Older Medicare patients with chronic low back pain and other medical problems who received spinal manipulation from a chiropractic physician had lower costs of care and shorter episodes of back pain than patients in other treatment groups. Patients who received a combination of chiropractic and medical care had the next lowest Medicare costs, and patients who received only medical care incurred the highest costs. – Weeks et al (2016), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics

For Headaches

“6 to 8 sessions of upper cervical and upper thoracic manipulation were shown to be more effective than mobilization and exercise in patients with CGH (cervicogenic headache), and the effects were maintained at 3 months.” – Dunning et al. (2016) BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders

In Comparison to Other Treatments

“Chiropractic users had 64% lower odds of receiving an opioid prescription than non users.” – Corcoran et al. (2019) Pain Medicine

A growing list of research studies and reviews demonstrate that the services provided by chiropractors are not only clinically effective and safe but also cost effective. Following are excerpts and summaries from a few of those studies. The evidence supports the natural, whole-body, nondrug approach of chiropractic for a variety of conditions.

For Acute and Chronic Pain

Chiropractic is a system of therapy focused on the structure of the body, particularly the spine. Chiropractors manipulate the body’s alignment to relieve pain and improve function and to help the body heal itself.

In addition to revealing trends in chronic pain, a new study also provides a glimpse of what might be causing the increase.

The information necessary for a detailed explanation isn’t part of the NHIS (National Health Interview Survey) data set, but the researchers did look at a host of variables to determine which ones were most closely associated with the pain trends.

Muscle relaxant drugs are largely ineffective for low back pain, despite being widely prescribed for this condition, suggests an analysis of the latest evidence published by The BMJ. The findings show that muscle relaxants might reduce pain in the short term, but the effect is too small to be considered clinically meaningful, and there is an increased risk of side effects.

Widespread pain is linked to a heightened risk of all types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and stroke, finds research published online in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. This association is independent of potentially influential factors, such as age, general health, and lifestyle, the findings indicate.

Although doctors of chiropractic treat more than just back pain, many patients initially visit a chiropractor looking for relief from this pervasive condition. In fact, about 31 million Americans experience low back pain at any given time.

Medical guidelines help doctors understand the best way to treat health conditions. Surprisingly, many doctors do not adhere to them, and this is a problem, according to a new study by scientists at the University of Utah, studying health and MD guidelines. People with lower back pain injury miss 11 more days of work in a year when they only receive treatments for lower back pain that are not recommended by medical guidelines compared to people treated according to guidelines. The findings were published in PLOS ONE. Among the nearly 60,000 people whose medical claims were analyzed: