We see quite a few people with back pain in our State College practice, and Drs. Matt & Annie Reyes has been able to help a lot of them get relief through various chiropractic techniques. However, recovering from back pain doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical treatment, as many people utilize both types of care with great success.
In a study published by the journal Spine experts1 looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed both acute discomfort and limited function due to back-related issues. Some of the patients received treatment via standard medical therapy, while the rest were given chiropractic adjustments together with standard medical care, as the authors wanted to see which patients fared better.
The authors discovered that the patients who received standard medical care in combination 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, integrating these two forms of treatment can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering advantages when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic care and medicine can work together, chiropractic offers some distinct strengths over medical therapy.
Although it may seem as if each approach plays a 50/50 role, there is one major advantage that chiropractic care has over medical care 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 those undergoing medical care.
According to the experts, the main factors that patients favored over medical care were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't unexpected, as chiropractors tend to spend much more time consulting with their patients as to how they can better their health on their own, as well as discussing more thoroughly what to expect from chiropractic.
Without a doubt, the techniques associated with chiropractic are quite different than those offered with medical care, but a great deal of the difference is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and wellness. Instead of focusing on simply relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care means tracking down the root cause of your pain, which often results in greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.
Additionally, while medication is sometimes helpful for treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to natural forms of treatment like chiropractic care. This means fewer negative responses to prescriptions and more permanent recovery.
You don't have to endure back pain or other health problems. Give our State College office a call today at (814) 308-9352. We'll do everything we can to help you get and stay free from back pain.
References
Dr. Matt Reyes was born and raised in Apalachin, a small town in Upstate New York. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Fitness Development from the State University at New York College at Cortland. He then fulfilled his ambition to become a Doctor of Chiropractic when he graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 2013.
