiting Moyer Total Wellness every 3 weeks allows me to enjoy life, migraine-free! Dr. Moyer is a highly skilled chiropractor.”
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