The Cost Effective Way to Get Relief from Low Back Pain.
In 2004, the British Medical Journal published a study that looked at over a thousand people with back pain, and determined what kinds of treatments were the best. they also wanted to know what was the most cost-effective form of treatment.
They found that spinal manipulation, the primary form of chiropractic care combined with spinal exercise, the secondary form of chiropractic care, provides the fasted form of lasting relief for back pain that isn’t too severe or too mild. Non-complicated.
However, they also found that chiropractic care in the form of spinal manipulation alone was more cost effective that manipulation and exercises. This means that if you are suffering from back pain that isn’t severe enough to warrant immediate surgery, You are better off seeing a chiropractor to manage the pain.
Think of it this way too: It’s necessary to visit a chiropractors office to get the chiropractic adjustments. Even chiropractors like myself have to see another chiropractor to maintain movement and posture. But, it’s free to do exercises to provide stability and strength in the spine, and this is something that should be recommended by any health care provider. Just make sure your provider knows how to give the proper recommendations.
Spinal manipulation is a cost effective addition to "best care" for back pain in general practice. Manipulation alone probably gives better value for money than manipulation followed by exercise. We believe that this is the first study of physical therapy for low back pain to show convincingly that both manipulation alone and manipulation followed by exercise provide cost effective additions to care in general practice. Indeed, as we trained practice teams in the best care of back pain, we may have underestimated the benefit of physical therapy (spinal manipulation) when compared with "usual care" in general practice. The detailed clinical outcomes reported in the accompanying paper reinforce these findings by showing that the improvements in health status reported here reflect statistically significant improvements in function, pain, disability, physical and mental aspects of quality of life, and beliefs about back pain.
British Medical Journal 2004 (Dec 11); 329 (7479): 1377
Manipulation improves back function by a small to moderate margin at three months and a small but significant margin at 12 months; it also achieves sustained improvements in disability and pain, adverse back beliefs, and general physical health. Combined treatment improves back function by a moderate margin at three months and a small but significant margin at 12 months; generally it achieves little more than manipulation, except for much greater improvements in beliefs about back pain and fear avoidance
In Sonoma, if you are looking for a chiropractor who takes a particular interest in back pain relief, give my office a call. We will sit down with you to discuss your back pain, do a physical examination, and provide chiropractic treatment to provide you with relief. (707) 408-2225
Todd Lloyd. DC
Sonoma Chiropractor
Chiropractic gets people back to work sooner than any other treatment for back pain. It is less costly than more invasive treatments.