We treat a large number of patients in our State College clinic, and Drs. Matt & Annie Reyes has helped many people manage a variety of health problems. In spite of this, a frequent worry that seems to stop many men and women from getting treatment is whether or not chiropractic adjustments are safe. Fortunately, according to three separate studies (out of many on the subject), the answer to this concern is a resounding: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first study(1) was published in Spine and included 183 adults. Each test subject was affected by spine-related pain, and half of the people received actual chiropractic care visits whereas the other half were given two sham chiropractic treatment sessions. Information was collected after each real or fake adjustment to discover if any unfavorable reactions occurred as a result of the actual chiropractic adjustments.
The doctors reported that none of the patients documented any significant negative side effects at all after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic. Some people did state that they had a headache (9 percent) or muscle stiffness (about 1 out of 3) post-treatment, but the results were not serious.
The next article(2), also published in the distinguished medical journal, Spine, was conducted in an effort to determine the safety of chiropractic care. The test group was much larger -- 20,000 individuals. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the neck, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all study participants.
Once again, the experts discovered no serious negative side effects. The experts determined the risk of total adverse reactions to be approximately 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the first study, some volunteers did report non-serious, milder, unwanted effects such as dizziness (about 1.6%) or a headache (4%), and this prompted the researchers to conclude that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."
The third study(3) is unique from the first two reports, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for children. In this article, the authors investigated results reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.
Out of 5,438 chiropractic appointments made for the children, chiropractors answering the survey documented only three cases where there were adverse reactions. When parents were questioned, they indicated only two adverse side effects out of 1,735 visits. Furthermore, both chiropractors and parents reported "a high rate of improvement with respect to the children's presenting complaints."
Based on studies like these, chiropractic has been judged safe and effective for everyone. To learn what chiropractic care can do for you, call our State College clinic and schedule an appointment today at (814) 308-9352.
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.
