Effective Back Pain Treatment

We see a number of patients with back pain in our Fort Lauderdale practice, and Dr. Tom Latrielle has been able to provide a lot of them find relief through various chiropractic techniques. However, dealing with back problems doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical treatment, as many individuals use both types of care with great results.

Study Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Treatment Work Well with Each Other

In a study published by the medical journal Spine researchers¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who were suffering from both acute pain and limited function due to back symptoms. Some of the study participants engaged in treatment via standard medical care, while the remainder received chiropractic care as well as standard medical care, as researchers wanted to determine which patients fared better.

The authors determined that the patients who got standard medical care combined with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the group that received medical care alone; 73% 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 the two- and four-week marks.

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

Where Chiropractic Wins

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 piece of research conducted at UCLA² that was published in the American Journal of Public Health reports that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than people undergoing medical care.

According to the researchers, the main factors that patients favored over medical care 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 improve their health on their own, as well as discussing more carefully what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Care Is a Natural Approach to Wellness

Certainly, the strategies 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 holistic approach to health and well-being. In contrast to focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic involves finding the root cause of your pain, which often means greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

Additionally, while medication is sometimes helpful for managing certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach such as chiropractic care. This means fewer negative responses to prescriptions and lasting results.

You don't have to endure back pain or other health issues. Give our Fort Lauderdale office a call today at (954) 634-2730. We'll do our best to help you get and remain 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.