We see a number of people with back pain in our Redondo Beach practice, and Dr. Vinick has been able to help a lot of them get relief through various chiropractic techniques. At the same time, recovering from back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical care, as many people utilize both types of care with great success.
In a report published by the academic journal Spine investigators1 looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who reported both acute discomfort and restricted function due to back pain. Some of the study participants received treatment via standard medical therapy, while the remainder received chiropractic adjustments in addition to standard medical care, as the authors wanted to determine which patients fared better.
Researchers discovered that the group that got standard medical care along with chiropractic care scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73 percent reported positive benefits in comparison to just 17% of the medical care only group who reported the same amount of improvement. This was true regarding both pain and level of function at two and four weeks.
Accordingly, combining these two forms of care can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering benefits when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic care and medical approaches can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some distinct advantages over medical treatment.
Although it might seem as if each approach plays a 50-50 role, there is one significant advantage that chiropractic care has over medical treatment and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, a study conducted at UCLA2 that was printed 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 experts, the main aspects that patients preferred over medical care were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't unexpected, as chiropractors typically spend much more time advising their patients as to how they can better their health on their own, as well as discussing more carefully what to expect from chiropractic care.
Without a doubt, the methods associated with chiropractic are very different than those provided with medical care, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. Instead of focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic means tracking down the primary cause of your pain, which often results in greater improvement as you are addressing the problem at its source.
In addition, while medication is sometimes helpful for treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to natural forms of treatment such as chiropractic care. This means fewer negative responses to prescriptions and longer-lasting recovery.
You don't have to deal with back pain or other health problems. Give our Redondo Beach office a call today at (310) 375-4325. We'll do everything we can to help you get and stay free from back pain.
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